Philippine Army UAS Acquisition

[girder]

There's been word of the Army acquiring multiple UAV types from Elbit. This seems to be confirmation of the contract:

Elbit Systems Awarded $153 Million Contract to Provide a Networked Multi-Layered UAS Array to an Army in Southeast Asia

Haifa, Israel, October 06, 2019 – Elbit Systems Ltd . (NASDAQ: ESLT, TASE: ESLT) (“Elbit Systems”) announced today that it was awarded a contract valued at approximately $153 million to supply an Army of a country in Southeast Asia with a comprehensive, multi-layered array of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The contract will be performed over a 22-month period.

Under the contract, Elbit Systems will supply a networked multi-layered UAS solution, including more than a thousand THOR Multi-Rotor Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) mini-UAS, scores of Skylark LEX, Skylark 3 and Hermes 450 tactical UAS as well as Universal Ground Control Stations.

Bezhalel (Butzi) Machlis, Elbit Systems President & CEO , commented: “This contract award underlines our competitive edge as armies increasingly view multi-layered UAS solutions as key to providing superior intelligence while maintaining a high level of operational flexibility.”

Links:
Elbit
Bloomberg

Additional Information:
THOR (Brochure)
Skylark I-LEX (Brochure)
Skylark 3 (Brochure)
Hermes 450 (Brochure)

[girder]

With another service getting into UAS operations in a big way, it might be time to revisit this paper again:

With the recent incorporation of more advanced UAV platforms into the PAF, I felt it might be helpful to look at available literature on such matters. I found this 2014 paper on the topic from the perspective of the JASDF, which had pursued drone platforms only relatively recently.

Shirai, R. (2014). Incorporating Unmanned Aerial Systems into the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The Brookings Institute. (pdf download available)

The study draws lessons from the experiences of multiple services from different countries: United States Army, United States Navy & Marine Corps, United States Air Force, Royal Air Force, French Air Force, German Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Israeli Air Force.