Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] Indago small unmanned aerial system (UAS) recently deployed to Vanuatu to help the impoverished Pacific archipelago nation recover from a devastating natural disaster, the company announced May 4.
During a two-week mission that ended in mid-April, the five-pound, quad-rotor Indago, operated by Australia’s Heliwest, collected video and photographs to map damage caused by Cyclone Pam in March. Winds reaching 200 miles per hour had destroyed many of Vanuatu’s hut dwellings and food crops, said Luke Aspinall, Heliwest’s manager of special operations.
The UAS surveyed 50 sites on nine of Vanuatu’s remote islands, Aspinall told reporters. During 126 sorties covering over 2,500 acres, Indago’s endurance averaged about 45 minutes, with its longest flight reaching 52 minutes.
Aspinall said the Heliwest team deployed with a small footprint of three backpacks containing one aircraft, sensors, batteries and other supporting equipment. The crew used several means of transportation to move about the country, including all-terrain vehicles, automobiles, helicopters and police patrol boats. Unlike manned aircraft that were also involved in damage-mapping efforts, Indago did not need a large, cleared area to take off and land.
“We were able to map large areas very quickly and, in some cases, were actually outperforming fixed-wing assets,” Aspinall said. The Heliwest team was able to “cover larger areas faster and relocate much, much faster than anything else.”
The crew deployed at the request of the Vanuatu government and the World Bank. The United Nations is expected to complete a damage assessment report for the country in about a week.
Heliwest has been using Indago in Australia in a variety of roles, including conducting mapping and surveying for the mining, oil and gas industry, identifying fire hotspots for firefighters, and supporting undisclosed law enforcement missions.