Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Platform at Sea – A PUMA UAV has been operating from the Landing Ship RFA CARDIGAN BAY in the Gulf where the vessel is serving as the Minehunter Support Ship.    The PUMA UAV reconnaissance drone is trialled by the US Navy which uses the RFA CARDIGAN BAY as a floating base by USN Riverine Patrol Boats, which have run into and out of the impressive loading dock.     The USN Riverine Squadron are currently trialling the PUMA – the full, and rather convoluted title is Pointer Upgraded Mission Ability (All Environment) – to see what the small intelligence gathering aircraft might offer to warships on patrol.

California's AeroVironment Corporation has designed the 13 pound five feet long drone with a 9.2-foot wingspan that is able to land just about anywhere and is launched by hand, and powered by a small battery pack that allows it two hours of flight time with a 10,000 foot operational ceiling.     The drone normally only flies 500-1000 feet off the ground and each “PUMA System” is made up of a trio of air vehicles and a pair of ground-based control systems, and carries an electro optical and infrared camera with an 860 nanometer laser illuminator.

The trials aboard RFA CARDIGAN BAY and other vessels in the Gulf, are the first by the US Navy in an operational capacity.     The idea is that the PUMA drone is used for reconnaissance, or in support of board and search or rescue missions – being a lot cheaper and easier to send aloft than a helicopter – if one is available – and its size means that it is difficult to detect at high altitude.      A two-strong team directs the PUMA sorties; an Operator to fly it, and a Mission Controller who determines where to fly and what to look at.      Once a mission is done the drone can be brought back to its Mother Ship or landed in the water; it can stay afloat for several hours and be collected by a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat).

The use of such UAV drones, especially of craft with no embarked helicopter capability, such as the British River Class Patrol Boats of the Fishery Protection Squadron and the Falkland Guardship, would seem to offer ideal testing grounds, or ideed a pactical opertunity to to prove the PUMA operationally.