Royal Navy ScanEagle Drone

[RoyalGreenJacket]

UK warships are to benefit from a new surveillance capability as part of a £30 million contract signed by MOD.



ScanEagle is a maritime reconnaissance asset that can be launched off the back of Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships day or night to gather intelligence and survey the wider area of operations.

Built by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing Defence UK Limited, the ScanEagle is the first maritime-specific unmanned air system capability to be delivered in support of naval operations.

It will complement the existing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets used on operations such as helicopters and long-range radar.

The unarmed aircraft, which has a wingspan of just over 3 metres and weighs 22 kilograms, is launched from ships into the sky by a pneumatic catapult.



Flying at about 60 knots, it is commanded by a specialist team on board the ship who will plan the ScanEagle’s missions, control its flights and monitor and analyse the information it gathers using its state-of-the-art sensors.

read more: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/r...eye-in-the-sky

[Goldie fish]

How is it recovered?

[DeV]

While not specially a naval UAV, the USN flew UAVs off the Iowa class battleships 22 years ago!

[Jungle]

How is it recovered?

Using the Skyhook system:

[DeV]

On the battleships they flew into a net

[RoyalGreenJacket]

Using the Skyhook system:

very odd indeed, however i understand our Canadian and American friends have had it a while now - so i'm guessing it's decent.

i think our Royal Artillery have also played with this drone - maybe ropebag can shed some light.

[gibedepusib0ss]

Hang on is ropebag a gunner?

[The real Jack]

Scaneagle was designed to operate from boats, was originally meant to be used to scout for fish!

[gibedepusib0ss]

Aren't the NS gonna be using the scan eagle on the new ship?

[TangoSierra]

The uk along with a number of other European countries are looking at the general dynamics reaper for Their MALE UAV needs. FYI

[RoyalGreenJacket]

The uk along with a number of other European countries are looking at the general dynamics reaper for Their MALE UAV needs. FYI

We've had the Reaper for over half a decade now and have been killing bad guys with it for a long time.

We now have 2 x RAF Squadrons who operate them around the globe from the UK.

Good bit of kit and watched over us in Afghanistan.

[Goldie fish]

Aren't the NS gonna be using the scan eagle on the new ship?

They have the potential to use any available UAV. None are specified.

[ropebag]

Hang on is ropebag a gunner?

could you not tell by my devilish good looks, rapier wit and lightning reparté..?

i'm not sure if we've 'got' Scan Eagle officially - we operate a number of baseline UAV systems that are fully in service and supported, but we also use any number of systems for evaluation that are either owned by us or are borrowed from someone else, be that a contractor or another service/country, and they go in and out of service in various model/guises. one model aeroplane looks very much like another me, and like a number of other RA Regiments that may or may not be operating bits and bobs they've 'aquired' that may or may not be listed on the Army website, 32/47/104(v) keep their cards close to their chests and aren't overly keen on discussing their future procurement decisions with lesser mortals. it would not surprise me in the least if we've played with SE in theatre, but i have no direct knowledge of it.

MALE is in deep trouble - the Germans are going off the idea of UAV's big style after the fuss with Global Hawk, the UK and Italy already operate Reaper, France has just bought 2 with an option for 10 more (with much joyous thrapping in the French MOD), and General Atomics is looking to sweeten a wider European buy of Reaper with tech transfer, European payloads and European designed/built future enhancements. the official talk is Reaper being the 'interim' with a 'future MALE' fullfilling the European dream, but the clever money is on a wider Reaper buy and everybody deciding that Reaper is bloody good, and that spunking €XXbn up the wall on a European 'Reaper II' that does the same as Reaper but 15 years later and at 3 times the cost isn't such a good plan.

[RoyalGreenJacket]

Reaper works and i've seen it's handy work first hand - it's going to be a hard act to follow and you're right ropebag - why waste money re-inventing the wheel just so it can have a shiny EU badge on it?

[Barry]

While reaper is a great solution right now, it's american technology that you fly from the arizona desert. If you try to use it somewhere that the americans don't want you to use it, they're unlikely to let you.....