The German Federal Ministry of Defense and the Airbus Defence and Space have signed an agreement to operate Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI) Heron 1 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Mali, both Airbus and IAI announced on 21 July.
The medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAVs will be leased from IAI by Germany and operated by Airbus in the same way as the Heron 1s that have supported Bundeswehr deployments to Afghanistan.
The UAVs will be used to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities for the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The Bundeswehr took over responsibility for MINUSMA’s intelligence unit from the Armed Forces of the Netherlands on 1 July.
IAI said the Heron 1s are expected to begin operations in Mali in November and continue until February 2018. The Bundeswehr plans to start leasing three next-generation Heron TP UAVs from 2018 until a European replacement becomes available.
“The current threat scenarios and the size of the area of operations – the north of Mali is more than twice the size of Germany – require a long endurance surveillance system,” Airbus said. It added that Germany’s selection of the Heron 1 was “natural, in light of the successful operations and experience that were amassed during more than 2,300 missions and 27,000 flight hours conducted by the Heron for the German Air Force in Afghanistan.”
IAI Corporate Vice President Shaul Shahar, who is also general manager of IAI’s Military Aircraft Group, said, “We are proud to continue to provide an excellent operational solution to a client in Germany and pleased to continue the successful co-operation with Airbus.”
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