Cost, payload and EW defense: Israel’s Aeronautics CEO talks the future of tactical UAVs
JERUSALEM — As militaries the world over race to embrace drone warfare, the head of the Israeli defense firm Aeronautics told Breaking Defense the market is only growing for tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are bigger and more capable than most quadcopters, but smaller and much more affordable than large, long-range systems.
“We are living in interesting times. A lot of the systems we have are called to duty and are active in all aspects of the modern war theatre, locally and around the world,” Aeronautics CEO Dan Slasky said in an interview. “We see this in the Middle East and Ukraine.”
Slasky said those conflicts have also shown, however, that being “cost effective” is not enough. Increasingly the drones need to be hardened against electronic warfare attacks and must carry a wide range of sensors for different missions. Interest is also growing in platforms with the vertical takeoff capability.