Act one, press release
In 2009, the Israeli company IAI (Israel Aerospace Industry) at the Aero India exhibition presented its Harop unmanned aerial vehicle, created on the basis of the Harpy UAV. It immediately attracted the attention of the general public, since it was not only a drone in the generally accepted sense of the word, but also a new word in its industry. The Harop UAV concept has been designated as a "loitering munition". This means that such a device is not capable of carrying strike weapons, but it can hit targets with the help of a warhead on board. In addition, the method of using the drone in the configuration of a loitering ammunition was of particular interest: it was argued that it was able to independently find targets, build an approach and hit them at the cost of its own "life".
The aircraft is 2.5 meters long and has a wingspan of three, according to official figures, has a take-off weight of 135 kilograms. The warhead weighs 23 kg. The small-sized piston engine with a pusher propeller provides the Harop drone with a flight speed of up to 185 km / h. Weight and dimensions combined with engine performance influenced the way the Harop was launched. It takes off from a special container-type launcher using miniature solid-propellant boosters. After leaving the rail, its own engine is turned on, the wing consoles are deployed and the loitering ammunition is ready to search for a target and attack.
UAV Harop has original fuselage and wing contours. Aerodynamically, it is an airplane of the "duck" design with a highly developed forward horizontal tail. The wing is located in the middle and rear part of the fuselage and has a variable sweep: the center section is a deltoid wing with a large sweep of the leading edge, and the folding consoles, in turn, are straight. At the junction of the center section and consoles "Harop" has two keels with rudders of a relatively large area. The fuselage of the drone is expressed only in the nose and, after connecting to the wing, it almost completely merges with it. At the rear of the drone is a large fairing with an engine. It is thanks to its aerodynamics that the Harop UAV is capable of flying for up to six hours, during which it can fly over a thousand kilometers.
In the nose cone of the drone, the target equipment was placed, as well as a stabilized platform with a 360 ° rotating sensor unit. The Harop equipment includes a two-channel (television and infrared) camera with the ability to transmit a video signal to a control panel, an electronic intelligence system, as well as its own low-power radar station. Thus, "Harop" can perform not only shock, but also reconnaissance functions, or, depending on the tactical situation, combine these specializations.
According to the manufacturer, the Harop drone is able to independently find targets without using third-party information. This capability makes it possible to use it even in conditions of unexplored terrain and / or a lack of data on the location of the enemy. After confirming the target by the operator, the drone independently builds an approach to the target and destroys it with its own warhead. It is also possible to manually control the attack from the control panel. Regardless of the method of attack, the operator of the complex can almost at any time stop approaching the target and return the device to the automatic loitering mode, or start attacking another target. The main targets of the Harop unmanned ammunition, according to its creators, are various sources of electromagnetic radiation. These are, first of all, radar stations, communications equipment and other objects that spread radiation around them.
Shortly after the first presentation of the Harop UAV at the Indian Air Show, the first contract was announced. It was reported that an unnamed country has initiated negotiations for the purchase of a number of drones with a total value of at least one hundred million US dollars. A little later it became known that India was going to buy ten such complexes. In addition, Germany became interested in the new "loitering ammunition", which proposed joint efforts to modify the Harop in accordance with European conditions.
Second act, accusatory
Shortly after the presentation of the Harop UAV at the Aero India-2009 salon, a sensational article appeared in the Russian press. In it, the IAI company, no less, was accused of plagiarism. According to the authors of the publication "Seamless Russia" I. Boschenko and M. Kalashnikov, the Israeli Harop is an unlicensed copy of the Russian drone G-1.
It was argued that the history of the domestic UAV G-1 began back in 2001, when a small Moscow company "2T-Engineering" decided to take up a new promising direction. According to the firm's representatives, the project was extremely daring and new. Moscow designers set themselves the task of creating a super-maneuverable drone with the most modern on-board equipment, an original control system, the ability to exchange data between several UAVs, etc. It was originally planned that the new drones would find a place in both military and civil affairs. By 2004, 2T-Engineering had assembled the first prototype of the future drone and tested it.
Structurally, the new G-1 was a canard apparatus with a front horizontal tail and a variable sweep wing. In the rear there were two keels and a small engine with a pusher propeller. If we compare the appearance of the devices G-1 and Harop, then there is a significant similarity, although there are a number of serious differences that are noticeable to a specialist. Nevertheless, the existing similarities were enough for accusations of plagiarism.
Moreover, the case smelled like espionage. According to the authors of the accusatory article, in 2004, the documentation for the G-1 project was transferred to the Russian Ministry of Defense, and about a year later to the Federal Security Service. None of these organizations have shown interest in domestic development. A little later, the G-1 drone attracted the attention of the Russian Railways, where it could be used as a means of surveying tracks. However, soon after that, some unnamed persons allegedly began to lobby for the purchase of foreign equipment of a similar purpose, and the G-1 was forgotten in Russian Railways.
It is worth recognizing that the article "Seamless Russia", in addition to dry facts about the course of the G-1 project and a photo of a drone from 2007, contained a lot of emotional statements and other, as they say, waters of an economic, political and other nature. Nevertheless, in certain circles, doubts arose about the originality of the Israeli design. These doubts were only intensified by the statement from the article, which spoke about the beginning of tests of the G-1 model in 2004 and the deployment of work on the "Harop" only a year later. From this, the authors of the publication concluded that some employees of the Ministry of Defense or the FSB simply sold abroad the received documentation on a "breakthrough" domestic project, as a result of which IAI was able to develop a new drone.
Third action, investigative
Initially, after the publication of Seamless Russia, the situation with the two drones looked strange and disgusting, but at the same time understandable and unambiguous. However, further discussions, especially with the participation of people versed in aircraft construction, made it confusing and strange. Upon closer examination, it turned out that both drones are only similar and at the same time have a lot of not particularly noticeable, but important differences. Let's try to collect the available information and facts in favor of the version of espionage or plagiarism and against it.
The very first and most noticeable proof of the guilt of Israeli engineers or spies is the external similarity of both devices. Variable sweep wing, developed front horizontal tail, two keels and a propeller-driven group in the tail section. The second piece of evidence concerns the timing of development. According to Boschenko and Kalashnikov, the G-1 took off for the first time in 2004, a year before the start of work on the Israeli drone. Other evidence of the primacy of the G-1 project boils down to appeals to patriotism, speculation and other things that cannot be measured or verified with sufficient accuracy.
Not surprisingly, technical issues were the primary focus of the Israeli firm's allegations. Nevertheless, it was not without slippery "arguments" and "proofs." For example, one of the first to appear was the assumption that the company "2T-Engineering" is the most common startup in the field of high technologies. But she failed to interest potential customers, and in 2009 a good reason presented itself to justify her failures with some kind of spy story. In addition, it quickly became clear that one of the authors of the article - I. Boschenko - is directly related to the design company G-1 and, as a result, is an interested person. Naturally, such, if one may say so, arguments cannot be taken into account in the case of a normal and full-fledged investigation, since they are more reminiscent of a transition to personalities.
Fortunately, not all people and specialists who participated in the discussion of the news stooped to this level. Therefore, there are quite interesting opinions about, for example, the aerodynamic design of both vehicles. Upon closer examination, it turns out that they are quite different from each other. So, on the Russian UAV, the front horizontal tail is located in such a way that in the plan it partially overlaps the front part of the wing. The Israeli design, in turn, has a horizontally spaced stabilizer and wing. In aerodynamic terms, these differences are quite serious. Moreover, such technical solutions can be used with different intentions, since both devices have a different character of longitudinal balancing. This is a significant enough difference to consider the designs to be similar.
In addition, if the plan projections of both vehicles are superimposed on each other, other differences become noticeable, first of all, the different shape of the wing and the layout of the nose of the fuselage. Based on such a comparison, nothing prevents us from drawing a conclusion about the ambiguous prospects of the Russian drone. The Israeli, in contrast, has a large nose section of the fuselage, which can accommodate all or almost all of the reconnaissance equipment. On the available photos of the G-1, it is quite difficult to find a volume for such purposes. Finally, drones differ significantly in control systems. The Harop is equipped with two elevons on the central part of the trailing edge of the wing and two rudders on the keels. The G-1, in turn, has a slightly more complex system, similar to the Israeli only rudders. So, the elevons of the Russian drone are placed on consoles (probably, the consoles are not foldable), and there are additional rudders on the front horizontal tail. You don't need to be an aerodynamicist to understand how seriously the aerodynamic layout of the two UAVs is and how different they are because of this.
Claims about the timing of creation also look ambiguous. The fact is that the existence of the Harop project became known back in 2003-04, and he himself is a further development of the ideology laid down in the Harpy project at the end of the eighties. Around 2004, the Harop device began to appear at exhibitions in the form of advertising materials and mock-ups. At the same time, the first negotiations regarding possible deliveries date back to. In addition, the new project uses a number of aerodynamic developments according to the old Harpy, and the transport and launch container has not undergone almost any changes. Therefore, there is every reason to consider the Harop an independent development by IAI.
Action four, final
As you can see, the further you consider the story with the Harop and G-1 drones, the more it looks complex and ambiguous. Or, on the contrary, one may get the impression of an attempt at unfair competition on the part of one of the firms participating in the "unmanned detective", which decided to solve its problems at the expense of a more well-known competitor. On the other hand, further suspicions about espionage and plagiarism of the project are possible. But there is no full-fledged and unshakable evidence of this, and all claims collapse upon close examination. As a result, the most plausible explanation for the similarities between the Harop and G-1 drones is parallel development with the same initial requirements. In other words, the similarity of both UAVs is accidental and is based only on similar concepts and ideas. Given the number of companies involved in the creation of UAVs, the coincidence of any ideas from two different companies looks unlikely, but still possible.
Regardless of the origin of the Israeli drone, the current situation has another interesting feature. The whole story with the accusations began in 2009, but soon ended and was limited to only one article. It appears that the party claiming to be the victim made no attempt to restore justice. Therefore, in the first few days or weeks, the Internet public discussed the accusations towards IAI, and then switched to new and more interesting topics. From time to time, the article "Seamless Russia" becomes the object of new controversy, but more than three years after its appearance, we can say with confidence: it has not received any continuation and will never receive it. As for the development companies of unmanned vehicles, IAI continues to produce such equipment, and 2T-Engineering is now engaged in the manufacture of electronics.
