Hezbollah deploys a potent new weapon designed to evade Israeli detection

Explosive-laden quadcopter flew over southern rooftops LebanonNavigating with precision between bombed-out buildings and along dirt roads. The drone gave its operator a clear first-person picture of its target: an Israeli tank with soldiers standing nearby.

At the top of the picture were two words in white letters.

“BOMB IS READY”

Experts say the quadcopter is a fiber-optic drone, a weapon that Hezbollah is increasingly using with lethal accuracy. Drones are hard to stop and even harder to detect; This provides operators with a high-resolution image of the target without emitting any signal that could be jammed.

“UAVs are immune to communications disruptions, and in the absence of an electronic signature, it is impossible to discover the location from which they were launched,” wrote Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies.

In Hezbollah’s lavishly produced video from Sunday, the drone, which weighs no more than a few kilograms, hits its target while Israeli soldiers are completely unaware of its approach. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), 19-year-old Sergeant was killed in the attack. He also injured Idan Fooks and several others. Hezbollah then launched more drones at the rescue helicopter that arrived on the scene to evacuate the wounded troops.

Fiber optic drones are effective for their simplicity: Instead of a wireless signal controlling the drone remotely, the fiber optic cable connects the drone directly to its operator.

Because fiber optic cables are so thin and light that they are nearly invisible to the naked eye, the cable can extend up to 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) or more, an Israeli military source told CNN.

The IDF leverages its technological advantage to counter UAV warfare; It jams the signals and frequencies that UAV operators use to stop the devices before they reach Israeli soldiers. But without a signal, the IDF is unable to electronically intervene in the control of fiber optic drones and also faces a greater challenge in detecting the incoming projectile in the first place.

“There is little that can be done beyond physical barriers such as nets,” the Israeli military source said. “This is a low-tech system adapted to asymmetric warfare.”

Fiber optic drones first appeared in large numbers on the battlefield in Ukraine; here Russian forces used them to great effect, further extending their range. Russia also managed to connect the drone’s fiber optic cable to a base unit, which was then connected to a drone operator. This added link moved the operator away from the drone, protecting the human and making it more difficult to target. Russia’s ability to mass-produce unmanned aerial vehicles, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), meant that Moscow could mass-cut Ukraine’s supply lines with drone strikes far behind the front lines.

Hezbollah’s goals are different. Israel operates so close to its own bases in southern Lebanon that it has no major supply lines it can target. Instead, Hezbollah’s drone operators hunted Israeli troops within range of the weapons in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

“This is a capable system that could be highly effective in the right hands with an experienced operator against a force that does not expect such a drone to attack,” said Samuel Bendett, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “It could be lethal even against a force that knows this and takes precautions.”

The source believes Israel imported Hezbollah’s civilian drones from China or Iran and then combined each with a grenade or similar explosive device. The result is a nearly invisible, highly accurate weapon that allows Hezbollah to carry out targeted, albeit small-scale, attacks against Israeli forces. china before weapons supply denied He stressed to all parties to the conflict that they were fulfilling their international obligations.

Although the damage they can do is limited, the low-cost devices are a powerful weapon for Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah already has a very advanced drone arsenal,” Bendett told CNN. “There are a lot of experienced people with a lot of different experience in UAVs.”

Hezbollah has worked for years with financial and technological support from Iran to build a massive arsenal of rockets and missiles. Before the Gaza war, Israeli officials estimated that Hezbollah had approximately 150,000 rockets, including long-range and precision munitions. However, as a result of Israel targeting the arsenal and Hezbollah firing rockets throughout the war, Israeli officials estimated that Hezbollah retained only 10% of its rockets.

Unable to match the power and technology of the Israeli army, Iranian-backed militias have instead resorted to asymmetric warfare, just as Iran did against the United States and Israel.

The IDF responded by using nets and other physical barriers (as seen in Ukraine) to prevent incoming drones from reaching soldiers, but an Israeli military official acknowledged this was an imperfect solution to the low-tech problem.

“This is not perfect; not as much as we would like,” the official said. The IDF is working with its intelligence directorate to find better ways to counter fiber-optic drones, but the danger remains, the official said.

“This is a threat that we are still trying to adapt to,” the official said. The problem is compounded when Hezbollah launches multiple UAVs at the same time, potentially straining a system that is not fully up to the task of detecting incoming UAVs.

“Hezbollah is a fast learner. They’re trying to coordinate attacks, so it’s a threat.”

CNN’s Sarah Tamimi contributed to this report.

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