National Experiences - British Commission for Military History

180 ai r p o w e r in 20 t H Ce n t u ry do C t r i n e s a n d em p l o y m e n t - nat i o n a l ex p e r i e n C e s
Penetration into the Air Force became smoother’ due to the fact that some of the
officers’ who had great belief in the systems and the concept were advanced to positions
in which their influence on Air Force Decisions and Planning was stronger.
A brief “History” of the RPVs /UAVs in service with the IAF is taken from the
Wikipedia:
UAVs are being operated in the IAF since 1971 performing various tasks. A lot
of publicity was made during the “Al Akza intiphade” due to their high involvement
in intelligence collection, and target location. In past years the IAF used US made
target drones and Reconnaissance platforms but in later years the IAF’s UAVs are
Israeli made by Israeli Defense Industries.
Now days the UAVs in service with the IAF are The Heron 1 and Hermes 450 for
observation, intelligence collection, and target designation.
The Harpy is a “suicide” platform in Air defense Suppression, and as published in
Aviation Week some Hermes 450 were equipped with missile-launchers.
In October 2007, the IAF made a presentation of the Heron TP which is about to
enter service and a tactical Mini RPV “Skylite B” which is in use for imaging intelligence
collection.
The IAF has gone a long way in the deployment of UAVs since the first steps
back in 1970 – and in parallel and very dependent on the operational and experimental
successes of the first systems, The Israeli Defense Industries became international
leaders in developing and introducing new and updated UAV systems.
UAVs today have a very large spectrum of flight capabilities: altitude, velocity,
endurance. High Survivability due to building materials, flight profiles, low noise
and multi-role function due to the many various payloads.
The IAF has accepted and absorbed the concept and the systems and it now considered
an important supporting pole in its overall structure.
The UAVs in the IAF have significance as proven Power Multiplier and as such
have won their place in the Air Force future plans. And as I look back along the track
we, the beginners walked, I can only thank the wisdom and far sight of my collegues,
in the unit and the HQ for directing us to push the concept with a constant measure
of the proportions. We pushed after we’ve shown results and we never threatened to
replace somebody “by a robot”. We didn’t promise a big cut in manpower when we
are fully operational because we knew we’ll need more or less the same figures as
in a manned squadron, but even in severe mission failures, we never left a pilot or a
widow behind.