ATAC GLOBAL MAKES UAV DONATION TO RED ROCK SEARCH & RESCUE

Las Vegas, NV 01/21/2015 – Red Rock Search & Rescue receives UAV donation worth $8,000 from 

ATAC Global to be used to conduct emergency Search and Rescue operations across Southern Nevada. 

Red Rock Search and Rescue received an early Christmas present from their Las Vegas community 

partners, ATAC Global. Surprising Red Rock SAR, ATAC Global produced and donated a fully loaded 

UAV that the volunteer SAR team could utilize on missions and trainings. Red Rock Search and Rescue 

has been hoping to use drone technology since their founding in early 2012, but the all-volunteer team did 

not have the funding to procure a properly configured SAR drone. ATAC Global, recognizing and 

celebrating the team’s impact on Clark County came to their rescue, not only donating the drone package, 

but also offering their time and resources to ensure Red Rock SAR becomes proficient in the flying, use 

and utilization of the growing technology. Tom Clarke, President and Chairman of ATAC Global - “We at 

ATAC believe that UAVs can, and will, hugely impact first responders in expediting patient response and 

treatment. We also believe Red Rock Search and Rescue is the proper organization to establish that level 

of excellence not only for Nevada, but the entire nation.” ATAC Global COO Tony Portelli continues, 

“Any time you can create an advantage in a rescue you're increasing the chances of survival. The UAV 

does just that. We're just glad we were able to help out the community and Red Rock SAR.”

Dana Richardson, Co-Founder of Red Rock Search and Rescue says about the donation, “We’ve been 

testing the ATAC drone by recreating and flying old missions and trainings. We fly the grids and areas our 

Search Teams worked. We now know we can use drones to clear miles of terrain in minutes instead of 

hours. Search and Rescue is a race against time, and drones will give us a huge edge. This donation, and 

the technology, will save lives.” 

The drone not only allows Red Rock Search and Rescue to find their subjects faster, it also helps out their 

team of 150+ volunteers who pay for all their own gear and training. Richardson continues, “Besides 

finding their subject, nothing makes a searcher happier than hearing they don’t have to go hike and clear 

that big mountain in the distance.”

Red Rock Search and Rescue is an all volunteer, 501c(3) Search and Rescue organization serving all of 

Southern Nevada, California, Utah and Arizona. All of Red Rock Search & Rescue 150+ volunteers stand 

ready – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – to respond to disaster, and rescue and recover those in peril. 

For More Information, please contact Dana Richardson of Red Rock Search and Rescue at 702.530.3262 or 

Dana@RedRockSAR.org.

Executive Summary Dated January 31, 2015

Red Rock Search and Rescue conducted a mock search training exercise on Saturday, January 30th. The 

exercise included 55 members or Red Rock Search and Rescue. The exercise duration was approximately 

8 hours. The team was structured into two hasty search teams, 4 radio relay teams, 8 search teams and a 

designated drone team. The team was tasked with finding 3 missing people, two females and one male in a 

desert mountainous terrain. This scenario and training was the first operational use of the RRSAR SAR 

drone during a search. Using drone technology RRSAR discovered they were able to locate a victim from 

the air, much faster than on foot, and also provide important terrain and environment details to ground 

teams, expediting team movement, command decisions and overall safety. 

Goals 

- Find the missing subjects, and return them to safety.
- Utilize drone technology to expedite RRSARs mission and increase rescuer safety.

Drone Lessons Learned

• In open desert, the drone was able to spot a victim much faster and clearer than ground 

teams. RRSAR drone was able to successfully locate one of the missing subjects and provide a 

direct location to deployed ground team. When ground team arrived on scene they found the 

subject supine in some sage brush. This subject was found in approximately 20 minutes by a pilot 

and spotter. Estimates for subject found via ground search teams would have taken 4-6 searchers 

approximately 2-3 hours.

• Using the FPV feature of the drone, RRSAR determined much value in having both a pilot and a 

spotter. The pilot can focus on the direct flight path of the drone while their spotters can watch the 

surrounding terrain for areas of interest. In this setup, 2 SAR members proved they can clear 

miles of search terrain in minutes. 

• Using the FPV feature of the drone, a drone team was able to clear or identify terrain of interest

within 1Km of it’s pilot and spotter. This was invaluable in areas lacking maps to recommend 

movement options to team leaders and on scene command staff.

• Drone battery is an issue without a significant recharging source nearby. RRSAR has 3 batteries 

they were able to successfully keep charged with vehicle battery inverters. Due to real life 

scenarios involving subjects miles away from a potential charging source, RRSAR will need to 

acquire additional batteries or a back-country charging solution if wishing to use drone 

technology.

• While flying the drone via FPV it is extremely helpful to have a terrain point of reference.

• Noticeable affect on morale was seen from ground teams knowing they had additional search 

support from a drone.

Conclusion

Overall, RRSAR saw substantial impact in utilizing drone technology to support its ground search 

capabilities. With the safety and cost concerns associated with using full sized air resources, drone 

technology proved both to be a extremely cost effective, fast, safe and impactful for this mission. In this 

particular scenario, the drone was not only successful in locating a victim, but also was able to dualpurpose as a recon tool providing extremely important information to planning and operational 

staff. RRSAR feels this would be the case for future missions as well, and would strongly recommend it to 

nationwide search teams.