Dubbed the German Heron TP (GHTP) in Luftwaffe service, the Israeli-made, turboprop-driven unmanned aircraft (92+52) – which is configured to carry both weapons and intelligence-gathering sensors and equipment – took flight from the type’s future home at Schleswig Air Base in Jagel, northern Germany, under the control of two specially trained pilots on the ground. This milestone flight comes after the type was awarded a type certificate with global validity by the German Military Aviation Authority in late 2022, while the platform was being operated from an undisclosed location in Israel.
With Airbus Defence and Space serving as the lead contractor for the GHTP programme, Germany leased five Heron TPs from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in a deal worth $600m in June 2018. The nine-year contract aims to bridge the gap between the retirement of the Luftwaffe’s earlier Heron 1 fleet – which conducted several deployments to Afghanistan and Mali – at the start of this decade and the introduction of Airbus’ Eurodrone MALE UAV in 2030. The current lease is expected to end in 2027 but includes an option to extend the period by a maximum of three more years.
