DEA Specialised Airborne Operations in the UK has added dangerous air cargo to its approvals, and is considering investing in some King Air class aircraft to service its expanding marketplace. The company currently flies a fleet of customised Diamond DA42s.

“Presently our fleet consists of DA42s, two of which are heavily-modified platforms,” says business development director Dicky Patounas. “They have maritime radars, line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight satellite systems, data links and EO/IR high definition cameras fitted. These platforms deliver the maritime surveillance and ISR capability, and we are about to bring a third online very soon.

“To support these aircraft we provide an intelligence function where we create a secure access area for the information that these aircraft collect, to be amalgamated and dis-played in real time to the customer. This is proving highly successful and is greatly appreciated by the people who make operational decisions based upon the information that our assets are providing.”