IAI Searcher

The IAI Searcher (also known by the Hebrew name מרומית "Meyromit" - "Marsh tern", or officially in Israel as the חוגלה "Hugla" - "Alectoris") is a reconnaissance UAV developed in Israel in the 1980s. In the following decade, it replaced the IMI Mastiff and IAI Scout UAVs then in service with the Israeli Army.
Design.
The Searcher looks almost identical to the Scout and Pioneer, but is in fact scaled up and is well over twice the size of the Scout. The Searcher is powered by a piston engine. The new design features updated avionics and sensor systems with greater flight endurance as well as increased redundancy for improved survivability. In addition to Israel, the system had been exported and is currently in use by Russia, India, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand and Turkey.
Operational deployment.
More than 100 Searcher IIs are being operated by the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy.
Crashes.
10 June 2002 – Searcher Mark-II, operated by Indian Air Force for reconnaissance, was shot down by a Pakistan Air Force F-16B using AIM-9L Sidewinder at an altitude of 13,000 ft, after it was spotted by the mobile observation units.
21 May 2015 – Russian "Forpost" UAV (Searcher II, tail number 923) crashed near Avdiivka in Ukraine during the War in Donbass. The aircraft was shot down by Ukrainian volunteer battalion Dnipro-1.
11 July 2018 – A Russian "Forpost" UAV was found on July 12 in a field close to the village of Barqah, about 12 kilometres far from the Israeli side of the Golan heights (Syria) but none among the belligerents claimed the shot down nor the loss.
References.
This article contains material that originally came from the web article "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain.