A directive is forcing the IDF to adopt the Flying Elephant to supply frontline troops. The Flying Elephant will take off from Israeli territory, carrying up to a ton of cargo, fly silent, and deposit the cargo on target within a few tens of meters of the troops. It will then independently take off and fly to the next satisfied unit. For the sake of clarification, we are not talking about Dumbo, but a real elephant.
For years, the Ministry of Defense Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure's Logistics Department and the IDF's infantry units have been thinking about new ways to deliver supplies to combat troops. They sent the specifications to Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT) engineers, and the Flying Elephant was born, mostly on the drawing boards and as a small-scale prototype. IDF officers monitoring its development believe that, within two years, subject to obtaining reasonable budgets, it will be possible to see the prototype making its first test flights.
If all goes according to plan, the Flying Elephant will be operational within 4-5 years. "It won't happen tomorrow morning, but when it happens, we will have something that no other army in the world has. This system will demonstrate innovation on the modern battlefield," said a senior officer in the IDF's Technology and Logistics Directorate.
A one-ton cargo
Logistics unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are intended as a response to the rising threat faced by pilots ferrying and parachuting supplies to combat troops, as well as a response to the difficulty in opening ground routes for trucks carrying supplies to the forces in the field for continuing the campaign.
When the Flying Elephant flies off the drawing board, it will look like a giant powered parachute or paraplane. In actuality, it will be a sophisticated, powerful, and, most of all, life-saving piece of equipment. Its powerful engine will enable it to take off automatically, its state-of-the-art GPS systems will enable to navigate precisely over tens of kilometers. The landing system that Elbit Systems is now developing will enable it to deliver its cargo and take off from the same point.
The biggest challenge facing the Flying Elephant's developers is weight: how to develop a platform that can carry a one-ton or larger cargo long distances. "This is one of our greatest challenges," said the officer. "We all know how to work with powered parachutes, but we need something that goes far beyond the familiar light parachutes, and this can only be achieved with a powerful engine that can quickly carry a heavy cargo stably at tens of kilometers an hour."
The Flying Elephant has not yet taken off, but it is already possible to foil it with a slew of conditions and responses. For example, it can be argued, with some degree of justification, that the Ministry of Defense and Elbit Systems are producing an easy to shoot down target for Hizbullah and other future enemies. But the IDF says that this is exactly the reason for developing unmanned systems to fly deep into enemy territory, and that one of the advantages of the system is that it has neither a mother nor a father.
"We are taking everything into account, including the fact that, ultimately, the system is vulnerable. This is the main reason why the system is intended for nighttime use, it will have a minimal radar signature, and, of course, we're investing a lot of thought in its survivability in different conditions," said the officer.
When the Flying Elephant becomes operational, it will add another level to the network of the IDF's unmanned systems, which is under constant development, especially by the Air Force. State-of-the-art UAVs with satellite navigation systems and equipped with the latest technologies, all of which are designed and built by Israeli companies, are taking an increasing role of current operations for routine patrol, intelligence, and reconnaissance missions. They also do wonderful things which are kept under wraps.
In Afghanistan, the US Army uses armed UAVs on search and destroy missions of terrorists, and in this regard at least, the US military has invented nothing new.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 10, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012