Modern era of war: How deadly drones are transforming battlefields

For decades now, a simple tactic used on the battlefield was swarming, which involves attacking the enemy with a higher number of autonomous systems from multiple directions than the other side. This attack is not necessarily done with precision or force but by sheer numbers.

However, as time has evolved, in modern warfare, drones can perform the task.

Last Sunday, it only took a few drones for Iran-backed Lebanon-based Hezbollah to infiltrate Israel's normally impenetrable "Iron Dome" air defences.

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However, the impact wasvast, on one of the bloodiest days since October 7, 2023.

Hezbollah strikekilled four Israeli soldiers and injured around 60 othersat a military base in northern Israel. The Lebanon-based militant groupsaid that it targeted the camp using a "Swarm of kamikaze drones”, which “broke through the Israel defence radars without detection.”

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that they are "studying and investigating the incident – how a drone infiltrated without warning and struck the base”. His conclusion was bashful: “We must provide better defence.”

In the modern era of war, drone swarms are almost unsurprising. The Israel-Gaza conflict and the Ukraine-Russia war are the key examples of that. Notably, amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, reports have suggested that up to 10,000 drones are in the air on any given day.

Meanwhile, in the Red Sea, the Yemen-based Houthi rebels have also shown an increasing inclination towards using swarms of sea drones to threaten commercial ships and intimidate Western warships since the beginning of the war in Gaza, over a year ago.

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According to a report by The Daily Telegraph, in January, a group of 18 drones, believed to be relatively expensive Iranian-designed Shahad 136, were flown towards merchant vessels and American and British warships patrolling the region.

Professor Michael Clarke, visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London told The Daily Telegraph: "This isn’t revolutionary, but it is different. Drones have existed for a very long time, but when you think about them in the Afghanistan war [for example], they existed in small numbers because people thought of them as airplanes without pilots, and most were almost as big as that."

He also noted how the West was “very slow to cop to the idea that much smaller, cheaper drones could be used as weapons, and in numbers, that’s the point. Not three or four, [but] 40 or 50 potentially.”

Clarke said that he believesit is a matter that only underlines how the soldiers of the future won’t necessarily need simply “belligerence and the ability to carry their luggage across the Brecon Beacons in terrible weather.” He added, that as the enemy unleashes the drones of war, they’ll need to be technically proficient.

(With inputs from agencies)