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Israel to Face Armed Terror Drones
(Jerusalem Post) Yaakov Lappin - Israel will have to deal with armed, hostile, attack drones from Lebanon or Gaza capable of firing rockets or small missiles at Israeli targets, Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies in Herzliya, said this week. Both Hizbullah and Hamas have their own drone fleets. "We have seen armed Iranian drones," he said. "The most advanced of these is the Shahed-129." The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps boasted in 2013 that the Shahed-129 can carry eight missiles, and that its range is 1,700 km., enabling it to reach Israel. "Hizbullah announced that it has this UAV," Inbar said. The missiles on board the Iranian drones appear to be antitank missiles. It would take them 30 seconds to cross from Lebanon into Israel and strike an Israeli vehicle, Inbar estimated. Detecting the hostile drone early and shooting it down, before it has the opportunity to fire, will be a key part of any effective defense approach. The Assad regime in Syria has deployed Russian drones, and Egypt has purchased China's Wing Loong medium-altitude, long-endurance drone. "We are seeing the whole area become flooded with UAVs.... Certainly, the skies are filling up with them," Inbar said.