The TerminaThor can drop up to six M66 submunitions individually from pods. (Elbit Systems)
The Israel Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced on 3 December that its Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D) has completed several contracts with Elbit Systems totalling approximately USD40 million to supply the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) with “advanced drones and autonomous systems”.
The MoD did not identify the systems, which it said were jointly developed by the DDR&D, the IDF Ground Forces, and Elbit Systems, but said they include “intelligence collecting drones [that are] capable of operating within seek and strike swarms and intelligence platoons; mission drones with advanced ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance], terrain dominance, and attack capabilities for combat forces; and mini-drone-based strike solutions for urban missions”. Elbit will also provide “resilient communication solutions for unmanned system”, the statement added.
The product likely includes small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that use Elbit's Legion-X autonomous mission system, which underpins its HuntAir-X system for co-ordinating swarms of surveillance UAVs to achieve persistent overwatch and “terrain dominance”.
The main Legion-X UAV is the Thor, a quadcopter that has a maximum take-off weight of 21 kg and can carry various payloads weighing up to 10 kg. It folds up so it can be carried in backpacks by soldiers, can take off and land automatically, and carry out flight missions autonomously.
The company announced a new “tactical airdrop munition” version called TerminaThor earlier in 2024. An Elbit source told Janes the UAV has a maximum take-off weight of less than 25 kg and can carry up to six M66 bomblets, a 1,200 g munition developed by Elbit that has been modified for use by UAVs.
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