In February, IAI announced a deal worth $100 million to sell the Harpy drone to the Navy of an unnamed Asian country.
By: David Isaac
Israel has made new versions of two of its “suicide drones,” Ynet reports on Tuesday. Over the last years the drones have moved from “boutique ability” to tactical function of ground forces ranging from the brigade to company-level, the report says.
According to the news site, the two drones, the Harpy and the Rotem, have proven themselves in “exceptional ways” in last year’s Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Azeris, who purchased the drones from Israel, saw the benefits while the Armenians felt the sting, the report says.
The Harpy resembles a long-range drone similar to an American Reaper. The Rotem is a quadcopter, closer in appearance to store-bought civilian drones.
In a newer version of the Harpy, called the “mini-Harpy,” the drone’s weight has been brought down to 100 pounds from 300 pounds. It carries a 17-pound explosive. It locks on to its target by signals the target itself sends out, whether cell phones, radars or two-way radios.
“Even when the signal weakens, the ‘mini-Harpy’ detects an enemy based on individual gigas, up to the high-frequency ranges in a wide area,” Israel’s Aerospace Industry (IAI) said.
The Rotem also boasts a new version, Ynet reports. It can now be carried and launched by an individual soldier. It will hunt down someone on the run or a vehicle trying to flee.
“We taught Rotem to stay in the air and as soon as it recognizes an enemy to attack him immediately, in an aerial onslaught at 100 kilometers per hour,” an IAI source said.
The Rotem weighs 14 pounds.
In February, IAI announced a deal worth $100 million to sell the Harpy drone to an Asian Navy. The country was not identified.
It also closed deals for samples of the Rotem to another “foreign country,” which also wasn’t identified.
In a very different development, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is facing mounting pressure following the release of an audio recording in which he harshly criticizes interference in diplomacy by Iran’s military, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Tuesday.
In the recording released last week by unknown sources in Iran, Zarif is heard complaining about the influence Iran’s military and especially assassinated Gen. Qassem Soleimani exerted on his diplomatic work.
He also revealed that former Secretary of State John Kerry revealed to him privileged information about Israel’s attacks in Syria, an issue of little consequence to Iran’s leaders but which caused Kerry some discomfiture in the States.
Despite a public apology for his remarks, Zarif came under fire from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who called Zarif’s comments a “big mistake.”
(World Israel News)
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