Libyan Rebels Were Flying Their Own Mini-Drones

The Libyan revolutionaries are more of a band of enthusiastic amateurs than experienced soldiers. But it turns out the rebels have the kind of weaponry usually possessed by advanced militaries: their very own drone.

Aeryon Labs, a Canadian defense firm, revealed on Tuesday that it had quietly provided the rebel forces with a teeny, tiny surveillance drone, called the Aeryon Scout. Small enough to fit into a backpack, the three-pound, four-rotor robot gave Libyan forces eyes in the sky independent of the Predators, Fire Scout surveillance copters and manned spy planes that NATO flew overhead. Don't worry, it's not armed.

So far, the rebels have just one Scout among them, according to Marni McVicar, Aeryon's vice president for business development. Working with a Canadian private security company called Zariba, Aeryon delivered the Scout "several weeks" ago to rebels in the Western port city of Misurata who used it, according to McVicar, to hasten their surprisingly rapid march to Tripoli.

The rebels needed barely a day of training to use a technology that many national armies would love to acquire. "We like to joke that it's designed for people who are not that bright, have fat fingers and break things," McVicar told Danger Room in a telephone interview.

Listening to McVicar's description, the Aeryon Scout sounds user-friendly enough to be operated by the car dealers, medical students and teachers that formed the impromptu Libyan rebel army in the west. Unlike many mini-drones, the Scout isn't controlled by a joystick. It's run by a touchscreen tablet powered by Windows XP. The interface divides the screen between still or video imagery that the drone collects and displays in real time; a control dashboard; and a programmable map of the area to fly over.

"You simply press on the screen and that's where the vehicle goes," McVicar said. "Press where you want camera to focus on, and you're done."

It also gives the rebels another advantage that lots of armies desire: night vision. A thermal imagery camera aboard the Scout provides an alternative to night-vision goggles, and from arguably a better vantage point. In the video above, released by Aeryon on Tuesday, nighttime images of Libyan artillery positions come into view from the Scout.

McVicar wouldn't say how much the Libyan rebels paid for the drone. But she noted when asked that the drone retails for $100,000

How the rebels even got the drone is fascinating as well. Representatives of Libya's rebel government checked out demos of the Scout in Ottowa a few months ago. They were frustrated with not being able to see the aerial imagery NATO collected from its satellites, spy planes and drones, and wanted their own flying robots, although it's been reported that NATO has coordinated surveillance with the rebels ahead of the Tripoli offensive. Some rebels had even taken to strapping cameras onto model airplanes. After being impressed with the Scout, the Transitional National Council decided it wanted something a bit more professional.

So a Canadian military vet, Charles Barlow, brought it personally into Misurata. Armed with a Canadian export license and the backpack-sized Scout, Barlow boarded a retrofitted tuna boat at Malta used to send humanitarian aid to Misurata despite NATO's maritime blockade in late July. As far as Barlow is aware, Canada licensed the drone for sale to the Libyan rebels, but NATO didn't know that the carried it into port, even after multiple hailings by NATO vessels.

Barlow, who runs a Canadian private security firm called the Zariba Security Corporation, told Danger Room that he spent only about 24 hours teaching Misurata's rebels how to use the Scout. On the bombed-out airfield near the port, Barlow launched about ten test flights while Gadhafi's artillery crashed down only a few miles away.

There was also little doubt about where the Libyan rebels wanted to use it. "The only imagery they wanted loaded on was Misurata to Tripoli, on that coastal road," Barlow said. "I can't hand-on-heart tell you it's in Tripoli, but this was the main front out of Misurata."

As Paul McLeary at Ares notes, the arrival of drone technology — even in Micro-Machine form — to a band of rebels is yet another example of the rapid proliferation of unmanned vehicles away from powerful state militaries. It was a big deal in 2005 when Hezbollah flew Iranian surveillance drones into Israel. "It's certainly not the last time a non-state actor gets its hands on this kind of technology," McLeary writes.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

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• drones
• weapon
• weapons
• libya
• gaddafi
• kaddafi
• USA
• Canada
• AERYON
• labs
• military
• army

[DZBrotherHood]

Gaddafi's forces torture Civilians

watch?v=qGogF8NyhrA

watch?v=zWZUMZab86o

watch?v=Bd-dskQ3_a8

watch?v=cAsdd7cFf0U

watch?v=tYFE2V1qfoA

watch?v=5aw5LLfLFag

[keithypops]

@DZBrotherHood And we have seen the reports of the rebels doing that aswell, both are as bad as each other. The only winners here are the NWO. Libya's gold & oil will be stole, & they will end up taking loans from IMF, the only winners here are the NWO Bankers.

[chrishacken]

@weskeeey yeah.. i don't think so.. anyone with $30,000 can buy one of those.

[mirandanap2]

If anybody needs one they sell those at kmart

[Zooni2]

The Rebels sure got allot of new technology fast.

[PharaohII]

@weskeeey i know i was just being " " ........

[Wildicon19]

It was made in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada! What an amazing little device.

[ShadesofScorpius]

@jojo1ukuk Actually, it's Canadian.

[weskeeey]

@PharaohII USA gave it to them so when they got enough weapons they can start a war with then cause thats all they do

[RichKilla86ers]

even unconventional forces use UAVs

[jojo1ukuk]

what a surprise another mini usa drone. or is it made in china.

[PharaohII]

wow how the fuck did they get access to a mini drone wow