Royal Navy's new eyes in the sky

23 Jun 2014 11:46 AM

The Royal Navy's first ever remotely-piloted air system takes flight.

Just 7 months after the Ministry of Defence ordered the system from Boeing Defence UK, footage released yesterday, 22 June, shows ScanEagle taking flight from HMS Somerset in the Gulf.

The system, which can be launched by a pneumatic catapult from Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels, is unarmed and used for real-time intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance only.

Pilots in a specialist team on board the ship plan ScanEagle’s missions and control its flight. Once its mission is over it returns to the ship where the information, gathered by its state-of-the art sensors, is then monitored and analysed.

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