The first pictures of Israel’s secret, large-payload, weapons-carrying unmanned aircraft have leaked out.
Until the recent turmoil in the Defense Ministry’s senior officials over the results of the Lebanon conflict last summer, the Israeli Air Force has been considering plans to pull the wraps off its very large (wingspan of at least 85-ft., about the same as a Boeing 737 airliner), long-range, unmanned aircraft. Instead, four pictures taken from a video, reportedly taken during its clandestine first flight last July, have surfaced. The UAV has been flown, with no publicity, several times since. However, it may still make its first public appearance at the Paris Air Show in June. It is variously known as the Heron II, Eitan and Machatz II.
Both the manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries and the Defense Ministry, refuse to comment. But the heritage of IAI’s Heron I, about one-quarter the size, is obvious in the Heron II’s pusher engine (although a much bigger turboprop), twin tail booms and inwardly sloped vertical stabilizers. What becomes obvious, only when people give the aircraft scale, is its huge size. People can stand upright under the wing without touching it.
The Heron TP, thought to be the template for the Heron II, was designed for a 7,940 lb. maximum takeoff weight, 1,300 lb. payload, 1,000 horsepower turboprop engine, 240 kt. airspeed and 20 hr. endurance at up to 42,000 ft. The Heron II’s MTOW has grown to at least 8,800 lb., so the other metrics may have increased as well. (At left: Heron I, about 1/4 the size of Heron II)
What’s uncertain is whether the resignation of the Israel Defense Force’s chief of the general staff, Air Force Lt. Gen. Dani Halutz will affect the modernization plans that include the Heron II. The top, uniformed military position has reverted to the Army and expectations among senior IAF officials are that the ground-forces’ acquisition priorities will be elevated. Whether that will be to the detriment of aviation modernization is not yet known.
--David Fulghum
(Heron II photos credit: Tsahi Ben-Ami)
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