WarSclerotic

Israel’s next-generation drones: smaller, smarter, deadlier – YouTube.

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 30 (Xinhua) — David Harari nostalgically recalls the day the Israel Air Force, stunned by the loss of fighter jets and aviators to Syrian missile batteries in the 1973 war, first requested pilotless aircraft for battlefield surveillance.

“We embarked on an ambitious endeavor to create a tool for gathering real-time intelligence over combat zones,” says Harari, an electrical engineer credited with pioneering the drone program at the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) early in 1974.

A few years later, Harari and his team rolled out the Scout, a 200-kilogram drone that loitered at about 3000 meters. It made its debut in the 1982 Lebanon War, relaying images of troop movements and enabling Israel to achieve aerial superiority early on by neutralizing Syrian anti-aircraft batteries. It also made the Israeli military the world’s first operator of a modern unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

“It was a revelation,” says Harari, who holds a PhD in physics from the Sorbonne. “Suddenly we were managing a battlefield four- dimensionally, where the fourth dimension was time. It totally changed military doctrine.”

Indeed it has. Drone squadrons presently shoulder the bulk of the IAF’s reconnaissance missions, logging more flight hours annually than all of its manned aircraft combined. In recent years, they are regularly tasked with overflying the Gaza Strip to hunt for Palestinian rocket launching squads, lead helicopter gunships and artillery to the locations of hidden arms caches and are also reportedly involved in the periodic targeted killings of militants.

UAVs are also thought to be playing a critical role in the collection of intelligence ahead of a potential Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

In February 2010, IAI delivered to the air force its flagship drone, the Heron TP II. With a wingspan of 26 meters (the size of a Boeing 737), the fourth-generation, all-weather craft has a cruising altitude of about 13,500 meters, carries nearly five tons of payload and can remain aloft for 36 hours. The range is classified, but one IAI executive says that the Heron’s linkup to satellite communications enables it to fly “immense distances” and reach any country in the region.

The ever-growing reliance on drones, which have become indispensable in minimizing the risk to aircrews and trimming defense budgets, has Israeli manufacturers scrambling to quench the IAF’s and foreign markets’ insatiable thirst for systems that stretch technological boundaries.

“The demand usually far exceeds the industries’ ability to develop the required systems,” Lt. Col. (res.) Dan Bichman, a consultant for UAV marketing at IAI’s MALAT military aircraft group, told Xinhua, at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Tel Aviv last week.

“We are in a constant race to meet operational needs and upgrade capabilities: to fly farther and higher for longer durations, to produce a sharper video image and greater autonomy, to enable the operation of diverse payloads simultaneously, and better cope with extreme climate conditions,” Bichman said.

While the Heron and similar — albeit significantly lighter and less sophisticated — UAVs currently spearhead the Israeli army’s operations, and those of numerous armies worldwide, the hottest trend is miniaturization.

Mini and micro-UAVs are the latest technological craze. Last August, IAI unveiled the Ghost and Panther, two electric engine- powered drones that take off and land vertically. Weighing four kilograms and 145 cm long, the stealthy Ghost, modeled after the twin-rotor Chinook helicopter, was designed to support infantry and special operations units in built-up areas and rugged terrain on short missions. It hovers, can maneuver inside a room and transmits images via daylight and infrared night sensors.

Other products that have rolled off IAI’s assembly lines in recent years include the Mosquito and Bird Eye, both of which are catapult-launched by a single soldier. Smaller local companies are also moving into the niche, like UVision Global Aero Systems, which offers the Sparrow and WASP.

At last week’s AUVSI conference, the group’s first in Israel, IAI touted a prototype of the Butterfly, a tiny, virtually soundless drone capable of flying through windows and into buildings for delicate spying operations.

IAI officials say that urban warfare involving irregular forces, whether in the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan or, until recently, in Iraq, has created the demand for what they describe as over-the-hill tactical intelligence.

“Ghost and its smaller counterparts offer simple operation and quick deployment. They come in a suitcase carried on the back of a single soldier,” said Bichman, a former helicopter pilot who has served in IAF drone squadrons for the past 25 years. “The clear advantage lies in being able to receive a visual of what is happening beyond a house or beyond an alley. It

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