Page 11 - DIMDEX 2022 Day 1 - Online Magazine

Day 1

tensions with Iran. The goal of the task
UAVS IN HIGH force, led by Capt. Michael Brasseur, is to
expand the operational use of unmanned
DEMAND IN MENA platforms in the region and experiment
with their concept of operations. Instead
of working mostly with unmanned aerial
REGION vehicles, the task force will help the Navy

employ unmanned platforms across all
domains, U.S. 5th Fleet commander Vice
Adm. Brad Cooper said.
“We’re going to take today’s unmanned
systems – which are largely in the air, as
you know – we’ve had [MQ-1] Predators,
and BAMS-D, airborne platforms out
there for some time. What’s going to be
different is they will be augmented with
Regional powers in the Middle East are pushing to make unmanned systems a unmanned surface vessels,” Cooper
increasingly employing drone technol- practical part of their fleet in view of the said. “We haven’t had them in the past.
ogy. Military strategies are adapting and security threats in the densely packed We have them now. It will be augmented
are likely to involve a mix of state-of- waterways of the Red Sea, Arabian Sea with even more unmanned undersea ves-
the-art, foreign-made UAVs and locally and the Persian Gulf. sels. We’ve had some in the past. We’re
produced UAV fleets. The unmanned Recently the US navy’s Middle East- going to have a lot more in the future.”
vehicles include ultra-endurance aerial based 5th Fleet launched a new task The United States is looking at offering
surveillance drones, surface ships and force that incorporates airborne, sail- its Predator XP version of the family of
smaller underwater drones that resem- ing and underwater drones after years medium-range long-endurance (MALE)
ble torpedoes. Navies in the region are of maritime attacks linked to ongoing UAVs to the Middle Eastern countries.

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