ByZEV STUB
Updated:

Israel has been using drones to help identify damage on local road infrastructure caused by falling rockets.

The Naama venture, which is working to create a national drone network that could eventually transform Israel’s transportation infrastructure, is providing the Home Front Command with real-time visual information that can help document and monitor sites where rockets fell, as well as report violent incidents and legal violations on the ground.

The drone companies participating in the project have a variety of aerial photograph and monitoring capabilities, providing real-time data to a central control unit with the coordination of the Transportation Ministry, Ayalon Highways and the Innovation Authority.

Israel’s national drone project was designed to create a centralized network for commercial deliveries, medical transportation and urban air mobility, in what is seen as the most progressive project of its type in the world.

Among the missions being tested in the pilot project is a plan to deliver Pizza Hut pizzas by drone this summer. It is scheduled to begin in July, said Udi Shamai, Pizza Hut Israel’s CEO.

Many of the test flights carried out in recent months have helped Israel’s health system deal with challenges made even worse by the corona pandemic, including transporting COVID-19 tests in the northern part of the country. More than 2,500 sorties have been conducted in the past year.

“In times of crisis, as we saw in the corona period, it is possible to accelerate the development of technological solutions in order to face public challenges,” said Dr. Ami Applebaum, chairman of the Innovation Authority.

The Innovation Authority considers it of paramount importance to foster cooperation between the government and the hi-tech industry, to promote solutions for the needs of the state and in particular, the needs of the Home Front Command.

At the same time, it is important to take advantage of the significant advances made by the Naama venture in creating a technological and business regulatory environment to use the drone project in assisting the national effort.

The Naama Initiative was formed at the start of 2020, when the Israel Innovation Authority, along with the Transportation Authority, Civil Aviation Authority and other government bodies, came together to try to create a national drone infrastructure that would completely transform the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

Test flights are coordinated as part of a multi-layered three-year plan that will eventually provide the framework for a nationwide drone network. That plan will be centrally coordinated and regulated to manage the security, safety and privacy challenges of a sky full of unmanned aerial vehicles.