Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Pentagon is Focusing On Terror Groups Who Are Weaponizing Consumer Drones

Picture of a drone. Photo: DPA.

Bloomberg: The Pentagon Takes Aim at Bomb-Carrying Consumer Drones

Terrorist groups are turning a popular hobby item into a deadly strategic challenge.

They’re cheap, they’re light, and they can carry a small bomb: The commercial drone is essentially a new terror gadget for organizations such as Hezbollah, Islamic State, or anyone else looking to wreak havoc on a budget.

“That’s the same quad copter you can get on Groupon or go down to Sam’s Club and buy for $400,” U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller said last week at a Washington forum on future warfare. The elusive nature of small drones is one reason the federal government has designated the District of Columbia a “national defense airspace” and prohibited drone flights there. A recent spate of drone-related incidents, including one last year in which a drone crashed on the White House lawn, probably didn’t help, either.

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WNU Editor: The genie is already out of the bottle.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Being at permanent war/conflict with different groups has of course also the advantage that you need to constantly come up with new solutions, which pushes innovation.. sad as it is, warfare and conflicts are a source of innovation in IT, engineering, medicine, heck you name it.