U.S. troops with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to support rescue mission for kidnapped girls in Nigeria 27

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Defence & Security Industry News - United States

 
 
Tuesday, May 27, 2014 10:24 AM
 
U.S. troops with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to support rescue mission for kidnapped girls in Nigeria.
The U.S. Defense Department's addition of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and 80 Air Force troops to U.S. efforts supporting Nigeria's search for over 200 kidnapped girls has turned the mission into an air operation, a Pentagon spokesman said.
     
The U.S. Defense Department's addition of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and 80 Air Force troops to U.S. efforts supporting Nigeria's search for over 200 kidnapped girls has turned the mission into an air operation, a Pentagon spokesman said.
U.S. Air Force (USAF) 46th Expeditionary Aerial Reconnaissance Squadron (EARS) Crew Chief, Senior Airman (SRA) Anthony Daniels takes a break from working on the motor of a Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).
     

The UAV system and Air Force personnel were deployed not to Nigeria but to neighboring Chad under an agreement with the Chadian government, Warren said, because basing the air assets there, closer to the search area, allows the aircraft to spend more time overhead.

The Nigerian government has requested such assistance and, Warren said, “This is the third system that we've put into Chad in addition to [systems that have] been providing [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or] ISR up until yesterday.”

The coordinated air operation is using a mix of manned and unmanned assets as the situation dictates, he added.

“I don't know right now of any plans to send additional ISR assets, and all 80 Air Force personnel are not [yet] on the ground,” Warren said, adding that there are no plans now for a U.S. military operation on the ground in Nigeria.

It’s been five weeks since members of the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped the girls from the Government Secondary boarding school in the town of Chibok.

The U.S. Air Force personnel are joining 16 military personnel from U.S. Africa Command who earlier this month joined an interdisciplinary team led by the State Department at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria.

On May 21, as required by the War Powers Resolution, President Barack Obama notified Congress of the deployment of Air Force personnel to Chad in a letter to the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro tempore of the Senate.