What is the Shadow drone? How does it work?
The US Army recently tested out their newest unmanned drone, aptly called Shadow, which is their unmanned aircraft of choice when it comes to enabling brigade commanders "to see, understand, and act decisively when time is critical." Shadow provides the ground crew with real-time information like target and enemy location and other data for precision weapon attacks. Shadow's ground control station can also transmit the imagery and telemetry data to other other army systems, allowing it to be used for a range of activities. The government also says that the drone can also fly in areas deemed "too hot for piloted aircrafts," including within range of recent explosions. The army plans to begin deploying Shadow drones from Apache helicopters in the near future.
What is it used for?
While previous reports say that Shadow can also carry bombs, its current primary purpose is surveillance, targeting, and assessment through the images captured by the drone. Soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord are now training alongside Shadow, and they're testing it out over restricted areas in Washington, DC. They assure citizens that no privacy will be breached as they continue to hold the tests in unpopulated areas near the base.
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