Israeli company Elbit Systems inaugurated on 27 April a new production facility for the WATCHKEEPER XR UAV in Chitila, Romania, consolidating a presence and cooperation with the Romanian defence industry and Armed Forces that now spans three decades.

The new site is the seventh production facility opened by the company in Romania. The others are located in Bacau - where 4 plants are dedicated primarily to the development, production, and testing of electronic and mechanical subsystems and systems - and in Magurele (Bucharest metropolitan area), which hosts one facility dedicated to simulators for air, land, and naval forces, and a second focused on the production and integration of turrets and weapon systems for armoured vehicles under the Romanian Army's PIRANHA 5 programme.

The new Chitila site will be dedicated to the production, integration, testing, and maintenance of WATCHKEEPER XR UAVs. At the inauguration ceremony, the aircraft completed its first flight in Romanian skies.

The WATCHKEEPER XR is essentially the WATCHKEEPER X (where "R" stands for Romania): the export variant of the WATCHKEEPER WK450, the UAV in service with the British Army produced by UAV Tactical Systems Limited (U-TacS, Elbit's British subsidiary) in cooperation with Thales UK, itself derived from Elbit's HERMES 450 UAV. This variant was specifically developed to meet NATO interoperability and operational requirements.

It is a multirole tactical UAV with a maximum take-off weight of 550 kg, a wingspan of 10.5 m, an endurance of 17 hours, and a ceiling of approximately 5,000 m. The system can carry various payloads up to a maximum of 180 kg: EO/IR, SAR, ELINT, EW, COMINT, and COMJAM (Communications Jamming).

The facility inauguration follows the framework agreement signed in December 2022, valued at 410 million dollars, for the supply of up to 7 WATCHKEEPER XR systems to the Romanian Ministry of Defence. In June 2023, an implementing contract worth 180 million dollars was subsequently finalised for the delivery of the first 3 units to the Romanian Armed Forces.

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