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Video footage showing an aircraft with a flying-wing design flying over northern Israel sparked speculations about the participation of the country’s secret stealth drone in the ongoing attack on Iran.
The footage, which surfaced online on June 18, were reportedly taken over the Galilee region. The aircraft was initially identified by some observers as a United States B-2 Spirit strategic bomber. Later, however, it was speculated that the aircraft was Israel’s RA-01 stealth drone as no U.S. bombers were deployed to Israel.
The existence of the RA-01 was first revealed last year in documents leaked from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, detailing Israeli preparations for a possible attack on Iran. This makes the appearance of the secretive drone amid an attack on the Islamic Republic more plusable.
“The Israeli Air Force continued covert UAV [Unmanned Aerial System] operations from 15 through 16 October,” the documents stated at the time, with imagery analysis indicating that the Israelis drone is capable of conducting extended intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions over sensitive regions, including Iran.
The documents revealed that RA-01 drones are based at Ramon Air Base in southern Israel. Experts have since identified a pair of secluded fence-off areas at the northeastern end of Ramon with shared direct access to one of the base’s two runways, which could house the drones.
Each of the fenced-off areas has a pair of semi-circular hangers that are approximately 24 meters long and just under 20 meters wide.
Israel never showcased any stealth drones. However, it is completely within its capabilities to develop such systems.
In the 1990s, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) reached at least the wind tunnel testing phase of development on one high-altitude long-endurance drone concept with radar and infrared signature-reducing features, called the HA-10.
A paper that members of IAI presented at the 24th International Congress of the Aeronautical Sciences in 2004 describes the HA-10 as one of “a number of additional high altitude advanced configurations” the company had previously examined “within the framework of the advanced design activity.”
While the aircraft spotted over Galilee could be the RA-01, there are other possibilities. The aircraft could very well be the U.S. top-secretive RQ-180 stealth drone.
The U.S. has backed the Israeli attack on Iran from the start and is now reportedly reading its air forces to join the operation.
The aircraft could also be an Iranian Shahed 181 Saegheh. Close up footage seemed to show a propeller spinning in the rear of the aircraft, very similar to the Saegheh.
The Saegheh, a copy of the U.S. RQ-170 that was captured by Iran in 2011, can conduct reconnaissance and combat tasks, with an operations rage exceeding 1,100 kilometers.
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