Posted on 09/11/2017 10:34:08 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has developed a Maritime version of its Harop Loitering Munitions (LM) family. The company is displaying the weapon at the DSEI 2017 defense expo in London this week. The new marine capabilities of the HAROP extends the operational capability of surface ships, from offshore patrol vessels to naval frigates. The technological adjustments of the marine Harop include a launcher with new marine configuration and adjustments of the communication channel of the loitering munition.
In the past year, IAI unveiled several new types of LMs, including the New Generation Harpy autonomous anti-radiation weapon designed for air defense suppression missions (SEAD/DEAD) and Green Dragon, a smaller, tactical and affordable LM offering enhanced situational awareness and superior firepower for tactical land forces. The company also introduced a smaller killer drone – Rotem, a tactical LM based on a light multi-rotor platform that delivers outstanding capabilities against low signature enemy systems in urban and complex environments.
HAROP is a long endurance LM which can be launched from a variety of platforms. It combines the capabilities of a tactical UAV and guided missile as it is equipped to search, detect and attack high-value relocatable targets that are exposed for a very short time, thus becoming ‘time critical targets’. The weapon’s EO seeker comprises a high-performance FLIR/ color CCD with 360 degrees hemispherical coverage. In maritime operations, HAROP can be employed against targets on land as well as targets at sea.
Boaz Levi, Executive Vice President and General Manager of IAI’s Systems, Missiles & Space Group, commented: “The maritime HAROP is an operational weapon system which provides navies with a unique response and at a good cost-benefit ratio. As such, it has attracted the interest of different customers worldwide. When used on marine platforms, the HAROP provides an excellent operational alternative to sea-sea missiles as well as a range of additional uses such as intelligence gathering and allowing the operator to choose the precise timing of the attack. It is a welcome addition to IAI's solution offering for loitering munition missiles.”
Harop =/= Harrumpf
Yeah, before you say that... think about what a few thousand of these would do in Chinese hands to our Pacific Fleet. Remember, this is the Navy that sends ships to sea without basic certifications and with personnel who can’t see GIGANTIC MERCHANT VESSELS crawling along at under 10 knots on radar or with their Mk1 Eyeballs.
Now, imagine what would happen with our same Navy that comes steaming along in, oh, the Taiwan Strait about half an hour after a flotilla of Chinese missile boats unloads a few hundred of these things to stealthily loiter around the area. The flotilla leaves and is ‘clearly’ out of the area, but our ships get hit and possibly sunk anyway.
I will also remind you - the Israelis have a habit of selling their weapons tech to the highest bidder, so long as you aren’t an Arab country that wants to kill them, a supporter of said Arab countries, or otherwise anti-Israel.
And China has been quietly dumping billions into Israeli R&D companies...
That worm turned long ago...
Not like ours don’t?
In a shooting war, the half life of a battle group in the Taiwan Straight would be about 15 minutes, with or without these things. You’d set up a couple hundred miles or more east of there.
Your point is well taken though. Lots of cheap stealth recon platforms with the ability to take a shot at a contact is something not to be discounted.
Ours tend to be a great deal more circumspect and usually avoid stealth tech transfer. Israel has no such qualms outside of their immediate enemies.
Btt
Future war will encompass attack and bomb drones and hunter killer and counter drone platforms. The technology and design is already here. We need to be better than the enemy in deploying reconnaissance,defensive and offensive drones. I love new aircraft carriers but at the cost of over 12 billion and becoming more vulnerable,that money can create squadrons of capable drones.
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