Advertisement

Searcher II with SAR
(click to view full)

“Syria Buying MiG-31s, MiG-29s for $1 billion” covers ongoing speculation about a potential fighter deal with Iranian financing; some reports even place the Islamic Republic of Iran as the ultimate recipient. Recent reports say that Russia has put the deal on the backburner, though Syria denies this. What’s even more interesting are the parallel reports that Israel may be selling UAVs to Russia, and speculation that the 2 sets of events may be related.

UAVs have a much smaller field of view than manned aircraft, and at the moment they also have much higher accident rates. In exchange, they offer extremely long endurance, the potential for centralized monitoring, and much lower costs per-hour. This combination is ideal for monitoring critical infrastructure. Such as, for example, long oil and gas pipelines that remain the chokepoint of a Russian economy that relies on energy exports.

The UAV buy speculation has apparently been confirmed, but in the process Russian officials have irked the Israelis…

Searcher II system
(click to view full)

At the same time, Russia’s recent war in Georgia demonstrated the value of UAVs – to the Georgian side. Most of those UAVs were Israeli-made.

Russia’s UAV-related problems are two-fold.

The first problem is that they are behind in UAV technology. Russia’s defense sector is still weak as a result of the devastating budget cutbacks in the 1990s, when Russia’s economy and defense spending both collapsed. Small to medium size UAVs are not a technically difficult aerospace project. The problem is that finding production resources and time can be difficult in a centralized system that has yet to recover and modernize, and needs its available engineers to support existing strategic and/or export-oriented projects. Russia lack of progress in this field suggests that issues remain.

So, too, do reports of Russian UAV performance in Georgia. Defense Update:

“An example of Russian UAVs technology is the Tipchak system developed by the Lutch Design Bureau. According to Mr Popovkin, the drone was operational during the recent fighting with Georgia, but had demonstrated many problems, among them a distinct acoustic signature audible from long distance, which, coupled with the low ceiling, yielded high vulnerability to ground fire. The developers are currently working on a new-generation Tipchak, expected to be delivered in about three years…. The new Russian UAV weighs 132 pounds, has a payload of 32 pounds and can stay in the air for two hours per sortie.
The Tipchak can operate as high as 10,000 feet. The drone carries a day/night camera payload. It has an operational range of 40 km and mission endurance of about two hours.”

The second problem is less tractable, as it has been a long-standing Russian weakness. UAVs require miniaturization and lightweight components for their payloads, or their performance suffers badly. This has always been a problem for Russian equipment, which tends to be overbuilt rather than over-engineered. Russia has also traditionally had issues producing reliable electronics, which are required for the UAVs’ back-end.

Reports have been floated for a couple of months now that Israel and Russia were discussing a deal for UAVs, and a May 24/09 Jerusalem Post article raised them again with reports of a $50 million UAV deal that was reportedly signed in April 2009.

I-View, landing
(click to view full)

The UAV systems in question reportedly include 3 IAI products. The largest is the Searcher-II tactical UAV. Searchers have an endurance of 12-15 hours. They have received excellent reviews from Russia’s traditional defense ally India, for instance, and were recently bought by Spain for service in Afghanistan. The order also reportedly includes smaller I-View MK150 short-range UAVs that use parachutes to land, and hand-launched Bird-Eye 400 mini-UAVs. Officials reportedly told the Jerusalem Post that deliveries would begin by the end of 2009.

Ultimately, according to RIA-Novosti, Russia aims to develop a fleet of at least 100 UAVs with flight ranges of up to 240 miles, and airborne endurance of 12 hours or more. That’s beyond the specifications of these Israeli UAVs, although the Searcher-II comes close.

In May 2009, Jerusalem Post also reported that a follow-on deal “is likely to include the sale of IAI’s long-range Heron.” IAI’s Heron comes in 3 variants, all of which are Medium Altitude, Long Endurance (MALE) platforms in the same class as the USA’s MQ-1 Predator. They would exceed Russia’s desired specifications several-fold, but they would also represent a transfer of more advanced UAV technology. Something that appears rather unlikely, given subsequent comments by a Russian official.

Updates and Events

Birds Eye 400 Launch
(click to view larger)

June 22/09: Vyacheslav Dzilkarn, the deputy head of the Russian governmental Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, confirms to RIA Novosti that Russia is buying 12 Israeli UAVs for $53 million.

He then proceeds to alarm and annoy the Israelis when he says that the main goal of the purchase is to study Israeli technology in order to build drones in Russia. A Jerusalem Post report added a quote from an Israeli official, who appeared to close the door on sales of more advanced UAVs. He added that:

“We have a responsibility to safeguard our ingenious technology…. We were aware of this possibility, even though it was not said explicitly until now.”

See: Jerusalem Post | Defense News | RIA Novosti (interestingly, a dead link now).

June 16/09: The Jerusalem Post continues to follow Israeli diplomacy, including efforts to halt the sale of S-300 missiles to Syria and Iran.

Additional Readings

• Jerusalem Post (May 24/09) – Israel to speed up Russia’s UAV order

• Motley Fool (May 8/09) – “Hey! Who’s Flying This Thing?” 2009 Edition. Speculates – correctly, as it turns out – that Russia’s buy is simply a prelude to theft.

• Defense Update (April 2009) – UAV Sale Marks a New Milestone in Russian-Israeli Defense Relations. It hails the long eforts to improve cooperation, but adds: ”...the potential economical benefit for Israel is questionable, in retrospect of sensitive technological leakage to its enemies and, the risk of training the Russian engineers in advanced technologies. These are known to be masters of re[verse] engineering, during the days of the Cold War with the west.”

• DID – Russia’s Military Spending Jumping – But Can Its Industry?

• DID (Oct 31/07) – US-Israeli Covenant Forces Review of Civilian Satellite Deal With China. It does not appear to have been an issue for the reported Russian UAV deal.