Hezbollah’s new weapon: Fibre-optic drones, used in Ukraine war

Hezbollah has launched a new weapon against northern Israel in the latest round of fighting: small drones controlled with fibre-optic cables the width of dental floss that avoid electronic detection. Thes are small, hard to track and lethal, used widely in the war in Ukraine. Drones killed an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon and injured a dozen in northern Israel on Thursday, two critically. A soldier and defence contractor were killed in Lebanon earlier this week.

Many drones are susceptible to electronic jamming by air defences. Jamming can cause a drone to crash or re­turn to its point of origin. Fiber-optic drones are not piloted via GPS signals or radio control. They have a thin cable spooling out behi­nd them that connects the operator’s console directly to the drone, making it impossible to electronically jam.