Israel's Kamikaze UAV

Harpy






Weighs 135 kg, 2.1 meter long, 2.7 meter span and with range of 500 km. It is sealed in its sealed launcher/container, to endure harsh battlefield conditions.

HARPY is a lethal UAV designed to detect, attack and destroy radar emitters.

Harpy is a "Fire-and-Forget" all-weather, day/night autonomous weapon system, launched from a ground vehicle behind the battle zone or from ship based launchers.

HARPY effectively suppresses hostile SAM and radar sites for long duration, by detecting, attacking and destroying radar targets with a very high hit accuracy.

HARPY provides the most effective solution to the hostile radar problem, at the lowest price. HARPY is in production, is already operational with several nations Air Forces, and is currently available.


It seems the Harpy is already operational in several countries. Turkey and India recently got some of them. Do you think this is a better way to go with a UAV compared to the US making ones that will carry weapons and use them like a Manned plane would, Or is making cheap simple Kamikaze ones better?

Harpy

How would you define the difference between a cruise missile and a kamikaze UAV?

I do not think that I would be inclined to call this a UAV. I would call it an anti radiation cruise missile. I think that the difference between a cruise missile and a kamikaze UAV is that a cruise missile will never return to its launching point but a UAV (a real one) would return to base if it was unable to find a target.

Other than the dispute with the classification, this is an interesting weapon.

I would agree with Lerkur.
I wouldn't call this a UAV just because it has wings, The US doesn't call thier JASSM weapon a UAV.
For me to think of this as a UAV, it would have to have the ability to come back to its launching point and land, if it's original target wasn't there.

as for the other question which method is better, I would say the US way is over-all better. Because they can fly there and if the (mobile) target has moved or they realized that they were "Friendlies" they could abort with no harm done.

The Israeli way is cheaper but if you launch it only to relize you just shot it at the wrong target, the best you could do is have it hopefully explode in an open field. But wasting one of them is more expensive then the US UCAV which fired nothing and turned around back for the base.

Its basically a cruise missle. The reason its called UAV is probably because it probably has the capabilities to RTB if the target changes position. Also UAV sounds more high tech than cruise missle seeing as the US is still making first generation UAVs. I like the concept of a small cruise missle though. But I like the idea of mounting hellfires on drones a bit better. It allows you to save the drone while hitting multipule targets.

[edit on 8/4/2004 by cyberdude78]

The drone flies autonomously enroute to its patrol area its radar seeker head constantly search for hostile radars.

Once suspicious radar is acquired, Harpy compares the signal to the library of hostile emitters, and prioritizes the threat

If the radar is turned off before Harpy strikes, the drone can abort the attack and continue loitering. If no radar was spotted during the mission, the drone is programmed to self destruct over a designated area. Follow-on systems which are already proposed to foreign clients, are calling for a combination of seeker and killer drones that will enable visual identification and attack of targets even after they turn off their emitters.

A cruise misslie has to have a target to be fired before you shoot it. Also you can't call off the attack after it has launched. Harpy could just be fired over a area and loiter over a area looking for a target all by itself. Client countries are ordering versions that are just seeker drones. Thats why I think this is classifed as a UAV rather then a cruise missile.

I see everyones point though, it really sounds like what America is calling its new version of so called ''Brilliant weapons'' Missiles that will fly in a figure 8 pattern over a area and if they see a enemy tank or something they will attack.

This is how Israel classifed this new weapon not me. Might just be a marketing strategy

If this weopon is for radar use only then i don't see how it can really be used much.

It's pretty much an offensive use only weapon, i'm sure Iran doesn't like it much.

Trust me taking out radar is very important. It can make a huge difference in air superiority and A2G operations.

I guess now Israel can bomb more civilians and say they were taking out a radar site Also is this UAV/Cruise missile GPS guided or what?

Well the version they have now seems search for the signal a enemy radar would send out. Some how it can tell a friendly radar from a hostile. Newer versions will use visual identification and attack of targets even after they turn off their emitters.

Im sure they have GPS on them but they dont seem to use GPS to find targets

It might use GPS to get to the combat zone but to find, track, and hit targets it works just like an HARM (high-speed anti radiation missle). But Isreal doesn't have much of a GPS system if any so it would be impractical to make it GPS guided. But this UAV is also useful for knocking out many types of SAMs and other AAA batteries along with most large ships. So Isreal can use this to basically annilate most anti-aircraft weaponry and detection while it can also be used for anti-naval operations. Pretty nice you've got to admit.