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ISIS Is Using Exploding Consumer Drones To Kill Enemy Fighters (theverge.com)
According to The New York Times, the Islamic State is using small consumer drones rigged with explosions to fight Kurdish forces in Iraq. As a result, American commanders in Iraq have issued a warning to forces fighting ISIS to treat any type of small flying aircraft as potential explosive devices. The Verge reports: The small, commercially available drone was shot down in Northern Iraq and taken back to an outpost, the Times writes. But during disassembly, the drone exploded, killing the two fighters. Le Monde reports that two members of French forces were also injured by the explosion. The technique used by ISIS in the attack may have been a simple one -- ultimately only combining two widely available pieces of tech -- but videos available online have purportedly shown other recent instances of drones used as explosives, suggesting the move may be one we see more of in the future.
It seems like it would be dead simple to include as payload some kind of plastic explosives into a drone, and quickly delivery it to an otherwise unreachable target.. if a drone is moving fast and erratically enough, how could you even shoot it down? And in a city, would you even be able to try shooting it down?
You have to figure the army already has some kind of anti-drone nets they don't want to talk about yet...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Next up is self driving cars full of explosives. One of the things that always fascinates me about these middle eastern terrorist organizations is that they are pretty smart about adapting to technology but, the society they want to create is not likely to ever produce any meaningful technology. It's like they've never thought about the endgame: "Ok, we've killed all the infidels. When will Allah bless my cellphone so it starts working again?"
...why this wasn't more widely used, specially by the US. It's the logical development from the "big drone bomb". A swarm of small drones with cameras and explosives locate the enemy, approach it, stick to it, and explode. You don't need a big charge for that, as you are sticking to the enemy. The enemy can blow up a couple of the drones, but you have tens in each operation. No civilian casualties, no risk to your own troops. You force the enemy to get out of sight where it cannot maneuver. You make thousands of the things and they go always ahead of the troops, to minimize risk. It seems such a no-brainer that the only thing I can think of, is that the developed armies are waiting to have good counter-measures for them before deploying it.
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Except that they don't have drone "swarms", they have isolated drones with very limited payload capacity. Daesh opens up battles with VBIEDs, where they can deliver tonnes of explosives into enemy troop formations, not a kilogram or two. Trucks are a lot more abundant in Syria than drones as well.
That said, I think it's easy to underestimate people because they're "jihadis". On the western side, JaF (islamist coalition, both anti-Assad and anti-Daesh) members not only use drones but have also been experimenting with remote controlled robotic gun platforms. For example, here's the Sham R3. Despite the consumer-hardware aspects (note the playstation controller to operate it), it seems surprisingly well made - multiaxis, very smooth action, good rotation rate but still accurate positioning, able to popup and retract for cover, etc. It's unlikely that things like that will somehow turn the war for them, but they are legitimate weapons development programs.
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