Send out the drones

The drone soon touches down, its wheels kicking up dust. It snags a wire stretched across the runway, stopping well short of the safety net.

The ground crew made today's mission look easy. In a war, however, any number of factors can combine to endanger the army's eyes in the sky.

Soldiers in the 5th Battalion, 1st Cavalry fly four Shadow 200 drones over the 1-25th Stryker Brigade's area of responsibility in Diyala Province. Late last year, one flight went awry almost as soon as the plane left its launcher.

"It lost the GPS right after takeoff," said Spc. Jan Garvens, of Eagle, Wisconsin, the unmanned aerial vehicle operator who was on duty for the flight, "but it turned out there was much more wrong with it than that."

Unbeknownst to the drone's control crew, a power surge had knocked out several crucial systems. Though the plane's onboard camera was still working, it was not reporting position or altitude. The Shadow's eyes were open, yet the crew was essentially flying blind.

The $700,000 aircraft was in danger of being lost.

Garvens shed his role as mission supervisor and took over the diminished computer interface. Regional air traffic controllers located the plane via radar. Using that information, he established the craft's position and began the marathon task of bringing the plane back within reach of the runway's automated landing system. For hours, he struggled. Meanwhile, the environment became increasingly hostile. "Dust came in, wind came in, even sprinkles of rain," Garvens said. "It was a pretty bad situation."

Garvens tried again and again to find the capture window, often bringing the craft within sight of the runway, yet narrowly missing. The ground crew, fearing the worst, prepared to deploy the plane's parachute to avoid major damage.

As time ran out, Garvens took one last shot.

"My heart was going a mile a minute," he said. He counted down the altitude – 500 feet, 400 feet… - and, almost before he knew it, the crew chief's voice was in his headphones, "Safe on deck."

A roar erupted from the control truck. "I came out of the shelter yelling, cheering, pumped my arms, high fives were going around," Garvens said.

The excitement didn't stop with the ground crew. The save earned Garvens the Army Achievement medal, as well as the Brigade and Division Iron Hero awards.

The aircraft Garvens recovered is one of four Shadow 200s operated out of Forward Operating Base Warhorse, and the drones have gained quite a reputation. With a 125-mile operating radius and six hours worth of onboard fuel, the planes can cover nearly the entirety of Diyala province, providing the Strykers with invaluable intelligence, a buzzing reminder of the technical prowess of the American forces.

"Because we're not really on a linear battlefield anymore," Sgt. Theodore Bober said, "We provide eyes from the air so [troops on the ground] can have a better perspective." He explained that the Shadow's missions include checking roads for improvised explosive devices and doing reconnaissance before patrols.

The brigade's commander isn't shy about expressing affection for the drone. "That thing is a godsend for us," said Col. Burt Thompson. "We've about flown the wings off of ours."

Still, the drones have limitations. "The biggest challenge is weather," he said, stating that dust storms and accompanying high winds can reduce the Shadows' effectiveness and even ground them, as their short wingspan is more vulnerable to turbulent weather than larger drones or manned aircraft.

On relatively clear days like Tuesday, the Shadows are out in force. The ground crew couldn't be happier. "I've seen dozens and dozens – probably hundreds of launches since I've been in the Army," Bober said, "And I still don't get tired of seeing it come off the launcher."

Garvens compares his feat to mastering high-level landings in the Top Gun video game he played in his youth. "Ultimately it's just a big R/C plane," he said of the Shadow 200, "Except instead of a remote there's a huge computer system."

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