Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has signed an agreement with Ministry of Defense of India for the sale of 50 Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for $500 million U.S. dollars, according the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The Heron Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) takes off from the Comalapa airport runway during a counter drug support mission May 21. (Picture source Wikipedia)
In July 2018, the government of India had approved the purchase of 10 Heron drones from Israel. These drones will be operated by the Indian Air Force
The IAI Heron (Israeli name Machatz-1) is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by the Malat (UAV) division of Israel Aerospace Industries. It is capable of Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) operations of up to 52 hours' duration at up to 10.5 km.
The Heron UAV is designed to perform different types of operations, even under adverse weather conditions. It uses multiple sensors and satellite communication (SATCOM) for extended-range data capture and transfer. Its features include state-of-the-art avionics, retractable landing gear, along with automatic take-off and landing systems.
The Heron UAV is powered by a single Rotax 914 turbo aircraft engine. It was manufactured by Austria’s leading aircraft engine supplier BRP-Rotax. The engine has the capacity to produce 85.79kW of output power.
The Heron UAV can fly at a maximum speed of 207 km/h at a maximum altitude of 30,000ft and range of 350 km
