IAI Harop
Country: 
IsraelManufacturer: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
'Man-in-the-loop' evolution of the Harpy: loitering munition with EO/IR seeker, remote operator and abort-and-recover capability until the final dive.
'Man-in-the-loop' evolution of the Harpy: loitering munition with EO/IR seeker, remote operator and abort-and-recover capability until the final dive.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- IAI Harop
- Alias
- Harpy 2
- Manufacturer
- Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
- Country
- Israel
- Year
- 2005
- Category
- Loitering munition
- Class
- Tactical (< 600 kg)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 1000 km
- Endurance
- 9 h
- Top speed
- 417 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 4,500 m
- Propulsion
- Pistone Wankel UEL AR731, elica spintore
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 135 kg
- Payload
- 23 kg
- Weapons
- Testata HE da 23 kg, autodistruzione
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- Seeker EO/IR FLIR + sensore anti-radar passivo
- Datalink / control
- LOS + SATCOM, man-in-the-loop
- Launch
- Canister da TEL (terra, aria, mare)
- Recovery
- Nessuno (munizione monouso o abort+riavvio)
Combat use
- ▸2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war
- ▸Ukraine 2022
- ▸Gaza operations
Tags
Main operators
History
Developed in the early 2000s on the Harpy airframe, the Harop adds an electro-optical seeker and a two-way datalink letting the operator confirm the target before impact.
It played a decisive role in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, where Azerbaijani forces used it against Armenian SAM batteries, artillery and armor.
IAI Harop development was partly funded by India, the first export customer, which procured more than 100 units now fielded along the line of control with Pakistan.
During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war Azerbaijani Harops destroyed Russian-built Armenian S-300, 9K33 Osa and 2K11 Krug air-defence systems, demonstrating dramatically how vulnerable conventional Soviet-era air defences are to cheap new kamikaze munitions — a watershed moment in modern warfare doctrine.
Since 2022 the Harop has been used by Ukraine, received through official and parallel export channels, against Russian positions in the Donbas and Crimea, helping spread the tactical loitering munition concept worldwide and accelerating the evolution of drone warfare.