Whitehall is spooked. The chatter in the Lobby is all about a new threat from Hezbollah. They have fibre-optic drones. No GPS needed. They fly on a wire, like a puppet. And our jammers? Useless.
Defence sources confirm British firms are in a scramble. BAE Systems, QinetiQ, the usual suspects. They are working on countermeasures. But it is a race against time. The drones are already in the field. Hezbollah used them in recent skirmishes. They evaded Israeli jamming. Now the MOD fears for our bases in the Gulf.
The key problem: fibre-optic guidance is immune to electronic warfare. You cannot jam a string. You have to shoot the drone down. But these things are small, cheap, and fly low. Hard to track. Harder to hit.
One source put it bluntly: "We are back to basics. Bullets and nets. Not laser beams." That is the quiet panic. Our tech advantage is gone. Hezbollah has leapfrogged. They saw our reliance on electronic warfare. They built a workaround.
So what is the British plan? Sources say the MoD has authorised emergency funding. Two approaches: kinetic interceptors (like mini-missiles) and high-power microwaves. But both are years away from deployment. In the meantime, troops are being trained to use shotguns. Yes, shotguns. Against drones.
Meanwhile, the drone industry is buzzing. Small startups are pivoting to fibre-optic detection. They are looking for the wire. But the wire is thin. And the drones can fly at night. The threat is here.
A former defence minister told me: "This is a game changer. We spent billions on jamming. Now it is obsolete. Hezbollah just changed the rules."
The question now: Can British firms deliver? Or will we be playing catch up for years? The answer will determine the safety of our troops. And the security of our allies in the region.
More as we get it.
