Tri-Service

Drone Strike: The Intelligence Hardware Behind The Hit

Precision airstrikes require precise intelligence.

The drone attack that killed two British citizens in Syria was only possible because of the sheer number of UK military assets in the region.

Operation Shader, as the British campaign against Islamic State is known, involves large numbers of aircraft and personnel.

British Tornado fast jets, Reaper drones and associated support aircraft have been bombing Iraq for more than a year, but the RAF’s most sophisticated spy planes have also been operating over Syria.

After all, the argument goes, Islamic State don’t respect international boundaries so neither should Britain’s intelligence gatherers.

The biggest, most expensive spy plane is the Rivet Joint, sometimes known by the British government as Airseeker.

New to the RAF and made in America, it’s an eavesdropping plane bought off the shelf to replace the Nimrods of old.

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The technology is secret but centres on the ability to listen in to electronic communication. One Rivet Joint is already deployed with a second to follow shortly.

Another fixed wing spy plane in use over Syria is the Sentinel. A converted business jet, it has all sorts of secret capabilities centred on the ASTOR radar and its detailed images of the ground.

Bought for Afghanistan, Sentinel escaped the defence cuts after impressing in Libya.

Also operating over Syria is the Reaper: the type of drone that took out Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin.

It is an intelligence gatherer that also flies armed; unmanned but controlled from Lincolnshire.

The big advantage over a fast jet is that Reaper can stay over something of interest for hours on end: giving decision makers time to work out whether to fire.

All of these systems work together in a network, giving military planners masses of intelligence to build a picture of what’s going on.

So while British planes may not routinely be bombing I-S in Syria, UK intelligence is certainly helping other countries work out what to target.