The Debrief: Leaked U.S. Report Offers New Clues About Classified Israeli UAVs

U.S. intelligence analysts noticed evidence of a “covert” UAV operating from the Israeli Air Force’s (IAF)’s remote Ramon Airbase in the Negev Desert at 5:13 p.m. on Oct. 15.

The UAV, already known to the U.S. intelligence community as RA-1, was not visible, but the gate to its operations hangar was open, indicating the airframe was inbound or outbound on a mission.

The next day, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) observed a ground crew and equipment arriving near the RA-1’s operations area on the base, which analysts suggested meant a flight had just taken off or landed.

This information—an excerpt of a leaked U.S. intelligence report circulating on social media—offers a tantalizing glimpse inside one of the Israeli military’s most classified programs.

In the process, the five-day-old report eliminates any doubt that the IAF, which globally popularized the UAV market a half-century ago, has not stayed idle since unveiling the Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) Eitan medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV more than 17 years ago.

The U.S. intelligence report offered few clues about the RA-1’s performance.
“Israel’s covert UAVs enable long-range, covert surveillance in Iran and throughout the region,” the leaked document says. To overfly Iran, the UAV would need advanced stealth and survivability features, along with a mission radius similar to the Eitan, which is marketed abroad as the Heron TP.

Israel often keeps advanced capabilities secret for many years. The Rafael Spike-Non-Line-of-Sight anti-tank missile entered service in the early 1980s, but was not declassified until 2011. The same intelligence report that leaked the identity of the RA-1 also referenced a long-range air-launched ballistic missile named Golden Horizon. It is possible the latter refers to the air-launched version of the LORA missile, which Israel declassified in May, only weeks after an air-launched ballistic missile strike on Iran.

In some ways, Israeli military officials have been more forthcoming about the existence of classified UAV projects.

In 2022, the IAF revealed that the secret Storm Clouds program had been awarded to state-owned arms maker Rafael, and acknowledged that the 144 Squadron at Hatzor Air Base would operate the new Spark UAV. A partial image of the latter was revealed during a publicized ceremony at the base in September 2023, revealing a new variant of the Aeronautics Orbiter UAV.

The Spark UAV serves as the low-altitude layer and the smallest member for the otherwise classified Storm Clouds UAV array, according to a June report by the Israel-based Alma Research and Education Center. The array is capable of intelligence gathering and “additional” missions, the report says, without elaborating.

The Storm Clouds array and the leaked U.S. intelligence report indicate that Israeli UAV capabilities continue to advance as older UAV types become more vulnerable. The same Alma report noted the increasing lethality of Hezbollah air defenses against Israel’s previous generation of UAVs, including the Elbit Systems Hermes 900. Hezbollah fighters had shot down five of the medium-altitude long-endurance UAVs between October and June, the Alma report said.