Airbus offers SIGINT add-on for German Heron TP UAS

Airbus is providing the German armed forces with a Heron TP capability that it now proposes to upgrade with a SIGINT package. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

Airbus Defence and Space (DS) has outlined a signals intelligence (SIGINT) capability option for the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Heron TP unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) provided to the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) under a service-level agreement.

Addressing the Association of Old Crows (AOC) Europe 2023 conference in Bonn on 16 May, Stefan Loebel, responsible for sales and business development in Airbus DS Airborne Solutions, said that the company was pitching an off-the-shelf IAI Elta SIGINT solution as a potential extension to its existing scope of delivery. Such a capability could fill a SIGINT gap prior to the arrival of the new Persistent German Airborne Surveillance System (Pegasus) capability in 2027.