It is arguably the oldest and simplest battlefield tactic out there: swarming, the attempt – usually by a side richer in numbers than firepower – to overwhelm the opposition not necessarily by precision or force, but by sheer numbers. 

In centuries gone by, those numbers might have comprised surging ground troops or volleys of ammunition. But today, as with so many aspects of modern warfare, the task can be done by drones. Dozens, or perhaps even hundreds or thousands, of cheap, devastating drones.

On Sunday evening it reportedly only took a few drones for Hezbollah to infiltrate Israel’s normally impregnable “Iron Dome” air defences, but the impact was vast: on one of the bloodiest days since October 7 2023, four Israeli soldiers and around 60 people were injured in a strike at a military base in the north of the country.