Israel's air force is on track to developing drones that within four
to five decades would carry out nearly every battlefield operation
executed today by piloted aircraft, a high-ranking Israeli officer told
The Associated Press Sunday.
The officer, who works in the field of unmanned aerial vehicle
intelligence, said Israel is speeding up research and development of
such unmanned technologies for air, ground and naval forces.
"There is a process happening now of transferring tasks from manned
to unmanned vehicles," the officer said, speaking anonymously because of
the classified nature of his work. "This trend will continue to become
stronger."
Isaac Ben-Israel, a former Israeli air force general, said however
there was no way drones could entirely overtake manned airplanes. He
said there are just some things drones can't do, like carry heavy
payloads needed for major assaults on targets like underground bunkers.
"The direction is drones playing a bigger and bigger role in the air
force," he said. "In a decade or two they should be able to carry out a
third or half of all missions. But there are still certain things you
cannot do without a piloted plane."
Israel is a pioneer in drone technology. Its military was the first
to make widespread use of drones in its 1982 invasion of Lebanon and
Israeli companies are considered world leaders and export unmanned
aircraft to a number of armies, including U.S.-led forces that have used
them in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The unmanned aircraft have been a major part of Israel's arsenal in
battling Gaza rocket launchers over the years. Drones were seen as
crucial by giving soldiers eyes in the air, keeping watch over rooftops
and alleyways in congested urban areas and notifying troops of threats
or obstacles in their path. Israel insists its drones only perform
surveillance missions but Palestinian witnesses have long claimed that
Israeli drones fire missiles in Gaza.
The officer claimed Israel is second only to the United States in the
range of unmanned aerial systems its produces. He said he was "aware"
that American drones are capable of firing missiles, but refused to say
whether Israeli drones could do the same.
The officer cited one technology recently unveiled: the unmanned
Hermes 900 aircraft, developed by the Israeli military manufacturer
Elbit Systems Ltd. and recently rolled out for Israeli military use.
It features double the performance capabilities of the previous
generation of the same unmanned aircraft, the Hermes 450. It can carry
up to 350 kilograms, features advanced systems of surveillance and
reconnaissance and offers support to forces on the ground and at sea,
according to a description of the technology on Elbit's website.
Israel is also looking to develop small tactical satellites that
warplanes could launch into the earth's orbit, the officer said.
Unlike satellites in permanent orbit which are more easily monitored
by other leading armies in the world, the tactical satellites Israel
hopes to develop would be cheaper to build and less susceptible to
interception because they would be launched during wartime and there
would be less time for foreign armies to track their orbit, Israeli
military officials said.
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