Look up in the sky. Is it a bird. Is it a plane? No, it’s a drone!
Once thought to be the ideal solution for efficient pizza deliveries, drones have become integral soldiers in armies all over the globe. With swarms of drones able to fly literally “under the radar,” they have proven to be successful in reconnaissance, search/rescue, and performing targeted attacks. UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), an acronym for drones, have actually been around longer than you may think.
How did these buzzing mechanical mosquitoes evolve into flying machines with the ability to replace human soldiers as sniffers, scouts, searchers, snipers, megaphones, and bombers?
Drone technology is extremely dynamic. We learn not only from Israel’s hi-tech geniuses but also from our drones that crash and fail and even more from the drones that our enemies use against us. According to experts interviewed, drone falls are more frequent than not.
One source said that as many as 95% of drones fall for different reasons. But the data is being revised constantly, and even as this article is being written, advances are being made throughout the drone world that are expected to change the face of war, save soldiers’ lives, and go on to influence our everyday lives.
A drone view of the wreckage of a Delta Air Lines operated CRJ-900 aircraft lies crashed on the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada February 18, 2025 in a still image from video. (credit: TSB/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
Drone attack in the Shomron
According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, “Since Oct. 7, 2023, around 1,300 drones have targeted Israel from Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Iran, with 231 penetrating defenses and causing casualties and damage.”
Experts are exploring new defensive technologies to address the growing problem. While drones have become standard in Gaza, recently, a drone attack in Yitzhar, Samaria, has raised eyebrows. The drone was a basic homemade version with a pipe bomb attached and came from a nearby village.
“Thank God it failed and didn’t explode,” says Shai Spetgang, an Israeli drone pilot and trainer. Spetgang is also the COO of STEM-Up Israel and Israel Drone Incubator (IDI), an Israeli mentorship collective of drone, robotics, and technology companies at the forefront of Israeli defense infrastructure.
“The fear is that if we can easily make these drones, so can our enemies, and they won’t be dropping flowers,” says Spetgang. “We must get ready for the day when drones will enter Israeli towns from adjacent Arab villages, bearing unfriendly gifts. We need to develop the ability to correctly and immediately identify them and to neutralize them before they enter our neighborhoods and cause damage.
“This technology exists but is expensive and mostly sold only to the military. The army can’t be everywhere, and our town councils and village administrations can’t afford the solutions,” he explains.
“A town or village,” he adds, “has thirty seconds to identify and bring down a drone from a nearby town. From Kalkilya to Kfar Saba, they may have a minute or two. Perhaps if it is carrying a heavier payload, it may take a minute or two longer. At the moment, radar has a very hard time distinguishing between birds and drones.”
But drone technology is moving quickly – for Israel and for its enemies.
“Most of the drones being used in Jenin, Nablus, and Hebron are donated quadcopters,” explains Jessica Zandani, founder and CEO of STEM-Up Israel and IDI. “The army needs hundreds of drones for these hot spots. Our troops are being sent into booby-trapped buildings without [the help of] drones. There are too many unfortunate examples of soldiers who have been killed because no drone was available to scout before a soldier was sent in.”
Zandani and her organization have been raising money to supply soldiers with drones in Judea and Samaria since Oct. 7. She says that soldiers, particularly in these areas, are woefully unequipped. “Drones are more essential than even ceramic vests and helmets,” she says.
CAMERA ATTACHMENTS are being refined to maximize drone reconnaissance. (credit: Mike Levy)
“Every twist, every corner of a room, the drones can see into it and assess it. For every drone we have, if we have twenty guys going in, we are likely to have twenty coming out. Drones are that essential,” she asserts.
The STEM-Up Israel program, taught by experienced hi-tech engineers and designed for high school students, will teach youth to operate, build, and repair drones, giving them a full background by the time they graduate and are ready for army service. The hope is to create a robust young workforce of drone innovators, creators, operators, and technicians.
A history of UAVs and drones: Toys or weapons?
The first unmanned aerial vehicles were not drones. They were unmanned hot air balloons deployed during the siege and fall of Venice in 1849. Laden with explosives, they were launched from a carrier ship by the Austrian army above Venice in the first Italian War of Independence.
Most of the bombs missed their marks due to uncontrollable drift. Actual unmanned vehicles, radio-controlled aircraft, were developed at the end of WW I. These evolved into small aircraft and were improved during the 20th century. By the 1970s, they became smaller and lighter and were tasked with jamming enemy radar and doing reconnaissance missions.
Today’s drones are not just humming in the sky. They are robots that fly, crawl, climb, perch, and even swim. When deployed by a submarine, they can surface like a torpedo to blow up a battleship.
Chris Woods, author of History of Armed Drones, is a journalist who has covered many wars. He says, “When I published the book in 2015, drones were constantly evolving and changing. I couldn’t have anticipated the very big shifts in drones.”
He calls the time period from 2001 to 2016 “the first drone age,” but he says that a new wave is coming. He expects it to fully arrive by 2030. According to Woods, the weaponization of store-bought “off-the-shelf” drones was initially perpetrated by non-state actors. “Terrorists would rig up a 3D-printed dropper, use mortar shells, and drop them with incredible precision,” he says.
“By 2017, Iraqi military drones were perpetrating a dozen attacks in a day,” Woods recounts. “The speed at which knowledge spread was amazing. They revolutionized drones. At the time, Israel and the US dominated the drone market, but soon China, Turkey, and Iran developed really sophisticated drone technology. The Turkish armed drones have turned the tides in Syria and Libya. Russia relies on Iranian drones, as it never got its act together on building them,” he says.
Chinese company DJI began manufacturing flight controllers for model aircraft in 2006. By 2010, they had entered the consumer drone market and quickly became a market leader in consumer and professional drones. DJI has been accused of indirectly supporting China’s military and law enforcement agencies, particularly through the development of drones used for surveillance.
DJI also owns the 3D printing company Bamboo, which is widely distributed throughout the world. The company faced scrutiny from the US government over allegations that its products might pose a national security risk. The government’s concerns center on whether data collected by DJI products could be accessed by the Chinese government, given China’s strict data laws.
“Most companies in China have a connection to the Chinese government, which, for example, established DJI, which has cornered the consumer market and caused great concern in the US for the origin of their parts and their market share. US military contracts specifically exclude drones with Chinese electronic parts, as they can have back doors in their software and firmware,” says IDI co-founder Spetgang.
“Another popular brand, Autel, are drones assembled in the United States with a mixture of Chinese and US parts,” he says.
In 2024, the IDF reportedly ordered thousands of DJI drones. While they were easy to operate, inexpensive, and worked well in tactical operations, their communications systems needed to be carefully neutered to keep them secure for use and protect them from being hijacked by anyone with a compatible remote-control unit.
Likewise, any item being printed on a Bamboo printer is uploaded to the cloud, which can be accessed by the Chinese government, as their cloud servers are in China. China placed an embargo on Israel for all its drones. These drones must be activated before they are shipped to Israel.
Major B. is head of the drone section of the IDF Lotar unit, a specialized counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit. He says that on Oct. 7, many soldiers who were drone hobbyists brought their personal drones with them to war. After Oct. 7, many organizations and individuals donated their drones to Israel. Some inside sources say that the majority of drones used for tactical purposes were donated.
According to Spetgang, the IDF modifies the drones for use in the field, which handicaps their capabilities to some extent. “We should not be using Chinese products at all,” explains Zandani. “The Chinese government, and probably Russia and Iran, can monitor all drones and products produced by 3D printers, as well as Chinese-produced cars. Although it saves the IDF money, people should be careful not to donate off-the-shelf drones to the IDF.
“While most IDF drone units are trained as DJI and Autel pilots, and we are told the IDF is trying to move away from these drones, retraining takes time and money and removes soldiers from operations.” Another problem, according to Zandani, is that drones specifically designed for the military cost a lot more than the Chinese off-the-shelf models.
SPETGANG, IN VR Goggles, demonstrates flying the Avata. (credit: Mike Levy)
“The Redcat Teal is a closed-system American-made military modular drone with thermal and night vision that comes with spare parts and extra batteries that cost approximately $5,000 more than the Autel. That makes it a hard ask for donated drones, and even for the army, which will need to retrain its soldiers to use the new system,” explains Zandani. “The Israeli Aero system has an even better drone with an anti-jamming system; but again, it comes with a high price tag.”
Major B. says that the reservists and their drones were drafted at once. “Close-quarter combat was one of the first units to receive drones,” he explains. “Courses were designed to teach soldiers how to use and how to maintain the machines. Using drones in combat situations involved maintaining and charging batteries, and every aspect of using drones had to be learned.
“We know our enemies – guerrilla fighters and terrorists who use their tunnels and ground with booby traps, bombs, and all kinds of weapons. Now, we can send the drones inside and see what we need to attack. If the weapons are hidden in the closet or behind the stairs, the drones enable us to understand the threat and minimize the casualties of personnel,” the major explains.
Yiftach Kleinman, deputy CEO and EVP (executive vice president) of top military drone start-up Spear UAV says that Israel began using a decoy in 1969. “The first attempts to use such capability were during the 1969 war between Israel and Egypt,” he recounts.
“Back then, unmanned aircraft were not that developed. They were US-made decoys designed to suppress anti-aircraft capabilities. We had major difficulties with the Soviet anti-aircraft systems. These motorized, remote control aircraft – essentially toy planes – were equipped with a camera that took stills. That was how the system started.”
In Israel, according to Kleinman, the idea of using unmanned aircraft to garner intelligence took off. “Decoy UAVs were built big because the goal was specifically to attract enemy fire,” he explains.
“But for reconnaissance, they needed something smaller that flew under the radar and didn’t attract enemy attention. Israel started developing military-grade unmanned aerial systems in the 1970s and used them in 1982 during the Israeli attack on the Syrian anti-aircraft batteries in Lebanon. Searcher systems played a key role in taking out those batteries,” he says.
“These gave us relevant intel without risking an expensive aircraft and pilots’ lives, and the images were much better than using a satellite, which didn’t give great quality. During the ’80s, the usage of these capabilities grew, and every military operation all over the world began using them. The next step was to build larger unmanned platforms for high altitude that could carry not only cameras but also signal intelligence, radars, and sensors,” he says.
By the time video technology became mainstream in the late 1980s and early ’90s, UAVs had become essential. “They brought ‘up to the moment’ videos to troops – far better than simple stills,” Kleinman explains. “Ground troops could actually communicate with the UAV operator and get information. Military UAVs were very expensive, regulated, and were complicated to maneuver.”
He says the next phase was to turn what were essentially “toys” into larger aircraft – and to arm these unmanned aerial platforms. “[Israeli company] Elbit drones are armed with anti-tank guided missiles [ATGMs] as are the US platforms,” he says. “Then we turned them from expensive vehicles into affordable systems that could be expanded.”
He says that the 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and Armenia was the real turning point for drones being used for reconnaissance and as kamikazes and aircraft with missiles. Woods elaborates, “Azerbaijan used Turkish drones to recapture its territory. Turkey lent its armed drones to devastating effect. It was a brilliant strategic use and a wake-up call.”
Uzi Rubin of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University writes, “Azerbaijan’s UAVs obliterated Armenia’s array of ground-based air defenses, after which they systematically decimated Armenia’s ground force matériel, including tanks, artillery pieces, and supply trucks.
“This onslaught forced Armenia to accept a humiliating ceasefire imposed by Russia… The war offered a glimpse of future battlefields on which unmanned weapons and electronic warfare might predominate. Israel should learn the lessons offered by this war and prepare its ground-based air defenses, as well as its combat aircraft forces, accordingly.”
Says Woods, “During the Libyan civil war, rebel forces were pushed out by the drones. In Ukraine, both sides were using drones to save pilots’ lives. Each had impressive air defenses that would endanger pilots. Drones were the answer.”
But it was during the Ukrainian-Russian war that small, inexpensive Chinese-made quadcopters were rigged by the Ukrainians to challenge the much larger and better-equipped Russian army. “The Ukrainians require a lot of munitions, as they are in an inferior situation in terms of arms,” explains Kleinman, “but they also had a high level of technical knowledge.
“Even before the war, they were a hub of invention. And they were facing the huge capabilities of the Russian army. They used toy drones and connected improvised charges, hand grenades, RPGs, and Soviet-style bombs – which were easy, cheap, and effective.
“These had better effects than ATGMs that could not hover and loiter. They went directly from point to point. And where missiles cost over $100,000 per missile, improvised drones cost just a few thousand dollars. Each drone could take out a significant amount of personnel and equipment,” says Kleinman.
“Anyone with a 3D printer was able to modify the off-the-shelf drones, along with some duct tape and safety pins,” says Zandani.
“And that is what they did. With all the Israeli companies invested in defense technologies, we decided to create an entity to ensure that these companies are sharing live data straight from the battlefields, integrating their complementary technologies, and streamlining the innovative process of robotics, drones, sensors, optics, and communication technologies.”
Spetgang says that their organization hopes to “complete the ecosystem of training, procuring, building, lending, and maintaining drones to form a new crop of young Israelis with drone proficiency. This will expand their opportunities for the military and in hi-tech careers.”
A career military expert (who asked not to be identified) operates an Israeli start-up specializing in the development of advanced offensive drones that integrate artificial intelligence technologies.
“Drones can be in every army division,” he explains. “[For] intelligence, logistics, delivering support and supplies, taking out mines, and securing zones. They cost less than more sophisticated ammunition. AI can help us understand how to make more efficient drones, materials, and software.
“It enables us to analyze the mass data that is extrapolated from the drones. AI works on facial recognition and computer processes and analyzes it all. With real-time streaming, sensor output is analyzed immediately,” he says.
While researching his book, Woods chose not to visit a military base but rather visited a factory-sized intelligence site, where he observed computer analysts poring over terabytes of intelligence information obtained by drones. “One single drone mission can require dozens of military personnel just to examine the data,” he says. “Each drone’s output is very labor intensive.”
Part 2 of this article will be featured in a future issue of the Magazine.
