MARCH 2016 | 37 operate in weather that negated other surveillance systems, flying undetected below cloud cover. It was wellreceived— Marine leaders credited the ScanEagle with limiting the casualty rate by 30 percent. Insitu received another boost to its reputation when the U.S. Navy used a ScanEagle in 2009 to help rescue Capt. Richard Phillips, who was kidnapped from his U.S. cargo ship by pirates in the Indian Ocean. The tense standoff later was made into a Hollywood film. Other militaries decided they had to have this unmanned aircraft, too, according to Sliwa. “Our program grew, doubling over time,” he said. A native New Yorker, Sliwa was the son of a Navy pilot, a connection Photos: (Above) Steve Sliwa, former Insitu chief executive officer, shows off the Integrator, one of several models of unmanned aircraft systems kept in a display case at his Arizona home. ASSOCIATED PRESS (Below) Sliwa displays one of the earliest ScanEagles in 2003. INSITU
Frontiers March 2016 Issue
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