Shaiel Ben-Ephraim@academic_la
The IDF is struggling with a new system Hezbollah has perfected, the fiber-optic tethered drones. Technology used with devastating efficiency in Ukraine and which has now been used to kill Sergeant Idan Fox and wound many others. Here is what it means:
1) Hezbollah is using small explosive drones physically connected to the operator's control room via fiber-optic cables up to 10 kilometers long. Because the drone is wire-guided rather than radio-controlled, the IDF's electronic warfare units can't detect, jam, or shoot them down using their standard
2) The technology was developed and refined over four years of the Russia-Ukraine war, where both sides sought cheap, efficient weapons. It's based on Soviet-era concepts from the 1970s, but has proven highly effective in modern combat. Ukraine's defense minister called these drones a key component in their ability to defeat the enemy. Israel did not learn enough from the conflict. Hezbollah did.
3) They're cheap, effective, and lethal, so Hezbollah favors them over more expensive long-range missiles or RPGs. The drones are modified in workshops in southern Lebanon with added components like cameras, gliders, and explosives.
4) Technological interception methods have so far failed against these drones. In one incident, explosive drones were launched at an IDF helicopter evacuating wounded soldiers, one detonated meters from the helicopter. Soldiers had to resort to shooting at the drones with personal weapons. Israel's Defense Ministry has issued an open call for solutions.
The IDF is sitting in southern Lebanon during the ceasefire as sitting ducks. Their long-term plans will not improve matters much as they plan to take over territory up to the Litani which will require setting up bases and provide many easy targets. The IDF does not have good answer to this low-tech threat, as it focuses on increasingly expensive hi-tech systems that are ill-suited to the modern battlefield which stresses cheap and ruthless efficiency to sustain wars of attrition.
