Spain has just marked a milestone in the European defense industry. Airbus is over assembly of the first SIRTAPa New Generation Tactical Dron which has been designed and manufactured in the country. It is not just a technical advance: it is a declaration of intentions about the role that is sought to play in the development of strategic technologies.
The Sirtap has been assembled at the facilities of Airbus Defense and Space in Getafe. The purchase was formalized by the Ministry of Defense in November 2023, with a request for nine complete systems composed of 27 aircraft and nine control stations on land. It is there where the first prototype has taken shape, and where it is now preparing to start the Test Campaign on Earth.
The Spanish set by tactical drones
The tests, which will evaluate both the structure and the main components of the system and the software, will be extended during the next months. The goal: to leave it ready for your first flight Before ending 2025at the CEUS DEL INTA trial center, in Huelva.
According to Airbus, the new drone has been designed to fly in extreme conditions: it can operate between -40 ° C and 50 ° C, land on unpaid tracks and stay in the air for more than 20 hours in a row. To this is added an operational roof greater than 21,000 feet (6,400 meters), which would make it an ideal platform for long -distance recognition and surveillance missions.
What Airbus poses with the Sirtap goes far beyond simple recognition. The drone has been thought of as A modular platform capable of adapt to different missions: You can monitor convoys from the air, act as an armed escort, detect electronic signals, participate in electronic war operations or control borders in hostile environments. It can also be deployed in emergency tasks, such as the search for vessels on the high seas or fire support.
One of the most outstanding points of SIRTAP is that it has been designed without components subject to Itar restrictionswhich, according to Airbus, facilitates its export to international markets. This feature, together with its modular architecture, opens the door to future versions adapted to different environments, such as a naval variant or with complete weapons integration. A no less detail is that the system is also designed to interoperate with existing command and control networks.
The Sirtap breaks into a segment with Several established actors. Uav like him TACTICAL HERONwith its ability to carry several useful loads simultaneously and operate from semi -sighed clues, or the Bayraktar TB2known for its missions in real combat and more than one million hours of operational flight. We also find al Falco Xplorerwith its autonomy of more than 24 hours and flight roof above 30,000 feet.
Given that panorama, Airbus drone proposes a promising combination: Itar restrictions free, modular architecture, interoperability with European systems and operability in extreme conditions. Its focus is not to overcome figures, but to offer an adaptable platform, easily exportable and margin to evolve towards naval or armed versions. He has not yet taken off, but his road map places him as an actor to take into account.
Images | Airbus Media Center
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