The German army is testing new Israeli Heron drones
The German army is expected to test the new Israeli Heron TP drones in northern Germany next year for the first time.
A spokeswoman for the German Ministry of Defense confirmed Tuesday evening, that the operation, which will take place at the site of Jagel in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the north of the country, is a demonstration operation.
The spokeswoman stated that the army is thus seeking to lay the foundations to be able to use these drones in the future for missions at the national level and at the NATO level, but the spokeswoman stressed that this is only a first step.
In statements to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, the former Parliamentary Commissioner for Military Affairs, Hans-Peter Bartels, said: “These drones were mainly intended for foreign operations only, and they shouldn’t have flown in Germany at all”.
According to the newspaper’s report, it is expected that the review process will be carried out in the second half of 2023, and the newspaper quoted the Ministry of Defense as saying that the goal of the trial process is to prove that the Heron TP drones are in principle valid for use in Germany.
However, a military spokeswoman said that the Heron TP drones could only be used in a specific and separate airspace so as not to interfere with civilian air traffic, and pointed out that this area could be areas temporarily closed to other aircraft.
The Ministry of Defense confirmed that the Heron TP “will not be allowed to be fully integrated into German airspace or won’t be allowed to operate in an unrestricted manner”.
In 2018, Germany decided to buy five Heron-TPs from Israel, and in 2019, Israel began training German soldiers to use unmanned aircraft.
The German bundestag gave the green light last spring to arm the drones, ending their use for reconnaissance purposes only, a move that has been the subject of contention for years, and the main argument of supporters of this move focused on protecting German soldiers in foreign missions of the army such as the army’s mission in Afghanistan.
