Israel’s Heron drone completes first successful mission in Mali
Germany is using the drone as part of its role in UN peacekeeping force.
GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER Ursula von der Leyen is received with a guard of honor of Malian soldiers as she visits the EU training mission in Koulikoro, Mali, in April.. (photo credit:REUTERS)
Germany has successfully carried out its first successful operational mission in Mali using the Israeli-made Heron 1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The mission took place on November 1 and lasted five hours and 40 minutes.
As part of its role in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, Germany signed a $100 million deal with Airbus Defense and Space to lease 3 Israeli- made Heron drones in July.
“The first flight is an important step to obtain the declaration of full operational capability,” Airbus said in a statement.
Speaking to
The Jerusalem Post, a spokeswoman for Israel’s Aerospace Industries said the contract for the Heron 1 UAVs will last from November to February 2018, when Germany plans to lease the larger and more advanced Heron TP UAVs in a $650m. contract.
The Heron TPs are IAI’s most advanced UAVs.
Germany is currently in charge of the intelligence unit in Mali, taking over from the Netherlands in July. It operates the UAVs to secure the perimeter of the United Nations MINUSMA (Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) as well as to obtain intelligence concerning various terrorist groups in the northeastern Gao region.
French and Malian forces drove al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and other terrorist groups out of Timbuktu over three years ago, leading the Islamists to establish a base of operations in the vast arid north of the country bordering Mauritania and Algeria.
This year has been deadly for MINUSMA, with over 30 troops killed, more than in any other UN peacekeeping mission.
The Heron 1 is a medium-altitude and long-term endurance craft. Equipped with satellite data-link and electro-optical infrared sensors, it is able to not only provide reconnaissance to ground forces, but is also able to track down explosives from the air.
And while the upkeep of the UAVs will be done by Airbus, the analysis of the intelligence gathered by the Heron 1 will be done by German forces. In their statement, Airbus said all “reconnaissance results are made available to the joint evaluation center of the MINUSMA Mission, contributing to increased security for all employees involved.”
Other Heron I systems are already in use in Mali, including those operated by the French Air Force, which has been flying the Harfang, a variant of the Heron 1, since the beginning of the UN mission in January 2013.
MINUSMA has also signed a contract with Thales UK to operate Israeli-made Elbit Hermes 900s, which has a maximum payload of 350 kg. and is able to stay airborne for 36 hours.
The Hermes was used extensively during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014 as well as during the 2015 World Cup in Brazil.
And while the Israeli-made UAVs in Mali will be used solely for surveillance and intelligence gathering, a video released in April reportedly showed the Israeli-made Herop suicide UAV hitting a bus carrying Armenian soldiers in the conflict ridden Nagorno-Karabakh region, killing seven. The Azerbaijan army was using the UAV against the Armenians last spring during a few weeks of intense fighting.
According to foreign media reports, Israel is considered a leading exporter of drones, with IAI and Elbit selling UAVs to countries including Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Mexico and Singapore.
A spokeswoman for IAI told the
Post the company has more than 30 clients around the globe, including Australia and South Korea.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Is...letes-first-successful-mission-in-Mali-471961
Israel's unmanned combat aerial vehicles ambiguity
Israel operates more than 100 unmanned aerial vehicles and exports drones around the world, including a deal to lease several such aircraft to Germany. But it consistently refuses to divulge details about missions carried out by its UAVs.
Gili Cohen Oct 22, 2016 6:26 PM
Screenshot of footage from an Israeli drone, hacked by U.S. and U.K. intelligence.
Screenshot from The Intercept
The Defense Ministry has posted an English-language clip on its official YouTube page showing the Hermes 450 drone taking off and cruising in the air, as well as photos of bombardments.
The film details the distance of the Elbit-made medium size UAV, the number of hours it can fly and its range.
One detail is missing – according to foreign media, the Hermes 450 can carry missiles and launch them from the air.
A hint of this can be found in the Defense Minister’s site, boasting that Israel is a superpower in the drone industry.
“In recent years the UAV industry has grown rapidly, following the increased number of missions and their complex character – reconnaissance, surveillance, assisting infantry forces, attack, defense, etc.,” the site says.
It also says that drones “are capable of staying a long time in the air, carrying hundreds of kilograms and have an extended range.”
The American administration, which frequently uses UAVs to attack targets throughout the world, has been blasted for using them as means of extrajudicial execution. Over time President Barack Obama has reduced the use of drones and instructed to issue regulations for their use.
In July the White House said that since Obama took office in 2009 the United States has carried out 473 sorties, most of them by drones, killing 2,372 - 2,581 “terrorist combatants.”
The strikes also killed 64-116 civilians, the statement says, but the figures don’t include the civilians killed in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, where, according to human rights organizations, the number is much higher, reaching into the several hundreds.
Israel consistently refuses to give details of the missions carried out by the drones it manufactures and operates. This week the IDF refused a request of human rights activists to expose its regulations for operating drones in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
An Hermes 450 drone produced by Elbit. Dave Kolpack, AP
When the Israeli Air Force strikes in Gaza, the military spokesman reports that the strike was carried out by an “aircraft” without elaborating.
Israel has more than 100 drones, which are estimated to take up about 70 percent of the air force’s flying time.
Reports of Israeli drone attacks started a decade ago. In 2006 Aviation Week reported that in the Second Lebanon War Israel used Hermes 450 drones for attacks.
The British army developed the Watchkeeper drone in 2014, on the basis of the Israeli drone. That year the Israeli Air Force site said “although this isn’t an attack drone, the British artillery unit can arm it in the future.”
Elbit’s partner in the Watchkeeper project, Thales, had already presented the remotely piloted air vehicle carrying two missiles under its wings at the London arms fair (called the Defense and Security Equipment International).
The Intercept news site reported that the American and British intelligence services followed the Israeli drones’ activity and documented them armed with missiles.
Over the years more evidence of the drones accumulated. Wikileaks reported in 2011 that Israel uses drones to attack terror activists in Gaza and the Economist reported that senior Hamas official Ahmad Jabari, who was assassinated at the start of the 2012 Israel-Gaza war, was attacked by a Hermes 450 drone.
An unmanned Heron drone flies over Ein Shemer Airfield in 2012.Alon Ron
Palestinian investigator Dr. Atef Abu Seif, whose findings were published in Haaretz in 2014, found that in the 2012 and 2014 Israel-Gaza wars drones carried out more than 100 sorties, killing more than 120 civilians, including some 30 children. Another report attributed the bombing of arms smuggling convoys in Sudan to an Israeli drone.
Israeli companies, mainly Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit, sold drones in recent years to a number of countries. In Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, an Israeli Harop drone – something between a UAV and a missile - was seen carrying out an attack.
An Azerbaijani Israeli-made suicide drone allegedly on a mission in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
In official arms exhibitions overseas customers are offered another model of this drone – Harpy - which was reportedly purchased by India.
Last year when it was learned that India approved buying Israeli Heron TP UAVs, they were reported to be armed.
This was one of the reasons that Germany chose this model, dubbed Eitan in Israel, as part of a giant deal with Israel.
At the beginning of the year the German ministry of defense said it would lease three to five Heron TP drones, as part of an estimated 580 million euro deal. German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said the drone could be armed and said it was “important for the soldiers’ defense.”
The agreement between Israel and Germany is unusual, as the leased drones will be dispatched in Israel, according to German media reports.
A defense source said the German drone operators practiced on a simulator in an Air Force base.
Meanwhile, the German army has encountered a legal obstacle in operating the drones. The Aerospace Industry’s main competitor, General Atomics, which manufactures Predator B, has sued the German defense ministry for preferring the Israeli drone.
According to Israeli officials the deal is proceeding as normal.
Recently, at the Air Force’s request, the drones are now referred to as remotely piloted aerial vehicles, rather than “unmanned,” to stress the human involvement in making and carrying out decisions.
“Ultimately someone has to do it,” says an officer. “It was important to us, both for the motivation and the responsibility, to make it clear that it’s no different from someone sitting in a cockpit. The question is who decides what to do.
"This person is the drone’s operator, who was trained for it ethically and professionally and understands the significance of what he does. It makes him think twice about it,” the officer said.
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