The 161 Squadron of the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

, also known as the Black Snake Squadron, operates Elbit Hermes 450 UAVs. It is based at

Palmachim Palmachim () is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located about ten kilometers south of the Gush Dan, Tel Aviv area along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, among the sand dunes, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gan Raveh Regional Council. In it h ...

airbase. It was previously an MD 500 Defender and then an AH-1E/F Cobra helicopter squadron under the name Southern Cobra Squadron.

Operations during the Israel-Hamas war

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas surprise attack, the squadron was on alert. At 06:30 the attack began, according to an investigation by Yediot Ahronoth, shortly after that at 06:37 the second squadron launched as armed "Zik" type UAVs, in response to "red color" calls. Due to the massive damage to the ability Target intelligence, command and control of the IDF by destroying the division headquarters and the brigade headquarters at the Raim base, and other bases in the area, there were almost no targeting factors that could direct the aircraft. In the first hours of the attack, the operators were forced to improvise and act independently, deciding on their own attack targets, with almost no orders, and without them or the central command of the

understanding the full picture. The officer level in the field initiated steps on its own, in the squadron they did not wait for an orderly order and ordered three more armed Ziks to take off and enter the battle. By the end of the first day, the squadron had carried out 110 attacks on about a thousand targets, most of them inside Israel. The squadron was them deployed to the north and launched strikes inside Lebanon during the Israel Hezbollah conflict.

References

Israeli Air Force squadrons {{Israel-mil-stub