A pilot program in the US military has been launched to employ Skylord drones whose production was led by Israel’s Defense Ministry, the ministry says in a statement.
“The program has produced a drone system with a remote immersive interface that protects troops from various inbound aerial threats – particularly drones,” the Defense Ministry says in an English-language statement.
“The system’s capabilities have been demonstrated in Israel, with confirmed interceptions of incendiary devices flown over the Gaza border by terrorist organizations,” according to the ministry.
It says the program comes “following a joint R&D program led by the Directorate of Defense Research and Development in the Israel Ministry of Defense, together with Israeli company Xtend and the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO) of the US Department of Defense.”
Several dozen drones will be employed, the statement says, adding that the research and development process took a year.
“Using an AR device and single handed controller, a military operator may employ the Skylord system to control the drone and perform complex tasks remotely, with great ease and precision,” the statement says.
An illustrative image of a new Skylord drone developed by Israels Defense Ministry in collaboration with the US military, September 2020. (Xtend/courtesy)
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