Paragliders Pagers and AI-Robots: The Intersection of War and Technology

Paragliders, Pagers and AI-Robots: The Intersection of War and Technology

Published | November 27,2024

In the changing technological landscape, both state and non-state actors are incorporating modern and novel gadgetry in their operations and strategy. The examples are Hamas’s use of paragliders and Israel explosives rigged pagers. On October 7 last year, Hamas used aerial sports device, motorized gliders, and descended at the Supernova music festival on a Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. In this complex attack, which commentators call 9/11 of Israel, more than 1100 Israelis were killed and 240 abducted. Previously, Popular Front launched paragliders in 1987 from Lebanon against Israel while PKK used these in 2020 to cross from Syria into Turkey.

However, this time the breach of Israel defenses was startling. For 10/7 attack, Hamas trained paragliders in Lebanon and Syria who infiltrated Israel during a barrage of 3000 rockets that flooded the Iron Dome. The hi-tech border fence was then breached through explosives and bulldozers. Hindsight analysis revealed that Israel’s overreliance on technology and its cultural arrogance, by underestimating Hamas’ intentions, factored into 10/7 attack. The human intelligence (HUMINT) of Israel internal security agency, Shin Bet, diluted after Hamas’ takeover of Gaza in 2007.

Likewise, the signal intelligence (SIGINT) of Israel’s Military Intelligence (AMAN) also depleted when Israel stopped monitoring hand-held radio communications of Hamas. Israel basic assumptions that Hamas would be deterred by Israel’s military response or the attack would come through underground tunnels, proved wrong. Meanwhile, Hamas upgraded its own intelligence wing by hacking into internet-connected cameras inside Israel. Hamas also disabled remote-controlled weapon stations on border by dropping explosive charges from drones. Institutional chauvinism also contributed to the attack as warnings of female surveillance officers, called tatzpitaniyot, were overlooked. Stove piping, decay of information in the institutional hierarchy, was also evident. The elite 8200 unit of military intelligence presented a dossier on Hamas’s invasion plan in a document called “Jericho Wall”. It detailed unusual activities of Hamas near the border but all the early warnings were ignored till 10/7 actualized.

At the other extreme, on the afternoon of 17th of September, hundreds of pagers started exploding in Hezbollah strongholds of Lebanon. On the following day, weaponised walkie-talkies also exploded. The cumulative toll from these explosives-rigged gadgets was 39 deaths and more than 3000 injuries. Hezbollah fighters had recently shifted to low-tech pagers for messaging in order to evade Israeli eavesdropping of smartphones communication. The agents of Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, had concealed 5-6 grams of plastic explosive, PETN, in the batteries of these pagers and used a novel non-metallic detonator as a trigger which could not be detected on routine X-ray checks.

Since the battery LI-BT783 and the pager AR-924 did not exist on the market, the Israeli agents created fake websites, online stores and discussion forums to deceive due diligence of Hezbollah. The custom-made pagers were sold by a Hungarian company called BAC under a license deal with a renowned Taiwanese brand, Gold Apollo. Interestingly, BAC was a shell company that existed only on an A4 sheet of paper on the window of a building in Budapest with no physical existence!

Earlier, in 2020, Israel assassinated top-notch nuclear scientist of Iran, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh at Ab-e-Sard, a small town in the outskirts of Tehran. The Israeli agents had modified a 7.62 mm Belgian made FN MAG machine gun which was hidden in a Nissan Zamyad truck. It was operated through artificial intelligence and controlled remotely from another country. The famous bomb maker of Hamas, Yahya Ayyash, known as The Engineer, was also targeted in 1996 when his cellphone was booby-trapped with 15 grams of high explosive RDX.

Due to prevailing asymmetry in many conflict zones and technological disruptions, state actors including LEAs have to keep challenging their assumptions and doctrines and be prepared to predict the unpredictable. In future, autonomous vehicles and AI-robots may increasingly find space in the ever-expanding battlefields. De-humanizing the battlefields may become a reality sooner than expected. Moreover, the battlefield is expanding not only in the physical domain but extending to the virtual domain too.

As Yuval Harari explains in his latest bestseller, Nexus, the 20th century Iron Curtain has been replaced by the 21st century Silicon Curtain in dividing rival groups in global conflicts. Instead of boots on the ground, there will be bots in the cyberspace. Absence of keyboard warriors as well as cyber-experts for any country will only add to its vulnerability.

Dr. S. Tajik

The writer is a renowned security affairs expert, specializes in analyzing modern warfare tactics and the evolving role of technology in global security.

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