Harpy IAI | Indian Army | Indian Air Force | Indian Aviation Core | Indian Defence Forces

The IAI Harpy is a loitering munition produced by Israel Aerospace Industries. The Harpy is designed to attack radar systems and is optimized for the suppression of enemy air defence (SEAD) role. It carries a high explosive warhead. The Harpy has been sold to several foreign nations, including South Korea, Turkey, India, and China.

In 2004, the Harpy became the focus of the effort by the United States to restrict arms transfers and the sales of advanced military technology to China. Sold to China in 1994 for around US$55 million, the loitering munitions were returned to Israel in 2004 under contract to be upgraded. The United States, fearing that the Harpy would pose a threat to Taiwanese and American forces in the case of a war with China, demanded that Israel seize the loitering munitions and nullify the contract. According to Israel, the Harpy is an indigenously designed loitering munitions. It does not contain any US-produced sub-systems. In 2005, the loitering munitions were returned to China without being upgraded. This incident chilled relations between the United States and Israel, with Israel being suspended from its status as Security Cooperative Participant in the Joint Strike Fighter program. However, on 6 November 2005, Israel stated that it has been re-admitted into the program.

HARPY is an all-weather day/night "Fire and Forget" autonomous weapon, launched from a ground vehicle behind the battle zone. Programmed before launch to perform autonomous flight to a pre-defined “Loitering Area”, in which they loiter and search for radiating targets. The HARPY loitering munition (LM) detects, attacks, and destroys enemy radar emitters, hitting them with high hit accuracy. HARPY effectively suppresses hostile SAM and radar sites for long durations, loitering above enemy territory for hours.

The launching process is controlled from the GCS and the HARPY LM is stored, transported, deployed, and launched from a canister mounted on a ground-based launcher normally mounted on trucks.

Operators

•  Azerbaijan
•  China
•  India
•  Israel
•  South Korea
•  Turkey

Defence career app Defence learning App 

Defence exam app Armed force app Army app 

Air force app Navy app State police app