An anti-piracy drone aboard the Esbern Snare
(B2) The Danish sailors of the Esbern Snare have their little remote-controlled "toy". Not much bigger than a hobby machine, the Puma RQ 20 - from the American AeroVironment - can alight or land on land and has a range of 3 1/2 hours. Its main purpose is observation. Equipped with cameras and data link systems, it can send surveillance images to the ship, within a radius of 15 km.
Very useful
« In particular, we use the drone to scan small ships in the area around Esbern Snare, see how many people are on board, if they have weapons, ladders or fuel barrels, which could mean that they are pirates says a Danish officer.
It does not replace not of course the on-board Lynx helicopter. The helicopter can fly longer, it is equipped with a heavy machine gun, which allows to protect the special maritime (response) group when intercepting pirates ". But the drone gives us “ a good opportunity to quickly get a picture of the area safe for personnel”.
