Hezbollah now uses fiber-optic drones immune to electronic warfare, based on Ukrainian models. Israeli officers report inadequate countermeasures despite prior intelligence. Small FPV drones threaten troops in southern Lebanon, forcing a new evolutionary leap in drone warfare tactics and attrition dynamics.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict will now lead to another leap in understanding the dynamics between warfare and drone technology.
Alarm bells are ringing in Jerusalem as the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah appears to be shifting its tactics toward drone warfare despite the recently extended ceasefire. Hezbollah has been using one-way attack drones against Israel for years. Most of them are based on Iranian models. However, in recent weeks, Hezbollah has unveiled more small first-person-view (FPV) drones as well as drones attached to fiber-optic cables, similar to those used in battles in the Ukraine War.
In Ukraine, videos of drones hunting down soldiers on the frontline are commonplace. Ukrainian drone production grew exponentially after the Russian invasion in 2022, allowing the Ukrainian military to experiment with new tactics and doctrines.
Israel’s Ynet, a large daily newspaper and website, noted: “Hezbollah has increasingly relied on cheap, upgraded drones fitted with explosives and fiber-optic cables, a battlefield adaptation from Ukraine that helps them evade IDF electronic warfare and reach targets up to 10 kilometers [6 miles] away in southern Lebanon.”
The threat of Hezbollah’s (or Hamas’) small drones, such as quadcopters carrying munitions, flying into armored vehicles or into groups of infantry, has been known for years. However, the concern, among Hebrew media and commentators in Israel, is that the Israeli Defense Forces have not focused enough on these emerging trends. For instance, Shai Levy, the military reporter for the Israeli media site Mako, noted on April 28 that “the IDF is trying to portray Hezbollah’s explosive drones as a ‘new threat,’ only the reality on the ground and in the briefing rooms is different.”
He went on to note that “five different officers who have dealt with the issue reveal that the information existed, a command center was built, and a dedicated simulator was installed. A solution was purchased against the drones with the optical fiber, but the purchase did not reach all battalions, and those who received it are not professional and regular users.”
Another report in Israel, by Israel’s Army Radio reporter Doron Kadosh, noted that Israeli commanders in Lebanon express frustration at the few tools available to confront the drone threat. He quoted a commander as saying, “There’s not much you can do about it.” Nevertheless, Israeli troops are innovating and adapting.
Hezbollah began its war against Israel on October 8, 2023, with limited rocket and mortar attacks. It later expanded its operations to include one-way attack drones of various sizes. Most of these were similar to Iranian-style Shaheds and Ababil drones that have been seen on other battlefields from Ukraine to Yemen. Hezbollah saw limited success with these systems. Apache helicopters, warplanes, and Israel’s multi-layered air defenses can easily shoot down the relatively slow-moving drones. Israel has even begun to develop laser air defenses over the last few years as a new addition to its numerous other systems.
Israel confronted the Hezbollah rocket and drone threat with a variety of means. In many cases, the IDF tried to target rocket launchers and also munition depots of Hezbollah. However, there are some diminishing returns in this effort. Hezbollah appears to have dispersed its munitions and launchers. It fires fewer of them at a time, but it continues to target Israel. A ceasefire in November 2024 and another in April 2026 didn’t completely end the attacks.
Israel has vowed to remain in a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. This zone places IDF soldiers in the crosshairs of the new Hezbollah drone threat. However, the drones themselves don’t win wars. In Ukraine, drone warfare has helped create a war of attrition and an extensive no-man’s-land along hundreds of miles of the frontline, similar to the battlefield conditions of World War I.
Israel will, no doubt, confront the new threat with technological innovation. As with the war in Ukraine, the war with Hezbollah will now lead to another evolutionary leap in the conduct of drone warfare.