Yaniv Ben-Itzhak, director of marketing and business development at Elbit Systems, showed a video of one of its medium-sized SkyStriker drones slamming into a tactical wheeled vehicle at some 200 kilometers per hour, basically slicing it in half without the use of explosives.

If an operator decides to attack, the drone can nosedive toward the target, striking it while detonating a warhead.Īlthough explosives aren’t always necessary. Vendors from all over the world came to Eurosatory to exhibit the latest in loitering munitions technology, which - as the name suggests - can fly in patterns serving as a reconnaissance platform until it spots a potential target. More than a dozen years later, the technology is proliferating both at defense exhibitions and on battlefields. National Defense spotted the first “non-improvised” flying munition created by an Eastern European contractor at the IDEX trade show in 2009. Their basic technology was developed for hobbyists, and their evolution was spurred by terrorists’ use of improvised explosive bombs in Iraq. Their origins are rooted in World War II tactics. Whether they’re called loitering munitions or kamikaze drones, the weapon system has come into its own in recent conflicts, especially in Ukraine, where they were likely being deployed against Russian invaders the very week of the trade show. “No, just for surveillance,” said the representative. “Is that a loitering munition, too?” a reporter asked a company representative, having never seen a vertical takeoff and landing drone armed with a warhead. There, attendees found the Uvision booth and its complete lineup of so-called “kamikaze drones,” ranging in six sizes along with all the accessories, including controllers and training systems.Ī quadcopter drone also hung on display from the booth’s ceiling. PARIS - If there was ever one-stop shopping for anything an army would need as far as loitering munitions, it was all the way back in Hall 6, aisle F at the Eurosatory trade show in Paris in June. ND photo-illustration with Elbit Systems, iStock images

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