Story perspectives

Israel launches unlimited-budget task force, mass-produces drone-capture nets.

5/22/2026

Center

Israel Counters Tethered Drones

Israel’s defense industry is ready to mass-produce electromagnetic capture systems for fiber-optic drones within weeks.
Hezbollah’s fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones have killed four Israeli soldiers and one civilian in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a task force with unlimited budget to counter tethered drones.
Israeli troops have installed nets and cages and now operate more cautiously.

Left

Israel Battles Drones

Families and soldiers have used personal fundraising and credit cards to buy anti-drone nets amid shortages on the Lebanon front.
The Defense Ministry is testing kinetic interception and energy-based prototypes to counter Hezbollah’s FPV drones in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s FPV drones now limit roughly 80 percent of Israeli assaults, pushing most operations to night.
Israel approved $700 million funding for radars and five million shotgun rounds to intercept short-range drones.

History

Historical Context

After Israel declared Iron Dome operational on 27 March 2011 and achieved a 90 % hit rate against Gaza rockets by 2012, the system had intercepted more than 1,200 projectiles by October 2014, prompting U.S. funding of $1.6 billion. Today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s task force faces Hezbollah’s new FPV drones, seeking to apply Iron Dome’s rapid scaling to this aerial threat.

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Israel Counters Tethered Drones

Israel’s defense industry is ready to mass-produce electromagnetic capture systems for fiber-optic drones within weeks.
Hezbollah’s fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones have killed four Israeli soldiers and one civilian in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a task force with unlimited budget to counter tethered drones.
Israeli troops have installed nets and cages and now operate more cautiously.

1 / 3