The Elbit Hermes 450 is an Israeli medium size multi-payload unmanned aerial vehicle designed for tactical long endurance missions. It has an endurance of over 20 hours, with a primary mission of reconnaissance, surveillance and communications relay. Payload options include electro-optical/infrared sensors, communications and electronic intelligence, synthetic-aperture radar/ground-moving target indication, electronic warfare, and hyperspectral sensors.
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10 Hermes 450 UAVs were purchased in 2008. On September 12, 2011, a UAV was reportedly shot down by the ARDA over the airspace of the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh. Preliminary investigations carried out by the ARDA have determined the model to be a Hermes 450 type.
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The Brazilian Air Force has, since December 2009 a unit under lease for 1 year of testing and evaluations in conjunction with the Brazilian Army and Brazilian Navy; there are plans to buy two more. The Brazilian Air Force operated two in 2011, with two more delivered in February 2013.
In August 2012, Elbit won a multimillion-dollar contract to supply a mixed fleet of Hermes 900 and 450 unmanned air systems to Colombia. In July 2013, the Colombian Air Force confirmed they have one Hermes 450 on order, to be accepted in the coming months.
The Israeli Air Force, which operates a Hermes 450 squadron out of Palmachim Airbase south of Tel Aviv, has adapted the Hermes 450 for use as an assault UAV, reportedly equipping it with two Hellfire missiles or, according to various sources, two Rafael-made missiles. According to Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese and independent reports, the Israeli assault UAV has seen extensive service in the Gaza Strip and was used intensively in the Second Lebanon War as well as in the 2009 Sudan air raids. Israel has not denied this capability, but to date, its policy has been not to officially confirm it either.
Philippine Air Force The Philippines' Department of National Defense has contracted 13 UAV from Elbit Systems of Israel — Four Hermes 450 and nine units of Hermes 900 under an P8 billion project. Acquired as part of Second Horizon of AFP Modernization Program. To be operated by the 300th Air Intelligence and Security Wing.
Philippine Army Elbit Systems confirmed in their page that they were awarded a US$153 million contract to supply a networked multi-array unmanned aerial system array to a Southeast Asian army. According to Maxdefense, that country is the Philippines and is a part of the C41STAR Unmanned Aerial Systems Project of the Philippine Army. The acquisition includes Elbit Thor Multirotor VTOL Mini UAS, Elbit Skylark 1-LEX Mini UAS, Elbit Skylark 3 Tactical Small UAS, and Elbit Hermes 450 Tactical Long Endurance UAS.
Hermes 450s are operated by the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Test and Evaluation Program at the Naval Air Station Fallon, and two Hermes 450s were tested by the U.S. Border Patrol in 2004.
The H450 was operated by the 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery of the British Army on military operations in Afghanistan, supplied under a leasing contract starting July 2007 from a Thales/Elbit consortium. Of the 52 operated by the British in Afghanistan eight have on occasion crashed. The British version was the only Hermes to use laser gyroscopes in its inertial navigation system. The UKMinistry Of Defence did not take up the option for wing mounted armament. The Hermes 450 is the basis of the British Army's Watchkeeper WK450, development of which started in July 2005 in conjunction with Thales. In September 2013, the Hermes 450 reached 70,000 flight hours supporting British troops in Afghanistan, the equivalent of 8 years of non-stop flying. The British had flown the Hermes 450 more than any other country in Afghanistan. As of January 2014, British Hermes 450 air vehicles flew over 86,000 hours over Iraq and Afghanistan. Up to nine aircraft operated from Camp Bastion and conducted five flights per day, accumulating a combined 70 hours of surveillance coverage. When the Watchkeeper WK450 entered service in Afghanistan in mid-September 2014 and the ground-based radar coverage at Bastion was switched off, the British Army stopped using the interim leased Hermes 450.
