Thales' Hermes UAVs fly more than 30,000 hours
The UK Hermes 450 (H-450) fleet of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) have now flown more than 30,000 operational hours over 2000 sorties and is providing the lions' share of airborne ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) supporting UK forces in current operations
Thales UK's ISTAR service-provision contract began in July 2007 in response to an Urgent Operational Requirement (UoR) contract issued by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), and will run through to contract completion in October 2010 which could potentially be extended until April 2011 when the H-450s will be phased out as the newly developed Watchkeeper unmanned air system (UAS) delivers frontline capability.
