Col. K, the head of the Israel Air Force’s UAV and Intelligence Department, said remotely piloted aircraft have become “central to every front” as the force prepares to expand its unmanned fleet with more Heron MK2 aircraft, a new squadron this year and the Hermes 650 Spark next year. The remarks, published April 13, 2026 in Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post, lay out a military apparatus leaning harder into machines that can strike far from home while keeping human operators out of the blast radius.
Who Gets Protected, Who Gets Targeted
K said, “Over the past two years of fighting, including the recent campaign against Iran, our RPAs have become central to every front. From Gaza to Lebanon to deep inside Iran, UAVs allow us to operate near and far without risking human life.” That sentence captures the hierarchy plainly: the air force’s priority is to preserve its own personnel while projecting force across Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. The people on the receiving end of those operations do not get the same protection.
K said the 12 Day War in June 2025, known as Operation Rising Lion, marked a turning point. “For the first time, in June, we opened the door to sending drones far beyond our borders,” K said. “Most of the officers in my department are engineers, and their work is what gives these platforms the ability to fly such long distances.” The language is clinical, but the function is blunt: engineers build the reach, and the military uses it to extend domination farther from the center.
The article said Israeli UAVs flew thousands of hours and carried out around 500 attacks in Iran during the June war, making up around 50 percent of the total aerial attacks. It said this time around, Israeli RPAs flew even longer, alongside American systems. K said the IAF relied heavily on its unmanned fleet as Iran launched waves of missiles and attack drones toward Israel and regional targets, using the aircraft to locate and strike launch sites, weapons warehouses and logistical hubs.
The Machinery of Remote War
“Every aircraft is valuable; we prefer to send a UAV rather than send a manned platform if they can achieve the same at the end of the day, to attack and destroy threats,” K said. She added that UAVs “hunted missile launchers, warehouses, and weapons infrastructure, and we succeeded very nicely.” The quote strips away the euphemism: the point is to attack and destroy, but with less risk to the people operating the system.
K said local defense companies Aeronautics, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems are responsible for the UAVs, and that all sensors and payloads carried by IAF UAVs are also domestically produced and were upgraded significantly during the war. “We use technologies that allow our aircraft to fly in GPS-denied environments,” K said. She added, “While Gaza may be easier, operationally, there is no difference between Iran and Lebanon in that regard. Each conflict teaches us something new.”
“All our payloads are Blue and white, just like our platforms,” she said. “They give us day-and-night visibility to protect our troops and identify targets, whether in Gaza, Lebanon, or Iran. Over the past two years, we’ve increased both our munitions capacity and the capabilities of our payloads.” The article presents this as modernization; the result is a more efficient war machine, backed by domestic defense firms and built to keep the apparatus moving.
What They Call Readiness
K also described a Heron that survived a direct hit during a mission over Iran. “One of our platforms was hit by a missile over Iran,” K said. “It came back with holes everywhere, even in the fuel tank. It was a miracle that it returned home. We restored it, and it went back out on more missions.” The article said Israel and the United States have remained tight-lipped about the number of UAV losses, while the US is estimated to have lost at least 20 Reaper drones and Israel is rumored to have lost over a dozen.
K said, “It’s a war. You plan for something, and then you meet the enemy. We lost some platforms, and every platform is important, but we learned even more. Thanks to our people and how we prepared our systems, the number of losses remained low, and we continued to operate.” That is the language of an institution measuring success by how well it can absorb damage and keep the machinery running.
Looking ahead, K said, “We are about to receive more Heron MK2 aircraft and will open a new squadron this year. Next year, we’ll bring in the Hermes 650 Spark. The future is UAVs. There are endless possibilities for these platforms.” She added that the IAF continues to study other conflicts, including the war in Ukraine. “The war in Ukraine is different, but you are always learning and investigating,” she said. “The Ukrainian arena is different, but every conflict teaches us something.” K concluded, “There was a huge success on our side. But we are always ready. We cannot afford not to be ready. We will always be ready.”