How Israel will take out the S-300?
One of the things that may be pushing Israel into attacking Iran sooner is the Iranians taking delivery of the S-300 air defense. I've discussed the S-300 many times, including the drill that the IDF conducted against it over the Mediterranean in June 2008.Last week, I showed you a really neat video of a 'suicide drone' called the Herod. For those who have forgotten, please go here and watch it again.
Two weeks ago, a specialized aviation publication called Flight Global did a short blurb about an Israeli drone called the Harop (or Harrop). The blurb includes lots of details.
Israel Aerospace Industries [should be Israel Aircraft Industries? CiJ] is developing new versions of loitering weapon systems for suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) missions.DEBKA claims that the Harop is to be used to attack the S-300:
The Harop is a bigger, improved version of IAI's Harpy anti-radiation drone and is equipped with an electro-optical sensor, enabling the operator to select targets during the loitering time over the target area.
The 2.5m (8.2ft)-long drone, powered by a heavy-fuel engine that drives a pusher propeller, is launched from a canister and its foldable wing has a 3m span. It is equipped with a 23kg (51lb) warhead and can hit static and moving targets.
A satcom data link enables the selection of targets throughout the 6h endurance of the Harop, which is launched from ground or sea launchers, but can be adapted for air launch.
The 135kg, delta-winged Harpy is still offered as a baseline loitering system.
The Israeli air industries first unveiled its new Harop "loiter drone" for taking out ground-to-air missiles at the annual Aero-India 2009 air show which closed recently at Bangalore.If you look up the Herod (as it was called in the video I posted last week) on Wikipedia, you will be redirected to the Harop (which is here).
The Iranian media were first to disclose that this sophisticated Israeli drone is capable of targeting the Russian radar-equipped S-300 anti-air missile before it enters attack mode .
DEBKAfile's military sources report that while Iran has contracted to buy from Russia five S-300 batteries worth $800 m to defend its nuclear sites against potential aerial attack, India and Turkey are interested in Israel's Harop killer-drone. Our sources report that the Tehran media made much of the new Israeli drone as a means of pushing Moscow to set the new batteries' delivery dates which the Russian suppliers have so far withheld.
...
The Harop is an expendable unmanned aerial vehicle which can sustain a mission of several hours over an assigned area. Operated by electro-optical sensors, Harop can detect weapons systems in inert mode, weapons on the move and radar installations switched off to avoid detection.
Our military experts maintain that once it penetrates Iranian airspace, this drone can silence surface-to-air batteries and open the skies to aerial and missile attack.
Hmmm.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:06 PM
2 Comments:
I pray Israel will attack iran soon and hit them very hard. As an American I am sorry my country will not help you.
I don't understand how that could work, because the S-300 can target multiple air targets including rockets (aka, they do not have to be large targets) at a long distance. I just hope they are right and that this drone can do the job.
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