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WATCHKEEPER WK450

The Thales Watchkeeper WK450 is a Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS) for all weather, Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) use by the British Army, provided under an £800 million contract awarded in July 2005 to U-TacS partnership between Elbit and Thales UK. The air-vehicle is based on Elbit's Hermes 450.

[Source: Andrew Linnett/MOD]

The Watchkeeper WK450 is based on the Elbit Hermes 450 UAV. The engine is a rotary Wankel engine. It has a mass of 450 kg and a payload capacity of 150 kg, with a typical endurance of 17 hours. It was originally intended to enter service in June 2010.

The Watchkeeper is built in the UK by a joint venture company, UAV Tactical Systems (U-TacS), set up by the Israeli company Elbit Systems (51% ownership) and the Thales group. UAV Engines Ltd, who build the rotary engine in the UK, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems. The majority Israeli ownership has caused some unexpected problems obtaining U.S. export authorisation for anti-icing components. A prime difference between the Hermes 450 and Watchkeeper is that the 450 is fitted only with an electro-optical/infrared sensor, while the WK450 has a dual-mode synthetic aperture radar and ground moving target indication that allow it to see through weather conditions such as dust storms that the Hermes aircraft can not. The drone can maintain its radio control signal 150 km (93 mi) from its ground station.

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Source:
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