The UAV is Poised to Strike

by Michael Puttré
Jun. 1, 2001

A man is running along a rocky trail. The video is monochrome, and the scene is shot from above, as if from a police helicopter. The running man reaches a dirt road and encounters a flatbed truck, which pauses to let him climb into the cab. The truck is carrying multiple rocket launchers. The truck continues on and the driver attempts to conceal the vehicle in a small grove of trees. For a while there is no movement, except for the slow change in perspective from the loitering aircraft. Then the truck blows up.

This scene, recently shown to visiting journalists by Col Nir Barkan, commander of 200 Squadron at the Palmachim Israeli Air Force Base south of Tel Aviv, occurred during Israel's pullout from its self-described "Security Zone" in southern Lebanon in the spring of 2000. The aircraft that shot the video was an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), one of a score or more such aircraft that equip the unique squadron (the exact number is confidential). Elements of Hizbollah guerrillas harassed the retreating Israelis, and 200 Squadron flew numerous UAV sorties in support of the withdrawal. The main missions were reconnaissance and target acquisition: spotting for IAF aircraft flying strike missions, such as the one described above that culminated in a fighter releasing a laser-guided bomb. Barkan denied that the UAV itself carried the laser target designator that guided the bomb into the truck, but he said that this is a capability his squadron possesses and is developing further.

Israel is perhaps the most enthusiastic user of UAVs in the world. 200 Squadron was formed in 1971, and today it operates mainly the Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI)-Malat (Tel Aviv, Israel) Searcher II, although the Palmachim base appears to operate a few Silver Arrow (Rishon-Lezion, Israel) Hermes 450 craft, which may be the nucleus of a new squadron. Barkan said both of these types carry electro-optical and infrared sensors, synthetic- aperture radar, and laser target designators. The main difference is endurance: the Searcher II reportedly can remain aloft for 12 hours, while the Hermes 450 has an endurance of up to 20 hours. "Twelve hours is not enough," Barkan said. "I want to be able to put a combined, three-sensor payload up for 24 or 36 hours."

Israel is making extensive use of UAVs to counter the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza, in addition to patrolling the borders with Lebanon and Syria. The Hermes 450 will go some way toward satisfying the requirement for greater endurance. Another step in this direction is the Hermes 1500, a twin-engine UAV with a reported endurance of up to 30 hours, a payload capacity of 350 kilograms, and a service ceiling of 30,000 feet. Silver Arrow - a subsidiary of Elbit Ltd. (Haifa, Israel) - was demonstrating a Hermes 1500 to the IAF at Palmachim in May.

More important than the specifics of platform performance is the role the IAF sees its UAVs performing. Adding a laser target designator to the vehicle's array of payloads radically changes its character. A multi-sensor payload that packages nightvision-type cameras in a turret assembly with a laser designator makes the UAV a force-multiplier for strike aircraft or even ground-launched weapons with laser-seeking heads. What's more, an aerial target- acquisition platform combined with other platforms capable of launching top-attack weapons counters the tactical advantage a defender enjoys from a hull-down or reverse-slope position. Not so far down the development path from there are UAVs that carry weapons for attacking the targets they acquire.

Killer Application

Intriguingly, officials at IAI-Malat said the company is participating in a program with the US to develop an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) for countering the threat posed by theater ballistic missiles, specifically Scud-types on mobile launchers. An earlier effort to develop a UCAV that would carry an air-to-air missile to intercept a ballistic missile in its boost phase has been discarded as unworkable. Under the latest concept, called Boost Phase Launcher Intercept (BPLI), a UCAV will have sensors that can detect a missile launch. The UCAV will then attack the launcher on the ground.

The destruction of the mobile launcher might be accomplished with ordnance delivered by the UCAV or possibly by a "suicide" attack by the vehicle itself, which would carry a warhead. The Israeli Army currently deploys the IAI Harpy - a delta wing, propeller-driven UAV that loiters over the battlefield looking for radar emissions from SAM sites. When it acquires a target, the Harpy performs like an anti-radiation missile, diving for the kill. Either way, the operational concept requires a hostile missile launch before the UCAV could go into action. The missile that "got away" would be engaged by Israel's Arrow anti-ballistic missile. Israel currently has a single Arrow unit operational, located on the Palmachim base. A total of three Arrow sites are planned.

Israel views the destruction of launchers as they key to a successful ballistic-missile-defense system. "Our hostile neighbors have many more missiles than they have launchers," said Ovadia Harari, executive vice president and chief operating officer of IAI, with some estimates putting the ratio at 10:1. "The ability to destroy launchers on the ground is very important."

Ground attack - specifically, suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) - is the primary mission envisioned for the Boeing X-45 UCAV, currently being evaluated at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (Edwards, CA) under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program. Some analysts describe the SEAD mission as being the second most complicated one after air-to-air combat. Asking a UCAV to take on such a role is a tall order.

Colonel Michael Leahy, program manager for the X-45 project, said the complexity of the autonomy issue is related to how much leeway you want to give a UCAV. On a SEAD mission, the operational descendant of the X-45 could operate in one of several modes. It could be in a search-and-confirm mode, where it checks in with the operator and must receive specific instructions to attack; or it could be in an attack-unless-aborted mode, where it checks in with the operator and will proceed with the attack unless instructed not to; or it could be in a kill-box mode, where it will attack any valid target inside a certain zone. Leahy said the program is many years away from granting any UCAVs "kill box" autonomy.

In the short term, the X-45 is scheduled to begin flight tests this summer. Leahy said these tests will be of flight systems only, and no payload or mission-oriented electronics will be fitted. If all goes well, the next phase of the program will see two or more X-45s operating together. Ultimately, the goal is to demonstrate a near-operational system, with X-45s performing cooperative strike missions with full sensor, electronics, and weapons fit. What kind of weapons might the X-45 carry in the SEAD role? Interestingly, Leahy said his mandate was to do the job as inexpensively as possible, which means iron bombs.