Airbus will replicate its Afghanistan Heron 1 operational model in Mali for the German Ministry of Defense, starting from this November.
Photo: Airbus
The German military has taken over responsibility for the intelligence unit in Mali from the Netherlands. Due to the current threat scenarios and the size of the area of operations, Berlin has determined that a long endurance surveillance system is required to support the operations there. Therefore, the Heron 1 will be deployed to the region.
Although leased from IAI and operated by Airbus, military missions will be also in future flown solely by military personnel.