Aerosky Israeli Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Description The Aerosky is a short-range Israel-made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that has served with the United States and Israel. It is used for tactical reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition. The UAV is used as the baseline vehicle for other Aeronoautics aircraft; the Aerosky has a twin tail-boom and a pusher-propeller. It has two radio frequency command uplinks and a real-time imagery downlink. It carries Tamam's POP 200 EO/IR payload and is controlled by UMAS avionics, including full autonomous navigation, camera-guided navigation and MCS ground enhancement. Status The Aerosky was marketed internationally through IAI and obtained by the U.S. Navy and the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF began operating it in March 2002 on "pay-by-the-hour" basis over the Gaza Strip and West Bank. While the vehicle may still be operational, as suggested in Armada International’s Compendium UAVs: Time to Get Real (2015), there has been little unclassified information regarding the Aerosky since 2008. As of 2017, there was no open-source information available about its status with the U.S. Navy or the IDF. The manufacturer did not respond to inquiries by the time of this update.