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HevenDrones Latest Hydrogen-powered Drone To Help UAE | |
| Sumita Pawar |
The lightweight aerial vehicle for defence or commercial use is the latest fruit of diplomatic normalisation between the two countries and will be featured at IDEX next week.
According to the report, the Israeli tech company HevenDrones said it will show off its hydrogen-powered drone for defence and commercial use at the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) next week in Abu Dhabi.
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The new H2D55 model is said to be five times more energy efficient than traditional lithium battery-powered drones and fly for 100 minutes carrying seven kilograms, according to a statement.
The company says the net-zero-emission lightweight drone does not need regular battery replacements, eliminating the environmental impact of mining lithium and also reducing ownership costs for companies planning to use it at scale.
It will premiere at the UAE capital’s IDEX, one of the Middle East and North Africa region’s few defence and security events, which starts Monday. It's the first of three drones that will be shown off over the next nine months. Each one will be able to carry more weight and stay in the air for 100 minutes longer than the last.
Seth Frantzman, the author of Drone Wars and writer for Defense News and the Jerusalem Post, said that drones with these capabilities are well suited for the UAE in homeland security, law enforcement, and other types of government services. "Drones can be really good for countering smuggling or piracy and also large-scale fires that are difficult to reach," he said.
Frantzman told Al-Monitor that drones are already serving a useful purpose in Bahrain’s partnership with the US Navy, which the Israeli Defense Ministry called the first regional partnership of its kind.
An operation called Task Force 59 is using unmanned surface vessels in the Gulf, he said, to find smugglers or deal with Iranian threats, as mentioned in the report.
In early 2022, the UAE capital faced a series of drone strikes from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, which killed three people. Later attacks were intercepted.
The H2D55's defence configuration is designed to allow longer-lasting surveillance missions and payloads carrying larger quantities of medical aid, food, and ammunition. Its commercial uses range from measuring soil nutrient levels for crops to delivering equipment during disasters.
The UAE is well positioned to utilise its relationship with Israel in this field, Frantzman said. "The government is willing to experiment a lot." "If they want to be the first country that does something like have drone deliveries of things or builds materials or builds medicine, they will do it," he said. He reiterated the commonly shared idea that Israel is a start-up nation, while the UAE is a scale-up nation.
"The UAE is a huge hub in terms of connecting Asia with Africa and the West, as well as seeing what Israeli high tech innovators are thinking about," Frantzman said.
According to a report, this will be the third time that Israeli companies take part in the global defence trade show in Abu Dhabi. The show is expected to have over 1,350 exhibitors from more than 65 countries.
In 2020, Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco signed the Abraham Accords, which normalised their diplomatic relationships and made it possible for them to trade freely.
In May last year, the UAE signed a free trade agreement with Israel that would remove tariffs on 96% of goods, which is expected to boost bilateral trade by $10 billion within five years, concluded the report.