Elbit Systems announced Sunday that it was awarded two contracts valued at a total of approximately $20 million from Latin American customers to upgrade the capabilities of their Hermes 900 unmanned aircraft systems. Both contracts will be performed within a 12-month period.
Under the contracts, the defense electronics giant will integrate satellite communication systems and automatic takeoff and landing systems into the Hermes 900 that the customers are already operating.
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This upgrade will advance these Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAS to the latest configuration, enabling extension of the operational range to more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) and performing the takeoff and landing autonomously of GPS reception.
Since its debut 10 years ago, the Hermes 900 UAS was selected by numerous customers across four continents, performing a wide range of missions in the fields of Intelligence Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR), homeland security and maritime search and rescue.
