Tel Aviv. In the presence of German air force personnel, the Heron TP UAV made by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and leased to Germany performed a first flight over Israel last week.
The Heron TP is the largest UAV developed by IAI.
The strategic UAV was modified according to the needs and requirements of the Federal Ministry of Defence, Germany. It is the result of a joint programme led by the UAV Executive Office in the Directorate of Defence Research and Development (DDR&D) of the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMoD), Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and Airbus DS Airborne Solutions, an Airbus Group company.
The agreement between the respective ministries was signed in June 2018. It outlines the leasing of a number of UAVs as well as maintenance and training services. As such, German air force personnel are training together with their Israeli counterparts in an Israeli Air Force (IAF) base in central Israel.
In the last two years, German crews have been instructed on the operation of the Heron TP in the IAF Heron TP squadron in the Tel Nof Airbase.
Preparations are underway to start the training of the German crews that will operate the Heron TP Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) that Germany will lease from Israel aerospace industries.
The contract is for the lease of seven Heron TP UAVs. These are intended to support German operations in Africa and Asia.
The UAVs have been leased for a period of nine years and are capable of carrying “unique air-to-ground missiles,” according to German sources.
According to the German Defence Ministry, these weapons are capable of aborting their trajectory towards the target to avert a civilian hurt.
The arming of the MALE UAV was in the heart of the internal debate in Germany before the deal was approved.
German sources said that during the negotiations “several options to use Israeli developed weapons have been evaluated.”
At this point in time there is no decision to arm the UAV.
In the first two years of the deal, the UAV will be operated from the Tel Nof air force base to assist the German military operating in Afghanistan and Mali.
The IAI Heron TP is a multi-role, advanced, long range Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAS for strategic missions. It is equipped with automatic taxi-take off and landing systems (ATOL), satellite communication (SATCOM) for extended range, fully redundant avionics and more.
The Heron TP was designed as a multi-mission platform to address local and international customers’ needs and to perform a variety of strategic missions, including intelligence gathering, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance using various payloads with a high level of reliability.
It is 14 metres long, has a wing span of 26 metres and a maximum weight of 5670 kg. Heron TP can carry a payload weighing 2700 kg. With a maximum ceiling of 45,000 feet, its maximum speed is 220 knots having an endurance of 30 hours.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
