Kazakhstani Company to Assemble Israeli Skylark UAV
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עברית (Hebrew)
A Kazakhstani company has recently announced that it will begin to assemble the Israeli Skylark UAV in 2020. Kazakhstan Aviation Industry will assemble the unmanned aerial vehicle at a rate of four systems per year, according to Uasvision.com. The Kazakh army has been operating variants of the Skylark UAV and has already purchased variants of the UAV in the past from Elbit Systems, the UAV’s developers.
The Skylark is a light UAV, designed to be taken apart and put together in the field. The Skylark system, which consists of 3 separate UAVs and a ground control station, can be taken apart and packed in three separate carrying cases, to be carried beyond enemy lines by the system’s operators on foot. The UAV is intended to supply situational awareness and real time intelligence to battalion and company sized military forces via an optic camera or an interchangeable infrared thermal sight payload. A squad carrying a packed Skylark system on their backs can have the UAV up in the air in less than 15 minutes.
The UAV weighs slightly over 7 kilograms and is hand launched via a bungee cord system. The aircraft has a wingspan of 3.1 meters and is 1.55 meters from nose to tail. It can reach speeds between 50 and 86 kilometers per hour and lands via stalling and landing on a small inflatable cushion.
Due to the UAV’s bungee cord takeoff and inflatable cushion recovery, the Skylark is incredibly versatile and can be operated from practically anywhere.
A Skylark squad, often composed of 3 to 5 soldiers, is intended to connect and march alongside infantry, armored, and special forces. Once the forces have reached their operation zone, the Skylark squad will detach itself from the larger force to find an appropriate place to launch and operate the UAV in order to supply friendly forces with real time situational awareness. Once the operation is completed, the UAV’s operators will land the Skylark, pack it back up in their bags, and regroup with the forces to continue the mission.
The system has a flight time of up to 3 hours per battery, with newer variants of the Skylark making it possible to fly 2 seperate UAVs from the same ground control station at the same time.
The Israeli company has sold several variants of the Skylark drones to many different militaries around the world, including Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia, and more.
