THE SENTINEL IN THE SKY

The intelligence is incomplete: Border Patrol knows a large drug cache is to be smuggled into northern Israel, but they don’t know where or when and lack the manpower to seal the 50 miles of border ; Days after floodwaters and mudslides have all but buried Kyushu Island, exhausted Japanese search and rescue workers are still frantically trying to locate isolated survivors ; A platoon quickly and cautiously pursues armed infiltrators through dark treacherous terrain, its young commander gathering vital real-time information about its geography along with the location and firepower of the fugitives, protecting his soldiers and ensuring the mission succeeds.

Each of these security and rescue teams is relying on a new tactical tool that allows them to see what would once have hidden from them. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly called drones, fly above them, detecting and evaluating potential threats, gathering and managing information, and thus directing their response.

“These sentinels in the sky have become integral to military and first responder arsenals,” says Israel Vaserlauf, 46, founder and CEO of Aero Sentinel, the industry-leading manufacturer of UAV systems. “They contribute pivotally to real-time decision-making without risk to human life.”

Meets different operational needs
A subsidiary of Aero Sol Aeronautical Solutions, Petach Tikva-based Aero Sentinel was founded in 2012, “making it a mature company in a young industry,” says Vaserlauf. “We’ve racked up more flight hours than any competitor, and our performance in the military, defense, homeland security, with the police, firefighters and in aerospace is unmatched.”

Many others, it seems, agree. Aero Sentinel systems are contributing to tactical civil and defense teams not only in Israel, but also in Morocco and Jordan, Japan, the Netherlands and several African nations. Vaserlauf, a former naval officer and an electronic and mechanical engineer who began building model airplanes when he was 10 (“I made my hobby my business”), has brought Aero Sentinel to the forefront of the fast-developing and highly competitive UAV field by tuning into the market’s needs and meeting them.

“Our UAVs are all quadcopters - drones with four rotors - and we’ve developed a highly versatile drone family,” he says. “While all have features in common, such as vertical takeoff and landing, there are variations among them to meet different operational needs.”

Negligible acoustic signature
Sentinel’s UAVs are constructed from military-grade composite materials developed by Aero Sentinel’s parent company, market leader Aero-Sol. This, according to Vaserlauf, gives them their exceptional strength-to-weight ratio and high-end mechanical properties.

“Our UAVs are small, weighing around 8 lb,” he says. “They’re easy to operate, assembled in under five minutes in a ‘plug-n-play’ which needs minimal training, and they stay in the air for an unrivalled 90 minutes. And because the four electrical motors which drive them are virtually silent, their acoustic signature is negligible. This means they can fly far below the radar, as low as 500 feet or just clear of Tel Aviv’s Shalom Meir Tower, making them a highly effective covert tool.”

Aero Sentinel’s system is, however, far more than its UAVs. “They’re the eyes in the sky, the aerial part of a unified operational system of cameras, communications and intelligent software.” The video stream and telemetry gathered by the cameras aboard the UAVs (both daylight and thermal night) are securely transmitted in real-time to a mobile ground control station, with a range of up to 3 miles. Ground control is a highly portable, rugged handheld laptop, built to cope with harsh environments. It uses intelligent software to control the UAV’s cameras, sensors and recorders, monitor its flight, analyze target status and geographic data, coordinate deployed assets, contribute information to situation reports and plan any type of mission. And all this in a single coherent, user-friendly application.

Adheres to the highest standards, delivers optimal reliability
The military benefit of UAV technology was obvious for the beginning — intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, reconnaissance, equipping troops and gathering information. Nor did it take long to recognize that the technology extends the reach of any type of tactical team - first responders and search-and-rescue teams in varied urban and rural terrains - saving time, sounding warnings and protecting lives. But this is only part of what they have to offer.

“Aero Sentinel quadcopters are surveying open mines, inspecting turbines and monitoring infrastructure, forestry, agriculture and mineral exploration,” elaborates Vaserlauf. “They’re detecting and appraising environmental hazards such as radiation, air pollution and fire, and streaming the information to tactical teams on the ground. And they’re watching land and coastal borders, and monitoring power lines and oil and gas pipelines over thousands of miles.”

Which is why, he says, Aero Sentinel always delivers optimal reliability. “Our range of quadcopters is among the world’s most efficient, each extensively tested to meet field requirements and MIL-SPEC. We use the latest technology and adhere to the highest standards, from R&D, through planning and manufacture to delivery of our Sentinel UAVs everywhere in the world.”

In collaboration with Aero Sentinel

Quotations:

Israel Vaserlauf, founder and CEO: “Aero Sentinel quadcopters are surveying open mines, inspecting turbines and monitoring infrastructure, forestry, agriculture and mineral exploration. They’re detecting and appraising environmental hazards such as radiation, air pollution and fire, and streaming the information to tactical teams on the ground"

The video stream and telemetry gathered by the cameras aboard the UAVs are securely transmitted in real-time to a mobile ground control station, which uses intelligent software to control the UAV’s cameras, sensors and recorders, and analyze target. All this in a single coherent, user-friendly application