New York National Guard Soldiers Take to the Skies with UAVs

New Equipment Fielding Enhances Capabilities of NY's 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team

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CAMP SHELBY, Miss. -- Specialist Jeremy Southcott, Pfc. Timothy Strong and Sgt. Glen Follett check and refill oil in a "Shadow" aircraft during routine maintenance.

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (04/13/2011)(readMedia)-- New York Army National Guard Soldiers from Rochester will train here this weekend to operate the Army's most cutting edge technology for intelligence gathering, the unmanned aerial vehicle.

The RQ-7 "Shadow" is a low to medium altitude, short endurance unmanned aircraft system.

WHAT: New equipment training with the RQ-7 "Shadow" unmanned aircraft.

WHO: Approximately 16 New York Army National Guard Soldiers from Detachment 1, Company B, 27th Brigade Special Troops Battalion. Soldiers from the detachment come from hometowns in Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, New York City and Pennsylvania.

WHEN: Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 2 p.m.

WHERE: Fort Drum's Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System training site, Fort Drum, N.Y.

Media Opportunity

News media should verify weather conditions to support training with Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ronny Blatchford at 716-830-6323 not later than noon before committing to visit the New York Army National Guard training at Wheeler Sack.

News media representatives will be able to interview operators and maintainers of the "Shadow" UAV at the Fort Drum training facility and gather imagery of the aircraft and its operations.

News media must linkup with Master Sgt. Peter Towse, Public Affairs representative at the Fort Drum media center off Route 26 and Wheeler Sack Army Airfield not later than 1:30 p.m. for escort onto the secure facility.

Background

The 27th Brigade Special Troops Battalion is training for an expected mobilization and deployment to Afghanistan in late 2011 and early 2012. Company B provides military intelligence support to the brigade commander and staff and Detachment 1, from Rochester, N.Y., organized in 2009 and trained last fall to operate the RQ-7 "Shadow" unmanned aircraft at Camp Shelby, Miss.

The training at Fort Drum this week completes the unit's new equipment fielding, providing maintenance and operations Soldiers with experience in launching and recovering the aircraft and providing communications direct to the ground control station in the brigade command post.

RQ-7 Shadow

The RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is used by the United States Army and Marine Corps. Launched from a trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult, it is recovered with the aid of arresting gear similar to jets on an aircraft carrier.

The aircraft has an optical and infrared camera that relays video in real time data link to a ground control station (GCS).

The Shadow is used to locate and identify targets up to 125km from a brigade tactical operations center.

The "R" is the Department of Defense designation for reconnaissance; "Q" means unmanned aircraft system. The "7" refers to it being the seventh of a series unmanned reconnaissance aircraft systems.

A National Guard Bureau Q&A about the RQ-7 is available at http://www.ng.mil/features/ngps/2012/Tactical%20Unmanned%20Aircraft%20System%20TUAS%20Fielding%20ARNG%20Dec10.pdf.

Video b-roll of the aircraft is available at http://www.dvidshub.net/video/54192/shadow-rq7-bravo-uav.

Photo cutline:

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. -- Specialist Jeremy Southcott, Pfc. Timothy Strong and Sgt. Glen Follett check and refill oil in a "Shadow" aircraft during routine maintenance Nov. 19, 2010. The Soldiers are New York Army National Guard members of Detachment 1 (Unmanned Aerial Surveillance), Company B (Military Intelligence), 27th Special Troops Battalion.