The new Israeli air force UAV “Help Desk”
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עברית (Hebrew)
The increasing number of missions performed by the Israeli air force (IAF) UAVs have required some new organization.
The recent development: A new Israeli air force (IAF) real-time UAV data analyzing and monitoring center is scheduled to be opened in the near future. The center, called “HelpDesk”, will assemble current technical data regarding the UAVs in the air, allowing swift identification of problems and the advanced prevention of possible malfunctions.
Another technological platform that enters service in the IAF these days will be used for monitoring the condition of the vehicle body, locating cracks, and other structural faults.
This system has been developed by Israel aerospace industries (IAI) and is using fiber optic strain sensors to monitor the health of UAVs developed by the company and is based on the Rayleigh backscattering distributed strain sensing technology.
Embedded fiber optic that measures the strain distribution on the wing and the fuselage due to an external loading.
The structural health monitoring of the wing is performed by comparing the strain signature, measured by the optical fiber, under The same loading condition, at different times during the UAS service.
During Operation “Protective Edge” last summer, IAF’s UAVs conducted over 20,000 flight hours, more than in any other operation. According to the IAF there are two main reasons for this: the extended fighting time (55 days) and the increase in missions unique to UAVs such as directing forces from air and intelligence gathering.
