Indian Army to acquire Israeli Heron UAVs mid 2007
Dated 4/10/2006
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Israel will start delivering the Heron aircraft, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to the Indian Army, by the end of this year which will be fully functional by mid next year. The Heron deal was concluded at US $ 220 m in January this year.
Herons with their range of 250 kilometres and their ceiling capacity of 30,000 feet above sea level are being preferred for their proficiency over the currently in use Searcher Mark-IIs which have a range of 200 kilometres and a ceiling capacity of 20,000 feet. Already functional in the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Herons are considered quite successful.
The first consignment of the Herons that the Indian army is due to acquire is 16, eight each for 14 and 15 corps based in Jammu and Kashmir. The Srinagar based 15 corps will initially get four Herons and the rest four later. They are expected to operate from Manasbal and the Avantipore based Victor Force. As part of infrastructural developments, there is a proposal to build an approximately 2 kilometre long runway in Manasbal and in Avantipore, for which work is already underway. In Leh the Herons will operate from the IAF runway, as having a new runway in the Kargil based 14 corps is not feasible.
Some of the UAVs will also be deployed in the western sector, where they will operate from the IAF runways. According to sources, the Searcher Mark-IIs stationed in the Bhatinda based 10 corps find it difficult to operate in the Bikaner based Mahajan Field Firing Ranges, owing to long distances.
The Herons are huge birds with a distance of 17 meters between the wings, fuselage being 8.5 m in length and the machine standing at four feet from the ground.