It is a little past 8 a.m., a Canadian soldier has just been killed 30 kilometres away, and Capt. Tom Lee is fretting.

He has a tool that could save other Canadians now battling the Taliban, but the weather refuses to co-operate. Finally, the conditions are right, the engine on his unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) throttles up and the craft springs off its catapult mounted on the back of a truck.

One of Canada’s little-known fleet of spy planes is airborne over the Afghanistan desert.

“There are troops in contact,” says Capt. Lee briskly, using the military jargon for a firefight, “and I have to go.” Within minutes, the French-made Sperwer airplane just launched from a fenced compound within the huge NATO base at Kandahar will be beaming back video of the terrain below, and of Taliban movements in the Zhari district where the troops are fighting.

From a rocky start three years ago, such UAVs have become an almost indispensable part of the Canadian arsenal in Afghanistan, officers say.

They offer intelligence on Taliban movements, targeting for artillery and airstrikes and tips on the presence of civilians who should be avoided in those target areas.

Source and more info: canada