LONDON - Britain's Ministry of Defence is to extend a UAV-by-the-hour deal with Thales UK that provides the military in Afghanistan with key intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capabilities.

Company officials attending an engineering and science event here March 11 confirmed that they are close to completing arrangements for the ISTAR deal to run through to the in-service date of the British Army's Watchkeeper UAV system scheduled for 2011.

Thales has been providing the service for British forces since mid-2007 to help plug a gap in British ISTAR capabilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. Under an urgent operational requirement deal with the MoD, Thales provides the Elbit Hermes 450 tactical UAV, contractor logistics support and program management services. It also trains the military in the use and maintenance of the system.

The UAV-by-the-hour service has drawn considerable attention from Canada, France and other NATO nations that need similarly rapid hikes in ISTAR capabilities.

To date, the Hermes 450s have flown more than 18,000 hours for the British in the two operational theaters, a Thales UK spokeswomen said.

The original two-year deal was expected to be worth around 60 million pounds ($83 million), much of that going to UAV provider Elbit.

British forces are likely to pull out of Iraq later this year and it remains unclear whether the UAVs in that theater will be switched to bolster capabilities in Afghanistan.

MoD officials at the event declined to discuss the ISTAR plans, citing operational security issues.

The British arm of Thales was selected in 2005 as the winner of the 900 million-pound Watchkeeper program.

Based on a much-modified version of the Hermes 450, the first platform and associated ground segment equipment is scheduled to be delivered to the Army here in October 2010 and enter service a few months later.

The platform is currently undergoing flight testing in Israeli prior to transitioning to Britain in the fourth quarter of this year to begin U.K. eyes-only tests on sensitive equipment such as the radar and datalink. (defencenews)