JERUSALEM — As Israeli troops are increasingly targeted by small, first-person-view (FPV) drones in Lebanon, the Israeli government has called on the nation’s defense industry to quickly provide troops with effective defenses.
The problem of FPV drones, often controlled through fiber-optic cables and therefore virtually jam-proof, has grown so large that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly called an urgent meeting Wednesday to discuss solutions.
“The drone threat has become one of the most urgent operational challenges faced by maneuvering and defensive forces today,” Michal Mor, CEO of Israeli defense firm Smart Shooter, told Breaking Defense. “These drones are accessible, inexpensive, highly maneuverable, and increasingly difficult to defeat, especially as fiber-optic-guided drones enter the battlefield and prove immune to electronic jamming.”
FPV drones, and often grisly videos showcasing their lethality, have become ubiquitous in the battlefields of Ukraine, but former senior Israeli defense official Menahem Landau said they’re relatively new to the Middle East, where he says Hezbollah has made use of them against the Israel Defense Force.
This “new capability,” he told Breaking Defense, “is cheap, and they train the right people to use this quite easily.” Landau previously headed the Israel Ministry of Defense’s UAV and Drones Branch and is now with the firm Caveret Group.
