Company Elbit Systems Ltd. has announced that it has won a contract for the supply of unmanned aerial vehicles (“as a seagull”) of the Seagull type for the navy of an Asian-Pacific country whose name was not disclosed in the announcement.
Under the contract, Elbit Systems will provide Seagull systems in a specific configuration for performing missile neutralization missions, allowing the option to add technological modules required to conduct submarine warfare.
The Seagull UAVs to be supplied will be equipped with side-by-side sonar scanners and forward-looking vehicles as well as remotely operated vehicles for the detection and destruction of mines.
When the Seagull seawater will allow the client’s navy to carry out comprehensive activities to neutralize mines while dealing with mines on the seabed, floating mines and anchored mines. The flexibility to control multiple vessels from the same task management system.
Elad Aharonson, CEO of Intelligence at Elbit Systems, noted: “There is a growing recognition of the need for autonomous capabilities to perform a variety of naval missions, particularly neutralizing mines and submarine warfare. “Since Seagull has demonstrated its capability to accomplish these missions since 2017, it provides Navy with higher mission effectiveness, risk reduction and better cost-effectiveness.”
Elbit’s Seagull is an unmanned and multi-mission vessel designed specifically for underwater combat missions. It carries modular sensor suits and provides submarine warfare capabilities, including torpedo firing, naval detection and neutralization capabilities, electronic warfare, naval survey and other missions, using the same vessel, control post and communication lines. The Seagull enables navies to improve performance on underwater missions, while reducing the risk to human life and significantly reducing procurement and operating costs.
Last summer, Elbit launched a mini-UAV launch and launch system from the Seagull deck to expand the operational capabilities of ongoing security missions, an underwater survey (submarine warfare and the detection and neutralization of naval mines). The combined mini-UAV has carrying capacity Of up to 15 kg and can be rescued from the water. The visual material collected using the mini-UAV can be transmitted both to the Seagull’s ground control unit and to the battle management systems of other vessels.
The Seagull participated in a number of maneuvers to combat submarines and naval mines with navies including the British and Spanish navies.
Elbit does not specify which country purchased the vessel, and the most prominent options are the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The latter has been engaged for decades in neutralizing land and sea mines from the war period. In the last decade, sales of Israeli weapons to soybeans and the Pacific have increased greatly, and they account for more than half of the defense exports of Israeli companies worldwide.
This is the fourth contract in the number that Elbit Systems has presented since the beginning of the year. It reported $ 166 million worth of contracts with the British Ministry of Defense, a huge $ 1.7 billion contract with the Greek Air Force. And a $ 24 million contract to supply tactical computers to the Dutch army.