Swiss Army Selects Israeli Drone

Swiss Army Selects Israeli Drone

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

Unmanned systems 2014 – Elbit systems will supply the new generation of UAS to the Swiss armed forces that have so far operated UAS developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

Photo: Tal Inbar
Photo: Tal Inbar

The ADS 95 Ranger UAS which the Swiss Armed Forces have been operating since 2001, will be replaced by 2020. The choice of the new model provides the basis for the dispatch on procurement.

Under the 2015 arms procurement programme, efforts are in progress to replace the current UAS system, which is reaching the end of its life cycle. In order to ensure its replacement in good time, the new model has been chosen, which allows the dispatch on procurement to be drawn up.

The model that has been chosen is the “Hermes 900 HFE”, manufactured by the Israeli Elbit Systems company. It is an unarmed reconnaissance drone system, which has been preferred to its competitor “Super Heron” built by Israel Aerospace Industries. The Hermes 900 HFE has been favored because it delivered the better overall result in all assessed criteria. In the pre-evaluation, these two UAS systems were the best in meeting the requirements.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

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The Hermes 900 HFE system is an all-weather unarmed reconnaissance drone system that is more flexible, has longer endurance in the air and a wider operational range than the system currently in use.

The new UAS are unarmed. Currently, combat drones are not an option for the DDPS. The decision to procure the new reconnaissance drone system , which will cost around 250 million francs, will most probably be submitted for approval to Parliament with the 2015 armaments programme.