by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Drones would range from radio-controlled model airplanes weighing a few kilograms to large drones with payloads of hundreds of kilograms, says Israeli Air Force air defense chief • Some of the drones would be designed to crash into targets.
Israeli Air Force air
defense chief Maj. Gen. Shachar Shohat
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Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons  |
Israel fears terrorists in Lebanon and the
Gaza Strip will deploy exploding drones in a future war, in addition to
their main rocket arsenals, the chief of Israeli air defense said on
Monday.
"We will have to cope with dozens of pilotless
aerial vehicles on both the northern and southern fronts," Israeli Air
Force Maj. Gen. Shachar Shohat said at a Tel Aviv security conference
organized by the Institute for National Security Studies think tank,
Israel is itself a world leader in drone technologies and has used the vehicles extensively in combat.
Uzi Rabin, an Israeli aerospace expert, said
Israel's Iron Dome and Patriot missile interceptors are capable of
shooting down most drones. Israel is separately developing the Iron
Beam, a laser system for vaporizing short-range mortar bombs and says it
also will be able to destroy small drones.
Shohat said the terrorists' drones would range
from radio-controlled model airplanes weighing a few kilograms to large
drones with payloads of hundreds of kilograms.
Another air force officer said Shohat was referring to drones carrying explosives and designed to crash into targets.
The reference to the heavier kind of vehicle
suggests that Israel believes that Lebanon's Shiite terrorist group
Hezbollah will receive such drones from Iran.
Hezbollah, Hamas and other Islamist militias
have fired thousands of rockets at Israel in previous conflicts, but
have made only scarce use of drones.
However, Shohat told the conference that drones were now part of enemy guerrilla strategies.
Drones flew into Israeli airspace from Lebanon
on at least two occasions in 2012 and 2013, apparently on photography
missions and bids to probe air defenses. Israeli jets shot them down.
After the 2012 incident, Hezbollah leader
Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged sending a drone that flew some 25 miles
(40 kilometers) into Israel. He said the drone's parts were made in Iran
and it was assembled by Hezbollah members in Lebanon.
Nasrallah has denied that Hezbollah or the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were responsible for the 2013 flight.
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=16057
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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