Saturday, October 13, 2012

Iran and the drone

Last week, Israeli fighter jets intercepted a drone over Israeli airspace. Reportedly, two Python missiles were required to shoot down the drone.

According to Lebanese media, Hezbollah claims to have assembled an Iranian-made drone.

Nasrallah said the drone, which “was manufactured in Iran but assembled by the resistance group,” was launched from Lebanon and violated Israeli space in which it conducted reconnaissance of “sensitive and important locations” before being shot down.

It should also be noted that Hezbollah flew an Iranian Ghods Mohajer surveillance UAV into Israeli airspace in 2004. Hezbollah is also in possession of Iranian Ghods Ababil UAVs, for which there are both surveillance and attack configurations. Hezbollah does not appear to be exaggerating its capability to send additional drones in the future.

In Iranian media, a legislator counted coup against Israel.

The operation code-named Hussein Ayub saw Hezbollah's drone fly hundreds of kilometers into the Israeli airspace and getting very close to Dimona nuclear plant without being detected by advanced Israeli and US radars, Nasrallah said on Thursday evening.

The implication is that Iran can target Israeli nuclear facilities too, with a possible tit-for-tat if Israel launches air attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran may have subsidized the drone, as it provides financial backing to Hezbollah. The drone mission may have been a test run, to collect operational data as well as information on how Israeli air defenses operate. Israeli doctrine against drones will accordingly change, now that the element of technological surprise is gone.