Latest news with #Sabet
The Age
14-06-2025
- Politics
- The Age
First Ukraine, now Israel: How smuggling drones is changing the art of war
Experts believed at least some of the drones used in the overall attack were quadcopters, with four propellers, including some that were relatively small but able to carry bombs or other weapons. 'One of the things that created was, of course, surprise,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a national address on Friday night. 'I told President Trump when we spoke: 'Surprise is the essence of success.'' Netanyahu compared the covert attack to another by Israel where pagers and walkie-talkies filled with explosives targeted Hezbollah in Lebanon last September. That operation was also cited by intelligence experts in early June, after Ukraine's surprise strike in Russia, as an example of how technology is rapidly changing the way wars are fought. But at the heart of all three military missions – in Lebanon, Russia and now Iran – is the painstaking and often fruitless effort of intelligence gathering. Such operations can take years and are fraught with danger. 'At the end of the day, the drones are just instruments, and the way they can be used comes down to your sophistication and your creativity,' said Farzan Sabet, an analyst of Iran and weapons systems at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland. 'So it's a natural evolution; this is just a taste of what's to come.' Sabet said drones may become an especially attractive weapon in covert operations if they can be smuggled into enemy territory in parts and over time, making them even more difficult to detect. As drone warfare evolves, so will ways to counter it. That could include low-tech solutions, like shielding military equipment and other targets with hardened covers, or more advanced systems that shoot down drones, either with a weapon or by jamming them. Sabet said Iran has been developing a multilayered air defence system with a '360-degree perspective of threats coming in' that, if operational, should have been able to detect incoming attacks from high in the atmosphere, like a ballistic missile, or from a drone launched from a few kilometres away. It's unclear why that did not happen on Friday.
Sydney Morning Herald
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
First Ukraine, now Israel: How smuggling drones is changing the art of war
Experts believed at least some of the drones used in the overall attack were quadcopters, with four propellers, including some that were relatively small but able to carry bombs or other weapons. 'One of the things that created was, of course, surprise,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a national address on Friday night. 'I told President Trump when we spoke: 'Surprise is the essence of success.'' Netanyahu compared the covert attack to another by Israel where pagers and walkie-talkies filled with explosives targeted Hezbollah in Lebanon last September. That operation was also cited by intelligence experts in early June, after Ukraine's surprise strike in Russia, as an example of how technology is rapidly changing the way wars are fought. But at the heart of all three military missions – in Lebanon, Russia and now Iran – is the painstaking and often fruitless effort of intelligence gathering. Such operations can take years and are fraught with danger. 'At the end of the day, the drones are just instruments, and the way they can be used comes down to your sophistication and your creativity,' said Farzan Sabet, an analyst of Iran and weapons systems at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland. 'So it's a natural evolution; this is just a taste of what's to come.' Sabet said drones may become an especially attractive weapon in covert operations if they can be smuggled into enemy territory in parts and over time, making them even more difficult to detect. As drone warfare evolves, so will ways to counter it. That could include low-tech solutions, like shielding military equipment and other targets with hardened covers, or more advanced systems that shoot down drones, either with a weapon or by jamming them. Sabet said Iran has been developing a multilayered air defence system with a '360-degree perspective of threats coming in' that, if operational, should have been able to detect incoming attacks from high in the atmosphere, like a ballistic missile, or from a drone launched from a few kilometres away. It's unclear why that did not happen on Friday.
