macleans.ca,
OTTAWA (CP): Canada's military is buying miniature spy planes that soldiers can carry on their backs and launch anywhere to collect pictures from over the hill or around the corner in battle zones.
Reconnaissance, artillery or other troops should be packing the new units around southern Afghanistan by next August, says Maj. Keith Laughton, director of operational requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles.
The units will supplement the work of larger unmanned aircraft scheduled to be deployed with the next contingent of troops headed for Kandahar in February or March.
“We are pushing this through,” Laughton said in an interview. “It has been identified as an operational requirement for Op Archer Roto 2 in August.”
U.S. troops already use similar systems, called Ravens, in the area.
Most of the Americans will be moving east to the Pakistan border next year while the contingent of about 1,200 Canadians is to take over operations in Kandahar region, a largely desert province that has been a Taliban hotbed.
Read Full Article Here
