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America's Israeli Dronefather

(Economist-UK) When Abe Karem, the aerospace engineer behind the Predator, America's most successful and most feared military drone, arrived in the U.S. from Israel in 1977, the Pentagon had almost given up on robotic planes. Karem founded a company, Leading Systems, in the garage of his Los Angeles home and began work on a drone that would ultimately transform the way America wages war. A graduate in aeronautics of Israel's Technion, Karem joined the Israeli Air Force and within 13 years had completed and deployed 16 projects, mostly conversions of jet fighters to add new weapons or capabilities. "In Israel at that time, we averaged six months from an idea to completion of flight testing," he says. "Military programs in the United States now typically take over 20 years to achieve first operation."
2013-01-24 00:00:00
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