German Heron UAS hits operational milestone
The Heron UAS operated Airbus Defence and Space and the German Air Force in Afghanistan has reached an operational milestone having chalked up 25,000 flight hours in the country.
The Heron UAS is used to perform intelligence and reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan in support of the German armed forces’ ‘Resolute Support’ mission.
The UAS uses its satellite data link to perform round-the-clock monitoring of a 300,000 square km region in Northern Afghanistan, transmitting real-time video feed back to base and providing overwatch for soldiers and civilians on the ground.
The milestone flight hour was reached during the aircraft’s 410th flight of the year on 16 November 2015.
Ralf Hastedt, head of sales, airborne solutions, Airbus Defence and Space, said: ‘With this system the Luftwaffe is performing leading services in comparison to other nations. A great number of operators and maintenance personnel both from the Luftwaffe and industry have now been trained to use this UAS, and the experience we have gained on a national scale will certainly prove useful for other mission and when using future MALE UAS.’
Airbus Defence and Space is responsible for operating the systems and guarantees the operational readiness of Heron 1 in Afghanistan as agreed on the basis of an operator model.
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