SAGEM Sperwer

Sperwer

Sperwer B on its launch rail
Role	Reconnaissance aircraft/UAV
Manufacturer	SAGEM
Primary users	French Army Canadian Forces

The SAGEM Sperwer (Pronounced Spehr-wuhr, Dutch for Sparrowhawk) is an unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by the French firm SAGEM. The aircraft is piloted remotely and can cruise at altitudes of over 16,000 feet for as long as five hours. It can send back images of targets up to 150 kilometers from its operators on the ground.

Operational history

The Sperwer is currently in service with the French Army (61^e régiment d'artillerie), the Royal Netherlands Air Force, Swedish Air Force, United States Air National Guard, Hellenic Army (Greece) with the Netherlands in the process of removing them from front line use.

Canadian Forces operated the Sperwer in Afghanistan between 2003 and its last mission on 18 April 2009 when it was replaced with the Israeli built IAI Heron.^[1]

The Royal Danish Army also bought Sperwer, but a series of problems forced the Ministry of Defence to cancel the programme and sell the remainder to Canada. As well the Danish Army no longer operate any aircraft and there are no plans for UAVs by the Royal Danish Air Force. Canada itself removed the Sperwers from front-line use in 2009, while the Netherlands was planning to phase its Sperwer drones out of front line use in March 2009 in favor of rented UAVs from Israel's Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd.

Operators

Canada: Canadian Forces. Designated CU-161 in service; retired.
Denmark: Danish Army. Programme cancelled.
France: French Army. In service with three more ordered and an option on another five, all with enhanced sensors.^[2]
Greece: Hellenic Army. In service.
Netherlands: Royal Netherlands Air Force. Retired.
Sweden: Swedish Army. Designated UAV01 Ugglan (the Owl) in service; retired.
United States: Air National Guard.

Aircraft on display

Six of the retired Sperwers can be found in Canadian museums:^[3]

AirForce Museum Society of Alberta - serial number 026^[4]
Canada Aviation and Space Museum - serial number 001^[5]
National Air Force Museum of Canada - serial number 007^[6]

References

↑ COPA Flight 8 (June 2009). "Canadian Forces Briefing on UAVs". Retrieved 2009-06-30.
↑ French Army to procure more Sperwer drones from Sagem
↑ "Canada Aviation and Space Museum". Retrieved 19 February 2015.
↑ "AirForce Museum Society of Alberta". Facebook. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
↑ Sperwer Museum Exhibit
↑ Pitre, Jean-Guy (September 2010). "Sperwer Photo". Retrieved 4 September 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sagem Sperwer.

Sperwer Update
UAV payload applications
Defense Industry Daily - Dutch to Rent Israeli UAVs for Afghanistan
Defense Industry Daily - Canada Contracts for Heron UAVs

SAGEM

Aircraft	Patroller Sperwer Dassault-Sagem SlowFast SAGEM Crecerelle

Systems	SAGEM Sigma 30

Related companies	Safran Snecma

Canadian Forces post-1968 unified aircraft designations

100–119	CF-100 CF-101 102–103 skipped CF-104 CF-105 CC-106 CP-107 CC-108 CC-109 CSR-110 CF-111 CH-112 CH-113 CT-114 CC-115 CF-116 CC-117 CH-118 CO-119 CO-119(2)

120–139	CT-120 CP-121 CP-122 CSR-123/CC-123 CH-124 CH-125 CH-126 CH-127 CT-128 CC-129 CC-130 CX-131 CC-132 CT-133 CT-134 CH-135 CH-136 CC-137 CC-138 CH-139

140–159	CP-140 CC-141 CT-142 CH-143 CC-144/CE-144 CT-145 CH-146 CH-147 CH-148 CH-149 CC-150 151–154 skipped CT-155 CT-156 157–159 skipped CU-160

160–	CU-161 CU-162 CU-163 164–166 skipped CU-167 CU-168 169 skipped CU-170 171–176 skipped CC-177 CH-178 179–187 skipped CF-188

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, February 09, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.