Posts
By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Philippine Muslim rebels recently shot down a US spy drone flying inside their territory in the restive southern region of Mindanao, where American forces are aiding local troops in fighting separatist and communist insurgents.
Mohagher Iqbal, a senior leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), on Friday said that the drone had been captured by rebel forces in the hinterlands of Talayan town in Maguindanao province.
He added that the spy plane was shot down on the night of October 31. Iqbal said the rebels recovered the plane on November 1 and the MILF leadership announced the capture of the drone on the same day.
Iqbal did not say whether the drone was armed or had a thermal and infrared video camera, only that the aircraft had a wing span of eight feet. He said the rebels had fired at the drone with automatic weapons.
“The spy plane is still in good condition and intact and we will not give it back to the US military. It is now the property of the MILF,” Iqbal told The Manila Times.
There were no immediate statements from either Philippine or US military officials about the shooting down of the drone.
The capture of the spy plane, though, exposed the apparent involvement of American forces in local anti-insurgency operations, which is a violation of the Constitution.
A US military spy plane also crashed in North Cotabato province near Maguindanao on October 18 after hitting a row of coconut trees. The news of the crash was kept secret by Filipino and US authorities until the local media reported about it a week later.
This plane, with a wing span of about eight feet, went down at night on a civilian neighborhood in Pikit town. Policemen quickly cordoned off the wreckage and returned the morning of October 18 to collect debris of the drone.
The drone is one of many spy aircraft used by US forces in surveillance operations in southern Philippines. It can be deployed for destructive missions.
There are three basic types of drones: the pre-programmed, the smart and the remotely-piloted.
A pre-programmed drone responds to an onboard timer or scheduler and has no sensor contact with the ground. The drone follows a set routine of maneuvers and altitude, speed and course changes that are programmed through an autopilot to the drone’s control surfaces and engine throttle. The drone is usually recovered by a parachute at the end of a mission.
A smart drone carries various sensors and is equipped with an onboard computer. Its ability to make decisions governing course and altitude changes is limited only by its computer and sensor capacity.
It can take off on its own from a given airport, navigate a circuituous route, make decisions en route based on weather or enemy radar action, fly to a second airport and make a safe landing.
The remotely-piloted drone, probably the most common of drones, is under the constant control of an operator or pilot through radio links. The pilot or pilots can be located on the ground, in other aircraft or on ships.
Typical missions for remotely-piloted drones include reconnaissance or surveillance of enemy activities, target acquisition, relay of friendly communications and jamming of enemy communications.
Advanced remotely-piloted drones are equipped with low-light-level television and infrared sensors that allow over-the-horizon reconnaissance imagery to be transmitted to ground commanders as it is being acquired.
In 2006, villagers in Sulu province, also in Mindanao, held for ransom an unmanned US drone that had crashed there. It was used by the Philippine military in tracking down the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group that is linked to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah.
This drone, which was remotely-controlled, went down on February 10 in the village of Marang in Indanan town. Local television news showed footage of a villager holding the spy plane with a wing span of about one meter and slim body and a video camera mounted on its belly. The villagers demanded P100,000 in exchange for the unmanned aircraft.
Another US unmanned spy plane also crashed in November 2007 during a practice flight in Mount Tumatangis in Sulu. It was unknown if the drone was found or not, but the crash was never reported to the press.
In March 2002, a US spy drone called Predator also went down into the sea off Zamboanga City, also in Mindanao. It crashed for still unknown reasons and was also recovered.
The US military has a fleet of various unmanned spy planes, from a palm-size remote-con-trolled aircraft, to bigger and sophisticated high-altitude, long-range remotely-piloted ones designed for long-endurance photographic reconnaissance and electronic surveillance missions, and as attack aircraft.
Original here
No comments:
Post a Comment