Thai Air Force Orders Aerostar UAVs From Israel

A foreign news agency reported that the Thai Air Force has signed an agreement to purchase an Aerostar Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) system from an Israeli aeronautics company.
After the country's economic crisis in 1997 was over, the Thai Air Force has readjusted the structure of its combat force. One of the actions taken was to set up a fleet of 10 to 12 unmanned air vehicles as earlier reported on the official website of the Thai Air Force.
According to the report, the purchase agreement was signed since 2009. The Aerostar AUVs will be commissioned to the 404 Squadron of Wing 4 in Takhli (Nakhon Sawan Province). The unmanned air vehicles will be operating in parallel with the Learjet 35 A and Arava, the military transport and surveillance aircrafts of the 402 Squadron. It is anticipated that the Aerostar UAVs will be put to work before the end of 2011 to enhance the Thai Air Force's combat potential. According to the Thai Air Force's policy, the Wing 4 will further developed to serve as the /Network Centric Air Force/. At the same time, another project will be implemented to increase the efficiency of the F-16A/B jet fighters (/MLU/ Project) of the 403 Squadron.
Supporting Suppression of Insurgency
Moreover, it is believed that the Thai Air Force will use the Aerostar UAVs to support the suppression of insurgency in the three southern border provinces. The surveillance mission has been conducted by the two recently purchased DA-42 MPP aircraft which were commissioned to the 402 Squadron in 2010.
It is not the first time that the Thai Air Force will be using unmanned military aircraft. In 1988, the Thai Air Force sent a five-member team led by an assistant air force commander to purchase seven SkyEye UAVs of R4D model from the BAe System Company. The aircraft were attached to the 402 Squadron and used during the border clash at Ban Romklao village before they were decommissioned 20 years later. In 2008, the Thai Air Force ordered three unmanned air vehicles of CyberEye II model from Malaysia's Cyber Technology Company and the aircraft were delivered in 2009, which was the same year that the agreement on the purchase on a special barter deal of the Aerostar UAVs was signed.
In November 2010, a team of five air force officers led by an assistant air force commander, in his capacity as president of the project, was sent to Israel to follow up the progress of the installation of equipment on the aircraft as required by the Thai Air Force and observe the flight-testing of the first Aerostar (S/N 678). It is anticipated that this batch of the Aerostar UAVs should be better than the ordinary model because they are equipped with the communications system compatible to the Thai Air Force's operation data system at the present and in the future.
The Aerostar is an unmanned air vehicle of the /tactical UAV or TUAV/ type. It is suitable for intelligence gathering, target-searching, and surveillance operations (/Intelligence Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance or ISTAR/). The aircraft has straight wings and double tail wings with three wheels (one at the head and two at the fuselage under the wings) with a /pusher-propeller twin-tailboom/.
The Aerostar is 4.5 meter long and has a wingspan of 7.5 meters. It is powered by a 30-horsepower two-stroke engine produced by Zanzottrra, model 490IA, and has a maximum flying altitude of 18,000 feet, 12-hour endurance, loiter speed of 60 knots, and maximum take-off weight of 210 kg, 50 of which is the weigh of equipment.
The aircraft and communications and navigator equipment are controlled by the digital technology of the UMAS type with 30,000 hour operation before maintenance.
The equivalent in term of efficiency of the Aerostat is the Thai Army's Seacher Mk. I/II. The Aerostar is comparable to between the RQ-7A/B Shadow 200 and MQ5A/B Hunter systems of the US Armed Forces.
Satellite Communications System
An important equipment of the Aerostar is the /Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR). The self-revolving ball shape unit of DSP-1 model is produced by the Controp Precision Technologies Company. Attached underneath the fuselage are a color and high resolution CCD-TV for daylight operation and an infrared FLIR camera operating on medium-range frequency (MWIR frequencies of 3 to 5 microns which can effectively penetrate haze and dust). The camera system can zoom photos and is used for night operation. The Aerostar is also attachable to the /laser range finder/ or /laser marker./ However, it is unknown if the Air Force has ordered the installation of this equipment on the purchased aircraft.
The Aerostar is equipped with the data-link communications system controlled by the /line-of-sight/ radio frequencies (of C-, L-, or S-bands) with a direction-controllable antenna disc from the Commtact Company mounted on top of the fuselage and has an operation range over 200 kilometers. It can be installed with the /SATCOM/ satellite communications system. The ground control station, /HCS (Hydra Control Station)/, is capable of controlling in the real time several aircraft at the same time. In addition, a small remote control device, /RPCS (Remote Payload Control Station)/, can be used for field operation to control in the real time of the Aerostar UAV. The ground Hydra Contrl Station can easily linked with other control systems (such as the /RTADS/ system of the Air Force which will soon be replaced by the /RTACCS/ system which will be controlling all air combat operations in addition to the normal air defense works) to send information to the high-level commanders to assist their decision making activities on battlefield and in real time. It will be an important portion of the /Network Centric Warfare/.
Antiterrorism Operations
The Aerostar was first commissioned by the Israeli military in 2000 and registered over 10,000 flying hours without encountering any problem in a short period of 18 months. Among the 15 countries that have purchased a total number of 131 Aerostar UAVs are the United States, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey, Georgia, Nigeria, and Angola. It has been used during the antiterrorism operations by the NATO troops in Afghanistan. At present, Aeronautics is the process of development of the Aerostar-C. The new model of Aerostar has a wingspan 2.5 meters longer and is powered by a 65-horsepower four-stroke engine. It has 24-hour endurance and can carry as much as 80 kilogram of equipment. It is possible that the Thai Air Force might be interested in this model. However, the specifications of the Aerostar-C are still lower than those stipulated by the Thai Air Force in 2006 which requires a 30-hour endurance and carrying capacity of 135 kg -- a /MAL (Medium-Altitude Long Endurance)/ rather than a /TUAV/ category.
During the Defense & Security 2009 Fair in Thailand, officials of the Aeronautics Company told our TAF Team in an interview that in selling the Aerostar UAVs to the Thai Air Force, the company would also transfer the technology to the buyer. However, it is still unclear if the agreement has included the technology transfer.