India’s media have reported in recent days that the Indian government is dissatisfied with the UAVs purchased from Israel and that four out of 50 of them had crashed.
Yair Dubster, director of the Malat division of Israel Aircraft Industries, said the reports are baseless. “These things did not occur. Not a single on of our UAVs has ever crashed in India. The sources of these reports seem to be our competitors, who are trying to sabotage the market strength of Israel’s aircraft industry.”
India’s air force has one of the highest hardware attrition rates in the world, according to military experts.
Israel is the foremost developer and producer of UAV technology, which was used extensively in Gaza prior to Israel’s withdrawal last summer.
Last week, Israel’s Weapons Development Authority presented a number of lightweight super-small UAVs to the IDF to consider for use by infantry units in order to provide increased real-time visual intelligence on enemy positions and movements to soldiers in the field.
The new UAV is called the SkyLite B, and is the smallest and lightest of its kind and can easily carried into combat and counter-terror operations by troops. It has the ability to withstand harsh weather conditions, including rain and strong winds and can stay airborne for over an hour and a half. It can also hone in on a specific subject and track its movement despite topographical obstruction.
Col. (Res.) Dror Shachnai told Arutz-7 that the new UAV is far superior to that offered by foreign manufacturers due to its ability to hover for a long period of time, its quiet motor - which cannot be detected even at low altitudes, and its transmission of a sharp, color picture to a recording station that is simply to operate.
Shachnai added that a large American defense company has signed on to cooperate in marketing the UAVs to the American military for use in Iraq and Afghanistan.