Hezbollah has escalated its deployment of small first-person view (FPV) drones in attacks against Israel. These systems include those controlled by fibre-optic cables, designed to bypass advanced defense mechanisms.
Since March 26, BBC Verify has geolocated 35 videos released by the Lebanese armed group, depicting strikes on Israeli soldiers, armored vehicles, and air defense systems in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Experts informed BBC Verify that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have “so far been unable to develop any effective countermeasures,” as these compact drones can readily circumvent existing detection systems.
Experts further noted that these drones can be constructed from commercially available and 3D-printed components, making them inexpensive relative to the high-value targets they are capable of destroying.
FPV Drones: A Game Changer in Modern Warfare
The widespread use of inexpensive FPV drones has become a defining feature of the Russia-Ukraine war, fundamentally altering modern warfare.
While the Israeli military has not disclosed all casualty figures, Israeli media reports indicate that four IDF soldiers and one civilian have been killed in FPV strikes, with dozens more sustaining injuries.
The IDF informed BBC Verify that it acknowledges the drone threat and is allocating “significant resources” to enhance defenses, develop “more effective alert models,” and train soldiers to “improve readiness and increase awareness of the threat.”
According to the Institute for National Security Studies, the IDF has also employed FPV drones for several years, currently utilizing them in southern Lebanon and against Hamas in Gaza.
Hisham Jaber, a military analyst and former Lebanese army general, told BBC Arabic that FPV drones can be “undetectable by radar” and that the “hundreds” available to Hezbollah have been used to disable armored vehicles, including tanks.
Jaber added that while Hezbollah has employed various types of larger attack drones against targets in northern Israel for many years, the use of FPVs constitutes an “entirely different category.”
Since March 26, BBC Verify has identified videos of nearly 100 apparent FPV attacks shared on Hezbollah’s Telegram channel, with 35 of these having been verified.
Hezbollah does not appear to have shared any footage of similar strikes from the conflict, which commenced on March 2.
A verified video released on Thursday depicts at least four FPV drones assaulting an Israeli border outpost near Kiryat Shmona, sequentially targeting a series of military vehicles. At least two of these vehicles are visibly heavily damaged or destroyed in the footage.
BBC Verify has also monitored similar drone strikes in southern Lebanon, documenting at least two strikes on April 26 in the town of Taybeh. The videos show soldiers being targeted, followed by a nearby strike on an IDF helicopter engaged in rescuing injured troops. Israeli media has reported one soldier killed and six others injured.
Fibre-Optic Control: Evading Detection
Many of these drones are operated using fibre optic cable connections, rather than radio or other wireless signals, which makes them challenging to intercept with current Israeli electronic countermeasures.
Dr. Andreas Krieg, a security expert from King’s College London, told BBC Verify that fibre-optics render Israel’s capability to detect, jam, and intercept drones “largely irrelevant,” and significantly complicates the task of locating the operator.
The impact of this, he stated, is that Israeli troops are “having to move more cautiously, harden positions, use physical protective measures such as nets and cages, and devote more attention to immediate local defense.”
Krieg added that Hezbollah is most likely assembling these drones locally from commercially available components, often sourced from places like China, at an estimated cost of $300-$500 (£225-£375) per unit.
Leone Hadavi, a senior investigator and weapons expert for the Centre for Information Resilience, noted that these commercial parts are also supplemented with components produced using 3D printers.
“Tracing components has proven very hard because of how easily accessible they are and their non-military nature. Mostly these FPV drones carry an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] warhead, of which there is no shortage in southern Lebanon,” he added.
Hadavi told BBC Verify that the “psychological implication” of increasing FPV strikes appears to be significant for Israeli troops, given the drones’ capacity to threaten highly protected armored vehicles.
This recent escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2.
Lebanon’s health ministry has reported at least 2,896 fatalities since the conflict began, with over 400 occurring since a ceasefire was announced in April. The ministry’s figures do not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths.
More than one million people have been displaced in Lebanon since the conflict’s inception.
Israel reports four soldiers and 18 civilians have been killed in the conflict.
Additional reporting by Lamees Altalebi, Thomas Spencer, Deena Easa, Sherie Ryder, and Paul Brown, graphics by Tom Shiel.
#Hezbollah #DroneWarfare #FPVDrones #IsraelDefense #LebanonConflict #MiddleEast #MilitaryTactics #FibreOpticDrones #ModernWarfare #Geopolitics
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