Lieutenant-Colonel Craig Palmer has been Commanding Officer of the 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery since May 2011 – the unit that operates a variety of UAS in support of UK ground forces in Afghanistan. In his presentation he revealed that Camp Bastion in Helmand is the UK’s third busiest airport behind Heathrow and Gatwick.
The British Army is the biggest operate of Hermes, with 66,000 Flight Hours to its credit. However, the main focus now is on the integration of Watchkeeper, which is a much more complete system. Training has already started in southern England, with the aircraft operating out of Boscombe Down and he expects that this will soon include flights in both military and civil airspace in the region.
With operations in Afghanistan nearing completion, he foresees that UAS operations will need to more interoperable and that they will need to be more flexible and able to deploy rapidly to other regions. His regiment has already started collaboration with the French Army on joint use of Watchkeeper.