Israeli military used artificial intelligence-guided drone swarms to locate and eliminated terrorist targets during the recent Gaza conflict. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deployed “flocks of drones” that were capable of communicating with each other to spot and destroy Hamas rocket launch sites, Israeli media reported on Saturday.
The IDF deployed artificial intelligence as Gaza-based terrorists groups fired rockets in massive barrages comprising of hundred of rockets, a strategy aimed a overwhelming the Iron Dome missile defense system. The Palestinian terrorists fired rockets placed deep within the Gaza’s civilian population, often using schools and housing blocks as launch sites.
The AI-based drone technology was apparently one of the reasons why the IDF was so successful in pinpointing its strike against Hamas and allied Palestinian terrorist groups, and avoid civilian casualties during the 11-day conflict in May — a fact even acknowledged by Israel’s usual detractors. Gaza head of the United Nations “refugee” agency (UNRWA), Matthias Schmale, admitted that Israeli strikes were “precise” and “sophisticated.”
This is probably the first time such a technology has been used in a combat situation, media reports suggested. The IDF kept the details of the operation classified during the fighting, but has since released the information.
The Times of Israel reported the used of smart drone technology:
The world saw a taste of that emerging military technology [i.e., drones guided by artificial intelligence], albeit a limited one, in May during the 11-day conflict between Israel and terror groups in Gaza, when the Israel Defense Forces used flocks of drones over the Strip to spot rocket launches by Hamas and attack those sites in what appears to be one of the first significant, publicly acknowledged real-world use of the concept.The military’s use of drones in this way was initially kept classified during the fighting, but has since been permitted to be published in part. (…)In a bid to prevent these attacks, the military worked to develop new methods of locating launchpads, which Hamas and Islamic Jihad had buried and hidden throughout the Gaza Strip, in schoolyards, home gardens and otherwise deep within civilian areas. For the first time, the IDF’s artificial intelligence capabilities were brought to bear on the issue, helping human analysts interpret a vast amount of satellite and aerial surveillance imagery to locate the launchpads, some of which were built to be used multiple times. This led Israeli Military Intelligence to declare the Gaza campaign the world’s “first AI war.”In one use of artificial intelligence, the Israeli military deployed small flocks of quadcopter drones over the southern Gaza Strip with each device monitoring a specific patch of land, The Times of Israel learned at the time. When a rocket or mortar launch was detected, other armed aircraft or ground-based units attacked the source of the fire.According to the Walla news site, the drone swarms were used dozens of times during the fighting by an until-now classified company of the Paratroopers Brigade, based on concepts developed by the IDF’s experimental Ghost Unit, which is tasked with trying out and creating new tactics and fighting styles for the military.“After a year of preparation and exercises, the situation came and the aerial detection system is able to find the enemy and destroy it and bring the operational achievement we are looking for,” the company commander, who for security reasons can only be identified by his rank and first Hebrew initial, Maj. “Mem,” told the outlet.“We conducted more than 30 sorties with the drone swarms, which collected precise intelligence and assisted other drones to carry out attacks on the targets,” he said. [emphasis added]
The revelation made by the IDF once again highlights Israel’s use of technical ingenuity to effectively target terrorists while protecting human lives on both sides of the conflict. The Jewish State has not only invested heavily in defensive technologies such as the Iron Done missile defense system, but employed warning systems like the ‘roof-knocking’ procedure that uses non-lethal explosive charges to warns civilians in the vicinity of a terrorist target of an impending hit. The IDF also individually calls and sends notifications to cellphones around the target zone ahead of a strike — thereby giving up on the element of surprise and allowing the terrorists to flee as well.
While the IDF is willing to give up strategic advantages in order to save Gazan lives, Hamas and its allied terrorist groups fired thousands of rockets during the May conflict with no regard for human lives on either side of the border.
Out of some 4,500 rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists in the latest round of fighting, an estimated 680 fell short and landed inside Gaza. They were responsible for over a third of the reported Palestinian casualties during the conflict — a fact glossed over by the mainstream media, which preferred to peddle its usual anti-Israel narrative.
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