Iran has pioneered drones by copying US drones, such as the Predator or Sentinel. It has also copied other drone models it has seen around the world.
An incident on Tuesday in which an unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down in the North after it approached the border represents a growing drone threat to Israel. The IDF shot down the Iranian UAV with an Apache helicopter near Beit She’an.
An Iranian drone carrying explosives and flown from Syria’s T-4 base in February 2018 also penetrated the same area.
Israel has had to contend with growing drone threats during this war in Gaza as well. By Monday, at least six drones had been shot down. Israel used Iron Dome for the first time in combat to take down at least one of the drones. An F-16 shot down another.
The drone threat is increasing, and it is modeled on Iran’s drone army, which the Islamic Republic has pioneered over recent decades.
Tehran has several lines of military drones, some of which are used for surveillance. But many of them are armed.
Iran’s drone strategy is to use them like cruise missiles. You pack them with explosives, put a gyroscope and guidance on them, and then they fly to a preplanned target. They slam into the target and blow up.
This is not unlike the German V-1 rocket of World War II, but it is a bit more complex.
Iran has pioneered them by copying US drones, such as the Predator or Sentinel. It has also copied other drone models it has seen around the world. In addition, it developed some of its own unique models.
The Ababil drone line, for instance, has been exported to the Houthis in Yemen as the Qasef. This drone is launched from a rail or catapult and flies several hundred kilometers to carry out an attack. Hamas has showcased its Shehab drones, which are similar to the Ababil and Qasef, during the recent war.
ISRAEL HAS had to contend not only with UAVs flown by Hamas but also drones that have been spotted on the Lebanese border in recent years and others that flew into Israeli airspace from Syria.
In July 2018, there were two incidents involving drones flying toward Israel from Syria. The IDF used a Patriot missile to shoot at them. One of them penetrated Israeli airspace for a few kilometers before being shot down by the Patriot.
Iran attacked Saudi Arabia in September 2019 using drones and cruise missiles. Pro-Iran forces in Iraq have used drones against US facilities there, including carrying out at least two drone attacks this year. Tehran is behind all of this in Yemen, Iraq and Gaza, as well as Syria and Lebanon. Iran is a kind of drone octopus exporting its drones around the region.
IRAN’S DRONES bring something to the battlefield that was not there before. Prior to the Iran drone threat, the main problem was terrorist groups such as ISIS repurposing quadcopters they bought via civilian channels.
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