Originally Posted by
tartare
Naive question - in terms of engaging using air power, how difficult would it be for an IAF fast jet to engage a Hamas powered paraglider in an area where there are lots of manpads?
Assume an F-35 or F-16 would easily be able to get a lock on the paragilder to engage from higher altitude I would imagine, but a missile engagement would be very wasteful in terms of $$$.
The problem with these para gliders is not shooting them down. Problem in this case was time in the air. To cover those 5- 10km they did fly takes them less time than to start up a jet engine and get a fighter in the air. And that is assuming that AD Radar was detecting them in time. So in this case and geography a purely hypothetical question.
A distributed drone force placed close to the border fence might be a better option to engage these kind of threats in future. If I were in Israels shoes I would ask our Ukrainian Friends for advice...