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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 2600.PDF
Israel: UAVs UNMANNED SYSTEMS Ground vehicle studies roll on Unmanned technologies appear set to revolutionise other business sectors over the coming years, including the emerging unmanned ground vehicle sector. Israel's two largest defence contractors, Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems, are both working on such systems, each using modi fied Tomcar dune buggy chassis. In a marked departure from its against terrorists in the Gaza Strip is enabl ing us to practise new ways of doing things." Used with other air force assets, such as attack helicopters and manned fighters, UAVs are playing a vital role in closing the targeting loop, enabling the service to strike targets quickly from standoff range by swiftly passing information to "shoot ers" via sophisticated datalinks. While long aware of the need to reduce the time taken between locating and identifying a target and prosecuting it, the USA's "war on ter rorism" has underlined the need to close the sensor-to-shooter gap. A time of lOmin between a target's loca tion and destruction is widely identified as a goal for militaries around the world, but in some instances the Israeli armed forces are already achieving results well within this goal, say industry sources. Persistent surveil lance by UAVs over the Gaza Strip have enabled the military to conduct precision strikes against opposition targets well inside this timeframe, they claim, giving Israel a capability that is still many years away for most developed militaries. Two further companies are active in the UAV sector - Astronautics and Rafael. • ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ARIE EGOZI IN TEL AVIV usual military aircraft activities, the business innovation element of lAI's Lahav unit has developed and trialled the Guardium unmanned surveillance vehicle for duties such as perimeter patrol of military facil ities or airports. The system works by operating in a known area using a stored 3D digital map, with the vehicle having demonstrated a maximum speed of 80km/h (50mph). lAI's concept of opera tions is to deploy the vehicle from a quick-reaction "kennel", for exam ple if a perimeter fence has been breached, with an operator in the loop for decision-making. It has an endurance of 8-12h with a 300kg (660lb) payload, possibly including weapons. Elbit finished second in the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-led Grand Challenge contest, completing a distance of 11 km (7 miles) in 10h. While this fell well short of the 320km set for the test, the Avidor vehicle managed a top speed of 40km/h and used navigation and control systems using horizontal and vertical lasers, acoustic sen sors, stereoscopic vision cameras and imaging radar. 03 CO CD •tiH^37H4-t TOTAL EW SOLUTION - full protection/enhanced survivability - proven on helicopters such as the Apache, Cobra, Black Hawk, CH-53, Puma. Fully Integrated EW Suites with Radar Warning Receiver, Laser Warning System, MWS, ECM Jammer, Chaff and Flare Dispensing System DIRCM capable, Airborne ESM/EUNT and Advanced Search & Rescue Systems UNIQUE! Latest Generation PAWS Passive Airborne Warning System - Based on IR Staring Array Sensors and Signal Processing Techniques ll/ffQ electronic systems ltd. a member of the Elisra Group ELISRA CROUP. TEAMING TO ENFORCE MISSION SUPERIORITY. 48 Mivtza Kadesh St., Bene Beraq 51203, Israel, Tel.: 972-3-6175111, Fax: 972-3-6175468, e-mail:marketing@elisra com www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7-13 DEC EM BER 2004 45
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