Iran Missile Hits Israelis, U.A.V. Pioneers

Defense Tech: Iran Missile Drone Bomb Hits Israelis, U.A.V. Pioneers: "Bill Roggio is now throwing cold water on the missile theory. 'The use of a ground based anti-ship missile system in these attacks, while certainly a possibility, is unlikely as the characteristics of this system would certainly have been detected by the Israeli Defense Forces,' he writes. 'A UAV launched missile system, on the other hand, would be a more stealthy system. The UAVs are difficult to detect as they can fly in below radar, [and] can be flown by remote visual methods.'

...

Hezbollah has flown simple 'Misrad-1' unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, twice before, in November 2004 and April 2005. But those were reconnaissance flights, last just a couple of minutes each. And the drones were spotted fairly quickly, both times.

But, as Defense Tech noted in the Spring, the UAV had the potential to be much, much worse -- 'a suicide bomber on steroids, basically.'

...

For years, the Israeli military was the world's leader in unmanned aviation. During the first Gulf War, Iraqi troops surrendered to Israel-made, American-run Pioneer UAVs. U.S. Army drone mechanics had to learn Hebrew, to repair their Israeli drones."

(Via a DefenseTech.)