Netanyahu says Israel facing challenge of neutralizing FPV drones
Speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was "holding territory, clearing territory, protecting Israel's communities, but also fighting an enemy that is trying to outsmart us".
"We are facing the challenge of neutralizing FPV (First-Person view) drones," he said, as Hezbollah has increasingly made use of the drones to strike Israeli forces.
"This is a specific type of threat ... my directive to the team is to find a solution for this, and for the next threat that will come."
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has repeatedly deployed low cost fiber-optic first person view (FPV) drones targeting Israeli forces, posing a new challenge for the Israeli military.
Unlike conventional drones guided by GPS or radio, which can therefore be jammed, Hezbollah is using devices linked to their launch site by a thin fiber-optic cable that can stretch for dozens of kilometers.
Operators pilot the drones in first-person view (FPV) using screens or virtual reality goggles that require limited training.
Since the drone does not transmit the image via radio broadcast and does not receive guidance commands via a radio receiver, it cannot be detected by electronic intelligence means or blocked through electronic warfare.
The drones' speed and precision means they can cause considerable damage to Israeli targets, and their lack of electronic traces leaves troops reliant on radar or visual detection, which often comes too late.
The Israeli military "does not have nowadays any response for that, because they didn't prepare themselves for such low-tech explosives", a senior researcher at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) told AFP.
Source: Agence France Presse
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