Transcript of video

Joint Task Force Afghanistan

Counter-IED starts at 10,000 feet:
Heron UAV contribution to the battle against IEDs

Kandahar, Afghanistan
31 October 2010

Major Francis Laplante, Commanding Officer, Task Force Erebus: The Heron is the eyes and ears of the ground forces. The biggest killer in Afghanistan for our troops is IEDs. It’s very insidious, it’s very difficult to detect, and this is where the Heron comes into play. We provide a very significant contribution to the overall counter-IED resolution.

We are able to see the actions of the insurgents in fabricating, distributing, and activating the IEDs. So if we can break that chain then we help our troops be more safe. I think the key for our operation is the integration with the battle-group and the land forces that we’re working with. The ability of our unit to distribute our data and be able to communicate in real time with our customers allows us to really disseminate that information, and that’s what makes it so effective and so sought-after.

Captain Nicholas Barber, Forward Observation Officer: The information from the Heron gets to us in a number of ways. Each LAV is equipped with a rover system, which is basically a receiver that can take the signals from the Heron and actually provides a live feed that we can watch on a laptop in the back of the LAV itself. So, using that feed, it gives us a better idea, situational awareness, of what’s going on — where friendly troops are and where the enemy is in relation to those friendly troops. The Heron feed is one of the best, if not the best, feed that we can have. Troops on the ground definitely feel a lot safer knowing that they have something overhead providing that over-watch for them. To be able to have a platform that can take a look out behind these walls, see what’s moving around on the battle-space, gives them that warm and fuzzy, that they know what’s going on.

The Heron definitely has played a major role in the elimination of IEDS in this area of operations. We have finite troops in the area — we can’t keep eyes on everything. So by being able to have a bird in the sky that can search all those routes that are in less-travelled areas, that’s how we find the majority of these emplacers even though we don’t actually have troops on the ground that we can exploit after we find them.

Maj Laplante: We have saved Canadian lives and coalition forces’ lives in the past, and we will definitely do that in the future as well.