Delilah 1
 





 
 


AGM-86 Air-Launched "Cruise" Missile.
 
 

Delilah is a long range electro optical missile optimized to strike high value, time critical moving and re-locatable targets. Delilah is operational by the Israeli AF fighter aircraft. Delilah's unique features enable the elimination of SAM and SAS threats and assure quick reaction time required between the detection of such threat to it's engagement and destruction.

Delilah is equipped with a turbo jet engine allowing for a long range and loitering capability. A state of the art auto pilot computer onboard combined with INS/GPS navigation system allow it to perform most part of the mission autonomously while a data link enables a man in the loop intervention and target validation. Based on its light weight innovative modular design, Delilah can be configured with a variety of warheads and fitted to most types of aircrafts, answering to multiple combat scenarios and operational requirements.

Adapting a rocket booster Delilah can be launched from helicopters, from ground or ship based launchers.

Delilah has an operational range of up to 250 km that can be traded with loiter time. Unique “Go-Around” and re-attack capability, highly accurate INS/GPS navigation and E/O guidance for pinpoint precision strike and day / night capability - allow Delilah to meet air strike mission objectives with minimum collateral damage against a variety of high value and time critical targets on land or sea. In addition, Delilah features all up round storage, for immediate combat readiness

For precision strike, IMI offers the Delilah and MSOV weapons. Unlike cruise missiles, which were designed mainly for long range, Delilah can combine a range of 250 km with loitering over the target-an essential (and unique) capability for attacking evasive or concealed high-value targets. The jet-powered, 400-lb missile can be launched from an aircraft, helicopter or ground launcher and navigates autonomously along a pre-planned route using a combination of inertial and GPS data. With its compact dimensions Delilah can be carried on helicopters such as the Sikorsky UH-60A and SH-60B. Its small but effective warhead is designed to provide maximum destruction to the target while minimizing collateral damage.

In 1995, Flight International reported that China was providing funding to Israel for development of an air-launched cruise missile based on the Israeli Delilah anti-radiation attack drone. The report noted that China also would be a customer for the new cruise missile.  

Delilah 2 reportedly will be larger than the Delilah but will retain its basic configuration. It is not clear whether the larger size will allow for both a longer range and a larger payload, or just the latter. This might be provided in the recently revealed Bet Shemesh Sorek 4, which produces 800 pounds of thrust.
 
 
Israel Seeks U.S. Technology 
To Turn Decoy into "Stealth Missile"
 



MQM-74 Chukar unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
 
A pending request for a military technology transfer of radar-evading paint from a U.S. to an Israeli manufacturer would turn an Israeli pilotless aircraft into a deadly missile that could evade "all radars the U.S. has sold" to the Middle East, according to the U.S. inventor. The quantity of the stealth aircraft coating, called Signaflux, ordered by Israel also raises questions about Israeli intentions. 

The coating has been ordered by Israel Military Industries for its pilotless "Delilah," which is capable of delivering a 1,000-lb. warhead to targets within 400km of the point of launch, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology.

The original Delilah, first fielded in the late 1980s, was a cheap, ground-launched decoy aircraft whose sole mission was to attract anti-aircraft fire and, thus, enable aircraft or other missiles to fly to their targets in relative safety.

Today's upgraded version of the Delilah has an offensive capability. Resembling a U.S. Air Force AGM-86 Air-Launched "Cruise" Missile in both configuration and capability, the ramjet-powered Delilah measures nine feet long, travels at nearly the speed of sound and can be launched from the ground, aircraft or ships. 

The Israeli manufacturer of Delilah is hoping to give it the ability to fly undetected to its targets by painting the unmanned aircraft with Signaflux. This, said one Air Force colonel, "would make the Delilah a sort of poor man's stealth missile." 

Washington Report's Pentagon source, and David A. Fulghum, a military technology correspondent at Aviation Week, also revealed that the Israeli Delilah is a copy of the American-made Northrop MQM-74 Chukar unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). 

The Chukar is an aerial target which the U.S. Navy has used since the early 1960s to simulate subsonic threats. Northrop has shipped over 1,000 Chukars to overseas clients. 

Northrop spokesman Loye Miller acknowledges that Israel took delivery of several of his company's Chukar UAVs in the late 1970s. Miller said that Northrop does not officially consider the Delilah to be a re-engineered version of the Chukar, and that what the Israelis do with the Delilah" is of no concern to Northrop."