Hezbollah now appears to be using converted Soviet-era jet-powered reconnaissance drones as cruise missiles. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday released a video it claimed showed an airstrike several weeks ago on a home in south Lebanon containing what it calls a “DR-3 cruise missile” about to be launched. The DR-3 is another name for the Soviet-era Russian-made Tu-143 Reys jet-powered reconnaissance drone. Ukraine pioneered the conversion of Tu-143s into long-range strike weapons fairly quickly after Russia’s all-out invasion.

While Hezbollah has a massive cache of missiles and rockets, this marks the first emergence of a converted Tu-143 into a quasi-land attack cruise missile in its arsenal. You can read more about Hezbollah’s weapons cache in our deep dive.

You can see a retired Ukrainian Tu-143 in the image below.

What’s also of great interest is the video of the strike shows how the missile was hidden inside a home. The Tu-143 is runway independent and uses rocket assistance for launching from a rail on a trailer or launch vehicle. For recovery, it uses a parachute system, although that would not be necessary for a cruise missile conversion.

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“Here we are exposing Hezbollah’s method of hiding a cruise missile inside a home,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari explained. “The terrorists create a designated opening for the missile launch. Here you can see how we identified the terrorists making an opening in the building that exposed the missile. In a precise strike, the IDF eliminated the terrorists and this missile launching infrastructure, shortly before the launch.”

Israel used a weapon with man-in-the-loop control to strike the Tu-143, of which it has many varieties, from shorter-ranged Spike missiles to Spice guided bombs to Delilah cruise missiles. In this case it looks like the observation platform was the same as the weapon used in the attack, which would point to Harop loitering munition or similar.

Israel claimed it destroyed other weapons inside homes and other structures in Lebanon.

In the full video, Hagari highlights what he claims is the extent Hezbollah uses civilian structures to hide and launch weapons like cruise missiles, rockets, and drones.

Hezbollah, for its part, claims it has an extensive network of underground facilities it can use to fire weapons, including multiple launch rocket systems.  The following video was used by Hezbollah to back up that claim, though it remains unclear where or when it was taken.

The IDF did not say how many of these improvised cruise missiles may exist, whether they have already been used or from where they were procured. Russia had previously provided some to the Assad regime in Syria, which is also backed by Hezbollah benefactor Iran. Moreover, Tehran has supplied Moscow with ballistic missiles and drones as part of a burgeoning military relationship between the two nations.

The Tu-143 would give Hezbollah an additional capability to hit targets as far south as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The IDF said it has a range of 124 miles, which corresponds with our previous reporting, and can deliver a 600-pound warhead. That means it can reach further and hit harder than much of Hezbollah’s cache of at least 150,000 rockets. However, as we previously noted, there are some limitations to this conversion, not least of which is relatively poor accuracy, unless more significant upgrades have been made to their guidance systems.

As we have reported several times, Ukraine has converted the drone into a strike weapon and has used them to attack targets inside Russia and Crimea. The Tu-143 was first seen in its converted form in June 2022, when one, believed to be Ukrainian, was shot down in western Russia, according to a local official. You can see images purporting to be Tu-143 wreckage in Russia in the following Tweet, which misidentified it as the similar Tu-141 Strizh.

Ukraine pioneered these conversions with another very similar converted jet-powered Soviet-era reconnaissance drone, the larger Tu-141 to attack Russian airfields. The Tu-141 has a reported range of more than 650 miles.

That Ukraine was converting these drones into strike weapons was first discovered when a Tu-141 crashed in Croatia in March in 2022. It was a bizarre and still-unexplained incident that we reported. The Tu-141 in Croatia reportedly carried an explosive warhead.

The strike on the DF-3 was part of an increasing campaign to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities, the IDF said on Telegram Monday.

“Shortly, the IDF will engage in extensive, precise strikes, against terror targets which have been embedded widely throughout Lebanon,” Hagari said. “We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety.”

Lebanese officials claim more than 350 were killed and more than 1,240 were wounded in these attacks.

Israel has been heavily bombarding Lebanon for days ahead of what some analysts have suggested might be a limited invasion designed to create a buffer zone, allowing thousands of residents of northern Israel to move back to their homes.

There is growing concern that what began as a surprise Hamas attack on Israel Oc. 7, 2023 could spin into a larger, regional conflict. Hezbollah began its latest campaign of missile, rocket, and drone attacks on Israel the following day and the two sides have been trading volleys on an almost daily basis since.

Adding to recent tensions, last week Israel apparently orchestrated two days of coordinated explosions targeting thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Hezbollah leaders have vowed revenge.

Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, threatened Israel with “tough retribution and just punishment” and that this would happen “where it expects it and where it does not.”

As a result of the increasing violence, The U.S. is sending more troops to the region in response, the Pentagon said Monday.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, provided no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do, The Associated Press reported. The U.S. currently has about 40,000 troops in the region, according to the wire service.

“In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region,” Ryder said. “But for operational security reasons, I’m not going to comment on or provide specifics.”

“On Monday, the aircraft carrier USS Truman, two destroyers, and a cruiser set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, headed to the Mediterranean on a regularly scheduled deployment, opening the possibility that the U.S. could keep both the Truman and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is in the Gulf of Oman, nearby in case further violence breaks out,” the AP explained.

The extent of Hezbollah’s converted jet drone arsenal remains unknown as does whether it has used these weapons. Unlike in Ukraine, no wreckage has yet been found. If anything else, this is another sign that some of the improvised long-range strike practices from Ukraine and proliferating elsewhere. If these Tu-143s came from Syria, for instance, it would make sense for Hezbollah to want to attempt to adapt them just as Ukraine did.