By Arie Egozi, Autonomy Global — Ambassador for Israel
Israeli defense company Elbit Systems will supply its THOR Group 2 Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to the U.S. Army through a partnership with Mistral Inc., under an established U.S. cooperation framework between the two companies.
The contract was awarded to Mistral Inc. by the Army Contracting Command to procure the THOR UAS and mission payloads in support of company-level small UAS requirements.
The THOR Group 2 is a backpack-portable, rapidly deployable, fully autonomous multi-rotor VTOL mini-UAS built for a wide range of company-level tactical missions. Those missions including reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and identification, communications relay, resupply, limited cargo delivery and configurable effects options. Avandra LLC, Elbit Systems’ U.S.-based subsidiary, will partner with FUSE to provide local training and field and technical support.
Elbit designed the platform to reduce operator workload through autonomous takeoff and landing, autonomous mission execution, and multi-platform operation, while enabling rapid role changes at the point of need via modular payload integration. The company describes the system as a mature and configurable architecture built to support integration of a variety of mission payloads.
“The U.S. Army’s decision to select THOR as its company-level multi-rotor system validates the technological and operational advantages offered by our solutions,” said Yoav Poizner, VP of Marketing at Elbit Systems. “Together, we look forward to helping deliver a dependable system that can be configured for evolving mission needs and scaled for operational demand.”
Yoav Banai, Senior VP at Mistral, said pairing Mistral’s U.S.-based integration and delivery focus with the THOR platform positions the company to provide a rapidly deployable Group 2 VTOL UAS that supports multi-mission teams and adapts quickly as the operational picture changes.