Homeland security role for Italian Predators?
The Italian Air Force (IAF) is considering using an undisclosed number of its Predator tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for homeland security coastal patrols, it was revealed at UV Europe today.
Addressing delegates in Brussels, IAF Surveillance and Reconnaissance Section Chief, Lieutenant Colonel Luca Comini said Italian Air Traffic Control had already dedicated airspace around the country for Predator UAVs to patrol through.
However, Comini warned that since IAF Predators were currently only operational with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, they had not had the chance to ‘regularly employ [the airframes] in this [littoral] field’.
‘A route
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