Egyptian Air Force Monitored a 1,400-Mile Radius With 56 Scarab Drones
By Miriam Adler ·
Military installations and civilian gatherings were watched without consent from Kom Oshim Air Base, where a three-man crew captured physical evidence on wet film.
It weighs 2,384 pounds and travels at Mach 0.8. It is described as "versatile" and "easy to operate," though the ease of operation is a matter of perspective—specifically, the perspective of the three-man crew required to deploy it. This is the Model 324, known in public records as the Scarab, a jet-powered eye in the sky designed for the Egyptian Air Force.
The details of this machine are preserved in a catalogue entry from the FAS Intelligence Resource Program, updated in November 1999. The record provides a clinical breakdown of a weaponized gaze: a cruise range of 1,400 miles, a flat-bottomed fuselage with a pointed nose, and a turbojet engine hidden in the aft belly compartment until the moment of launch. While public record typically attributes the Scarab's development to Teledyne Ryan, the FAS file's catalogue entry records the builder as Northrop Grumman.
Wet Film Technology
There is a specific, tactile quality to the surveillance described in these files that we have largely lost in the era of digital streaming and satellite feeds. The Model 324 did not stream data in real-time; it carried physical hardware. The record lists the sensors as either the D-500 IRLS (Honeywell/LIRIS) or the KS-153A 24" FL Photo Camera. The file notes that both are "Wet Film Technology Systems."
This detail transforms the drone from a ghostly, remote presence into a courier of physical evidence. For a reconnaissance mission to be successful, the drone had to return, the film had to be recovered, and the chemicals had to do their work in a darkroom. The gaze of the state was not an instantaneous flick of a switch, but a process of capture, transport, and development. It was a physical harvest of images.
Public records clarify how this harvest was initiated. The Scarab was launched by a RATO booster—a rocket-assisted take-off—and recovered by parachute. It was a cycle of violent ascent and drifting descent, all to ensure that the wet film reached the analysts' desks. The FAS entry describes the craft as having "low-mounted, swept-back, and tapered" wings and a twin-fin tail, a shape optimized for the speed and distance required to peer into territories where a human pilot might be shot down or captured.
Document imagery from irp.fas.org From the files: irp.fas.org
Kom Oshim Air Base
The reach of the Model 324 was not theoretical. The FAS record places the unit at Kom Oshim Air Base, located 80 kilometers south of Cairo. From this coordinates, the 1,400-mile range of the Scarab allowed for a radius of surveillance that extended far beyond the borders of Egypt, turning the base into a hub for regional monitoring.
When a document describes a tool as "versatile," it is often a euphemism for a tool that can be applied to a wide variety of targets without the need for new equipment. In the context of "day and night reconnaissance," versatility means the ability to erase the sanctuary of darkness. Whether the target was a military installation or a civilian gathering, the Model 324 provided the Egyptian Air Force with a way to watch without being seen, operating at a ceiling and speed that rendered it a ghost to those on the ground.
This is the fundamental asymmetry of the UAV. The three-man crew operates the machine from the safety of a base, while the subjects of the photographs are unaware they are being recorded. The "consent" for this surveillance is, as always, non-existent. The subjects are not participants in the record; they are the data points of a "reconnaissance asset."
Document imagery from irp.fas.org From the files: irp.fas.org
Three Man Crew
Despite the autonomy of its pre-programmed guidance, the Model 324 remained tethered to human intent. The FAS record specifies that the system is "deployable and operable by a Three Man Crew." It also notes that while guidance is pre-programmed, a radio-control backup system is provided for when the program fails or the mission requirements shift in mid-flight.
This human element is where the responsibility for the gaze resides. The three men at the controls are the intermediaries between the state's desire for information and the physical act of capturing it. They are the ones who define the flight path and select the targets for the wet film cameras.
The FAS catalogue entry tells us that a total of 56 units were produced and delivered. It leaves us with a final, lingering statistic: as of November 1999, approximately 50 remained flight worthy. The record does not say what happened to the remaining six, nor does it describe the specific images captured by those wet film cameras during their years of service. It simply lists the capabilities of the machine and the location of its nest at Kom Oshim, leaving the actual history of its targets to be found in other, perhaps less accessible, files.