Rome 17 June 2014
During the celebration for the International Day of the United Nations Peacekeepers, that took place on May 29 in New York, the organization highlighted, through a dedicated campaign, the use of modern technologies for peace operations. The focus of the campaign is on advanced technology, specifically on UUAV (Unarmed Uncrewed Air Vehicles): the Selex ES’s Falco.
The Falco is flying in support of the UN MONUSCO Mission in Congo. It carried out an important mission in May at Lake Kivu, near Goma, Congo. The Falco, thanks to its advanced optical cameras, photographed civilians in danger when the ship on which they were traveling capsized. Thanks to the timely reporting, and the coordination of rescue efforts, the United Nations peacekeepers were able to intervene and save 14 people.
Selex ES was awarded a multi-year service contract from the organization in July 2013 and since then the Falco has performed missions in the region for the collection of information for humanitarian and security use.
The platform was selected by the UN because of its ability to perform long-endurance surveillance missions, its outstanding reliability, ease of deployment and excellent track record in service operations.
The United Nations use also the Alenia Aermacchi's G222, which has proved itself to be a reliable and robust aircraft, used mainly for humanitarian, civil, defense and peacekeeping missions. In this framework, it was deployed in operational theaters such as Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea and in the tropical jungle of East Timor.