Unmanned Aircraft System Operators Save Lives in Combat

June 18, 2012

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 18, 2012) -- Sgt. Christopher Harris was conducting a routine reconnaissance mission in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, in 2009, when the Puma unmanned aircraft system, or UAS, he was operating showed nearby, real-time footage of insurgents planting an improvised explosive device, or IED, along a U.S. Army convoy route.

"These guys had set an IED two kilometers away from us," Harris said, recalling the incident. "They were waiting for us to drive by for what looked like a planned IED-initiated ambush."

The Puma UAS is a 13-pound, portable, hand-launched unmanned aircraft system, known as a UAS, with a wingspan of 9.2-feet and electro-optical/infrared, or EO/IR, sensors able to beam back real-time imagery from combat-relevant locations.

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