The Hezbollah terror organization still has hundreds of unmanned aircraft that it can launch at Israel, the IDF estimates, but their numbers have been significantly diminished since the beginning of the war over a year ago.
According to a report published this week by the Israeli military, about 1,300 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) were launched into Israel from Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq in the past year.
Over 1,200 drones were launched from Lebanon alone, 80% of which were intercepted by various methods, including by the Iron Dome defense system and Israeli Air Force (IAF) helicopters. Some 230 UAVs exploded after hitting the ground.
The IDF estimates that Hezbollah still has about 30% of the UAV capabilities it retained at the beginning of the war.
The IDF has reported bombing 54 UAV storage centers, 24 cruise missile storage sites, eight weapons assembly workshops, and seven weapons warehouses.
The threat posed by explosive drones launched at Israel has proven to be formidable, as the small UAVs are hard to detect due to their size and limited radar signature.
Over the past year, UAVs have hit their targets, recently killing four soldiers in the dining room of the Golani Brigade’s training base, causing damage to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home, and hitting buildings and IDF outposts around Israel. Just this weekend, 10 drones were launched at Israel.
The IAF has been waging a tenacious war against Hezbollah and its classified and clandestine Unit 127, the air unit that specializes in the production and maintenance of terrorist UAVs.
The IDF announced on Saturday that it eliminated two Hezbollah commanders responsible for Firing over 400 explosive projectiles toward Israel last month.
The IDF said it struck around Tyre and eliminated Mousa Izz al-Din, the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the coastal sector, and Hassan Majid Daib, Hezbollah’s artillery commander in the coastal sector who was responsible for the projectile fire toward Haifa Bay on Thursday.
However, the effort to eliminate Hezbollah’s air unit operatives has proven elusive, with only about 10% of the terrorists in the unit being eliminated so far.
In mid-October, the Ministry of Defense announced it was accelerating the development of advanced interception technologies to counter drone threats.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other senior defense officials led a first-of-its-kind trial to identify and demonstrate new capabilities for intercepting UAVs.
The event showcased various solutions as part of an expedited competitive process initiated by the defense minister several weeks prior, to rapidly develop innovative interception solutions in response to the evolving security landscape.
The trial took place at a testing field in southern Israel, with the participation of eight Israeli industries, ranging from major companies to startup firms, presenting technological solutions for UAV interception.
Solutions that meet the threshold requirements in the demonstration phase will advance to accelerated development and operational testing.
After analyzing the trial results, the Ministry of Defense will select several technologies to enter an accelerated development and production process to deploy new operational capabilities within months.
Gallant stated that “the UAV threat is a multi-arena threat originating from Iran, which supplies UAVs to Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq, and even launches them itself. To face this threat, we must concentrate the national effort of all bodies dealing with the issue to produce operational solutions quickly.”
Director General of the Ministry of Defense Maj. Gen. (Res.) Eyal Zamir added that “countering the UAV threat is a critical national priority. To date, the Ministry of Defense has invested hundreds of millions of Shekels in developing, extensively procuring, and deploying defensive capabilities.”
“Our objective is to expedite the development and deployment of new interception systems. These will constitute a more comprehensive defensive strategy with the laser system and other technologies we’re advancing,” he said.
