St. Inigoes, Md. (June 27, 2005) – A “Skylark” Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on display at the 2005 Naval UAV Air Demo held at the Webster Field Annex of Naval Air Station Patuxent River. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain.
On January 4, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that one of its drones crashed in the northern part of the Palestinian West Bank region.
A statement by the IDF said that the drone, a Skylark, was on a reconnaissance mission when it fell out of the sky for as-yet-unknown reasons. Israeli troops managed to retrieve the wreckage of the drone. According to the army, there was no “leak of information.”
The Skylark is a family of drones developed by Israel’s Elbit Systems. The drone that crashed in the West Bank was likely the miniature, hand-launched Skylark I which was designed for tactical surveillance and reconnaissance. This version has a range of 20-40 kilometers.
The drone payload consists of a daylight CCD or optional FLIR for night operations. During operation, it sends real-time video to a portable ground station.
This was the second Skylark drone to crash in the past few weeks. On December 23, a drone of this type fell on the separation line around the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
In May of last year, a Skylark drone crashed in Lebanon’s South Governorate, the heartland of Hezbollah. Later in October, two drones crashed in the West Bank cities of Hebron and Nablus in separate incidents.
The IDF uses Skylark drones mainly for surveillance and reconnaissance. The drone’s repeated crashes indicate the presence of some serious flaws in its design.
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