There is no magic potion for hermetically stopping Hezbollah’s first-person-view (FPV) drones, which use technology and manual operators, making them harder to jam and much more deadly, the Israel Air Force said on Friday.
A number of recent incidents in which soldiers were killed or wounded in Lebanon resulted from FPV attacks.
IDF sources already admitted on Tuesday that the military does not yet have a full answer to FPV attacks, though it has improved in anti-drone defenses since 2023.
However, on Friday, the IAF said it was hard at work on new defense tactics, specifically against the FPV drones. Further, it added, around two weeks ago, some new tests had been carried out that could eventually result in major ramifications.
All of that said, the IAF acknowledged that presently, and even with new tactics, the FPV drone threat would not be easily eliminated all at once.
Progress could come if US allows Israel to strike north of Litani River, air force says
However, it emphasized that the largest positive change in combating FPV drones would come about if the United States released restraints on Israel being able to attack Hezbollah north of the Litani River. IAF sources said that removing such restraints could help Israel reduce the FPV drone threat by around 80%.
On Tuesday, IDF sources 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.