Advertisement

IAI’s Heron-TP
(click to view full)

Germany has just added itself to the list of countries leasing UAV services for the Afghan conflict, by signing a contract with Rheinmetall Defense and their partners at Israel Aerospace Industries to provide an unspecified number of Heron UAVs as the SAATEG (System zur Abbildenden Aufklarung in der Tiefe des Einsatzgebietes). Rheinmetall’s KZO tactical UAV began operating in Afghanistan in 2009, but the Heron is a larger UAV with much better endurance and payload. The “multi-million Euro” contract will see the Bundeswehr lease the UAV system and support from Rheinmetall for 1 year, with an option for a 2 year-extension. Flight operations will commence by mid March 2010, backed by an in-theater 24/7 maintenance and support center. Rheinmetall | IAI.

At least one article [in German] claims that negative experiences with American weapons export bureaucracies and laws shifted the competition away from the MQ-9 Reaper, undermining trust that the Aug 1/08 German DSCA request would result in UAVs that were available on time for the Afghanistan deployment. It remains to be seen whether the Herons end up serving as an interim bridge to future systems like the Franco-German-Italian Talarion, or an MQ-9 order follows later.

Meanwhile, different IAI Heron variants are serving in Afghanistan, with the Canadians and Australians leasing Heron-1 UAVs operated by MDA, while France fields a larger “SIDM” Heron TP variant that’s built and maintained by EADS. The pictures put forward in the Rheinmetall and IAI releases suggest that the German system will be IAI’s Heron TP. It will join other leased UAVs in theater with Australia (Heron-1, Boeing’s ScanEagle), Britain (Elbit Systems’ Hermes 450), Canada (Heron-1, ScanEagle), and the Netherlands (Aeronautics DS’ Aerostar).