MILF shoots down US spy plane in Mindanao

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Moro rebels shot down a US spy drone that reportedly flew inside the rebel territory, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said Friday. Mohagher Iqbal, a senior leader of the MILF, said the drone was captured by rebel forces in the hinterlands of Talayan town in the province of Maguindanao. He said the spy plane was shot down on the night of October 31 and recovered by the rebels the next day. The MILF announced the capture of the spy drone only this week after they finished examining the aircraft. Iqbal did not say whether the drone was armed or had a thermal and infrared video camera, but he claimed that the aircraft has a wing span of eight feet. He said the rebels opened fire on the drone with automatic weapons. "The spy plane is still in good condition and intact and we will not give it back to the US military. It is now the property of the MILF," Iqbal told the GMANews.TV. There were no immediate statement from either the Philippine or US military officials about the incident. A US military spy plane also crashed in North Cotabato province near Maguindanao on October 18 after hitting a row of coconut trees. The news of the crash was kept secret by Filipino and US authorities until the local media reported about it a week later. The aircraft, whose wing span was about 8 feet, crashed at night on a civilian neighborhood in Pikit town. Policemen recovered the wreckage and returned the next morning to collect debris of the drone. The drone is one of many spy planes used by US forces in surveillance operations in the southern Philippines. There are three basic types of drones: the preprogrammed, the smart, and the remotely piloted drone. A preprogrammed drone responds to an on-board timer or scheduler and has no sensor contact with the ground. The drone follows a set routine of maneuvers, altitude changes, speed changes, and course changes that are programmed through an autopilot to the drone's control surfaces and engine throttle. The drone is usually recovered by a parachute at the end of the mission. A smart drone carries various sensors and is equipped with an on-board computer. The ability of a smart drone to make decisions governing course and altitude changes is limited only by its computer and sensor capacity. A smart drone could take off on its own from a given airport, navigate a circuitous route, make decisions en route based on weather or enemy radar action, fly to a second airport, and make a safe landing. The remotely piloted vehicle, probably the most common type of drone, is under the constant control of an operator or pilot through radio links. The pilot or pilots can be located on the ground, in other aircraft, or on ships. Typical missions for remotely piloted vehicles include reconnaissance or surveillance of enemy activities, target acquisition, relay of friendly communications, and jamming of enemy communications. Advanced remotely piloted vehicles are equipped with low-light-level television and infrared sensors that allow over-the-horizon reconnaissance imagery to be transmitted to ground commanders as it is being acquired. It was not the first time that a US military unmanned aerial vehicle had crashed in the southern Philippines. In 2006, villagers in Sulu province held for ransom a crashed unmanned US drone used by the military in tracking down Abu Sayyaf militants whose group is linked to the al-Qaeda and Jema'ah Islamiya. The remote-controlled spy plane crashed February 10 in the mountain enclave of Marang in Indanan town. Local television news showed footage of a villager holding the ill-fated UAV, whose wing span was about one meter long and has a slim body and a video camera mounted on its belly. The villagers demanded P100,000 in exchange for the unmanned aircraft. Another US unmanned spy plane also crashed in November 2007 during a practice flight in Mount Tumatangis in Sulu. It was unknown if the drone was found or not, but the crash was never reported to the press. In March 2002, a US spy drone called Predator also crashed into the sea off Zamboanga City. The UAV went down for a still unknown reason and was also recovered. The US military has a fleet of various unmanned spy planes, from a palm-size remote-controlled aircraft, to bigger and sophisticated high-altitude; long-range remotely piloted vehicles designed for long-endurance photographic reconnaissance and electronic surveillance missions, and as attack air crafts. The US military had used a Philippine Air Force base in Mactan Island in Cebu province in central Philippines as station of its fleet of Orion spy planes. - Al Jacinto, GMANews.TV