Sunday, November 23, 2008

Bateleur

Origin
South Africa

Contractor/s
Denel

Description: Bateleur is a Medium Altitude, Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by Denel to meet South African Navy and Air Force requirements for a Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA). Bateleur is being designed to conduct real-time day and night surveillance; maritime, coastal and border patrol; battlefield surveillance; search and rescue operations; and military and paramilitary multi-sensor reconnaissance. This UAV system will use Seeker 2's ground control station for long range/over the horizon operations while a new ground station will be developed by Denel for line-of-sight missions.

South Africa's MPA program focus on providing search and rescue capability over an area of 5 million square miles and surveillance capability along South Africa's 3,000 kilometers of coastline including its 200 nautical miles of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) sea inside. In addition, MPA would provide surveillance over Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean which lies 1,775 km from South Africa. To meet those high demanding requirements Bateleur will use Ku-band satellite data link which would allow operations over the horizon to a range of around 3,500 km.

Little is known about Bateleur specifications. Denel shown a scale model during Dubai International Airshow in November 2005. Besides, Denel released that the combat radius of its newest UAV was 750 km and its endurance on station over an assigned area was between 12 and 18 hours.

Specifications
Accommodation: Unmanned

Performance: Endurance 18 hours, Max Range 1,500 km (810 nm)

Operators

South Africa

Notes
(*) lead contractor
IOC: Initial Operating Capability
FOC: Full Operating Capability
CEP: Circular Error Probable
Comm: Commissioning Date
Meters (m) Kilometers (km) Nautic Miles (nm) Inch (in) Yard (yd) Foot (ft) Millimeter (mm)
Pound (lb) Kilogram (kg) kN (KiloNewton) Ton (t)
Meters per Second (mps) Kilometers per Hour (kph) Knot (kt) Miles per Hour (mph)
Liter (l) Galon (gl)
Year (yr) Minutes (min) Second (sec)
Shaft-Horse-Power (shp)

Last Updated: Saturday, November 22, 2008

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