Reconnaissance UAV for Anti-Rebel Warfare in the Philippines

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The Philippines armed forces are upgrading their unmanned aircraft fleet in order to be able to challenge current threats. Boeing subsidiary Insitu Inc. is being awarded a $7,407,625 firm-fixed-price order for the procurement of six ScanEagle unmanned aircraft systems, related support equipment, training, site activation, technical services, and data for the government of the Philippines.

Work will be performed in Bingen, Washington, (70 percent); and Hood River, Oregon (30 percent), and is expected to be completed in July 2019, a US DoD release said.

Expeditionary and versatile ScanEagle delivers persistent imagery on land or at sea at a fraction of the cost of other remote sensing methods. The latest ScanEagle features upgraded avionics, increased payload capability and a new heavy fuel purpose-built propulsion system that dramatically improves reliability and performance according to insitu.com.

According to defenseworld.net, the Philippines Army is seeking reconnaissance and surveillance drones to help in its fight against Maute rebels which are holding out in Mindanao province of the country for several weeks now.

The US has recently supplied the Philippines with Cessna aircraft equipped with reconnaissance equipment.