
A Hezbollah member holding a DroneGun Tactical, an anti-drone rifle-style jammer, during the funeral of Taleb Abdallah, a party commander killed in an Israeli strike, on June 13, 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — During the solemn observance of Ashura on Wednesday in Beirut's southern suburbs, Hezbollah once again highlighted its possession of the DroneGun Tactical, an anti-drone rifle-style jammer.
The party displayed the drone defense technology during a military parade held in tandem with a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a day of religious ceremonies marking the 10th day of Muharram. The handheld weapon is designed to disrupt unmanned aerial systems (UAS), forcing them to either return to their base or land at the point of interception.
Hezbollah began a war of attrition with Israel in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza in October and since then, the group has announced the downing and capture of half a dozen Israeli surveillance drones. Among them were Hermes 450, Hermes 900, and SkyLark UAVs. Hezbollah operatives disassemble the drones to study their components, two party sources told Reuters.
Israel has confirmed that five of its Air Force drones were downed by surface-to-air missiles while operating over Lebanon. It was not clear whether Hezbollah used DroneGun Tactical to down the drones that they have claimed to have taken control of.
Hezbollah's presentation of the DroneGun Tactical is not unprecedented. According to videos shown on local media, Hezbollah has revealed this drone-downing tool several times before, including during last year’s Ashura ceremony.
Former Lebanese government coordinator to UNIFIL General Monir Shehadeh told L’Orient Today that the DroneGun Tactical can be used to disrupt any drone type — military or surveillance — and has a range of 2,500 meters. “Every drone within this range, this weapon would disrupt and make its operating room lose control,” Shehadeh explained. The operator of the DroneGun Tactical could then “control it and land it.”
“Whoever forces the landing would not want to destroy [the drone],” he said, since that would prevent data collection, which would be beneficial — even in the case of a weapon-laden drone, as demonstrated by reports of Hezbollah using the downed Israeli drones to conduct analyses.
“Even drones that work via satellites can be controlled by this weapon and make the satellite lose its control over it,” Shehadeh claimed.
Droneshield, the Australian company that manufactures the weapon, stated that one of the most notable aspects of the DroneGun Tactical is its non-destructive nature. “It provides a safe countermeasure against drones without causing damage to the targeted drones themselves or their surrounding environment,” according to a description given on the company website.
The technology behind DroneGun Tactical
It’s likely the anti-drone tool was released in 2018, based on media reports announcing the new product.
Designed for two-handed operation, it features high-performance directional antennas in a robust, rifle-style design. The control panel allows operators to select and engage specific jamming frequencies, tailored for optimal effectiveness against various UAS threats, according to the company.
Upon activation, the system triggers a response from the targeted drone, compelling it to either perform an immediate vertical landing or return to its point of origin or remote controller.
DroneShield emphasizes that their C-UAS defeat technologies do not involve protocol manipulation or cyber tactics, highlighting the limitations of those methods. Instead, their approach focuses on non-kinetic disruption, seeking a more controlled response to aerial threats.
Throughout the last nine months of fighting, Hezbollah has been gradually revealing more sophisticated weaponry and military strategies. While there is growing concern that cross-border fighting could spiral out of control, there is also a belief among military analysts that Hezbollah’s measured escalation is being played for deterrence purposes rather than in pursuit of an all-out war.
However, experts have also told L’Orient Today that they believe Hezbollah has not used its full military arsenal, opting to save it in case of a full-scale war.