

Azerbaijan became the first well-known foreign customer of the LAHAT complex in a helicopter variant (SkyBow). Recall that in October 2013, the Israeli corporation Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced the receipt of a large order for the helicopter version of the LAHAT it is not named customer. At the beginning of 2014 of the year, IAI reported on successful LAHAT helicopter demonstration fire tests from a specially upgraded Mi-8 series helicopter, during which 8 successful launches at a distance of up to 10 km and flight altitudes from 92 to 1830 meters were made from both moving and from a helicopter on a hover, when illuminating a rocket both from a helicopter and from an external laser pointer.
LAHAT (Laser Homing Attack or Laser Homing Anti-Tank) with a semi-active laser guidance system was developed by IAI in the 1990s, initially as tank guided missiles for firing from 105-mm and 120-mm tank guns, however, later it was offered as ATGM for launching from light launchers of ground, ship and air (helicopters and UAVs) based. The helicopter version of the rocket (SkyBow) was introduced to the market in 2004. For a long time, India was considered the main potential customer of SkyBow, however, repeated tests and demonstrations of this complex on the Indian HAL Dhruv helicopter did not lead to serial contracts.