Israel Aerospace Industries signs cooperation agreement with MBDA Germany to market loitering munitions.

Eyal Boguslavsky reports in israeldefense.co.il that Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and MBDA Germany have signed a cooperation agreement for the production, integration, sales, and marketing of IAI's loitering ammunition systems in Germany.
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Mini-Harop loitering munition (Picture source: IAI)

MBDA is a leader in Germany in developing, producing, and maintaining guided missiles, air defense systems, and effective systems. Four decades ago, IAI was the first company in the world to develop loitering ammunition. The current IAI loitering munition portfolio includes the Harop, Harpy, Mini-Harpy, and Rotem systems. Together with MBDA Germany, IAI offers this loitering ammunition portfolio to the German Armed Forces to close capability gaps in the Air Force, Navy and Army.

Thomas Gottschild, Managing Director of MBDA Germany, said: “We already announced our partnership with IAI in 2021 and are now pleased to continue the strategic partnership with this agreement. The Ukraine war and the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict have shown the importance of drones in combat missions. Our companies have agreed to cooperate in the preparation, production, marketing, and implementation of all necessary work related to loitering ammunition for the benefit of our German customer, the German Army.”

Boaz Levy, IAI's CEO, said: “IAI is proud to work with MBDA Germany in the field of loitering ammunition. This agreement allows us to combine the strengths of both companies. IAI is a global pioneer in the development of the operational concept for loitering ammunition systems. Loitering ammunition has since evolved into a family of unique and accurate weapon systems. These systems have contributed to the operational successes of the armed forces worldwide and represent central and decisive components for future deployment scenarios.”

The IAI Harop is a loitering munition developed by the MBT division of Israel Aerospace Industries. Loitering munitions are designed to loiter above the battlefield and attack targets by crashing into them and exploding. The IAI Harop has a loiter (flying) time of 6 hours and a range of 1,000 km both ways. It is a larger version of the IAI Harpy and is launched from ground or sea-based canisters, but can be adapted for air launch. The Harop uses a man-in-the-loop mode, being controlled by a remote operator. The Harop operator can select static or moving targets detected by the aircraft's electro-optical sensor.

IAI developed a smaller version of the Harop for smaller applications called Mini-Harop or Green Dragon. The smaller Harop is one-fifth the size and has a lighter 3–4 kg (6.6–8.8 lb) warhead. It has a shorter endurance of 2–3 hours and is used tactically against time-critical targets or ones that hide and re-appear.

The IAI Harpy loitering munition is designed to attack radar systems and is optimized for the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) role. It carries a high explosive warhead. The Harpy has been sold to several foreign nations, including South Korea, Turkey, India, and China.

The Rotem Aerial Vehicle (AV) is a tactical, loitering munition based on a light multi-rotor platform that delivers excellent capabilities against low signature enemy systems in complex environments. This lightweight and compact AV can be assembled in seconds and operated by a single soldier. The AV is capable of lethal precision strikes on stationary and mobile targets with abort/safe capability and is recoverable. Rotem is an extremely versatile platform. It can perform squad-level ISR and attack missions with minimal planning and operational focus from the operator. The backpacked system is a tactical kit of two AVs with all peripherals to allow an operational unit to use it organically as a part of their standard gear. The exceptional capability to hover allows the VTOL platform to see targets and engage within seconds, which makes the Rotem a game-changer for its operators.

Defense News July 2023