Israeli defense technology company Elbit Systems announced it has received two contracts, valued at $20 million, to upgrade the capabilities of Hermes 900 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for two Latin American operators of the systems.
According to the company, both contracts will be performed within a 12-month period.
The upgrade will include the integration of satellite communication systems and automatic takeoff and landing systems into the Hermes 900 UAS that the customers are already operating.
As explained, this upgrade will advance these medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAS to the latest configuration, enabling extension of the operational range to more than 1000km and performing the takeoff and landing autonomously and independent of GPS reception.
While the company did not reveal the identity of the customers, the upgrades could have been ordered by either Brazil, Chile, Colombia or Mexico, who are known operators of the systems.
Since its debut 10 years ago, Elbit Systems secured Hermes 900 UAS orders from a number of countries across four continents. The UAS perform a range of missions in the fields of Intelligence Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR), homeland security and maritime search and rescue.
