Hermes 450 UAV of the Royal Thai Army (photos : Sompong Nondhasa)
21st Aviation Battalion, Royal Thai Air Force Aviation Center Lopburi Province It is an aircraft unit of the Royal Thai Army (RTA) with the unit upright is unmanned aerial vehicle battalion which is a unit that operates with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of the Royal Thai Army.
21st Airborne Battalion Army Aviation Center have four Searcher Mk II tactical unmanned aerial vehicles originally supplied by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in the 1990s for an estimated $12 million (about 300 million baht at the time) had begun to be of service for a long time.
The Royal Thai Army has ordered the acquisition of the Hermes 450 unmanned aerial vehicle from Elbit Systems, Israel, costing approximately 900 million baht ($30 million) in the year 2017 by being used in many missions such as targeting, ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), and mapping including disaster relief for the people, including forest fire and air flood monitoring.
In addition to being used by the Israeli Air Force, the Hermes 450 UAV has been successfully supplied from many countries around the world, including Singapore, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, North Macedonia, Botswana, and Zambia.
It was procured for testing by the US Department of Defense. It is the basis for the development of the British Army's Thales Watchkeeper WK450 unmanned aircraft.
The Royal Thai Army is also trying to develop its unmanned aerial vehicle system capabilities. This includes the D-eyes 04 medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicle system research and development project for the Royal Thai Army Aviation Center between the Army Research and Development Office (ARDO) Royal Thai Army and Defense Technology Institute (DTI) in collaboration with Beihang UAS Technology Co.,LTD, People's Republic of China.
Some Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles reportedly include the Hermes 450, Hermes 900 and Heron TP has the ability to armed attacks.
Although the exported Hermes 450 UAVs, including those of the Royal Thai Army, currently do not have this capability. But from the release of data on the DTI DTI D-eyes 04 unmanned aerial vehicle prototype that is currently being built, the capability of using an air-to-surface missile system is also mentioned.
(AAG)