Casper 250
A joint Israeli-Polish backpack UAV for reconnaissance and surveillance.
Last updated
Damian B Oh · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Casper 250, also known as the SOFAR, is a backpack-deployable unmanned aerial vehicle developed jointly by Top I Vision Ltd of Israel and WB Electronics Sp. z o.o. of Poland. Both companies produce the aircraft under equal rights, with WB Electronics marketing it as the WB Electronics SOFAR and Top I Vision as the Casper 250. Designed for rapid deployment and simple human-machine interface, the system provides real-time reconnaissance and imagery intelligence.
Background
The Casper 250/SOFAR was created as a joint venture between Top I Vision Ltd and WB Electronics Sp. z o.o., with both companies holding equal rights to the documentation, copyright, and production. Top I Vision manufactures it under the name Casper 250, while WB Electronics produces it in Poland as the SOFAR. The system comprises the aircraft, its payload, a ground control station, and data-link components.
The airframe is made entirely of composites and powered by an electric motor, enabling quiet, covert operation. It can be launched manually or using a portable launcher with a stretched rubber band.
Missions can be flown fully autonomously via GPS-guided autopilot after route programming, or manually controlled from the ground station. Landing is possible in both automatic and manual modes. Reconnaissance equipment includes interchangeable observation heads for day and night operations, featuring a 3CCD daylight camera with 600,000-pixel resolution and 15x optical zoom, an infrared camera with 324×256 resolution and 2x digital zoom, or a digital camera with 3 to 5 million pixels.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Casper 250 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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