Thales sensors on display at the Royal International Air Tattoo 2015

Thales will be playing a prominent role in this weekend’s Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), the world's largest military air show.

The show takes place each year at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. As part of RIAT, Thales is showcasing Watchkeeper - Europe’s leading, certified tactical unmanned aircraft system and our highly-effective I-Master radar on board Watchkeeper and the Textron AirLand Scorpion jet.

I-Master will also been seen integrated on Diamond Executive Aviation (DEA)’s DA42 aircraft. The multiple platforms demonstrate versatility and multiple applications of the radar.

Our full scale Watchkeeper model will be near the VIP area and our live deployment activity will be near the Techno Zone.

A team from the British Army will demonstrate how Watchkeeper can be built from storage to fully assembled in 30 minutes. Spectators will be able to witness a true tactical deployment at 10:30 and 14:30 each day – no tools required.

Our team, who have deployed Watchkeeper in theatre in Afghanistan, will be on site and will be discussing their experience and what makes Watchkeeper different to other systems.

Watchkeeper delivers unrivalled multi-sensor, 24/7 surveillance capability to provide vital intelligence of activities on the ground.

In addition, the Textron Scorpion fast jet will also be showcased with Thales’ I-Master radar. Thales and Textron AirLand along have recently jointly integrated the radar on to the fast jet, adding to the jet’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) sensor suite.

Having integrated the multi-mode radar into Scorpion within just two weeks, the first flight trials took place in late May. Combined with an electro-optical/infra-red camera, I-Master adds long range, wide area surveillance and target tracking. Both payloads are operated simultaneously by a single operator.

Textron AirLand’s Scorpion was introduced in 2013 and has completed more than 400 hours of flight testing with an exceptionally high mission availability score.  Scorpion is a highly affordable, multi-mission aircraft offering diverse capabilities including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, advanced training and precision strike.