Israel: As attack drones multiply, firms develop their defenses

Israel, one of pioneers of drone warfare, is w on front lines of an arms race to protect against attacks by unmanned aircraft. A host of Israeli companies have developed defense systems y say can detect or destroy incoming drones. But obstacles remain, particularly when operating in crowded urban airs. Drones present unique challenges that set m apart from tritional airborne threats, such as missiles or warplanes. y can fly below standard military rar systems and use GPS techlogy to execute pinpoint attacks on sensitive targets for a fraction of price of a fighter jet.

“Fighting se systems is really hard ... t just because you need to detect m, but you also need to detect m everywhere and all time,” said Ulrike Franke, a policy fellow at European Council of Foreign Relations.

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'Swarms'

y can also be deployed in “swarms,” which can trick or elude conventional defense systems. Even small off--shelf drones can be turned into weapons by rigging m with explosives or simply crashing m in crowded areas. A series of drone strikes across Middle East, including an attack on a Saudi oil field and processing plant that jolted international markets earlier this month, have underscored devastating effectiveness of small unmanned attack aircraft. drone attack on Saudi energy infrastructure kcked out about half of kingdom’s oil supplies. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels claimed attack, but U.S. has blamed Iran itself, which is a leing developer of drone techlogy and is locked in a bitter rivalry with both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Similar drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry by Houthis a month earlier caused a “limited fire.”

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Israel warplanes struck

Elsewhere in region, Israeli warplanes last month struck what Israel said was an Iranian-trained Hezbollah squ that was preparing to launch a group of drones toward Israel from Syria. A day later, Hezbollah said two Israeli drones crashed outside group’s offices in Beirut. Israeli media said drone strike h destroyed valuable equipment used to make guided missiles. Earlier this month, Israeli military said an unmanned aircraft crossed into Israel from Gaza Strip and dropped explosives on a military vehicle, causing minimal dam and casualties. It was second such attack from Gaza in past year. se threats are t confined to battlefield. London’s Gatwick Airport shut for parts of three days, stranding over 100,000 travelers ahe of Christmas last year, after drone sightings.

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Dominant of drone business

Israel has long been a dominant player in military drone export business, developing small attack aircraft as well as long-range spy planes. w, Israeli firms are at forefront of a global industry developing means to protect against drone threat.

“re is a lot of kwledge that was apted from area of unmanned aerial vehicles, which is something that military h to deal with for a long, long time,” said Ben Nassi, a researcher at Israel’s Ben Gurion University specializing in drone threats.

In a laboratory near Israel’s main international airport, Israel Aero Industries offered a glance at its new optical detection system: a black cube resembling a souped-up subwoofer that it says can spot a standard commercial drone from several miles (kilometers) away. state-owned company says Popstar system can track and identify flying objects day or night without being detected. Developers say system, which has alrey been field-tested by Israeli military, can differentiate threats from standard civilian aircraft with an vanced algorithm.

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