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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Philippine Muslim
rebels recently shot down a US spy drone flying inside their
territory in the restive southern region of Mindanao, where American
forces are aiding local troops in fighting separatist and communist
insurgents.
Mohagher Iqbal, a senior leader
of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), on Friday said that the
drone had been captured by rebel forces in the hinterlands of
Talayan town in Maguindanao province.
He added that the spy plane was
shot down on the night of October 31. Iqbal said the rebels
recovered the plane on November 1 and the MILF leadership announced
the capture of the drone on the same day.
Iqbal did not say whether the
drone was armed or had a thermal and infrared video camera, only
that the aircraft had a wing span of eight feet. He said the rebels
had fired at the drone with automatic weapons.
“The spy plane is still in good
condition and intact and we will not give it back to the US
military. It is now the property of the MILF,” Iqbal told The
Manila Times.
There were no immediate
statements from either Philippine or US military officials about the
shooting down of the drone.
The capture of the spy plane,
though, exposed the apparent involvement of American forces in local
anti-insurgency operations, which is a violation of the
Constitution.
A US military spy plane also
crashed in North Cotabato province near Maguindanao on October 18
after hitting a row of coconut trees. The news of the crash was kept
secret by Filipino and US authorities until the local media reported
about it a week later.
This plane, with a wing span of
about eight feet, went down at night on a civilian neighborhood in
Pikit town. Policemen quickly cordoned off the wreckage and returned
the morning of October 18 to collect debris of the drone.
The drone is one of many spy
aircraft used by US forces in surveillance operations in southern
Philippines. It can be deployed for destructive missions.
There are three basic types of
drones: the pre-programmed, the smart and the remotely-piloted.
A pre-programmed drone responds
to an onboard timer or scheduler and has no sensor contact with the
ground. The drone follows a set routine of maneuvers and altitude,
speed and course changes that are programmed through an autopilot to
the drone’s control surfaces and engine throttle. The drone is
usually recovered by a parachute at the end of a mission.
A smart drone carries various
sensors and is equipped with an onboard computer. Its ability to
make decisions governing course and altitude changes is limited only
by its computer and sensor capacity.
It can take off on its own from a
given airport, navigate a circuituous route, make decisions en route
based on weather or enemy radar action, fly to a second airport and
make a safe landing.
The remotely-piloted drone,
probably the most common of drones, is under the constant control of
an operator or pilot through radio links. The pilot or pilots can be
located on the ground, in other aircraft or on ships.
Typical missions for
remotely-piloted drones include reconnaissance or surveillance of
enemy activities, target acquisition, relay of friendly
communications and jamming of enemy communications.
Advanced remotely-piloted drones
are equipped with low-light-level television and infrared sensors
that allow over-the-horizon reconnaissance imagery to be transmitted
to ground commanders as it is being acquired.
In 2006, villagers in Sulu
province, also in Mindanao, held for ransom an unmanned US drone
that had crashed there. It was used by the Philippine military in
tracking down the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group that is
linked to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah.
This drone, which was
remotely-controlled, went down on February 10 in the village of
Marang in Indanan town. Local television news showed footage of a
villager holding the spy plane with a wing span of about one meter
and slim body and a video camera mounted on its belly. The villagers
demanded P100,000 in exchange for the unmanned aircraft.
Another US unmanned spy plane
also crashed in November 2007 during a practice flight in Mount
Tumatangis in Sulu. It was unknown if the drone was found or not,
but the crash was never reported to the press.
In March 2002, a US spy drone
called Predator also went down into the sea off Zamboanga City, also
in Mindanao. It crashed for still unknown reasons and was also
recovered.
The US military has a fleet of
various unmanned spy planes, from a palm-size remote-con-trolled
aircraft, to bigger and sophisticated high-altitude, long-range
remotely-piloted ones designed for long-endurance photographic
reconnaissance and electronic surveillance missions, and as attack
aircraft.
It had used a Philippine Air
Force base on Mactan island in Cebu province in central Philippines
as station for its fleet of Orion spy planes.
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