09 October 2024

Steadicopter, a leading innovator in the Rotary Unmanned Aerial Systems (RUAS) industry, announces the unveiling of the Golden Eagle HS Rotary Unmanned Aerial System for heavy strike capabilities in collaboration with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

This collaboration expands the Golden Eagle family capabilities, adding a new attack capability dimension, expanding the system’s operational versatility and reinforcing its proven performance. The Golden Eagle HS integrates Rafael's powerful Spike missiles for precision heavy strike missions in tactical operations and close air support missions including border protection, perimeter security, urban warfare, in open area battlefields, ensuring battlespace dominance and maintaining significant deterrence.

The Golden Eagle HS provides rapid and pinpoint accuracy strike capabilities at stand-off range against evolving high-value threats even in dynamic and congested environments. By leveraging maneuverability and mission efficiency, ground forces can operate from safe, stand-off positions day and night, against both stationary and moving targets. When mounted on a tactical RUAV, the powerful spike missile allows for more versatile, longer range, ground attack angles, maximizing firepower output while reducing the risk to infantry, marine corps, special forces, and other tactical ground units.

Equipped with advanced Spike missiles, known for their precision guidance and/or fire-and-forget capabilities and high-explosive warheads, the Golden Eagle HS offers enhanced lethality in a small, low signatures platform while covering vast operational areas of interest, expanding the power, versatility and strategic utilization of assault units. The Golden Eagle HS platforms can be operated in tandem formations, with each RUAV carrying its own missile, ensuring mission continuity even if some units are compromised. This approach enhances operational effectiveness by distributing targets and maintaining strike capability against multiple objectives. With a total takeoff weight of 50 kilograms the Golden Eagle HS can be equipped with Rafael Spike missiles, SR missile for a range of 2.5 kilometers and the LR2 for a range of 5.5 kilometers, enabling real-time mission versatility and immediate sensor-to-shooter capability at significantly large operational radiuses.

The system's advanced sensor suite, featuring a high-definition day/night EO/IR payload and target tracker, optionally integrated with SightX’s AI advanced technology, ensures seamless target acquisition, tracking, and classification, even in adverse weather conditions and complex terrain. Thus, the system enables an individualized ID per object, ensuring continuous tracking with temporary obstructions or loss of sight within the field of view, and autonomously distinguishing between various targets, whether moving or stationary, human or vehicle-based. This real-time situational awareness empowers ground forces with actionable intelligence, enabling informed decision-making and rapid response capabilities.

“It is a privilege to lead Steadicopter’s exceptional team in the achievement of another significant milestone. The introduction of the Golden Eagle HS, in collaboration with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. -a global leader in missile technology -represents a modern, tactical solution that meets today’s critical operational demands with unmatched precision and standoff strike capability, without causing collateral damage, while keeping the troops out of harm’s way. This partnership blends Steadicopter’s cutting-edge RUAV technologies with Rafael’s decades of defense expertise, resulting in a solution that is greater than the sum of its parts,” said Itai Toren, CEO of Steadicopter.

"We are pleased to collaborate with Steadicopter in advancing the future of combat, where modern warfare demands innovative and advanced solutions," A senior Rafael official noted: "This collaboration provides a cutting-edge, standoff warfighting RUAV that may very much reshape modern battlefield and will enable existing and new Spike missile users to utilize them in a new tactical, versatile, and lethal way.

About Steadicopter Ltd.

Steadicopter Ltd. is a revolutionary player in the Rotary Unmanned Aerial Systems (RUAS) industry, specializing in the design, development, and production of rotary tactical UAS. The company’s unmanned helicopters provide superior-high-quality real-time intelligence and/or precise light or heavy pinpoint strike capabilities, with high mission versatility and nearly zero logistic footprints to meet the challenges of the defense, homeland security, and civilian markets over land or in the maritime environment for a wide variety of open areas and urban scenarios. Steadicopter is a supplier of systems and services to the IDF, Israeli Airforce and the Israeli Navy as well as to international customers and end users.

About Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

Established in 1948, RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. develops, manufactures, and sustains combat-proven technologies, products, and systems-of-systems for air, land, naval, space and digital applications. Leveraging its technological ingenuity, operational experience, and unparalleled understanding of evolving combat requirements, RAFAEL provides global warfighters with today’s most advanced technologies and life-saving defense solutions that ensure operational superiority. RAFAEL's strategy includes strategic international partnerships and localization, to ensure customer sovereignty. 

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