Inexpensive fiber-optic drones are challenging Israel's high-tech defenses, shifting the military balance in the Middle East.
While the video's authenticity has not yet been verified, experts believe it is genuine.
The footage was published about a week ago by Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based pro-Iranian militia, which Germany, the US and several Sunni Arab states have classified as a terrorist organization.
The drone strike, if genuine, would mark propaganda victory for Hezbollah and reveal a significant vulnerability in Israel's military capabilities.
Fiber-optic drones impossible to trace Since March, Hezbollah has increasingly used FPV (first-person view) drones to attack Israel, which provide pilots with a real-time image of their targets. Several Israeli soldiers have been killed in such strikes, and many more injured.
What concerns Israeli military experts is that growing numbers of these drones are not controlled by radio signals but via fiber-optic cables, unspooled from a coil. This means locating and jamming their communications has become virtually impossible with traditional electronic warfare methods.
Slow to adapt In view of these battlefield developments, many observers are surprised that Israel's military does not appear to be better prepared against drones.
Inexpensive solutions needed "You need a simple solution and you need it now," said drone expert Neri Zin. "You cannot wait years to develop it." Zin's startup is already working on solutions to fend off fiber-optic drones, which focus on vehicle-mounted systems primarily intended to protect smaller units. The idea is to record the surroundings using visual and thermal cameras. This data is immediately analyzed by specially trained AI systems, which then send target information to weapon systems.
Is this the future of anti-drone defense systems?
Zin said his company already has customers in various countries, including Europe. He added that at the end of the day, drone warfare is always about economics. Anti-drone defenses, he explained, must be inexpensive to avoid complete overkill.
"I saw yesterday one of the Emirati's generals talk about the cost they incurred during the last conflict with Iran," Zin said. "They used to shoot a kind of a missile that cost $8 million against the Shahed drones." This article was originally written in German.
