Israel wants more Hermes 900s
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has said that it expects to receive additional Hermes 900 UAS in 2017 as the fleet moves toward Full Operational Capability (FOC).
The exact number of new systems to be acquired has not been specified.
Known as Kochav in Israeli service, the Hermes 900 has been operational with the IAF since July 2014 when it undertook missions for operation Protective Edge over the Gaza strip. Since then the aircraft have completed hundreds of flight hours and shown an ‘extremely high’ success rate.
Lt Col Daniel, the commander of the UAV Squadron that operates Kochav, said: ‘The Kochav will revolutionize the world of UAVs. The platform is a base for many operational technological abilities that will be integrated and immigrate from manned to unmanned platforms.
‘We are widely occupied with the technological capabilities of UAVs. We are proceeding steadily and we recently broke the aircraft's endurance record and reached a number of hours that even the manufacturer couldn't reach.’
Manufactured by Elbit Systems, Kochav has a payload capacity of a 350kg and is designed to be able to carry a number of payloads on hardpoints under the wings. Its endurance abilities allow it to perform very lengthy, long range missions during a single sortie.
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