May 22, 2023 / JNS) Among the cutting-edge Israeli technologies on display at the GoForIsrael investment conference in Tel Aviv this month was the “Goshawk,” an autonomous drone hunter patterned on birds of prey.

The Goshawk (known in Hebrew as “Angry Bird”), is being developed by Israeli firm Robotican, in partnership with the Israeli Air Force.

More than a thousand participants and 500 investors descended on Tel Aviv from around the world to attend the conference, which kicked off on May 3. Organized by Cukierman and Co. Investment House and Catalyst Investment, GoForIsrael is among the most prestigious conferences of its type in Israel. 

According to Robotican CEO Hagai Balshai, when looking for solutions to the ever-increasing threat of hostile drones, the company looked to nature.

“We said, let’s copy the eagle’s actions and see how we can create an autonomous solution,” he told JNS.

While the IAF relies on advanced radars to detect drone threats, and uses soft-kill options such as electronic warfare to neutralize them, there was still a need for physical mitigation to prevent small drone intrusions, according to Belshai.

“In the world of homeland security, threat estimations are focused on drones that can threaten airports, strategic facilities, conduct smuggling activities and more. This must be stopped,” he said.

Some years ago, researchers in the Netherlands actually attempted to train eagles to hunt drones, but the program was not successful.

However, Belshai and his three founding partners felt that the general approach was the correct one. 

Once the Goshawk drone acquires a target, “it can reach it from every direction, catch, hurl it to where you want, and come back, ready to grasp it in a net,” he said.