tel aviv —
Small drones have been cruising undetected over southern Lebanon and northern Israel, searching for targets.
Footage recorded by explosive-laden devices shows them attacking one target after another, finding weak points in Israeli Merkava tanks. Iron Dome air defense battery. A group of unsuspecting Israeli soldiers.
Fiber-optic first-person view (FPV) drones have become a key weapon in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s war against Israel in recent months, evading Israel’s advanced defense systems by replicating asymmetric warfare tactics that first appeared in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
At least 12 Israeli soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah drones since the civil war flared up in March, accounting for a third of the Israeli death toll in Lebanon, leaving the military scrambling to find ways to counter the threat.
Unlike the drones Hezbollah has previously deployed against Israel, fiber-optic FPV drones (often no bigger than a dinner plate) are extremely difficult to detect. The key to a drone’s lethality is the spool that carries miles of thin fiber-optic cable that connects the drone to the pilot. This means that the drone does not emit any radio signals. Therefore, it is very difficult to detect them using electronic warfare methods, and it is impossible to jam them.
“The drone threat is a challenge, but we will overcome it,” Israeli Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said last month, adding that “operational and technical solutions” were being developed and introduced.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began deploying hundreds of thousands of square meters of mesh nets that can catch drones before they reach their targets, to protect troops in southern Lebanon and bases in northern Israel. It also provided soldiers with shotguns and fragmentation rounds that can be used to shoot down approaching drones at close range.
But for these weapons to be effective against drones, soldiers must first know that a drone is coming.
The IDF has not yet disclosed how or whether it has improved its ability to identify and track these drones, but it has called on private technology and defense companies to develop and deploy effective countermeasures.
Last month, many of these companies came together with members of the military to address clearly urgent problems that require new solutions. These companies include those developing non-radio frequency sensors to identify fiber-optic drones and others working on ways to intercept and neutralize drones before they hit their targets.
That includes Shai Kuriansky, Airways’ chief technology officer and co-founder, who said the company has developed software that can manage low-altitude airspace and identify potential threats. This is a technology recently used by the Miami Police Department to protect FIFA World Cup stadiums from the threat of drones.
Hezbollah’s fiber optic drones are so difficult to detect that experts say pinpointing an incoming threat often requires multiple types of sensors simultaneously, including optical, acoustic, radar and laser-based systems.
Airwayz says its system fuses data from multiple sensors to quickly identify friendly and hostile drones alike.
“Most of the warnings that soldiers give are when they hear a drone coming and they have about three or four seconds,” Kuriansky said. “Whether you give them a 20-second warning or a 30-second warning, you’re going to get very different results.”
Like others in Israel’s high-tech industry, Kuriansky is motivated by a sense of crisis, as Israeli soldiers appear largely defenseless against this new Hezbollah threat.
“It’s our children in Lebanon who are getting the FPV explosives, and we’re not going to wait for it,” Kuriansky said.
But along with that sense of urgency, many Israelis feel frustration that the Israeli military was not adequately prepared for a threat that many expected.
Fiber-optic drones first appeared on the battlefields of Ukraine two years ago. Ukrainian officials said they warned Israel of the dangers and offered to help Israel prepare for the day these cheap drones (costing just $300 to $400 each) fall into the hands of Israel’s enemies.
Evgen Kornichuk, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, told the Israeli news site Y-net in May, “I don’t see much interest or motivation from the Israeli leadership in this area.” “I don’t want to speculate about the reasons for that. I often hear complaints about the fact that Israel is missing opportunities to save the lives of more soldiers.”
This has become an undeniable reality as Hezbollah has posted dozens of videos showing drones infiltrating Israeli bases and forward operating positions and targeting Israeli forces in the field.
Current and former Israeli military officials also admit that Israel was inadequately prepared for the drone threat.
Gen. Yaron Rosen (R), former IDF chief of cyber staff, said the military is “completely overwhelmed” by the number of threats and areas it has been involved in.
“Everyone was talking about, ‘Guys, it’s coming,’ but no one really knew and other things occupied our minds, especially Iran,” said Rosen, who is also Airways’ executive chairman.
He said the IDF is currently “doing everything it can” to fill the gap and said he expected the effectiveness of Hezbollah’s drones to “decrease sharply” “in the coming months.”
