Company B’s Shadow UAVs rest in their hangar at Camp Mobile, South Korea, last week. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
CAMP MOBILE, South Korea — Unmanned Aerial Vehicles operated by the 2nd Infantry Division will be the first in the Army to meet the same standards as conventional aircraft, officials say.
The 2nd ID’s Company B, Brigade Troops Battalion, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, which operates four Shadow UAVs from Camp Mobile, is undergoing an Aviation Resource Management survey this week.
Chief Warrant Officer Randy Olson, 8th Army Aviation Resource Management Survey team chief, said the survey, which is mandatory for all aviation units and now for UAV units, assesses such things as regulatory compliance, maintenance programs, operations, safety and flight operations.
“We check their policies and procedures to make sure they are in compliance with 8th Army and U.S. Army regulations,” he said.
Until now, the Army’s UAV units haven’t had to conform to the same high standards as conventional aircraft, he said.
Company B platoon leader, 1st Lt. Karen Charchan, 28, of New York, said all of the Army’s UAV units will eventually be brought up to the same standard. Her soldiers had only two months to prepare for the survey, she said.
“Aviation regulations are very strict on record keeping, safety [and] air space. Two months ago we were totally unaware of them,” she said.
Charchan said the type of Shadow operated by her soldiers is designed to work with forward-deployed units.
“They are the newest addition to the UAV family. They are definitely the future of MI (Military Intelligence). This is a short-range version of the Shadow. They are being used very effectively in Iraq. It is a brigade level asset with more forward-deployed units. They perform reconnaissance, target acquisition and battle damage assessment,” she said.
A ground control station in the back of a Humvee provides a base for an air vehicle operator or “pilot” and a mission payload operator to control the aircraft.
“Right now the UAVs take to the air about three times a week,” Charchan said.
UAV pilot Sgt. Rafael Diaz, 21, of Las Vegas, said flying the UAVs in South Korea is more challenging than flying them back at his last duty station in Arizona. “In Arizona we have unlimited air space,” but here, there are mountains all around us, he said.
Company B’s Shadow UAVs rest in their hangar at Camp Mobile, South Korea, last week. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
Company B's Spc. Carlos Salamanca, right, and Sgt. Debra Ashby work on a Shadow UAV at Camp Mobile last week. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
