Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) invites visitors, exhibitors and guests of this year’s EuroNaval International Naval Defense and Maritime exhibition and Conference, to a live Maritime Heron Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) demonstration.

During the exhibition, IAI crew will operate a Heron UAS in a maritime application over Israel, and transmit the sensor outputs realtime to a dedicated conference room close to the IAI booth at the exhibition (Booth #F82/F84).

Throughout the demonstration, the spectators will be able to interact with the ground control station in Israel and focus on their specific needs and requests.

The objective of the operation is to demonstrate a typical maritime mission process from detection to identification using the specific sensors on the Heron UAS, which are routinely employed to detect potential targets, typically for monitoring anti-smuggling and other illegal operations in both the ground and maritime arenas. Some of the payloads operating on the Heron UAS, are IAI’s Tamam Division Multi-mission Optronic Stabilized Payload (MOSP), and ELTA’s Maritime Patrol Radar (MPR) named ELM- 2022 and the Automatic Identification System (AIS).

IAI’s Heron is a Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) UAS having a wingspan of 16.6 meters and a takeoff weight of 1,250 kg. It can reach an altitude of 30,000 feet and has an endurance of up to 40 hours (depending on the mission and payload configuration). Heron is a multi-mission UAS able to carry a wide variety of sensors, and can operate at least five different payloads simultaneously, to provide real-time information over a wide area for extended periods of time.

The Heron UAS supplies precise ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance). Its ability to perform Automatic Takeoff and Landing (ATOL) allows for full operational activity under difficult weather conditions.

The Heron UAS is in operational use with over 18 customers worldwide including the Brazilian Federal Police. Its impressive capabilities for monitoring anti-smuggling and other illegal activities have been demonstrated to the Australian Customs and the Spanish Guardia Civil.

IAI press release