IAI Heron TP
Country: 
IsraelManufacturer: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
Strategic successor to the Shoval: HALE-class drone with a 26-meter wingspan, nearly 3-tonne payload capacity and a dual-use ISR/strike role.
Strategic successor to the Shoval: HALE-class drone with a 26-meter wingspan, nearly 3-tonne payload capacity and a dual-use ISR/strike role.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- IAI Heron TP
- Alias
- Eitan / Machatz-2
- Manufacturer
- Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
- Country
- Israel
- Year
- 2010
- Category
- UCAV (Combat UAV)
- Class
- HALE (High-altitude / long-endurance)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 7400 km
- Endurance
- 36 h
- Top speed
- 407 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 13,700 m
- Propulsion
- Turboprop PT6A-67A, 1200 hp
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 5400 kg
- Payload
- 2700 kg
- Hardpoints
- 4
- Weapons
- Bombe a guida laser, missili aria-superficie (configurazione non confermata)
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- EO/IR a lunga portata, SAR/GMTI, ELINT/SIGINT, radar marittimo
- Datalink / control
- SATCOM BLOS multi-banda
- Launch
- Pista (decollo automatico)
- Recovery
- Pista (atterraggio automatico)
Combat use
- ▸Gaza operations
- ▸Long-range strategic missions (alleged, beyond 1000 km)
- ▸Operation Pillar of Defense (Gaza 2012)
- ▸Long-range strategic missions (alleged, beyond 1000 km in Iran and Sudan)
- ▸Operation Swords of Iron, Gaza (2023-2024)
- ▸Bundeswehr armed program in Mali and for national training (2018-present)
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Main operators
History
Designed to extend the endurance and payload of the Shoval, the Eitan has a wingspan comparable to a Boeing 737 and can stay airborne over 36 hours with heavy loads.
Officially commissioned in 2010 with the IAF's 210th 'White Eagle' Squadron, it was Israel's first strategic UAV. In 2018 Germany began leasing nine units through Airbus.
The IAI Heron TP was developed as a strategic answer to the US MQ-9 Reaper program, but with a different philosophy: maximize endurance (over 30 hours) and payload (2.7 tonnes) over pure strike capability, for long-range strategic surveillance missions.
In 2018 Germany, through Airbus Defence and Space, started leasing 9 Heron TPs for roughly EUR 1 billion: the first armed UAV program in Luftwaffe history, which sparked a heated political debate in the Bundestag.
According to open sources, the Heron TP is one of the very few UAVs in the world with experimentally tested air-to-air refuelling capability and with potential anti-ballistic missions, thanks to its 26-metre wingspan and operating altitude above 13,000 metres.