Israeli Airforce Receives Latest Generation Of UAV’s

Israeli Air Force chief Ido Nehushtan introduces the Eitan, the latest generation of the Israel Aerospace Industries’ successful Heron TP Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) at a ceremony welcoming the aircraft to the 210th UAV squadron on February 21, 2010 at the Tel Nof air base in central Israel. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)

TEL AVIV — It’s been months since Israel lifted a gag rule about its possession and use of armed drones in military operations, but the admission hasn’t been followed by any significant change in export licensing regulations, according to industry and defense sources here who say defense firms are chaffing at the inability to hawk their wares abroad.

Though Israel’s use of armed drones was widely reported by foreign press, the fact was censored in Israel, which also meant Israeli firms couldn’t openly discuss their armed capabilities with potential foreign buyers. Countries could still purchase the platforms themselves, but not with the weapons designed to go on them. (Germany’s recent lease of Israeli drones is a complex exception.)

When the gag rule was lifted in July under pressure from industry, it appears some had high hopes an update to foreign export regulations was soon to follow. Immediately after the gag rule lifted, sources said that multiple countries initiated preliminary talks with Israeli defense giants Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems. IAI makes the Heron family of UAVs, and Elbit, the Hermes.

But even while frustration reached a fever pitch as Turkish firms capitalized on the success of their drones in the Ukraine conflict, especially the now-famed Bayraktar, export licenses were denied by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the sources said.

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“I can say that there is no real reason for not allowing the Israeli companies to export the armed UAVs,” said one senior Israeli defense analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. “There was no sense in the gag order that was in force for 20 years, and now the situation [has become] worse.”

The Israeli Ministry of Defense declined to comment for this report.

The analyst said the denials were especially “idiotic” since the Israeli military has asked the firms to invest more money into developing longer-range, higher-speed UAVs, as Breaking Defense previously reported. There’s no exact public information on what the Ministry of Defense wants, but broadly it appears the wish list includes special payloads that would enable upgrading mission details while the platform is on its way to the operational zone.

IAI describes the Heron–TP as a strategic UAV with a max takeoff weight of 5,670 kilograms (12,500 pounds), a max payload of 2,700 kilograms (5,952 pounds), 30 hours of endurance and a max altitude of 45,000 feet. According to its company data sheet, Elbit’s Hermes-450 has a takeoff weight of 550 kilograms (1,123 pounds) and a max payload of 180 kilograms (397 pounds), endurance of 17 hours and the max altitude of 18,000 feet.

Israeli defense sources said, however, that these two UAVs are only the “tip of the iceberg,” and that the Israeli Air Force is using additional platforms equipped with special payloads and special weapon systems. The specifics of those UAVs are highly classified, even as they perform missions almost daily.

One potential client apparently eager for the armed platforms is Azerbaijan, which has been a client of the Israeli defense industry for many years and which used Israeli defense systems in previous conflicts over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. But a request on its behalf, too, was denied, sources said. The Azeri Ministry of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.

RELATED: Israel may be looking to strengthen ties to Azerbaijan as an Iran counter

Breaking Defense reported in 2021 that the Israeli defense industry had begun pushing in earnest for defense export rules to change, that time focusing freeing unarmed versions of the drones. As evidenced by unarmed drone sales since, that pressure appears to have worked, but the frustration is similar today to then. At the time of the 2021 report, an industry source had said, “We cannot play according to these rules anymore, when everybody else just goes wild.”