FIND 2011: UK helicopters prove their worth as ISTAR assets
A UK helicopter chief has argued that rotary systems are the ideal choice for ISTAR operations rather than the unmanned systems that are routinely used.
Col Richard Leakey, commander for the MA3/Station Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) Flying Station Aldergrove, told the FIND conference in Bisley on 9 November that an unmanned fleet may be a reality ‘one day in the future, but in the near term I see an absolute need for a man in the loop’.
Leakey described how the Apache ‘has really been the essence of target acquisition on a helicopter’, although JHC ‘does not have a down
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