A drone bearing a Hezbollah flag in Aramta, southern Lebanon, during a military parade organized in May 2023 to commemorate the liberation of the South from Israeli occupation. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — Israeli startup Magos Systems, a developer of AI-native radar technology, has signed a $7 million deal to supply Israeli ground forces with its early-warning detection system against "fast-evolving unmanned aerial threats, including fiber-optic drones", the Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.
Hezbollah’s fiber-optic FPV (first person view) drones were extensively used in recent months against Israeli forces still occupying south Lebanon, inflicting losses among Israeli soldiers.
Such attacks have not been reported since Saturday, June 20 amid a partial cease-fire in Lebanon. Hezbollah hasn't claimed any attacks on Israeli forces since then, while the Israeli army has continued to carry out daily strikes in the South.
Sources close to the deal told the Times of Israel that Magos will supply hundreds of its advanced drone-detection radar systems to the Israeli army.
According to Magos, the "lightweight radar system combines advanced algorithms to classify moving objects as drones, birds, or vehicles; filter out false alarms; and alert defense teams only when necessary."
Magos added that the drone detection system, developed over the past two years, has “successfully passed rigorous evaluations by several customers in Israel and worldwide."
For weeks, Israeli authorities and the military have been searching for ways to defend against the small, inexpensive, improvised drones that bypass the Israeli army's sophisticated electronic jamming and radar systems worth several million dollars.
In May, the CEO of Israel's largest defense contractor said that they were developing hardware to counter exploding drones used by Hezbollah, including through the potential use of laser-based defense systems.
Earlier the same month, Israeli army radio reported that Israel was setting up a factory to produce a fleet of fiber-optic exploding drones to counter similar systems used by Hezbollah.
