Tel Aviv: Israel has been using fixed wing UAV armed with missile for more than 20 years. Now the industry is moving towards arming rotary unmanned systems with advanced weapons.
Israeli company Steadicopter, developing Rotary Unmanned Aerial Systems (RUAS) industry, unveiled the Golden Eagle HS (Heavy Strike) Rotary Unmanned Aerial System for heavy strike capabilities being developed in collaboration with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
This collaboration expands the Golden Eagle family capabilities, adding a new attack capability dimension, expanding the system’s operational versatility and reinforcing its proven performance. The Golden Eagle HS integrates Rafael’s powerful Spike missiles for precision heavy strike missions in tactical operations and close air support missions including border protection, perimeter security, urban warfare, in open area battlefields, ensuring battlespace dominance and maintaining significant deterrence.
The Golden Eagle HS provides rapid and pinpoint accuracy strike capabilities at stand-off range against evolving high-value threats even in dynamic and congested environments. By leveraging manoeuvrability and mission efficiency, ground forces can operate from safe, stand-off positions day and night, against both stationary and moving targets. When mounted on a tactical RUAV, the powerful spike missile allows for more versatile, longer range, ground attack angles, maximising firepower output while reducing the risk to infantry, marine corps, special forces, and other tactical ground units.
Equipped with advanced Spike missiles, known for their precision guidance and/or fire-and-forget capabilities and high-explosive warheads, the Golden Eagle HS offers enhanced lethality in a small, low signatures platform while covering vast operational areas of interest, expanding the power, versatility and strategic utilisation of assault units. The Golden Eagle HS platforms can be operated in tandem formations, with each RUAV carrying its own missile, ensuring mission continuity even if some units are compromised. This approach enhances operational effectiveness by distributing targets and maintaining strike capability against multiple objectives.
With a total takeoff weight of 50 kilograms the Golden Eagle HS can be equipped with Rafael Spike missiles, SR missile for a range of 2.5 kilometres and the LR2 for a range of 5.5 kilometres, enabling real-time mission versatility and immediate sensor-to-shooter capability at significantly large operational radiuses.
The system’s advanced sensor suite, featuring a high-definition day/night EO/IR payload and target tracker, optionally integrated with SightX’s AI advanced technology, ensures seamless target acquisition, tracking, and classification, even in adverse weather conditions and complex terrain. Thus, the system enables an individualised ID per object, ensuring continuous tracking with temporary obstructions or loss of sight within the field of view, and autonomously distinguishing between various targets, whether moving or stationary, human or vehicle-based. This real-time situational awareness empowers ground forces with actionable intelligence, enabling informed decision-making and rapid response capabilities.
“It is a privilege to lead Steadicopter’s exceptional team in the achievement of another significant milestone. The introduction of the Golden Eagle HS, in collaboration with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. – a global leader in missile technology -represents a modern, tactical solution that meets today’s critical operational demands with unmatched precision and standoff strike capability, without causing collateral damage, while keeping the troops out of harm’s way. This partnership blends Steadicopter’s cutting-edge RUAV technologies with Rafael’s decades of defence expertise, resulting in a solution that is greater than the sum of its parts,” said Itai Toren, CEO of Steadicopter.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Steadicopter in advancing the future of combat, where modern warfare demands innovative and advanced solutions,” a senior Rafael official noted and added, “This collaboration provides a cutting-edge, standoff warfighting RUAV that may very much reshape modern battlefield and will enable existing and new Spike missile users to utilise them in a new tactical, versatile, and lethal way.”
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
