# South African Army seeks to acquire reconnaissance drones

- Link: https://www.military.africa/2023/01/south-african-army-seeks-to-acquire-reconnaissance-drones/
- Published: 2023-01-12T09:37:29+01:00
- Author: Sarah Lesedi

The SA Army is looking to procure unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for reconnaissance
and target acquisition according to an Armscor tender information.

The tender documentation issued for ECAC/2022/154, includes specifications for BBBEE(
broad-based black economic empowerment).

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However, there was no mention of how many UAVs [the Army is looking to buy, ](https://www.military.africa/2022/06/south-africa-military-drones-unmanned-aerial-vehicles-uavs/)
neither does the tender specify whether a single propeller or multi-rotor platform
is wanted to provide data to ground-based stations for targeting solutions or other
actions.

> [South Africa military drones – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)](https://www.military.africa/2022/06/south-africa-military-drones-unmanned-aerial-vehicles-uavs/)

According to DefenceWeb, the UAV which will be used for reconnaissance and targeting
is not expected to be a large one, but with a maximum take-off weight of 9kg and
an endurance of 55 minutes.

The UAV operator must be able to “work” his platform from a maximum unobstructed
distance of 15km. He or she will use an external battery with a 7,6 voltage rating
to provide power while the UAV’s built-in battery should be a 18650 lithium ion 
one with a 17v power rating and 135 minute charging time. Expected battery endurance
is two hours 30 minutes for the UAV mounted one and four hours 30 minutes for the
external ground station one.

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South African defence company [Milkor will supply the first of it’s all-new Milkor 380 medium-altitude and long-endurance unmanned system](https://www.military.africa/2022/11/milkor-380-male-uav-to-equip-south-african-forces/)
to the South African Department of Defence for testing and possible operationalization.

For year’s now, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) [has been deploying drones for security missions,](https://www.military.africa/2022/06/south-africa-military-drones-unmanned-aerial-vehicles-uavs/)
with the South African Army flying the locally designed and developed Indiza hand-
launched drone for border patrol and peacekeeping missions, as well as small multi-
rotors for surveillance.

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Also, the Defence Intelligence (DI) operates an unknown number of Denel Seeker UAVs,
with one of them- a [Seeker 400 crashing on Thursday, 10 March, 2021.](https://www.military.africa/2021/03/south-african-seeker-400-uav-crash/)

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