Israel's Elbit Unveils Merchant Ship Drone Carrier Concept for Hermes 650 Naval Operations.

Elbit Systems is examining a commercial-ship conversion that would operate multiple Hermes 650 Spark fixed-wing drones at sea, the company disclosed on July 13, 2026. The concept could give naval forces persistent surveillance and targeting coverage beyond the radar horizon, with greater endurance and payload capacity than vertical-takeoff unmanned aircraft.

The converted merchant vessel would serve as a mobile airfield for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance missions rather than as a conventional aircraft carrier. Elbit has not identified a customer, contract, conversion partner, flight-test program, or service-entry timeline, leaving the proposal at the concept stage.

Related topic: Poland Tests StormRider Naval Drone With Frigate to Stream Live Baltic Sea Data to NATO.

Elbit Systems' proposed unmanned aviation ship would operate Hermes 650 Spark UAVs for long-range maritime surveillance, target acquisition and strike support, extending naval sensor coverage against missiles, drones and unmanned surface vessels (Picture source: Elbit Systems).

The Hermes 650 Spark was unveiled at the Singapore Airshow on February 21, 2024. It has a maximum takeoff weight of approximately 650 kilograms, a 140-kilogram full-fuel load, a service ceiling of 22,000 feet, and a stated endurance of up to 24 hours. Its operating-speed range is 55 to 120 knots, or about 102 to 222 kilometres per hour, while the line-of-sight control radius is 300 kilometres; satellite communications allow operations beyond that distance. Elbit also specifies automatic takeoff and landing, automatic taxiing, short-runway operation, and compliance with NATO STANAG 4671. Reporting from the aircraft’s 2024 presentation indicated that takeoff requires approximately 200 metres under land-based conditions, although Elbit has not published a shipboard launch distance, recovery distance or permissible sea state.

Payload accounting is central to understanding what the aircraft can actually do. Elbit lists a 260-kilogram useful load distributed across two fuselage bays and six underwing attachment points, but this figure includes fuel. With the full 140-kilogram fuel load required for the advertised 24-hour endurance, approximately 120 kilograms remain for mission equipment. The forward bay is reported to accept 70 kilograms, and the rear bay up to 100 kilograms. Available payloads include electro-optical, infrared, and short-wave infrared cameras, maritime-surveillance radar, communications-intelligence equipment, electronic-intelligence receivers, and the SkEye wide-area surveillance system. A practical maritime configuration could therefore combine an electro-optical turret for identification with radar for wide-area search, but installing several heavy sensors would reduce fuel, endurance, or the mass available for external stores. This payload tradeoff is more important than the headline 260-kilogram figure.

The six underwing attachment points should not be interpreted as evidence that an armed Hermes 650 is already available. Elbit has not publicly named a missile, bomb, or guided rocket qualified on the aircraft, and no release trials, fire-control integration, or naval weapon certification have been announced. Carrying a weapon would require structural clearance, aerodynamic testing, safe-separation trials, electromagnetic-compatibility work and integration of targeting data with the aircraft’s mission computer. A lightweight guided missile could fit within the 120-kilogram full-fuel payload allowance, but each weapon would displace sensor mass and reduce the value of the aircraft as a persistent reconnaissance asset. The aircraft is currently better documented as a multi-sensor unmanned aerial vehicle than as an operational unmanned combat aircraft.

Elbit already offers a more mature method of separating surveillance from attack. Its SkyStriker loitering munition can be launched pneumatically from a vehicle or vessel and controlled through the company’s FAST architecture. SkyStriker uses electric propulsion, has a published range of 100 kilometres, remains airborne for up to two hours, and carries either a 5- or 10-kilogram internal warhead. Its gimballed day-and-infrared seeker supports automatic video tracking, operator authorization, attack abortion, go-around, and re-engagement. A 10-kilogram warhead can be relevant against radar antennas, communications equipment, parked aircraft, light vehicles, exposed missile launchers, or small boats; it is not equivalent to a heavy anti-ship missile intended to penetrate and disable a frigate-sized warship. Pairing Hermes 650 aircraft with vessel-launched SkyStrikers would create a more credible division of labour: the reusable aircraft would search, classify, and maintain custody of targets, while the expendable munition would conduct the attack.

The unresolved engineering issue is recovery at sea. A 200-metre land takeoff run may be compatible with the length of a large merchant hull, particularly when ship speed and headwind generate additional airflow over the deck, but landing on a moving and pitching vessel is substantially more demanding. Elbit has not specified whether the conversion would use an arresting cable, net, barrier, or another assisted-recovery method. The donor ship would also need aviation-fuel tanks, maintenance workshops, spare engines, satellite terminals, mission-control rooms, aircraft-handling equipment, fire suppression and, if weapons are embarked, protected magazines and explosive-handling procedures. Corrosion control, deck motion, crosswinds, and launch-and-recovery cycle times would determine operational availability more than nominal aircraft endurance.

The military requirement is nevertheless identifiable. On October 19, 2023, USS Carney destroyed 15 unmanned aerial vehicles and four land-attack cruise missiles during a ten-hour engagement in the Red Sea. The same theatre subsequently saw repeated use of one-way attack drones, anti-ship missiles, and explosive unmanned surface vessels. In the Black Sea, Ukraine used unmanned surface craft, aerial drones, missiles, intelligence, and electronic warfare to constrain a conventionally superior Russian fleet. These cases show why navies need sensors positioned farther from the defended ship. A Hermes 650 operating 300 kilometres from its vessel could search for launch craft, coastal control stations, communications emitters and approaching unmanned surface vessels before they enter a warship’s final defensive zone. At 100 knots, a 300-kilometre transit would take about 1.6 hours each way, theoretically leaving more than 20 hours for on-station activity in a maximum-endurance profile before accounting for reserves, weather and routing.

Elbit’s proposal should therefore be assessed as a distributed surveillance and targeting concept, not as a low-cost substitute for carrier aviation. Its potential rests on persistent radar and electro-optical coverage, electronic-intelligence collection, and the ability to direct missiles or loitering munitions launched by other forces. Before a navy could make a procurement decision, Elbit would need to demonstrate shipboard recovery, sortie-generation rates, operations in representative sea states, secure communications under jamming, weapon-data transfer, maintenance requirements, and conversion cost. Until those data are available, the concept remains technically plausible but operationally unproven.

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