During combat operations in Colombia between government forces and local groups, 500 drone strikes have already occurred over 2 years of fighting. At the same time, use of strike drones with fiber-optic cable control has begun, the scale of which may expand. Spanish publication Infodefensa writes about this.
The video report from France24 mentioned above may be illustrative to a certain extent. Proceeding further from the mentioned Infodefensa publication, the overall picture looks as follows. During fighting between Colombian government forces (FFMM) and local groups (specifically ELN), 500 episodes with UAV strikes have already occurred, during which at least 915 dropped munitions were employed.
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These attacks wounded 436 Colombian security personnel, killing 28 police officers, 24 soldiers, and one Marine. It is indicated that attacks using UAVs in Colombia occur on average every 1.5 days. From which it also follows that the figure of 500 drone attacks represents approximately 2 years of combat operations.
Regarding fiber-optic drones during fighting in Colombia, the picture is as follows. ELN group conducted a UAV attack on Colombian army base in San Jorge on February 11, 2026. Directly during the attack itself, Colombian military could not identify these unmanned systems, countered them with available electronic warfare systems as classical radio-controlled FPV drones and suffered failure in this.
Confidential investigation conducted after this episode established that in that episode, fiber-optic drones were used against Colombian forces for the first time. Local expert assessments indicate that over the next four months, Colombian groups will be able to substantially increase their capabilities for employing UAVs with fiber-optic cable control.
In one of its publications, Defense Express wrote about Colombia revealing high readiness levels of its 155mm howitzers after information about operational failures. This publication specifically illustrates the intensity with which artillery is employed during fighting in Colombia — approximately 400 rounds per howitzer in the period of 2025 through early 2026.
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