Drones dominating fight against terror in Mindanao

Unmanned spy planes that come in the form of plastic toys are now dominating the fight against terror in Mindanao, especially in the troubled island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

When before it has been costly in terms of lives and logistics for ground troops to locate enemy positions like the Abu Sayyaf positions, these high-risk military operations are made easy by unmanned aerial survey vehicles (UAVs), courtesy of the United States military.

In fact, a number of these unmanned spy planes whose wing span are only about a meter wide have crashed while conducting aerial surveillance, the latest of which was in Maguindanao around two weeks ago.

Another went down last month after hitting a row of coconut trees in North Cotabato. The unmanned spy plane was recovered by local policemen, but the other one that went down in Maguindanao was taken by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“Maraming modelo ang mga yan at parang mga laruan lang na hinahagis na parang eroplanong papel para lumipad,” a local troop told The STAR.

Despite its size, the unmanned highly sophisticated spy plane once airborne can detect all living creatures on the ground, feeding these data to the computer on the ground.

Once the target have been identified and located, the source said, they don’t need to launch combat operations anymore.

“Bihira na kaming mag-conduct ng ground operations. Kinakanyon na lamang namin based on computer feeds from the UAVs. Bakit mo pupuntahan na zero na ang position ng kalaban,” he said.

The source added the spy planes which can stay up in the air for 30 minutes covering wide areas, have made their jobs much easier.

However, he said US servicemen operating these spy planes from military bases are now having difficulties in landing their drones.

“Madalas tumatama, nasisira ang pakpak. Pero maraming extra na mga pakpak ang mga Amerikano. Kung minsan pag wasak talaga pag-landing, after na lang sila doon sa computer chip na naka-install doon sa kanilang drone,” he said.

In one of the UAV sorties in Basilan, another local troop recounted that they were able to locate Abu Sayyaf positions through the computer feed of the drone.

“Lahat na may buhay sa ground ay na-detetect ng US drone tao o hayop man through its thermal imaging system. Yong mga puno nakikita pero bare siya at walang dahon, kaya kung may nagtatago sa ilalim na tao ay makikita rin,” he said.

This he said, explains why they can also count the enemies’ battle fatalities because once a person is dead, the drone computer chips transmit the dead person’s image back to the computer without the red dot.

“Pag buhay kasi, may red dot, indicates the heartbeat and blood circulation in the body. Patay na, wala na yong red dot,” he said.

The drone is one of many spy planes used by US forces in surveillance operations in southern Philippines, they preprogrammed, the smart and the remotely piloted drone.

Being largely used in Basilan, Sulu and Central Mindanao are the smart and the remotely piloted drones.

The remotely piloted vehicle, probably the most common type of drone, is under the constant control of an operator or pilot through radio links.