Operationnels.com: The Drogen Or the remote eye of the soldier

Published on Operationnels.com, March 2017

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Interview with Warrant Officer Gérald, operator and primary trainer of Drogen in the Buffalo Anti-IED Section of the 13th Engineer Regiment

Detachment of six personnels, including three maintainers (two for intervention and Buffalo protection, one for the Drogen mini drone), the Buffalo Section arrived at the Barkhane theater on June 9, at Gao on the 18th and was deployed for the first time in its current configuration for an OPEX mission on the 24th: "the time to retrieve the Buffalo transported by Antonov and toprepare it and we were gone! " says Warrant Officer Gérald in charge of implementing the Drogen for the first time in a theater of operation. He tells us the advantages of such a duet and the genesis of the concept.

An expression of need born in Afghanistan, a concept of use on-going in Mali.

The decision to equip the Engineer Regiment with drones came from the Chief of the Land Headquarters back in 2011, when this year, a young person from our regiment, the 13th RG, was blown out by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) while trying to look inside a nozzle. It was therefore an expression of need emanating from the CEMAT to equip the DOIP, - that is to say the “Détachement d’Ouverture d’Itinéraires Piégés” or literally Detachment for Opening of Trapped Routes - , that we deployed in Afghanistan where the risk of IED was omnipresent.

Following the testing and implementation phases, we were able to perceive Drogen in January 2016, which allows us to use its potential in Mali today, by coupling it with the Buffalo. Without even addressing the practical aspects - the second one facilitating the transport of the first one -, both are in fact inseparable as their actions are complementary. Unlike the Afghan context in which the Buffalo performed a genuine reconnaissance and route opening work within the DOIP, the use of the Buffalo-Drogen tandem on Barkhane is more punctual and is carried out on demand to remove a suspicion of IED or mine.

The Buffalo Section is currently used mainly for the benefit of the BATLOG (Logistics Battalion), unfortunately the most vulnerable one to attacks of this kind, but we can, by order of the Counter-IED Counselor based in N'Djamena be deployed as a "free electron" for other missions of doubt removal in favor of EOD (Operational demining teams) and GTD (“Groupements tactiques Désert”, literally Tactical Desert Groupings). Our very first mission was to accompany the BATLOG from Gao to Tessalit. Given the nature of the terrorist threat and the immensity of the theater, getting around the compulsory waypoints is the safest option: better getting around them instead of stopping the convoy and exposing the disembarked Sappers to the double risk to become direct fire targets and to search for possible IED. In some cases, getting around is unfortunately not possible. If we have no choice, we do our duty and go forward ...

The course of our intervention is divided in three stages:

1. Prior the ground search by the Engineering Group, we send the drone to establish a first security bubble in seeking for a possible "trigger", that is to say a person wanting to remote trigger an IED;

2. Then, we perform a detailed intelligence research .

3. If the Engineering Group finds anything, it is the Buffalo's turn to dig out the IED or the mine.

The work of "Drogen - Groupe Génie - Buffalo" is very complementary and prepares the intervention of the EOD which ensures the neutralization of the detected IED or mines. Our mission is punctual and is not a continuous surveillance: we are, in a way, the "remote eye" of the soldier.

Our first mission was a week-long and went very well, demonstrating precisely this complementarity of means and confirming that the correct use of these tools allows to contribute effectively to the doubt removal.

Thus, despite some initial skepticism about the risk of silting up a machine as massive as the Buffalo or the utility of a mini-drone resembling a "vacuum cleaner with blades", the demand is already strong and it is expected that our missions are rapidly chained.

An easy MRO

Drogen can be compared to a helicopter, as it is a contra-rotating double-rotor VTOL: on a helicopter, a rear rotor is added to the main rotor, to balance the machine; on the Drogen, the two rotating blades operate according to the same principle, but are situated one above the other. We are indeed impressed by the performance of the Drogen in such a unique environment as the Sahelo-Saharan Strip (BSS): we were particularly worrying about the wind, but mostly by the specifically high temperatures that may have limited the drone’s scope of use. It is not the case. We need to pay attention to the batteries that tend to heat up, but we have spare batteries allowing us to take over as needed. These have an autonomy of thirty minutes, which is generally sufficient, given the nature of our interventions. In order to avoid the overheating of our Equipment, currently stored in “degraded mode”, we cover the boxes in the side coffins at the back of the Buffalo with survival blankets. These boxes contain the vector and two double sets of blades and batteries. We have a system of two vectors in the theater.

Among the unknowns, unique to each first deployment in OPEX, we were also afraid that the drone would stir up a lot of sand during its take-offs and landings (because the ground where we trained is mainly made up of grass, dirt or pebbles), but the concern for infiltration generally encountered here does not seem to affect it. It is true that the system allows us to limit the potential damages, since the Drogen takes off and lands at the same place, except in the case of a special events where we can program it differently. We are therefore careful to choose a suitable place.

The advantage of the Buffalo that France has "customized" in coordination with the STAT (Technical Section of the Army) to specifically house the Drogen is, therefore, its space - a VAB or Aravis have less interior space - and the existence of a Control station dedicated to the drone. The safety is then reinforced, since we only get out of the vehicle for the assembly and the start up of the Drogen and then to store it back.

A Good maneuverability

Another advantage is that Drogen requires a relatively short training time, even when we are not familiar with the third dimension. It takes place in two parts:

1. A first week of drone acculturation takes place at the 61st Chaumont Artillery Regiment specialized in drones: there, in particular, are taught safety procedures regarding the use, but also at the administrative level, as a drone cannot be used without the prior authorization of the international aeronautical authorities. On request, it is granted what is called a “rose”, that is to say a vertical tube or air corridor.

It is therefore necessary to integrate the durations related to the requests and anticipate the use of the drone in an adequate way. We have to make a request specifying the time, the distance and the height necessary for the mission. We cannot always anticipate everything, but by planning a little broader than necessary (150 m height, 1h 30 to recall the drone and change battery to go in details in case of suspicion), this is large enough. We are not immune to non-compliant cases, such as a fall of the drone, the allocated time must then be sufficient to recover it. Here in Mali, I am in charge of this administrative part, the two other operators can thus concentrate completely on the operational part.

2. The second part of the training is then carried out at the 13th RG of Valdahon, leader regiment and sole holder of Buffalo and Drogen. It is specifically dedicated to Drogen. It lasts two weeks, three in my case, because I am a primary trainer and have received direct training from the manufacturer. It is in fact as a primary trainer that I am currently deployed, in order to contribute to the formulation of "good proposals" for the use of this drone on Barkhane.

The data is interpreted in real time on a computer: we load a map on this Control station, first to tell the drone its route and then, with a simple button, we switch over the images revealed by a Camera with a 36x zoom which we maneuver with a handle similar to the joysticks for video games. Another button allows us to switch from the day camera to the thermal camera. No need to change camera: the Drogen takes everything with him and is therefore very autonomous.

It is this digital and thermal camera which makes it possible to have daylight images in high resolution (HD) and thermal images at night to distinguish the signature of the potentially spotted ammunitions and especially detect the personnel who would seek to observe us or to trigger an IED remotely. In the desert, thermal has another advantage, which is to bring out the different colors and thus create a scale of color values ​​difficult to detect with the naked eye.

The purpose of this drone is first to find the possible triggers, then to focus on the sapper’s target, who will come with his group to look for mines and IEDs and that we can guide via radio. On the basis of our images, we will be able to give them information on the specific points to be treated first. It is for this ability that the Drogen was attributed to the sappers, for we have by experience what is called "the sapper’s eye": we know where to go on the ground and examine in details. The goal is not to get an overall vision of the scene, and the good maneuverability of the device, combined with the performance of its camera, makes it the ideal tool.

As a result of heating up, the sun induces a source of heat on the ammunitions buried into the ground, even if it has been buried for long, and the thermal signature that emerges allows us to detect it. One must also know that when the ground has been stirred to put in a “foreign body”, it reacts the same way as human body getting infected and can thus be detected.

We trained our regiment on the Valdahon’s pass with ammunitions that were hidden in nozzles, buried underground and under vegetation, leaving them for a few days to evaluate the thermal signature likely to be released after a while,  and we found them quite easily. A period of adaptation to the various cases, as well as a good training to practice it correctly, are needed to reach this level. But it allowed us to work well even during this very first mission, since we have been able to remove some suspicions of IED.

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