Sensors - Wescam

The 54 Watchkeepers for the British
Army are to be built in Britain by the
Elbit/Thales joint venture U-Tacs, in
which Elbit owns a 51% share. The aircraft
had its maiden flight, which lasted
20 minutes, on 14 April 2010 at Parc -
Aberporth – three years after the signature
of the acquisition contract. On the
occasion of this event, Thales UK’s Alex
Dorian said, «2010 is an important year
for the programme as it will also see the
opening of the Watchkeeper training
facility based in Larkhill, and the continuation
of the technical field trials at Parc -
Aberporth». In the wake of this
announcement, Elbit also disclosed that
it had been awarded a $ 70 million contract
to provide logistic support to the
programme over the next three years.
The Watchkeeper is expected to be
weaponised at a later stage, possibly with
the 13-kg Thales LMM Missile. (See
video: www.armada.ch/watchkeeper.)
Hermes 900: One of Elbit’s recent developments
is the 1100-kg Hermes 900,
which first flew on 14 December 2009. It
can carry a 300-kg payload including a
Sar/MTI radar, and has a maximum
endurance of 36 hours.
Hermes 90: The 195-kg Hermes 180 is no
longer the lightest of the Hermes series,
the 85-kg Hermes 90 having been unveiled
at the 2009 Paris Air Show, and flown on 29
September 2009. It forms the basis for the
Storm contender for the US Navy-US
Marine Corps Stuas/Tier II system. The
Storm is promoted by UAS Dynamics, a
joint venture by Elbit Systems of America
Northrop Grumman
has purchased rights
to the Swift
Engineering Killer Bee
4 and renamed it Bat.
Two are shown in
their transport crate.
The design is licensed
to Raytheon for
Stuas/Tier II.
(Northrop Grumman)
and General Dynamics. Reports indicate
that Elbit is also studying a maritime
patrol project in the 2500 kg class, to bridge
the gap to the IAI Heron series.
Aerostar: In a lighter category, the Aeronautics
Defense Systems Aerostar has
recently been selected by Poland for use
in Afghanistan. Other users include
Israel, Angola and the US Navy.
unveiled in 2009, has already been sold to
the German Army and Indian Air Force.
Whereas the Harpy used only passive
radiation homing, the Harop adds an
EO/IR (electro-optical/infrared) sensor
to allow it to be remotely controlled if the
emitter is switched off.
Other Males
It evidently riles many nations that, if
they need a simple ISR Male drone, they
have to import from General Atomics,
IAI or Elbit Systems. To rectify this situation,
several are attempting to develop
their own sensor platforms in the 750 to
1500 kg class.
Examples include (in order of reducing
size) China’s 1500-kg CAC Wing Loong
and BZK-005, Turkey’s 1500-kg TAI Tiha-
A, America’s 1360-kg L-3 Geneva Aerospace
Mobius, Abu Dhabi’s 1250-kg Yabhon
RX-18 and 955-kg Smart Eye (which
is reported to be in production for a foreign
customer), France’s 1050-kg Sagem
Trials of the Aerosonde Mk 4.7 have included automated launches from and
recoveries to the 27-metre M80 Stiletto technology demonstrator, designed and built
by M Ship of San Diego, California. (AAI)
Israel has also been a leader in the
development of loitering, expendable
anti-radar attack drones. Aside from local
use, the 135-kg IAI Harpy has been sold
to Chile, China, India, South Korea and
Turkey. The Harop development with a
23-kg warhead and six-hour endurance,
Patroller (q.v), South Africa’s 1000-kg
Denel Dynamics Bataleur, Britain’s 750-
kg BAE Systems Herti.
India’s DRDO (Defence Research &
Development Organisation) 1800-kg
Rustom is intended to replace the Heron
in Indian service. However, the 20-metre-
With its ability to deliver two 81-mm bombs, the Arcturus T-20 currently being tested by the US Marine Corps and the Navy is de facto
a combat drone. (Arcturus)
26 armada Compendium Drones 2010