There is no magic for hermetically stopping Hezbollah’s First Person View (FPV) drones, which use technology and manual operators that make them harder to jam and much more deadly, the air force said on Friday.
A number of recent incidents in which IDF soldiers were killed or wounded in Lebanon came from such FPV attacks.
IDF sources already admitted on Tuesday that the military does not yet have a full answer for FPV attacks, though in general, it has improved in anti-drone defenses since 2023.
However, on Friday, the air force said that they are hard at work with new tactics to defend specifically against the FPV drones.
Further, the air force said that just around two weeks ago, some new tests were carried out, which could eventually have major ramifications for handling the issue.
All of that said, the air force acknowledged that presently, and even with new tactics, the FPV drone threat would not be easily eliminated all at once.
Positive change in combating Hezbollah drones would come if US allowed Israel to strike north of Litani River, air force says
In fact, the air force emphasized that the largest positive change in combating FPV drones would come about if the US released restraints on Israel being able to attack Hezbollah north of the Litani River.
Air force sources said that removing such restraints could help Israel reduce the FPV drone threat by around 80%.
Already on Tuesday, IDF sources had said that prior to the Hezbollah ceasefire, they had tried using Israeli intelligence to more widely target all aspects of the FPV drone ecosystem, from materials used to make the drones, to operations centers, to tracking and killing operators, even when they are not using the drones at a specific moment.
