‘A Rubik’s cube in the sky’: Israel struggles to defend against drones

livemint.com:

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel—On Friday, Israel’s vaunted aerial-defense system tracked 65 rockets fired across its northern border by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, intercepting some and letting the rest fall harmlessly into open areas. That same day, Israel missed a single drone it believes flew more than 1,000 miles from Yemen to explode in the commercial capital Tel Aviv. Israel has a problem with drones.

They can be small and hard to detect, and they don’t move on predictable trajectories or emit the intense heat of rocket engines that make missiles easier to track and destroy. They are also cheap and plentiful, and are being deployed by the country’s adversaries in increasing numbers and sophistication. Hezbollah has demonstrated the ability to strike Israel with drones in the near daily exchanges of fire since the Hamas-led Oct.

7 attack in which Israeli authorities say 1,200 people were killed and some 250 were taken hostage, prompting Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. The group often sends several at once—at least one for reconnaissance and another rigged with explosives—and has hit border towns and military bases, killing and injuring civilians and soldiers. It also has hit sensitive military equipment—including a radar surveillance balloon called Sky Dew in May and a multimillion-dollar antidrone system called Drone Dome in June.

Goading the Israeli military, Hezbollah flew surveillance drones across northern Israel in recent months, collecting aerial images of sensitive sites and publishing them in an unsubtle reminder of Israel’s vulnerability. The Iron Dome, Israel’s famed air-defense system, has struggled to cope with the challenge. The alternative has been to scramble jet fighters, a costly and