Introducing the Israeli-designed ‘Hero 30’: It takes off like a missile and flies like a drone, can carry out day and night surveillance and when it finds a target, it can attack from above, or behind.
The director of Israeli defense company UVision told the Jerusalem Post that the US realized the need for such weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yair Dubester says the plan is to make such weapons “small, extremely accurate to avoid friendly fire, and accessible to all infantry soldiers.”
US defense giant Raytheon is reportedly teaming up with UVision to adapt the remotely-operated loitering munition to US military requirements.
Raytheon issued a statement recently saying: “the adapted system will meet the U.S. Army’s requirement for Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile Systems“(LMAMS).
Weighing just 3 kilograms, the Hero 30 is the lightest member of its loitering munitions family and is designed for individual soldier use– unlike the larger suicide drones. It carries a half kilogram warhead, can fly for up to 30 minutes and is launched from a canister using air pressure alone.
Its warhead weight and the overall fly time well exceed the minimum requirements set for LMAMS.
“The hard part was teaching a missile to fly like a plane,” Dubester said, referring to the suicide drone’s wings, which enable it to loiter and search for targets.
This wouldn’t be the first time the US and Israel teamed up for such a project. Israel Aerospace Industry was linked to the infamous predator drone, Dubester says, and in the 80s and 90s the US purchased IAI’s Pioneer and Hunter drones.
© 2016 Bright Mountain Media, Inc.
All rights reserved. The content of this webpage may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written consent of Bright Mountain Media, Inc. which may be contacted at info@brightmountainmedia.com
Police ID suspect in Memorial Day cemetery vandalism
Army MP charged with murder after paintball confrontation