France and Italy have begun unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations over Libya to boost surveillance of pro-Ghadaffi forces threatening the North African country's new government. Up to the second week of August when Italian Air Force (Aero-nautica Militare Italiana - AMI) General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UAVs started flying missions over Libya, only the US had contributed unmanned assets to NATO's Operation 'Unified Protector'. The unmanned AMI operations involved the Reapers flying from their home base at Amendola in southeast Italy. Italy ordered six of the MQ-9s between 2008 and 2009 but unlike USAF Reapers, the AMI's 32° Stormo has not armed its MQ-9s and only uses them for surveillance missions, which typically last 12 hours.
展开▼
机译：法国和意大利已经开始在利比亚上空进行无人机飞行，以加强对威胁北非新政府的亲加达菲部队的监视。直到8月第二周，意大利空军（Aero-nautica Militare Italiana-AMI）通用原子MQ-9收割机无人机开始在利比亚执行飞行任务时，只有美国向北约的“统一保护者”行动贡献了无人资产。无人机的无人驾驶行动涉及到收割者从他们在意大利东南部阿曼多拉的家乡基地飞行的情况。意大利在2008年至2009年期间订购了6架MQ-9，但与美国空军的收割机不同，AMI的32°Stormo并未武装其MQ-9，仅将其用于监视任务，通常持续12个小时。
展开▼
