Skynet is coming! New Israeli cargo drone is being spawned. Blogging from Israel on Guns, Security, Defense by DoubleTapper

Skynet is coming! New Israeli cargo drone is being spawned.

In what I will bill as an AWESOME new UAV platform, Elbit is developing a drone cargo plane, that would hypothetically be able to continuously transport one ton of supplies per trip to troops in theater (as a point of reference, a C-130J can haul 36 tons per flight, and the popular IAI Heron UAV can carry a quater-ton of stuff, but it's usually carrying electronic anti-bad guy awesomeness.) Once Elbit's robotic hauler becomes operational (in about 4-5 years), logistical support will get that much easier, not having to rotate in fresh pilots for lighter hauls, not to mention the reduced threat to airborne personnel. Now all they have to work on is the airplane's name...

Prepare yourselves, Skynet is coming...

"Defense News" reports that Elbit Systems Ltd. is working with the Ministry of Defense to develop unmanned cargo plane, dubbed the "Flying Elephant". Sources say that cargo an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a "huge, slow, self takeoff and landing pallet carrier that would fly through high winds and land in austere, unpaved areas."

The Ministry of Defense's Research & Development Directorate (Mafat) launched the project several weeks ago. Under the unpublicized [huh? except for on the internet... -ed.] multiyear contract, Elbit System will develop multiple prototypes of the Flying Elephant, which will be designed for maximum safety, stability, and carrying capacity.

Sources said that the cargo UAV will have limited range given the close proximity of most combat theaters where Israel is likely to deploy large numbers of ground forces. Future versions of the Flying Elephant may be configured for medical evacuation missions, with ground troops uploading severe casualties for the return flight home.

...
Defense and industry sources say that the development contract covers four years, with possible options for optimizing the aircraft for supporting medical evacuation missions.

"Defense News" said that Elbit Systems would not confirm or deny involvement in the program and referred all queries to the Ministry of Defense. A Ministry of Defense spokesman confirmed the recently awarded development program, and estimated that the first prototype should be ready for testing within two years, but declined to provide additional information.

"Defense News" compares the Flying Elephant with two other Israeli UAVs, one operational, and the other under development. The Israel Air Force deploys a small squadron of one-ton carrying UAVs, the multi-mission Heron, built by Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) (called the Eitan in Israel). It is far too sophisticated and costly to be used for close range cargo-hauling missions. [ed., not sure what the source is, but IAI themselves put the Heron's carrying capacity at 250kg, or 550 lbs., or 1/4 ton.]

The Flying Elephant will more than double the carrying capacity of the AirMule, a dedicated, multi-mission vertical-takeoff and-landing UAV in advanced flight testing by Yavne, Israel-based Urban Aeronautics Ltd. Defense and industry sources said that the AirMule, with its sophisticated internal lift rotors and low radar signature, represents a different class of the recently expanding cargo UAV market, and cannot be compared with the crude, propeller powered, outsized airframe envisioned for the Flying Elephant.

p.s., free marketing advice from the Doubletapper blog: Call this plane the Colossus.

Skynet is coming! New Israeli cargo drone is being spawned. Blogging from Israel on Guns, Security, Defense by DoubleTapper

More details on precursors to the 2007 Syrian nuclear reactor hit Blogging from Israel on Guns, Security, Defense by DoubleTapper

More details on precursors to the 2007 Syrian nuclear reactor hit

Mark Twain once said, "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."

Whenever I read about some Mossad escapade, Twain's quote comes to mind. If you can imagine a Mossad agent telling a true story to a CIA counterpart, the CIA guy will undoubtedly sputter, "But, but... that's impossible!" And he'd be right.

Every step along the way in this unconfirmed Telegraph report is impossible, and straight out of a movie or 24, but somehow, the miracle-wielding Jews have done it again...

The operation involved at least 10 undercover agents on the streets of Britain and led directly to a controversial bombing raid into Syrian territory that destroyed a nuclear reactor that was under construction.

It closely mirrored the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas arms trader, who was killed in his hotel room in Dubai last year using agents disguised as tennis players.

The operation began when Israeli intelligence picked up an online booking for a senior Syrian nuclear official at a hotel in Kensington [how the heck do you do that? Monitor clandestinely every hotel in the world? -ed.], west London, in late 2006, according to the Israeli authors of the book Israel vs Iran: the Shadow War.

Mossad then dispatched three undercover teams to Britain including a team of "spotters" who were sent to Heathrow airport to identify the official as he flew in from Damascus under a false name. A second team booked into his hotel, while a third monitored his movements and any visitors.

The agents included members of the Kidon [Spear] division, Mossad's hit squad, and the Neviot [Springs] division, which specialises in breaking into houses, embassies and hotel rooms to install bugging devices.

The first day of the official's trip was apparently devoted to a series of meetings at the Syrian embassy in Belgrave Square but the following day he went shopping before his return to the airport.

The Kidon team followed him closely from shop to shop while the Neviot agents broke into his room and found his laptop. A computer expert took 15 minutes to download the hard drive and install trojan software that allowed Israel to monitor every keystroke he made [the movies make this look easy, but I'm sure the laptop had military-grade encryption, and for a guy to hack in in 15 minutes is another miracle. -ed.]

When the computer material was examined at Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, officials found photographs and blueprints for a plutonium reactor at Al Kibar near Deir el-Zor, a remote desert town 80 miles from Syria's border with Iraq.

According to one source quoted in the book, the discovery saved the life of the official, who would otherwise have been killed in Britain, causing a major diplomatic incident.
"His computer and its contents turned out to be his life insurance. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have left Europe alive," the security official boasted.

In August 2007 Israel apparently sent a special forces team into Syria to collect soil samples near the reactor, then at around 1am on September 5 2007 Israeli fighter bombers attacked the facility in a raid into Syrian airspace that destroyed the plant.

More from Doubletapper on the Syria-related sundries:

• Syria - What's next?


• Syria can do no wrong


• Keep your eye on the ball


• Rapid Fire: Russia promises to deliver Syria cruise missiles.


• Rapid Fire: Syria has four additional nuclear sites, besides the one that Israel bombed.

More details on precursors to the 2007 Syrian nuclear reactor hit Blogging from Israel on Guns, Security, Defense by DoubleTapper