Canada, Australia Contract for Heron UAVs
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Israel Aerospace Industries’ Heron is a large MALE UAV in the MQ-1 Predator’s Class. It is primarily used as a surveillance UAV over land and sea, and can be equipped with a number of modular radar, sensor, and even electronic intelligence packages. The 2006 war in Lebanon also demonstrated that they could be armed, if necessary. Herons are known to serve with Israel (Heron 1 and Heron TP), India, Turkey, and in France as the SIDM/EAGLE EuroMALE variant. They have also been used successfully by US SOUTHCOM as drug interdiction aircraft; a leasing deal with El Salvador is reportedly pending, and Brazil is also showing interest.
Canada has a long-term JUSTAS program that includes UAVs in this class, and the Heron will fill the Phase 1 near-term MALE UAV requirements – but the longer-term procurement choices will not be made until Phase 2. Meanwhile, the Heron UAV have begun serving Canada in Afghanistan, under an August 2008 arrangement. Now Australia has joined this effort…
Contracts & Key Events
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The Ardea partnership that supplies and operates these UAVs for Canada and Australia parallels Britain’s interim lease of Hermes 450 UAVs from the UTaCS consortium of Thales UK and Elbit Systems. The Heron lease involves Elbit’s Israeli rival IAI, and Canadian surveillance & aerospace firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA).
Sept 7/09: Australia’s government will lease Heron UAVs and support from MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., for use in Afghanistan. The surveillance solution will be operational in early 2010 for a period of 1 year, with options for an additional 2 years. Australia already leases smaller ScanEagle UAVs from Boeing, in a similar arrangement.
For the Herons, the Australian Defence Force has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Canadian Forces, and Australian personnel trained in Canada have already been absorbed within the Canadian Heron UAV Detachment at Kandahar airfield, conducting combat operations in support of ISAF’s Afghan mission. Australian Ministerial release | MDA release.
July 2009: Royal Australian Air Force and Australian Army personnel undertake Heron UAV training in Canada. Source.
Aug 7/08: MDA announces the “Project Noctua” Canadian contract, adding that its surveillance solution will be operational in Afghanistan before February 2009. The initial C$ 95 million (about $90 million) UAV operations and training contract will keep the Herons in service until early 2011, with a C$ 35 million option for an additional 3rd year. MDA release.
July 10/08: MDA and IAI are promoting the Heron UAVs as a cheaper option for search-and rescue (SAR) and related surveillance tasks over Canada’s boreal forests and northern regions. An exercise in Suffield, Alberta involves the Heron UAV finding the wreckage of a ‘crashed’ Cessna, and coordinating the ‘rescue’ of Canadian MP Art Hangar. The Canadian Civil Air Search and Rescue Association attended and commented approvingly, and the Discovery Channel filmed the exercise. MDA release | Red Deer Advocate story, PDFs.
