Kamikaze drone loiters above, waits for target

(Credit: IAI)

A new kamikaze drone out of Israel is designed to hang about overhead until it spots a target, then crash into it with "pinpoint accuracy" destroying the target, and itself, with 50 pounds of on-board explosives.

While classified as a Loitering Munition, the HAROP comes equipped with many of the usual UAV capabilities: high-performance FLIR and color CCD camera with 360-degree hemispherical coverage, allowing it to transmit video back to its operators just like a surveillance drone.

Like its predecessor the Harpy, the HAROP will be used to take out high-value targets such as air defense radars that transmit a strong pulse. But there's nothing to indicate it can't home-in on a cell phone call from a moving car. Fortunately, the developer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), has thoughtfully included a Man in the Loop feature that enables the missile to be controlled in real time in case an attack needs aborting to avoid collateral damage.

The HAROP can be launched from a variety of platforms, including a ground vehicle. Launched out the box on a booster rocket, it unfold its wings, starts up an internal-combustion driven pusher propeller, and begins the hunt. Once a target is identified, it can crash "from any direction and at any attack angle, from flat to vertical which is highly essential in urban areas."

IAI has reportedly already signed a $100 million-plus contract to supply the lethal loiterers to an unidentified customer. Throwaway UAVs may do for IAI what disposable razors have done for Gillette.

[Michichael]

Oooh. I'll take 500.

[Jack K1]

Dumb - and not just the typos and bad grammar.

1) too slow during attack phase - can be shot down by ground fire as it approaches its target
2) no battlefield damage assessment without a 2nd craft in the air
3) a UAV with a couple of hellfire missiles does all this without these critical problems

[kingtrae79]

and everyone knows that that's what the world needs, another way for cowards to kill from afar. what's the difference between this and a suicide bomber? both use robots, and at the end of the day, both puppeteers get to go home to their families and act like nothing happened that day. the only difference is that one is a highly funded solution, and one isn't funded quite so well so it uses more of a religious slant to achieve it's goal-- after all salvation is free and if life on earth sucks because other children of God look at and treat you like less than a child of god, why not try for an express ticket to the afterlife? At least that seems to be how it's sold to the poor and desperate who many times are indoctrinated into extremist views. It's a sick twist of irony how alike the two sides are, you know, us and them? the rhetoric from both sides is the same - relying on blind faith in leadership, ignorance, and misinformation to keep the whole bloody song and dance going

[Michichael]

I don't know, suicide bombers seem to have some good funding... think of all the virgins they need to provide. And the cost of running the suicide hotline? :P

[Justin_McCloudPhoto]

Very interesting article. These could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.

[url=http://www.mccloudphotography.com]Justin[/url]