Developed by BAE Systems, the air platform known as HERTI is one of a new generation of UAVs suitable for both military and commercial operations. HERTI can take off, complete a full mission and land in fully autonomous mode of operation.
When coupled with BAE System’ Imagery Collection & Exploitation (ICE) system, the aircraft can provide imagery and intelligence collection services maritime, coastline and border surveillance as well as showing broader potential for areas such as pipeline, plant and infrastructure surveillance.
A concept demonstrator system was first flown in December 2004 using off the shelf systems, power-plants and ground stations, developed for other BAE Systems UAV programs. At Farnborough 2006 BAE displayed a production configuration of the vehicle. HERTI was also demonstrated at the UK MOD’s Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) at Portsdown in June 2006, where the system demonstrate its ability to integrate with the networked environment, supporting the generation of a single integrated surface picture by multiple, networked sensors. In September, 2006 the Royal Air Force’s Air Warfare Centre Unmanned Air Vehicle Battlelab (AUB) launched a joint project with BAE systems, to test the HERTI in various military exercises over a two-year period.
