Before going into any area that could pose a threat, a unit with an FPV drone pilot simply flies their drone into the dangerous area, scans for IEDs, tunnels, terrorists, etc, and returns intact to the team.

By Avi Kahn

Let’s talk about drones. No, not the massive Heron (Predator) UAVs that shoot missiles, I’m talking about something way, way smaller.

Imagine a team of IDF soldiers tasked with taking over a certain building in Gaza. They might have intel or some other reason to suspect that said building is housing either terrorists, primed explosives, tunnel entrances, or other possible dangers.

It’s clear that moving into the structure without additional information is extremely dangerous and not in the team’s best interest. So how do they proceed? In past wars, the go-to answer would be to send in a dog. The IDF’s dogs from the special Oketz K-9 unit are among the best, most highly trained dogs in the world, and they do amazing work, but there aren’t nearly enough to shadow every unit operating in Gaza at once.

Enter the civilian FPV drone market. For those who aren’t familiar, FPV (first-person-view) drone flying is when a drone pilot can fly a small, propeller-based drone while viewing a real-time video feed of the drone’s camera through a set of goggles. Basically, the pilot sees through the eyes of the drone as he controls it. This allows the pilot to fly the drone into places that he can’t physically see from where he’s standing.

The drone can fly from outdoors to indoors, fit through tight spaces like doors, windows, and holes, and can even fly into tunnels. This technology has been used by hobbyists, search and rescue, agri-tech, and others for many years already, but had never really been used in a military capacity.

When the IDF saw this, they jumped on the opportunity. They bought hundreds of these FPV drones from civilian companies and began training a number of soldiers per unit on their use. Fast forward months later and the IDF has revolutionized the way it’s forces operate in urban combat.

Before going into any area that could pose a threat, a unit with an FPV drone pilot simply flies their drone into the dangerous area, scans for IEDs, tunnels, terrorists, etc, and returns intact to the team. There’s even the possibility to connect a 2nd screen to the drone so the camera feed can be monitored by a combat engineer who is trained to pick up on specific signs of traps and explosives.

The FPV drones have saved countless lives (including my own) and have proved to be an invaluable asset on the battlefield. Just another example of how Israel has pushed the envelope of technology in warfare.