The Ministry of Defense is investigating whether secret components installed on a Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), developed and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1), are in the hands of the Chinese army. An aircraft of this type crashed in Tibet in recent days, and its fragments were collected by Chinese army forces.
The UAV was reportedly one of those purchased from IAI by India and used by the Indian air force for intelligence gathering and routine security missions along the India-Pakistan border. Indian media reports said that the UAV crashed not far from Tibet, after being used in the skies of the state of Sikkim in northeastern India close to the border with China. The crash was apparently caused by a technical failure that broke off contact between it and its operators in the control cabin and in the land control facility. After contact was broken off, the UAV glided into Chinese territory, and the Chinese army forces that viewed the crash quickly gathered the fragments.
Israeli defense sources said that sensitive weapons systems of this type were usually equipped with a remote destruction mechanism enabling its operators to blow it up if it escapes their control, mainly in order to avoid technological know-how from leaking to other countries. The Israeli sources were unable to say whether the destruction mechanism had been used in this case. The Heron, which is regarded as one of the main UAVs produced by Israeli defense industries, has also been used in regular activities for years by the Israeli air force, which calls it the Shoval.
In addition to its ability to stay aloft for prolonged periods at great height and to fly long distances, the Heron can carry heavy payloads adapted to the character of the mission on which it is launched. Many UAV payloads are expensive, and some contain sensitive advance technologies used for surveillance of people and vehicles, border defense, visual intelligence gathering, etc. It is unclear what payloads had been installed on the Israeli UAV that crashed in Tibet.
IAI declined to respond to the report, and referred "Globes" to the Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for the export of Israeli weapons systems through the Defense Export Controls Agency.
The Ministry of Defense said, "The particulars and circumstances of the event are being investigated and studied by the Ministry of Defense, in cooperation with IAI. The ministry naturally does not disclose particulars about the content of defense export deals."
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on December 18, 2017
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