Elbit claims its Skylark UAV is in Iraq

Readers may recall our report from late last year about the decision of the Canadian Army to suspend flights of Haifa, Israel-based Elbit Systems’s flagship UAV, the Skylark. “For some reason, in some parts of the country it will fly great, or today it will fly,” said Captain Rob Sanders of the Canadian UAV program, referring to operations in Afghanistan. “The same one, at a separate time tonight, won’t fly. So they have grounded them all trying to figure out what is going on. We are sending a couple of specialists over there to sort that out.” One problem, the army noted, was the Skylark’s ground control screens are highly sensitive to sunlight, forcing operators to rig cardboard screens around their workstations. “As soon as they got sunlight on the screen, they couldn’t see anything,” said Sanders.

This was bad news, but it seems that the United States is doing fine with the craft in Iraq. In a move certain to upset the most antisemitic of Iraqis, Elbit’s hand-launched Skylark is playing a key role in American operations in that country, according to the company. American officials could not confirm the statement, but considering the Skylark’s operational strengths — “close range, beyond-the-next hill, counter-terror missions” — there is little doubt that the craft would be ideal for its purposes. After all, the Australian government uses it to support its own Iraq operations, and the Skylark also saw service in Israel’s recent war in Lebanon. Featuring fully autonomous flight, real-time continuous video and telemetry data transmission, and rugged portable tactical computers for command and control, Skylarks are distinguished by their ability to operate at low altitudes without being detected.