SETH J. FRANTZMAN
JERUSALEM — The Israel air force recently officially received a new unmanned aerial vehicle, one about which the Israeli Defense Forces are saying very little, save that it’s part of their “gateway” into the forces’ fifth generation of drones.
The aircraft, called Spark, was developed by the Israeli military with contractors Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the Aeronautics firm, which is partly owned by Rafael. Spark, which is called “Nitzotz” in Hebrew, was unveiled — as much as the IDF allowed — for the 144th UAV Squadron at the Hatzor Air Force Base on Sunday.
“This is an exciting day in which we rise to another level, a day in which the squadron has more aircraft and weapons alongside its excellent service members,” IAF commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said, according to an IDF release on Monday that included a carefully cropped photo of the drone.
Though the drone was officially received over the weekend, the 144th has operated its family of systems since last year after it transitioned from its decades-long manned aircraft operations to unmanned vehicles, part of a wider reorganization in the IDF that has focused on digitization, a new multi-dimensional unit and new technology. The IDF operates a plethora of other types of drones, from the larger IAI Heron and Elbit Hermes 900 and 450 to smaller Skylarks that are used by the army.
When the 144th became a drone squadron, it was re-established as the “Phoenix” squadron, and the IAF said it would receive the new Spark. The IAF described the drone in 2022 as part of Aeronautics’ Orbiter family of drones and said that the squadron would form part of a new “Storm Clouds” division. This week Bar said the Storm Clouds project had turned from “vision into a wonderful reality.”
Few details about the Spark are publicly available, but the family of drones consists of those usually around 55 kilograms in weight with a five-meter wingspan, depending on their configuration.
The IAF describes the Spark as a new capability for the wider “UAV array, which constitutes the gateway to the fifth generation of the array in the IDF.” It did not elaborate on the specifics of this array or what makes it fifth generation.
But the air force said the new drone “will significantly improve the ability of the operating troops to act offensively and effectively according to data that will be received.” It asserts that the drone will carry out various types of missions, “intelligence actions, escorting ground forces, directing strikes and more.”
The commander of the 144th, whose name was given as Lt. Col. “A” due to security reasons also praised the Spark as the backbone of innovation that will “dramatically change the balance of troops on the future battlefield.” He said that the UAV “combines innovation, creativity and motivation like no other. An aircraft that will give us as an array to continue to grow, expand and become, in due course, the cutting-edge of the IDF’s capabilities in the coming decades against our enemy on the other side.”
Israel only recently began to reveal new details about its use of drones. Israel has been a leader in surveillance drones since the early 1980s, however it didn’t say until last year that it uses armed platforms. This year Israel has used loitering munitions for targeted strikes in the West Bank and has been using the Hermes 450 Zik in the West Bank as well, the military said. This Zik is operated by Squadron 161 at Palmachim, one of several IDF drone squadrons.
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