Times: Drones in service with the British Air Force do not fly in bad weather
Kyiv • UNN
The Watchkeeper drones in service with the British Air Force cannot fly in adverse weather conditions and are not currently in use.
Watchkeeper drones, which are in service with the British Air Force, cannot fly in adverse weather conditions and are idle. The Times newspaper writes about this, referring to the former deputy head of the Ministry of Defense (2013-2015) Mark Francois, reports UNN.
Details
According to the former official, Watchkeeper is based on the Israeli Hermes 450 UAV, which is successfully used by the Israeli Air Force.
However, the British Defense Ministry imposed almost 2.5 thousand additional requirements on the machine, which made the drones take much longer than planned, become more expensive and heavier, and negatively affected their capabilities.
Eight of the 54 ordered UAVs worth 5 million pounds each have already had to be written off, although the first one entered service only in 2018. The reason was accidents during test and training flights. According to The Times, none of the reconnaissance UAVs capable of operating at an altitude of 5-5.5 km and delivering precision strikes within a radius of 150-200 km from the point of departure are currently used by the British Air Force.
At the same time, the UK Ministry of Defense told The Times that the Watchkeepers have flown about 4,000 hours in total and have been "successfully deployed around the world, including in Afghanistan, where they have played a key role in enhancing the safety of British troops.
