Peacekeepers and the drones

Sir — Criticism of the decision by the Irish Defence Forces to buy sophisticated electronic and intelligence gathering equipment from Israel is not just “facetious nonsense” as described by former soldier Declan Power. (Sunday Independent, April 30).

From a military perspective, an important use for these drones will be monitoring both sides across ceasefire lines or border areas in UN peacekeeping missions in areas such as Lebanon and the Syrian Golan Heights, where Israeli forces are involved in frequent violations of sovereign territories. In such situations, it is vital that the forces being observed do not have access to the design and electronic components of such drone equipment.

Given that almost 500 Irish soldiers are serving in Lebanon and the Golan Heights, it is most unwise to purchase such equipment from Israel, when similar equipment is available from other sources.

Price alone should not be the deciding factor when the lives of Irish peacekeepers may be at stake. The Israeli price might have reflected the advantages that Israeli intelligence services might get from such a sale. These drones do not in my view provide the “greatest possible force protection” to Irish troops. Irish soldiers have been killed and injured in the past by military actions by Israeli forces and its militia allies. It is likely that the Israeli forces would be able to disable or counter these drones if they were used to spy on Israeli forces.

Declan Power’s statements that “the people who make those kinds of statements demonstrate their lack of knowledge about such matters. They are hugely politicised and know nothing about operational reality” are at best inappropriate and inaccurate. His question, “are we supposed to down tools because some group of political extremists and malcontents have an issue with that?”, is particularly inappropriate.

Edward Horgan, Commandant (retired), Castletroy,

Limerick