After India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7, the Pakistani military reported that New Delhi once again targeted major Pakistani cities, including Lahore and Karachi, on May 8 with the Israeli-made Harop drones.
Incidentally, if confirmed, this would mark the South Asian combat debut of the famed long-range Loitering Munition from Israel, which has already been battle-tested in the Middle East and the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict.
“India has undertaken yet another blatant act of military aggression against Pakistan by sending Harop drones at multiple locations. Pakistan armed forces, being in a high state of alert and vigilance, have so far neutralized 12 Harop drones at various locations. These locations are Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Attock, Miano, Bahawalpur, Chhor, and near Karachi,” the Pakistani military said in its briefing.
Further, the Pakistani military spokesperson, DG ISPR Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, showed the images of the debris, which it claimed were from the downed Harop drones.
He said that the process of India sending these Harop drones across was a “serious serious provocation”. “This naked aggression continues, and the armed forces are on a high degree of alert and neutralising them as we speak,” Gen Chaudhry asserted.
“Other than these 12 drones, one drone, however, managed to engage a military target near Lahore, partially. Four men of the Pakistani army have been injured in this attack near Lahore, and partial damage to equipment has occurred,” he added.
Though the Pakistani military spokesperson did not provide any further details on the equipment, which has been ‘partially’ damaged in the drone attack on the Lahore military facility, many open-source intelligence accounts on social media are claiming that India has managed to attack a Pakistani air defense system in Lahore.
According to social media reports, the drone targeted the LY80 Radar system, part of the Chinese-made HQ-16 medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system.
Although the EurAsian Times cannot independently verify these claims, the Pakistani military spokesperson’s statement that ‘partial damage to an equipment has occurred’ lends credence to the theory that the ‘equipment’ must have been a high-value target, hence the acknowledgment of its loss in the official press briefing.
Further, India has confirmed in its press release that India attacked Pakistan Air Defense Radars, and one Air Defense system at Lahore has been neutralized.
“Today morning Indian Armed Forces targeted Air Defence Radars and systems at a number of locations in Pakistan. Indian response has been in the same domain with same intensity as Pakistan. It has been reliably learnt that an Air Defence system at Lahore has been neutralized,” the Indian Ministry of Defense said in its press statement.
The neutralization of a Pakistani air defense system by Harop drones is indeed a significant victory for India. This would also mark the combat debut of this long-range Loitering Munition in South Asia. The drone, in service with Israel and India for over a decade now, has already been battle-tested in the Middle East and the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict.
The Harop Drones
The Harop drone is a combat-proven, long-range, standoff loitering attack weapon system developed by Israel Aerospace Industries.
Combining the characteristics of a UAV and a missile, Harop remains a formidable loitering munition equipped to hunt high-value targets like unmanned surface vessels, command posts, supply depots, tanks, and air defense systems.
It is equipped with electro-optical (EO), infrared (IR), and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensors, as well as a color CCD camera and anti-radar homing capabilities, providing comprehensive target detection and identification.
HAROP can seek targets in a designated area for 9 hours, locate and identify them, plan an attack route, and then pursue the strike from any direction at shallow or steep dive angles. Due to its immunity to GNSS jamming, HAROP overcomes communication challenges.
HAROP is supervised by remote human-in-the-loop mission control as a guided weapon system and may be aborted if required. Launched from canisters mounted on trucks or naval vessels, HAROP is easily deployed from diverse terrains and environments. The drone will return to the base if a target is not engaged.
It has been designed to minimize its radar signature through stealth (low observability). This anti-radiation drone is designed to target enemy air defense systems in a first line of attack, as the small drone can evade SAMs and radar detection systems.
Harop boasts an impressive operational range of up to 1,000 kilometers, enabling deep-strike operations without exposing operators to frontline threats.
The IAI Harop loitering munition entered service in 2009. However, Israel began work on such a drone as early as the 1980s.
In the 1980s, several programs began, including the ‘Harpy’ of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the American integrated anti-radiation missile program, which commenced in 1982.
The objective was to develop a low-cost air-launched system to aid in the destruction of enemy air defense networks. Israel started working on a concept that would combine elements of cruise missiles and UAVs.
Thus, loitering munitions were first deployed in the 1990s to suppress Enemy Air Defense (SEAD).
These systems loiter for extended durations around the target area, locate and identify them, plan an attack route, and then pursue the strike.
The drones made their combat debut in 2016 during the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
In April 2016, Radio Free Europe published the video footage of an Azerbaijani attack on an Armenian convoy, which is believed to be the combat debut of Harop drones.
The footage showed the craft flying through the air, with a distinctive whine heard from many drones, and then diving behind the crest of a hill.
The Armenian Defense Ministry later announced that seven people were killed in what it said was an Azerbaijani drone attack on a bus carrying volunteers to the disputed region.
In fact, Azerbaijani officials had specifically praised the Israeli “Harop” drones as “very effective.”
Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, said the Harop drones are “very effective” and are used in a “kamikaze” capacity on the battlefield.
In 2018, the Harop drone was used in Syria, where it was credited with destroying the Syrian Air Defence SA-22 Greyhound.
India’s Long Association With Harop Missiles
Incidentally, Israel’s Harop drone was publicly unveiled to the world for the first time in India during Aero India 2009.
The same year, India decided to purchase 10 Harop drones in a deal worth US$ 100 million. Harop was the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) first combat UAV for offensive strikes.
A decade later, in 2019, India decided to purchase another 54 Harop drones to augment its fleet of over 100 Israeli drones, which were renamed P-4 in India.
The Harop also appeared as Agnikaa at the Adani Defense enclosure at Aero India 2023, suggesting future acquisitions of this drone through the ‘Strategic Partnership’ model of Defense production enshrined in the Defense Acquisition Procedure (DAP)-2020.
Indeed, India has a long association with the Harop drones. New Delhi has been using these drones for over a decade now and has also invested in the domestic production of these anti-radiation loitering munitions.
However, this is India’s first combat use of this drone against Pakistan.
It is safe to say that the Harop drones have made a spectacular combat debut in South Asia by taking out a Chinese-built air defense system as their first kill.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
