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Photo: Yaron Brener
An IAI drone
Photo: Yaron Brener

Israel's unmanned vehicles shed a light on future of warfare

Exhibition organized by IsraelDefense puts latest developments and prototypes on display.

The latest versions of unmanned vehicles on air, sea and land that were on display at an exhibition in Israel this week shows that the technology is getting better, and dozens of new systems are on the market. One new product is the Amstaff, an unmanned ground vehicle developed by Automotive Robotic Industry.

 

 

“The Amstaff is very unique – it’s not only intelligent driving, but it’s security-mission-oriented,” Amos Goren, the CEO and developer of the vehicle told The Media Line. “It’s supposed to replace the driver and the security officer. It can save money and people’s lives for dangerous or dirty missions.”

 

The vehicle comes equipped with radiation sensors, which could be used in the case of a nuclear disaster. It has two electric batteries, and runs silently. Goren says the vehicle was used during the recent fighting between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip to protect a kibbutz on the Gaza border.

 

IAI Harop (Photo: Yoav Zitun)
IAI Harop (Photo: Yoav Zitun)

“If people are going out to the fields, it opened a path for them,” he said. “And if there are bombs and people are inside the shelters, they send it to find out what’s going on outside.”

 

The fighting in Gaza was on many people’s minds here, and the role that unmanned vehicles can play. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers died in the fighting, many of them searching for the underground tunnels that Hamas had dug to infiltrate into Israel.

 

“We made a prototype of a quadrocopter that can go into the tunnels and map them out,” Tom Peled, of XLN, a company that offers “maker spaces” similar to high-tech incubators told The Media Line. “One problem we had in Gaza is that you know where the tunnels start but you don’t know where it ends. We created this prototype in just a few days, and it could fly around objects and map the tunnel.”

 

The prototype was made for Israeli defense company, Elbit, and many of the parts were made in a 3-D printer that Peled was demonstrating. The total cost was $1000. He said that in the future, he thinks this would be one of the systems used. He said that Israel is on the cutting edge of drone technology.

 

IAI Super Heron (Photo: IAI)
IAI Super Heron (Photo: IAI)

 

“Because we don’t have a lot of natural resources we’re pushed to use our human resources more,” he said. “If you have tons of oil, you can just buy the technology from someone else. We don’t the oil so we need to innovative, creative and one the cutting edge.”

 

The conference was organized by IsraelDefense, and brought together civilian and military applications. Many of the CEO’s today had long army careers, and many of the visitors to the exhibition seemed to know each other. There were as many dressed in army uniforms as in civilian clothes.

 

One product that attracted a lot of attention was a surveillance balloon manufactured by RT, Ltd.

 

Versatile, small UAV (Photo: IAI)
Versatile, small UAV (Photo: IAI)

 

“We design, manufacture and fly technical aerostats under the name SkyStar,” Managing Director Rami Shmueli told The Media Line. “We will fly any payload that will perform better if it’s above the ground – radios, cameras, surveillance – we will carry it. We fly for 72 hours, come down for 15 minutes, and go up again.”

 

He said the system costs from $50,000 to $2 million depending on the payload. They have been used all over the world, most recently for security at the Lady Gaga concert in Tel Aviv, and the World Cup games in Rio.

 

The balloons often carry sophisticated cameras, which are also used in Israel for border surveillance.

 

“Balloons, UAV’s and helicopters are all moving applications and the camera must be stabilized,” Lori Erlich of Controp, told The Media Line. “When they move, the vibrations cause an unsteady picture, which means it is of no value. We develop cameras that can be stabilized and offer excellent detail.”

 

Many of the presenters at the conference said that drones will continue to play a role in warfare in years to come. Yet they will also have commercial applications.

 

“Drones came from the defense industry,” Ran Krauss of Bladeworx, a company that provides aerial footage to news stations around the world told The Media Line. “They became much cheaper so now everyone can use them privately.”

 

Article written by Linda Gradstein.

 

Reprinted with permission from The Media Line.

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.22.14, 11:03
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