Role & capabilities
- Multirole aircraft
- Primary domain
- Air
- System type
- Multirole aircraft
- Developer / manufacturer
- Elbit Systems
- Origin / production countries
- Israel
- Other names
- H-450
- Variants / configurations
- Hermes 450: configurations differ by operator; Watchkeeper: related UK derivative, separate programme
- Operators / programme customers
- Israel — manufacturer identifies IDF operation; Singapore — documented 2015 operator configuration
Evidence & current status
In-service history is documented by an operator. Numerical figures here describe Singapore’s 2015 aircraft; they are not presented as a universal current configuration.
Hermes 450 is Elbit Systems’ tactical reconnaissance aircraft, positioned below the larger Hermes 900. It carries a range of imaging, radar and electronic intelligence equipment, with the actual fit depending on the customer. The aircraft forms part of a wider system of ground control, communications and support equipment; the same aircraft name does not identify a single sensor installation.
Singapore’s Ministry of Defence published an unusually clear operator-specific fact sheet in 2015, describing a Wankel-powered aircraft with more than fourteen hours of endurance. Those figures provide a useful documented configuration, but they should not be substituted for every later export or Israeli version. The specification table therefore labels its Singapore baseline explicitly.
Elbit continues to identify the aircraft as an established operational product. The related UK Watchkeeper programme has its own airworthiness, equipment and service history and should be researched separately rather than treated as another name for an unchanged Hermes 450. Operator entries here are examples supported by the reviewed sources, not a worldwide fleet inventory.
Sourced specifications
Figures apply to the named configuration. Maximum values are not guaranteed operating performance.
| Specification | Reported value | Context & source |
|---|---|---|
| Airframe | Reusable fixed-wing tactical aircraft | Manufacturer-published figure; configuration and conditions may affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Launch / recovery | Not established from the reviewed public sources. | Public data gap; no estimate or neighbouring variant value substituted. Source ↗ |
| Propulsion | Single Wankel R802 engine | Singapore 2015 configuration. Source ↗ |
| Dimensions | Length 6.1 m; wingspan 10.5 m | Singapore 2015 configuration. Source ↗ |
| Mass | Gross weight 450 kg | Operator-listed gross weight; not a universal family MTOW. Source ↗ |
| Endurance | >14 hours | Singapore 2015 configuration. Source ↗ |
| Range | 100 km maximum | Operator fact sheet; range definition not expanded. Source ↗ |
| Speed | 70 kt cruise | Singapore 2015 configuration. Source ↗ |
| Altitude | Not established from the reviewed public sources. | Public data gap; no estimate or neighbouring variant value substituted. Source ↗ |
| Payload | Not established from the reviewed public sources. | Public data gap; no estimate or neighbouring variant value substituted. Source ↗ |
| Sensors | EO/IR; radar and electronic intelligence payload options | Manufacturer-published figure; configuration and conditions may affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Communications / navigation | Ground-control-system operation and imagery datalink | Manufacturer-published figure; configuration and conditions may affect performance. Source ↗ |
Publication history
- — Added a sourced global catalogue profile with configuration-specific data and explicit evidence limits.
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Follow the evidence
Source types identify who makes the claim. Programme milestones and supplier statements should be read in context.