7 News Belize

It’s A Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s...the Spy Chopper!
posted (August 24, 2010)
If we tell you our next story is about the YMQ-18A or about the Rotary Wing Unmanned Aerial System And Forester Radar - you'd probably scratch your head, or change the channel - but if we tell you it's about the "spy chopper" - you'd know exactly what we mean.

That's the unmanned helicopter that the US Army is testing out at Central Farm in the Cayo District. It's flying all over the forested areas of Cayo using a high powered radar to peer under the jungle canopy. Today, the army lifted the veil of secrecy and let the media into the compound to see what it's all about. Here's what we found.

Jules Vasquez, Reporting
We've all seen conventional helicopters, but you've never seen anything like an unmanned helicopter. It is controlled remotely from inside these vans - which send signals to it from these antennae over a 115 mile radius. They track the helicopter by radar and see what it is seeing from these cameras mounted in the nose. They allowed journalists inside the van - but were not allowed to tape inside they say for security reasons. But the pilot inside makes the helicopter hover elegantly - unlike what any other unmanned aircraft can do - and then it takes flight....looking like some kind of airborne shark.

Lt. Col. Kent Guffey, Overseeing Test Flights
"We don't categorize this as a drone this is an unmanned aerial system, it has a pilot. The pilot does not sit in the aircraft when it flies, he sits in the ground control station behind us. It is one of the key characteristics of this unmanned aerial system it's a helicopter, so it's able to do vertical takeoff and landing just like a helicopter, so you can fly it in austere environments, you don't need a built-up or a long runway, you just need an open area that's fairly flat to take off from."

There are two of them, that grey one in the sky, and this one here in the hangar - each one valued at a few million US dollars - army reps wouldn't say how many millions.

But they did say what it's here to do.

Lt. Col. Kent Guffey, Overseeing Test Flights
"In the United States we don't have jungles, we don't have canopy like this, so right there that's the number one reason why Belize is ideal. The best way to explain it, it is designed to see movement under the forest, so pretty much anything that's moving under the forest, under the jungle canopy. Right now we're seeing stuff moving under the foliage, so we feel pretty confident that it is working."

Working but not on any secret missions say the army reps:

Lt. Col. Kent Guffey, Overseeing Test Flights
"I can tell you that the two things we are looking at is the radar so it's for surveillance and we are also testing to do unmanned re-supply, flying this aircraft with a cargo load pallet underneath it."

And while it is all business, it is not without its pleasures:

Lt. Col. Kent Guffey, Overseeing Test Flights
"I never get tired of watching it fly. I can't even remember how many times I've seen it fly, it never gets old. It's very exciting and some neat technology."

The Belmopan students who were invited for the open day felt the same way:

Nathan Stirm, Student
"It's quite amazing but you know its modern technology, you see it around a lot and even our little personal remote control helicopters and airplanes and stuff and so it's not that surprising to see it on a big scale. Now if they put missiles on it then that will be something worth watching."

Said Awe, Student
"Surprise yes because no one is it to control it. It is wicked."

So far in Belize, the chopper has been tested on flights of three to 5 hours.

And for Cayo residents worrying about the possibility of a very expensive US military remote control toy hovering over their neighborhood, the chopper strictly does not fly over populated areas.

The tests will continue into September. The US military is working with the BDF which has assigned 40 officers to guard the compound.

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