With the announcement last week by Israeli weapon systems maker Rafael that it is to abandon its efforts to expand into the unmanned air vehicles market, Israel is left with just three major manufacturers of UAVs: longstanding UAV makers Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries and their much smaller rival, Aeronautics.
Rafael's unmanned aircraft programme was a bid to leverage its expertise to enter a market opened up by an Israeli defence force decision to equip infantry units with small, tactical UAVs. Rafael teamed up with BlueBird Aero Systems, a small Israeli UAV manufacturer, which designed the airframe for what became the Skylite-B. Rafael brought its wide expertise in payloads and data links.
The army eventually chose Elbit Systems' Skylark I LE mini-UAVs as a battalion-level system, and on 17 January Rafael marketing vice-president Lova Drori confirmed the company's withdrawal from the market: "We don't have an advantage in UAV platforms and we will not develop new ones."
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© Elbit SystemsElbit's wide scope of competence underpins its UAV success |
He added, though, that Rafael has signed a co-operation agreement to supply payloads for various UAVs built by Aeronautics.
BlueBird will continue to market the SkyLite, particularly to foreign customers. President Ronen Nadir says that it will equip the aircraft with a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell system for 7h endurance.
IN FOR THE LONG HAUL
Two impressive figures underscore the difficulty that even an advanced technology company like Rafael faces in breaking into this market: Elbit has been making UAVs for nearly 20 years, and IAI has been active for 30, including in the USA and Europe.
Elbit currently supplies the Israeli defence force; foreign successes include its Hermes 450, which is the basis for the British Army's Watchkeeper programme.
For IAI, UAVs are a major product line and its Heron medium-altitude long-endurance system has been chosen by foreign customers including Germany, Australia and Turkey.
Aeronautics, the smallest active Israeli UAV manufacturer, has also scored impressive results with its main programmes to convert the Diamond DA42 fixed-wing and Dynali H2S kit helicopter to unmanned platforms.
OTHER CASUALTIES
Rafael is not the only Israeli heavyweight to give up on UAVs. Israeli Military Industries announced in 2005 that it intended to enter the market with fixed- and rotary-wing systems.
At the time IMI said its systems design capability underpinned its decision to move into UAVs, and the initial effort, based within its heavy ammunition group, was - like Rafael's - focused on the Israeli defence force's tender for a battalion-level system.
The result was the composite, electric-powered Rainbow, 1.4m (4.6ft) long with a 3.2m wingspan and maximum take-off weight of 6kg (13.2lb).
IMI had a pedigree, as the maker of the I-TALD air-launched decoy that since 1996 it has supplied to the US Navy and internationally. I-TALD is powered by a Teledyne CAE-312 turbofan engine, and is launched from fighter aircraft. With excellent manoeuvrability and a 35min flexible pre-programmed flightpath and profile based on a GPS navigation system, I-TALD appears on enemy radar screens as a fighter aircraft to attract anti-aircraft missiles and lure enemy activity away from fighters.
In 2000, IMI went on to develop the modular stand-off vehicle weapon system, but a lack of interest from the Israeli defence force led to the programme's termination in 2004.
The termination followed a successful test launch from an Israeli air force Boeing F-15, in which the gliding, 3.97m-long vehicle reached its maximum range of 120km (65nm), navigated to a pre-planned target and dispersed inert submunitions.
BROAD CAPABILITIES
"The fact that Rafael and IMI have practically abandoned the UAV market shows that companies with a wide scope of activities directly related to the core activities of UAVs - including payloads, C4ISR systems, etc - like IAI and Elbit Systems are the ones that can make UAVs a very successful business," says Tal Inbar, head of the Space and UAV research centre at Israel's Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies.
In their home market alone the payback for such companies promises to be great - in 10 to 15 years it is expected that more than one-third of the Israeli air force's platforms will be unmanned.
Source: Flight International
