File image.
Hezbollah’s drone units are attempting to dismantle Israeli air defenses, radars, and communications close to the front in southern Lebanon.
In recent days, the group released in the last few days several videos showing strikes with fiber optic-guided first-person view (FPV) suicide quadcopter against such targets. These small drones are not just very hard to detect and intercept, but also completely immune to electronic warfare, which makes them a very suitable weapon for suppression of enemy air defenses on the short range.
Two of the videos released recently show drone strikes on three Iron Dome air defense launchers. One was hit at an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) site close to the settlement of Misgav Am in northern Israel on May 19. Two others, including one that appeared to be a decoy, were targeted at the Rameem barracks, also in northern Israel, on May 23.
The Iron Dome was developed mainly to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and shells. The system can also engage more traditional aerial targets, like fighter jets, helicopters, drones and cruise missiles. However, it is completely useless against small drones like quadcopters.
The system has a maximum range of 70 kilometers. A launcher fully loaded with 20 Tamir interceptors could cost well over $1 million.
Another video released by Hezbollah shows a drone strike against what appears to be a Rada RPS-84 surveillance radar at the IDF’s newly-established Nmr al-Jamal border site on May 23. The radar can be used to detect everything from drones, to rockets and ground vehicles. A single unit could cost over $350 thousand.
One more video shows a drone strike against an unidentified communication system that was deployed at al-Asi, another border post of the IDF, on May 26.
Such strikes could seriously disturb the operations of Israeli air defense network along the border with Lebanon, and even affect the work of the work and command chain, which would in turn open gaps for more serious drone attacks, into northern Israel, and even deeper.
Fiber optic-guided FPV suicide quadcopters, which are cheap and easy to produce, have been a gamechanger for Hezbollah.
The IDF is said to be working on a solution to the threat posed by Hezbollah’s fiber optic-guided FPV suicide quadcopters, but defense officials have cautioned that a system to counter such drones will not come soon, and will not provide complete protection.
For the time being, Israeli troops are using simple counter measures like mesh nets to counter the threat, and they are clearly not working out well.
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