Hezbollah drones are a ‘game-changer’ for IDF, says defense expert

Drone experts say IDF must change tactics in the face of increasing threat posed by terror group’s explosive UAVs.

By World Israel News Staff

A defense expert warned about the deadly threat posed to Israeli troops by Hezbollah’s explosive drones, saying that the UAVs have given the group a strategic advantage it previously lacked.

“These nighttime drones are the very small Category 1 and Category 2 drones,” Cameron Chell, CEO of UAV manufacturer Draganfly, told Fox News Digital.

“They are generally used by squads on the ground to conduct tactical lethal missions or surveillance missions right in theater immediately. What they are able to do is use thermal sensors to fly at night and use heat signatures to spot IDF troops,” he added.

Chell stressed that the Israeli military will need to adjust its tactics for operations conducted under cover of darkness.

He emphasized that “Hezbollah now has nighttime capabilities, which is game changing.”

He added that the IDF should expect “an escalation of the use of drones and the innovation of asymmetric warfare in that particular area by Hezbollah.”

The IDF, he said, must “factor in the fact that Hezbollah has nighttime capabilities to at least do observation using thermal cameras, as well as strike capabilities.”

Chell also raised questions about who is supplying Hezbollah with what he described as a seemingly unlimited supply of explosive drones, suggesting they could be “coming via Iran, China, Russia, Afghanistan or the black market.”

He noted that the drones themselves are not particularly advanced.

Hezbollah is not “using stuff that is groundbreaking; this is very old technology and tactics that they are using,” Chell said.

In the weeks since the implementation of a Trump-administered ceasefire, more than a dozen Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel have been killed by explosive drones launched by Hezbollah.

An Arab-Israeli civilian contractor performing work for the Defense Ministry was also killed by a drone in southern Lebanon.