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German Drones In Ethiopia

Ethiopia's last acquisition of (unmanned) aircraft before the commencement of the Tigray War in November 2020 are not the Wing Loong IIs UCAVs the country is so often reported to have deployed during the early stages of the conflict. Instead, the last (unmanned) aircraft it acquired were three German Trinity F9 eVTOL UAVs received as a gift by the German government in October 2020. [1] Although delivered to Ethiopia to help the Ministry of Agriculture in areas of natural resources protection and humanitarian responses, it cannot be ruled that these UAVs are currently being used in the Tigray War.

While the Trinity F9 eVTOL's maximum take-off weight of 4.5kg prevents it from carrying any type of armament or even a FLIR EO/IR turret, the available camera options of the Trinity F9 eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) make it an ideal tool for collecting geological information and land surface imagery data from the air. [2] These feats also make the F9 UAS well-suited for imaging mountainous terrain ahead of military offensives, allowing Ethiopian government forces to establish a better picture of the terrain they're about to attack.

Of course, a possible military end use was likely one of the last things the German government had envisioned when it donated three Trinity F9s amounting to 84.000 Euros to Ethiopia in October 2020. The F9 can fly for up to 90 minutes carrying varying sensors and capture photography of 7 hectares of land at a time. The command and control range is guaranteed for at least 5km away from the operator. [2] While this range is plentiful for its intended civilian purposes in the agriculture, forestry and mining sectors, it is somewhat limited when used for mapping the depths of areas currently under enemy control.

Continue reading https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2021/10/g ... iopia.html