Heron-I Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

Why in news?

• The Army Aviation has recently got control of the Heron-I Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in the Eastern sector, which were earlier with the Artillery, bringing all aviation assets under one roof and augmenting its ability to keep an eye on Chinese activities across the border.

About Heron (Machatz 1) UAV:

• Heron (Machatz 1) is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) system primarily designed to perform strategic reconnaissance and surveillance operations.
• It is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) at its Malat division, Israel.
• The advanced system offers fully automated take-off and landing, even under adverse weather conditions.
• Flying at a height of 30,000ft, Heron provides its operators with real-time information on enemy battlefields by performing surveillance and target acquisition over large areas.
• It uses multiple sensors and satellite communication (SATCOM) for extended-range data capture and transfer.
• Initially, the Heron UAV was deployed by the Indian Air Force and was used for high-altitude land surveillance and maritime patrol missions.
• Later, Israeli and Turkish Air Forces acquired the UAV system for similar applications.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

What is ‘Heron-I’, sometimes seen in news?

(a) An American anti-missile system

(b) An unmanned aerial vehicle developed by Israel

(c) A supersonic cruise missile jointly developed by Russia and India

(d) An unmanned Chinese lunar-orbiting spacecraft

Answer