166 Squadron (Israeli Air Force)

Squadron 166 operates the Elbit Hermes 900, known in IAF service by the Hebrew name "Kochav" (meaning "Star").[1] The Hermes 900 is an improved derivative of the Hermes 450, developed and manufactured by Elbit subsidiary Silver Arrow.[2] It measures nine meters in length, has a wingspan of 16 meters, and can reach 220 km/h. Published reports gave maximum-endurance figures of 30 hours in 2017 and 36 hours in 2024, supporting long-duration missions.[2][3]

The aircraft carries electro-optical equipment for day-and-night imaging, a laser designator, SAR radar, advanced intelligence sensors, and classified electronic equipment.[1][3] It is described in foreign reports as potentially armed, though Israeli authorities have not officially confirmed its offensive configuration.[1] The Kochav was declared fully operational by the IAF in 2017, though it had already been used in Gaza during the final days of Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014 while still in the early adoption phase.[2]

Squadron 166 was officially established at Palmachim Air Force Base in 1999 as the first IAF unit to operate the Hermes 450 "Zik" RPAV.[4] In its early years the Zik was kept as a classified wartime asset, but in the early 2000s the squadron began employing it in targeted strikes and precision missions in Gaza, eventually extending operations to targets farther from Israel.[4] Ynet attributed the 2004 killing of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and the 2012 killing of Hamas military-wing leader Ahmed Jabari to the Zik squadron, while explicitly noting that the IDF never officially confirmed those attributions.[4]

A former Zik operator described the human-control philosophy underlying these missions: "The Zik is not a robot. Its flight can be automated, but a human operator identifies the target and launches the weapon. It is not a computer's decision."[4]

In January 2021, following a force reorganization, Squadron 166 landed its Zik aircraft for the last time and shifted exclusively to the Hermes 900 Kochav.[1] The Hermes 450 Zik aircraft were transferred to Squadron 161, which became its sole IAF operator.[1] When the 147th Squadron was inaugurated in April 2024, the 166th was identified as Palmachim's other Hermes 900 squadron; the new unit was created as part of a plan to double Hermes 900 operations during the war.[5]

An account centered on Squadron 166's commander described the broader IAF UAV response to the Hamas terrorist assault on October 7, 2023. Lieutenant Colonel "A." was in base family housing at Palmachim when alerts began at 6:29 a.m.; when he reached the squadron minutes later, he saw feeds from three Zik aircraft already attacking east of Gaza, inside Israeli territory.[6] The same account said the first IAF UAV strike of the day occurred at 7:14 a.m., against pickup trucks carrying terrorists into Israel.[6]

The reported totals — about 150 UAV strikes in the first six hours and 283 by midnight — referred to the wider UAV response, not clearly to Squadron 166 alone.[6] The scale of the attack outpaced available aircraft and munitions; the IAF said the strikes did not stop the mass breach but saved lives in some locations.[6]

In the months that followed, the unit's commander said that for several months 90% of drone flight hours were concentrated in the south, supporting IDF ground forces with offensive strikes and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance missions.[7] A major role was the suppression of rocket fire: drones were used to locate launch teams before they fired or to identify firing cells immediately after an attack.[7] Drones later returned to the northern front in larger numbers, and some became available for missions in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — while renewed activity in Gaza continued to draw resources back south.[7]

Squadron 166's conventional drones required broad operating spaces and were less suited to confined environments such as hospitals. They worked in coordination with smaller, more tactical drones operated by artillery units and supplied directly to ground troops.[7] Smaller specialized drones and robots were separately employed for tunnel observation.[7] One Kochav was reported shot down by a Hezbollah surface-to-air missile during operations over Lebanon; the crash site was subsequently struck from the air, though the IDF did not officially confirm the aircraft type involved.[3]

One of the squadron's most operationally detailed reported missions was its supporting role in the February 12, 2024 hostage rescue in Rafah. Unit 166 drones surveilled the location for three to four weeks before the operation, beginning with verification that the hostages were present and then establishing the positions of the hostages and their Hamas guards.[7]

That intelligence was used to assess approach routes, identify potential traps, and select paths that minimized exposure risk for both the hostages and the rescue force.[7] Drone operators accompanied Israeli ground special forces into Rafah during the operation. When the rescue team began its withdrawal, Unit 166 drones engaged Hamas forces to prevent them from reaching the extraction area.[7] The squadron's reservist commander, identified only as Lt. Col. "O," later described the pace of the rescue: "It was a surprise how fast Israeli forces accomplished the mission and called over the communications platform 'The hostages are in our hands' — it only took a few minutes."[7]

Lt. Col. O had previously served as an F-16 navigator before transitioning to the drone field after the Second Lebanon War. He began reserve duty concurrently with Unit 105 (F-16s) and Unit 166 (drones) in 2013, and by 2021 had shifted entirely to drone operations and taken command of Unit 166.[7]

Squadron 166 led the IAF's Blue Guardian exercise, which began on July 12, 2021, and ran for two weeks at Palmachim Air Force Base.[8] Described as the world's first international drone exercise, it brought together crews from the United States, Germany, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom alongside Israeli RPAV operators.[8]

The exercise's first week trained international participants to operate the Israeli Hermes 450 "Zik" RPAV; the second week involved simulated combat between allied nations and a notional enemy, with forces flying joint formations in cooperation with Israeli fighter and helicopter divisions and commando units.[8] The squadron's commander at the time, identified only as Lt. Col. L., articulated the exercise's objectives: "Second, we emphasized the personal connection with our counterparts: from interpersonal bonds between operators to providing our allies with a sense of comfort and security while adapting to their needs."[8] IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin described Blue Guardian as a platform for mutual learning and noted Israel's status as a pioneer in RPAV development and operations.[8]

The reported three-to-four-week surveillance period before the Rafah rescue and the account of drone engagement during the withdrawal were attributed to the classified reservist commander Lt. Col. O.; the report did not present independent corroboration for those operational details.[7]

Ynet's attribution of the 2004 killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and the 2012 killing of Ahmed Jabari to the Zik squadron carries a direct caveat that the IDF never officially confirmed these attributions.[4] Similarly, Mako's account of October 7 operations centered on Squadron 166's commander but described the wider UAV response and did not establish that all aircraft or strike totals cited were exclusively those of Squadron 166.[6]

Sources report different maximum-endurance figures for the Hermes 900 Kochav: 30 consecutive hours in a 2017 Globes report and 36 hours in a 2024 Mako report. Neither source resolves the difference.[2][3]