They prefer to talk about the APR - Aircraft with Remote Piloting - the representatives of the Armed Forces and of the companies present at the conference "Drones and security. The use of the APR for the needs of law enforcement, armed forces and civil protection"Held in Rome at the Link Campus University Auditorium, because usually the drone has a negative public sense and perception. Instead, it should be synonymous with safeguarding, safety and reliability.
On the other hand, as explained by Alessandro Carini of the Public Security Dept., Territory Control Service "The APR serves to develop security strategies and to provide operational responses. It is included in the area of territorial control and critical scenarios; the mechanical means is reliable and if the goal is to have excellent images, then the dimensions can be contained".
"The APRs are means of wide and flexible use - declares Giacomo Massa, commander of the group, 41 ° Cordenons Regiment - behind which is the man. The goal is to obtain an information activity at a tactical level; for this reason they are used as air sensors in the context of a wider observation system of the operation area ”.
To confirm the importance of human presence, also the Colonel of the Italian Air Force Davide Salerno "the APR is a system of systems where the crew is at the center, and it becomes effective when the human element is a limitation. Like all systems, however, it has some disadvantages, including the difficult integration in airspace, the extreme sensitivity to weather conditions and the failure to make the bureaucratic machine go hand in hand with the technological one.".
In Italy, in fact, the sector of small remote-controlled aircraft for professional civil use seems to be slowed down by regulatory limitations, while the sector of large drones for government applications, especially for defense and security, is characterized by considerable ferment. Several Italian aeronautical companies currently engaged in the development of sophisticated flying machines, which have already aroused interest all over the world.
For the occasion, three drone models and their applications were presented. The "P. 1HH HammerHead" (photo) produced by Piaggio Aerospace, is a remotely piloted aircraft derived from the twin-engine executive "P. 180 Avanti" and can carry out reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The "Targus", produced by Tecnam, is instead based on the "P2006T" twin-engine cell and is used in maritime reconnaissance and intelligence missions. Finally, the "SD-150 Hero" which has the structure of a small helicopter and was developed by Sistemi Dinamici, the joint venture between IDS and the Helicopter Division of Finmeccanica (formerly AgustaWestland).
