In recent months, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, an Iranian proxy, managed to shoot down a number of U.S-made MQ-9 medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (MALE UAVs.)
During the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Iranian proxies in Gaza and Lebanon that started on OCt. 7 last year. Hezbollah in Lebanon successfully downed a number of Israeli Hermes-900 MALE UAVs. All were hit by anti-aircraft systems.
There is a growing understanding in Israel that the operational pattern of MALE UAVs will have to be changed to address their growing vulnerability to new threats.
Across Europe and the rest of the world, MALE UAVs are widely used in combat. They are capable of hovering over a target for up to 24 hours, weigh between 0.5 and 5 tons, and operate at altitudes of 15,000 to 30,000 feet. These UAVs have become increasingly dominant in intelligence, target detection, area scanning, and attack operations as their sensors, sophistication, and command, control, and communication systems have all increased.
In recent years, Israeli MALE UAVs performed a record number of flight hours over Lebanon and Gaza gathering intelligence about the activities of the Iranian proxies and attacking sites and operators of weapon systems that were prepared to launch against targets in Israel.
According to Yair Ramati , former director of Israel's missile defence organization in the ministry of defence, MALE UAVs are capable of flying above MANPADS' ceiling without being engaged by air defence systems.
''In the past, terror groups like Hezbollah , Hamas Houthis and Shiite militias in Iraq lacked air defence systems necessary to shoot down these UAVs. But as the Iranians have gradually upgraded their locally made air defence system, they are now capable of shooting down different aerial platforms including MALE UAVs operated by Israel. One of these is the Iranian Ziad 2 missile, a clone of the U.S SM1 missile and the other is jet powered ''358'' air defence system. Remains of this interceptor were recently found in Lebanon.''
According to Ramati , the new development has facilitated a change. "Either allocating MALE tasks to tactical arrays, which include different attack quadcopters , smaller and less expensive UAVs , loitering munitions , or utilizing low observable jet powered UAVs . The industry has just begun responding to this evolving challenge,'' he said.
A very senior (res.) officer in the Israeli Airforce, who has been involved in the operation of UAVs, has a totally different approach.
''The option to equip the MALE UAV with self-protection systems like those carried by fighter aircraft is not realistic as these will affect the volume of weapon systems carried by the UAV," he said. "Therefore one option is to give a number of these MALE UAVs a protection envelope to be created by a special mission aircraft equipped with the systems that create such protection. This of course complicates the UAV operation but is, at this point, the right solution.''
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