SkyStriker

Elbit Systems’ electric loitering munition — a canister-launched, autonomous strike drone with a 5–10 kg warhead, abort-and-relaunch capability, and deep integration with the PULS multiple rocket launcher, combat-proven in India’s Operation Sindoor.

Overview

The SkyStriker is an electrically powered, canister-launched loitering munition developed by Israel’s Elbit Systems. Designed for covert precision strike and persistent surveillance, it can loiter over a target area for up to two hours, lock onto a selected target with an electro-optical/infrared seeker, and abort the attack to resume observation or return to base. The system bridges the gap between small tube-launched tactical drones and larger fuel-powered loitering munitions, offering a balance of range, payload, and stealth. Its interoperability with the PULS (Precise & Universal Launching System) means a single vehicle can launch both conventional rockets and SkyStriker loitering munitions — a capability no Western competitor currently fields.

Development

Elbit Systems developed the SkyStriker within its ISTAR/Unmanned Systems division; the exact engineering timeline has not been disclosed, but the system was confirmed operational by at least 2017 according to Autonomous Weapons Watch. The first major international order came in 2021, when India purchased approximately 100 units through a joint venture between Elbit and Adani Defence’s Alpha Design Technologies in Bengaluru, establishing licensed “Make-in-India” production. In September 2023, Elbit secured a $95 million contract with an undisclosed European customer for “several hundred” canister-configuration SkyStrikers, flagged by Shephard Media and separately reported by Army Recognition. The strategic horizon shifted again on 11 June 2026, when Diehl Defence and Elbit Systems signed a partnership at the ILA Berlin Air Show to jointly offer SkyStriker to the German Armed Forces, with Diehl taking the lead on German-based manufacturing, assembly, integration, and qualification, as announced by Diehl Defence and covered by EDR Magazine. This partnership represents the most significant European industrial buy-in for a loitering munition from Israel, and it signals a deepened NATO interest in the system, fueled by lessons from the war in Ukraine.

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