Abraham karem biography wikipedia

Earlier this month we shared the story of Alec Bierbauer, the CIA operative who put Hellfire missiles on the Predator and ushered in the modern era of drone warfare. Today we travel further back in time to share the story of Abraham Karem, the man who invented Predator in the first place. He left his homeland and risked his career to prove that drones were the future—and that they could be built reliably and effectively in his own day.

Karem was born in Iraq and emigrated to Israel as a young boy to escape escalating violence against Jews.

Dji drone

In , during the Yom Kippur War, Karem was approached by the air force with a vexing problem: Israel was suffering terrible losses of valuable planes and still-more-valuable pilots from Soviet-built surface-to-air missile SAM batteries. The Egyptians and Syrians had created a sophisticated, multi-layered air-defense network that used long-range radar to detect incoming Israeli fighters; SAM batteries close to the front then activated their targeting radar, illuminated the target, fired, deactivated the radar, and got out of Dodge before Israel could counterstrike.

Israel lost more than airplanes and 60 aviators in the Yom Kippur War. But by then, Karem was long gone. And when the IDF proved a fickle customer, he emigrated again to a country he thought might be better prepared to appreciate his ideas. His logic was impeccable, even though his vision was radical for its time. RPVs had distinct advantages over their manned brethren, in theory.

They could also fly as long as their fuel lasted, unshackled to the physical and psychological needs of a pilot.