Ces investissements se sont d’ailleurs très vite montrés rentables, puisque c’est grâce à ces nouveaux moyens que l’on attribue les derniers succès des forces de renseignements au Cameroun qui auraient déjoué plus d’un attenta terroriste au Cameroun. Et c’est pour rester sur cette vague de succès face au terrorisme de plus plus présent dans la zone septentrionale de son territoire, que le Cameroun va de se doter d’un drone pour une valeur de près de 9,5 millions de $US, comme l’indique cette information de la revue spécialisée Flightglobal.
“ Insitu has received (…) export contracts for its ScanEagle unmanned air vehicle that will see it deliver the system to Cameroon.
Under the USA’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme, Cameroon (…) will receive one ScanEagle system each by September 2016, through deals worth $9.39 million (…), the US Department of Defense announced on 29 September.
The acquisitions for Cameroon will include 50% of the work on each contract being carried out in-country, and will see the delivery of analogue medium wave infra-red ScanEagle UAVs, launch and recovery equipment, ground control stations, Insitu video exploitation systems and ground support equipment for the governments, says the contract notice.”
En dehors du Cameroun, deux autres pays, le Kenya et le Pakistan, se sont aussi doté de drones américains, comme le mentionne l’article. Le Kenya déboursera la coquette somme de US$9.86 millions, tandis que le Pakistan avoisinnera US$15 millions :
Kenya will additionally acquire one mark 4 launcher, two full mission training devices and spares kits. The details on Pakistan’s $15.2 million order are less clear, with the US DoD simply saying that hardware and technical data will be delivered to the Pakistani government under the FMS programme by August 2016. It adds that 90% of the work will be carried out in the USA and the remaining 10% in country.
Additionally, Insitu has been awarded an $8.7 million contract by the US Naval Air Systems Command to provide spares for the RQ-21A Blackjack UAV, support marine expeditionary unit deployments, and squadron readiness training.