The IDF plans to establish a new corps to counter low-altitude drones, drawing first on five existing border infantry battalions, Walla learned on Tuesday. The new formation will add airspace defense to units that already protect Israel’s land borders and the security barrier area in the West Bank. The military is reorganizing people and resources around a threat it says has grown across several fronts.
A new military corps
IDF Ground Forces Commander Maj.-Gen. Nadav Lotan is working to establish the corps. For more than a decade, the IDF has tried different ways to address drones operating close to the ground. Those efforts accelerated after the October 7 massacre, as a worldwide push to develop solutions gathered pace.
The proposed low-altitude airspace defense corps will initially draw on five battalions that routinely protect the borders with Jordan and Egypt and the security barrier area in the West Bank. They’ll keep their existing land-border responsibilities while taking on a new assignment: guarding against mobile threats in airspace close to the ground. According to assessments, a sixth battalion could also join—the tactical air defense battalion established during the war in response to threats from Gaza and Lebanon that emerged on an unprecedented scale.
The IDF will transfer significant Ground Forces resources to help establish the corps and supplement capabilities already available within the Border Defense Corps. The added resources will include training personnel to develop a drone school focused on defensive missions. This response is institutional as well as technical: new training, a new corps, and a larger role for existing military units.
Threats across borders
The threat became evident during Hamas attacks along the Gaza border at the beginning of the war and during the initial stages of the IDF’s ground maneuver deep into the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah later used drones against IDF troops in southern Lebanon and civilians on Israel’s home front. Both military forces and civilians face drone threats, while the IDF’s planned answer centers on expanding its own defense structure.
Drones have also carried weapons and drugs across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders. Smugglers have used particularly heavy drones capable of carrying payloads weighing dozens of kilograms. The article reports growing concern that drones could become a significant threat in the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division and along the Syrian border. These uses and locations differ, but together they’ve helped drive the military’s broader counter-drone planning.
Technology and military doctrine
The Defense Ministry and the IDF have accelerated projects to improve drone protection. Some involve Israeli companies; others involve buying technology from abroad. The IDF has begun deploying various defense systems in the field against different kinds of drones, including fiber-optic drones, which conventional militaries find difficult to detect. Armies generally counter them with nets, interceptor drones and ground-based gunfire.
The Ground Forces already operate defensive drone capabilities, including intelligence-gathering operations by drones conducted by Unit 9900 of the Military Intelligence Directorate. Military Intelligence could help develop combat doctrine, operational methods, the type and scale of procurement involving drones and related technologies, and training. Its role may reach beyond gathering intelligence.
The plan therefore extends beyond border infantry: Military Intelligence may help shape how the forces buy, train for and use these systems. The announcement describes a growing apparatus of units, equipment and doctrine, built to protect military positions and civilians from low-flying drones.