Israeli Suicide Drone on Offer to U.S.

An Israeli-designed suicide drone may soon find its way into the arsenal of U.S. infantry weapons, The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.

Israeli defense company UVision and U.S. defense giant Raytheon worked together to adapt the Hero 30 remotely-operated loitering munition to U.S. military requirements.

Now, they are offering the advanced portable weapon to the Pentagon to be made available to troops in future combat zones, said Yair Dubester, Director of UVision.

Weighing only 6.6 pounds, making it the lightest member of its loitering munition family, the Hero 30 can be carried by individual soldiers. It carries a 1.1 pound warhead.

Launched from a canister using air pressure alone, it can fly on its electrical engine and wings for up to 30 minutes, before attacking a target like a missile.

At launch, the drone has the advantage of not leaving behind a thermal or acoustic signature, Dubester said.

“Through past sales, which I can’t detail, we recognized their awareness to these products. Raytheon then linked up with us,” Dubester said.

The Hero 30 “takes off like a missile and flies like a drone. It can carry out day and night surveillance like a drone. When it finds a target, it can attack from above, or behind,” Dubester said. “The hard part was teaching a missile to fly like a plane,” he added, referring to the system’s wings, which enable it to loiter and search for targets.