Drones supplied to Misurata rebels through Malta

The Aeryon Scout Micro UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) – a 1.3kg backpack-sized drone  - was chosen by the Transitional National Council to acquire intelligence on Gaddafi’s forces’ positions to help coordinate attacks.

Charles Barlow, director of field operations of Zariba Security Corporation (ZSC) - a private security firm providing operations in hostile environments - travelled to Malta three weeks ago and crossed to Misurata by sea and trained the rebels at the local airport on the drone’s use.

The company is run by a core group of British and Canadian security & intelligence professionals, and has its offices in Ottawa, Canada.

The Scout was designed specifically for desert operations, capable of operating in temperatures up to +50C and in sandy or wet conditions.

Its vertical takeoff and landing capability, combined with both an optical camera for daytime use and a thermal imaging system for night-time observation, makes the lightweight spy-copter particularly versatile.

Depending on feature sets, the Scout ranges in price from US$100,000 and US$200,000, and according to Zariba, it has previously been used in a major drug sting in South America and is currently being considered for use by other Middle Eastern countries.