Russia May Buy Israeli-Made Spy Drones

A follow-up article by Michael Schwirtz (12/16/2008) of The New York Times to an analysis posted in August on Israeli-made UAVs, but this time concerning Russian acquisition.

MOSCOW - Russia is considering buying an unspecified number of remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft from Israel, the head of the Russian military said Tuesday, in what may be an attempt by the Kremlin to strengthen its intelligence-gathering capacity following the August war with Georgia.

A Russian purchase of such aircraft from Israel would be a significant expansion of military business between the countries.

“We are working on this issue,” Gen. Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the Russian General Staff, told the Interfax news agency. “We are talking about a test batch of Israeli drone planes."

In recent months, the Russian Defense Ministry has unveiled sweeping changes aimed at streamlining the armed forces. The changes include thinning the officer corps, improving training and living standards for troops, and buying modern weapons systems.

Talk of the purchase was probably prompted by intelligence-gathering failures by the Russian military during the August war with Georgia, a country that already has Israeli-made spy aircraft, said Aleksandr Golts, an independent Russian military analyst.

"The war in Georgia showed us that we are frightfully lagging behind in terms of technical reconnaissance," Mr. Golts said. “There were many failures of intelligence.”

Russia has been unable to develop its own pilotless spy plane, though it had clear military dominance in the conflict, which lasted five days and severely weakened the Georgian military. Still, Georgia made effective use of Israeli-made spy aircraft in two Russian-backed Georgian separatist regions before the August conflict, angering Moscow. Last April, an Israeli-built Hermes 450 reconnaissance plane operated by Georgia was shot down over Abkhazia, one of the separatist Georgian regions. A United Nations report later concluded that a Russian fighter jet destroyed the aircraft. The episode contributed to escalating tensions that precipitated the conflict.

Moscow convinced the Israeli government to cut off sales of military equipment to Georgia just days before Georgia’s government ordered an artillery bombardment of the separatist enclave of South Ossetia on Aug. 7. That bombardment, independent military observers have said, sparked the war.

Russia has bought military-related electronic systems and other hardware from Israel before, Mr. Golts said, but buying the remotely piloted planes would raise Russian-Israeli weapons trade to a new level.

The negotiations concerning the spy planes are happening against a backdrop of strong Israeli objections to a possible sale by Moscow of advanced antiaircraft systems to Iran and Syria, two vocal adversaries of Israel.

Israel to Continue Arms Sale to Georgia

State-funded news channel Russia Today (RT) delivered a report yesterday claiming that Israel had stopped selling military equipment to Georgia after a complaint from Moscow. The report, which has yet to be retracted, purported that Russia had refrained from selling arms to Israel’s adversaries and expected a quid pro quo relationship. This entails Israel’s military relationship with Georgia, from which the small Caucasus nation has used its new acquisitions in the precarious regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. RT wrote that Jerusalem ultimately opted for a ban on military equipment sales to Georgia.

This is in contrast to a statement by Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili, who denied Israel had frozen arms sales to Georgia. Mr. Iakobashvili further stated that the administration affirmed their relationship with the Israeli Foreign Ministry and that no problems have been present.

To date, Israeli companies like Elbit Systems, have sold to Georgia 70 million rifle cartridges, Merkava tanks, APCs, helicopters, UAVs, fire control systems, and night-vision devices. The most controversial of these items is the Hermes 450 UAV, which Georgia used for a reconnaissance mission over Abkhazia on 20 April, and was subsequently shot down. Recognized as the leading long endurance tactical UAV in its class, the Hermes 450 has been pivotal to Georgia’s desire to advance its military.

Since being elected in 2004, Georgian President Saakashvili has unabashedly sought to strengthen his nation’s armed forces. Their NATO aspirations have been reinforced with U.S. support by contributing over 2,000 troops to Iraq, making them the third largest contingent force after Great Britain. Georgian armed forces have received counterterrorism training from the U.S. in the 2002 Georgia Train and Equip Program (GTEP). Their ultimate win over armed rebels and terrorist forces in the Pankisi Gorge secured their position as a technologically proficient actor on the international stage.

A close military relationship between the U.S. and Georgia continues to this day as about 300 Georgia National Guard Soldiers are currently in Tbilisi for a three-week international exercise to help strengthen relationships. Coined Immediate Response 2008, the mission will further training for forces in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Ukraine.

Suffice it to say that even if RT’s report had any claim of credence, it would be very shocking indeed for Israel to make such a strategic blunder. Particularly when a large diaspora of Georgian Jews now live in Israel. Fortunately, Israel is not in between a rock and a hard place, but strategically situated, along with the U.S., to look out for Georgia’s military interests.