The ROTEM-L quadrotor can serve as a loitering weapon carrying a one pound warhead, or reconnaissance sensor, supporting mission endurance up to 45 minutes.
IAI recently released details on a new member of its mysterious family of multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the new version dubbed ROTEM L (abbreviation of its Hebrew designation: ”hovering reconnaissance and attack platform—Light”). Designed as a small, quad-rotor based loitering weapon, ROTEM is uniquely built for operation in urban warfare, offering combatants effective, indirect observation and engagement of targets from an elevated position. IAI is displaying a number of loitering weapons at the Singapore Airshow this week, as well as the HoverMast hovering surveillance system.
The lightweight UAV weighs only 4.5 kg, packing an impressive array of sensors, including day or night (IR) cameras, used for piloting and reconnaissance, additional, multiple acoustic transducer enabling obstacle avoidance and flight through inner spaces of buildings, entering through windows, narrow urban streets or dense vegetation. The battery-powered drone can loiter for nearly 30 minutes, with one pound (0.450 kg) of explosive payload, or trade-off this deadly payload for a camera and more batteries, sustaining up to 40-45 minute in the air. The warhead comprises two blast-fragmentation grenades configured with a dual safe and arm mechanism. The ROTEM is packed folded in a carried in a canister or backpack and is assembled in seconds by a single soldier.
February 19, 2016 | Originally published by Date Line: February 19 on