Thales cuurently provides the British Army in Afghanistan with "ISTAR by the hour" (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) with a fleet of Elbit Hermes 450s based at Camp Bastion (pictured above)
This fleet will be replaced by the Watchkeeper WK450 later this year. The WK450 which first flew in April will provide some interesting new capabilities - strengthened wing, rugged undercarraige and deicing. The WK450 which is fully net-enabled has a 16-18 hour endurance and is fully autonomous. Payload options will be significantly improved.
In-theatre UAVs are proving to be very important but the capabilities of strategic and tactical UAVs are beginning to merge. Should all UAV assets and capablities be combined into a single joint force managed from a single base in the UK ?
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