Date:01/02/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/02/01/stories/2007020118920500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

HERTI will debut at Aero India

Rasheed Kappan

FIRST LOOK: HERTI Autonomous Airborne System

BANGALORE: Prepare for a battle of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) at the international aerospace exposition "Aero India 2007" here on February 7. Making its first international public debut outside the United Kingdom will be HERTI, one of the world's first fully autonomous UAVs developed by BAe Systems. This new generation of UAV is suited for military and civil operations.

HERTI has the ability to take off, complete a full mission and land, all at the click of a computer mouse. It is designed to meet a variety of operational needs with cost efficiency and high levels of reliability. There is no need for an operator or pilot to control the aircraft from the ground. This UAV is from a family of unmanned air vehicles being developed by BAe Systems through its Autonomous Systems and Future Capability, Integrated System Technologies and Australian businesses.

At the Bangalore air show, the HERTI and its unique ground control station will be showcased in its production configuration. Combined with BAe System's Imagery Collection and Exploitation (ICE) system, the UAV offers real potential in the fields of maritime, coastline and border surveillance as well as showing broader potential for areas such as pipeline, plant and infrastructure surveillance, and insurgent detection.

Starting off as a concept demonstrator, HERTI's first flight was achieved in December 2004 using common systems, power plants and ground stations with other BAe Systems' UAV programmes. BAe Systems has flown six different UAVs over the last five years. One of them was a fully autonomous flight cleared by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Here's what Andy Wilson, Sales and Marketing Director of Autonomous Systems and Future Capability at BAE Systems had to say on HERTI's participation at the air show: "At Aero India, we will be exhibiting the production configuration vehicle, and the system in which it operates, giving new levels of autonomy and reliability for UAVs. Effectively, this is the first of the next generation of this kind of vehicle. HERTI has the ability to offer users in military and civil environment a range of capabilities up until now simply not accessible because of either cost or reliability issues."

On the air show agenda is a demonstration of HERTI's autonomous mission system capability through a fully operational ground station, which will replay, in real time, missions carried out during the UAV's extensive flight test programme. This will include mission planning, vehicle monitoring and sensor exploitation.