Hezbollah has launched a new weapon against northern Israel in the latest round of fighting: small drones controlled with fiber-optic cables the width of dental floss that avoid electronic detection.
These drones — used widely in the war in Ukraine — are small, hard to track and potentially lethal. Many drones are susceptible to electronic jamming by air defenses. Jamming can cause a drone to crash or return to its point of origin. But fiber-optic drones are not controlled remotely. They have a thin cable that connects an operator directly to the drone, making it impossible to electronically jam. The drones are not infallible because the wind — or other drones — can cause the cables to tangle.
Read more…
Source: AP News
Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Explosive material found in Beirut port was stored for 15 years, says President Aoun
September 11, 2020
Several tonnes of highly explosive material found at Beirut’s port, just weeks after the same chemical was blamed for causing a massive detonation there, had been in storage for 15 years, the Lebanese president said on Friday. The army said on Sept. 2 it had discovered a stockpile close to the port of 4.35 tonnes of ...
- More explosives found outside Beirut port month after deadly explosion
September 4, 2020
The Lebanese military on Thursday discovered more than four tons of ammonium nitrate near Beirut’s port, where a deadly explosion killed nearly 200 people last month. The military said army experts were called in for an inspection and found the dangerous chemical in four containers near the port. There were no details on the origin of ...
- Beirut blast: The other countries with dangerous dumps of explosives
August 12, 2020
The devastating explosion in Beirut is a grim reminder of a deeply troubling fact: the thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate unsafely stored in that city’s port is not the only site at risk of spontaneous detonation. In the Philippines, Ukraine, Georgia, Libya and Guinea-Bissau there are dangerous dumps of munitions left over from both past ...
- Bomb disposal expert urges government funding to safeguard explosive stockpiles
August 7, 2020
Governments need to provide more funding to prevent catastrophes such as the Beirut port blasts by making explosive stockpiles safe, a leading bomb disposal expert has said. The Middle East is a particular area for concern with massive arsenals of hazardous materials such as ammonium nitrate and ammunition, warned Simon Conway of Halo, the landmine clearance ...
- Massive blast sends seismic shock across Beirut, causing thousands of casualties
August 4, 2020
A huge explosion in a port warehouse district near the centre of Beirut killed more than 25 people, injured over 2,500 others and sent shockwaves across the Lebanese capital on Tuesday, shattering windows and causing apartment balconies to collapse. Officials expected the death toll to rise sharply as emergency workers dug through rubble across a swathe ...
- Lebanese Armed Forces, U.S. Navy Conduct Resolute Union Virtually Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
August 4, 2020
MANAMA, Bahrain — The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and U.S. Navy are conducting Resolute Union (RU) 20, an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and maritime security operations bilateral military exercise being held from 27 July to 9 August. RU20 is the capstone in a series of bilateral exercises between the LAF and U.S. Navy aimed at maintaining ...
- Lessons Not Learned: The Israeli Experience in Lebanon (1985-2000) and America’s Forever Wars
May 30, 2020
This apparent lack of interest in “Israel’s Vietnam” appears tragic when one considers how closely the contours of that conflict foreshadowed the tactical and operational challenges American forces would face in the “Forever Wars” of Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps no foreign conflict has ever influenced the U.S. military as much as the Yom Kippur War did. ...
- South Lebanon Banks Attacked with Explosives
April 27, 2020
The Lebanese army and security forces are investigating two attacks on banks in South Lebanon, after an explosive device detonated near a branch and a Molotov cocktail was tossed at an ATM. Security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that investigators were probing the two attacks. Banks have been previously the target of attacks, which often involved political messages, ...
- Marine remembers surviving April 18, 1983, Beirut embassy bombing
April 27, 2020
Last weekend offered Rayford Byers something he hasn’t had since April 18, 1983 — the opportunity to forget. On that day 37 years ago, Byers was on his way upstairs in the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, to pick up the tickets for him and four of his fellow Marines to return to Fort Hood, Texas. ...
- Hezbollah says explosives found in drone that crashed in Beirut
August 27, 2019
Terror group claims UAV recovered near its media headquarters was attempting an attack, carried 11-pound bomb The Hezbollah terror group on Tuesday said a drone that crashed in its Beirut stronghold early Sunday contained an explosive device weighing more than five kilograms (11 pounds). The Iran-backed Shiite group had previously said an Israeli reconnaissance drone had flown ...
- Lebanon’s BRIC applies tech solutions to clearing landmines
January 27, 2019
The Israeli No 4 landmine has a peculiar design – approach it the right way, and it can be easily neutralized and destroyed. Approach it the wrong way, and things could go terribly wrong, very quickly. A de-miner is on Lebanon’s infamous Blue Line, working carefully and purposefully, to detect and clear a line of landmines, ...
- Isis smuggled explosives into Lebanon in buckets of cheese to carry out deadly attacks
December 10, 2018
Lebanese authorities thwarted a plan by Isis to carry out bomb attacks during the country’s parliamentary elections earlier this year, the country’s caretaker interior minister said Monday. The militant group smuggled explosives from Syria in buckets of cheese to use in attacks against places of worship, military targets and gatherings of Christians. But a 10-month police surveillance operation, ...
- Lebanon: U.K. to provide over $2M for land mine clearance
September 7, 2018
Lebanon will receive 2 million pounds (about $2.6 million) in aid from the United Kingdom’s Global Mine Action Program, a statement from the British Embassy reported Thursday. The program, under the U.K.’s Department for International Development, will be administered across eight other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East “to rid some of the world’s ...
- US, Lebanon Armed Forces Complete Resolute Response 18
July 6, 2018
U.S. and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) participated in exercise Resolute Response (RR) 18 at Jounieh Naval Base, Lebanon, June 25-July 6. RR18 is an annual bilateral engagement between the U.S. Navy and LAF with the focus of sharing and knowledge, insight and strategy in the fields of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), dive operations, civil military operations ...
- Lebanon Foiled ISIS Barbie Doll Bomb Plot On Flight From Australia To Abu Dhabi
August 21, 2017
Lebanese intelligence helped foil a plot by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) to bring down an airliner with bombs hidden inside a Barbie doll and a meat grinder, the country’s interior minister said Monday. Nouhad Machnouk told reporters that Lebanese police intelligence stopped the explosive device plot on the Emirati flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United ...
