An internal Operations Directorate document distributed by the IDF in May 2025 under Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk warned about the growing threat now exacting a heavy toll on the northern front - fiber-optic explosive drones, military correspondent Doron Kadosh revealed on Galei Zahal (Army Radio).
The document stated that areas within 15-20 kilometers of the frontline had effectively become “exposed zones," where headquarters, staging areas, and troop movements are under constant threat.
It also proposed several solutions, including acquiring shotguns considered effective against drones at short range, protecting key facilities and command centers with autonomous firing systems, extensive use of overhead camouflage nets, and integrating the threat into training programs and exercises.
Although the document was circulated to the Ground Forces, the Planning Directorate, and the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development, implementation lagged behind. Only in recent weeks - after two soldiers and a civilian were killed and dozens more were wounded by these drones - have the IDF and Defense Ministry begun emergency procurement of the shotguns and specialized ammunition that had been recommended a year earlier.
The document was based on in-depth analysis of the Russia-Ukraine battlefield, where fiber-optic drone systems had already become operational standard by 2024.
The explicit warning that the “rear area" within 20 kilometers of the border was no longer safe has now fully materialized, with forces on the ground facing the threat without the technological and physical defenses that were needed in real time.