Explosive-laden quadcopters skimmed over rooftops in southern Lebanon, navigating precisely between blasted buildings and along dirt roads. The drone provided the operator with a clear first-person image of the target, an Israeli tank with soldiers standing nearby.
Two words were written in white letters at the top of the photo.
“Bomb ready”
Experts say quadcopters are fiber-optic drones, a growing weapon Hezbollah uses with deadly precision. Drones are difficult to stop and even harder to detect, allowing operators to see targets in high resolution without emitting signals that could be jammed.
Yehoshua Kaliski, a senior researcher at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, wrote that drones are “immune to communications jamming and without electronic signatures it is impossible to discover where they were launched.”
In a cleverly produced Hezbollah video on Sunday, a quadcopter drone weighing just a few kilograms hits a target while Israeli soldiers appear completely unaware of its approach. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a 19-year-old sergeant was killed in the attack. Aidan Fuchs and several others were injured. Hezbollah then fired more drones at rescue helicopters that arrived on the scene to evacuate wounded soldiers.
Fiber optic drones are effective in their simplicity. Instead of wireless signals controlling the drone remotely, fiber optic cables wire the drone directly to the operator.
Fiber-optic cables are so thin and light that they are almost invisible to the naked eye, so the cables can stretch up to 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) or more, allowing operators to maintain a safe distance while the drone transmits a clear first-person image of the target, he told CNN.
The Israel Defense Forces has used its technological advantages to combat drone warfare, jamming the signals and frequencies used by drone operators to control their devices and shutting them down before they reach Israeli soldiers. But without a signal, the IDF cannot electronically interfere with the control of fiber-optic drones, and it also faces the huge challenge of detecting incoming projectiles in the first place.
“There is little that can be done beyond the physical barrier,” said an Israeli military official. “This is a low-tech system adapted to asymmetric warfare.”
Fiber-optic drones first appeared in large quantities on the battlefields of Ukraine and were used effectively by the Russian military, further increasing its range. Russia has also successfully connected the drone’s fiber optic cable to the base unit and then to the drone operator. The added connectivity moves the operator further away from the drone itself, protecting humans and making them more difficult to target. Russia’s ability to produce large numbers of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), means it can cut off Ukraine’s supply lines with drone strikes from well behind the front lines.
Hezbollah’s targets are different. Israel operates so close to its bases in southern Lebanon that it has no real supply lines to target. Instead, Hezbollah drone operators pursue Israeli forces within weapons range in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
“This is a capable system, and under the proper control of an experienced operator, it could be highly effective against forces that do not expect such a drone attack,” said Samuel Bendet, nonresident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “Even against forces that know this and take precautions, it can still be deadly.”
The official said Israel believes Hezbollah imports civilian drones from China and Iran and equips them with grenades and other explosive devices. The result is a nearly invisible, highly precise weapon that allows Hezbollah to carry out small-scale, targeted attacks against Israeli forces. Until now, China has denied providing weapons to countries involved in the conflict and has emphasized that it is fulfilling its international obligations.
Although limited in the damage it can inflict, the low-cost device is a powerful weapon for Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah already has a fairly sophisticated drone arsenal,” Bendet told CNN. “We have a lot of experienced people who have a lot of experience with UAVs.”
Hezbollah has been building an extensive rocket and missile arsenal for years, with financial and technical support from Iran. Before the war in Gaza, Israeli authorities estimated that Hezbollah had about 150,000 rockets, including long-range and precision munitions. But as a result of Israel targeting weapons depots and Hezbollah firing rockets during the war, Israeli officials estimate that Hezbollah has only 10% of its rocket reserves.
Unable to match the power and technology of the Israeli military, Iranian-backed militias have instead resorted to asymmetric warfare, much like Iran has done against the United States and Israel.
The IDF has countered by using nets and other physical barriers to prevent incoming drones from reaching its troops, as seen in Ukraine, but Israeli military officials have acknowledged that it is an imperfect solution to a low-tech problem.
“It’s not foolproof. Not as much as we would like,” the official said. The official said the IDF is working with the Intelligence Directorate to find better ways to counter fiber optic drones, but the danger remains.
“This is a threat that we are still adapting to,” the official said. The problem is compounded if Hezbollah launches multiple drones at the same time, potentially overwhelming systems that are not up to the job of identifying incoming drones.
“Hezbollah is learning rapidly. This is a threat because they are trying to coordinate their attacks.”
