Cheap Drones May Change the Face of Security

Cheap Drones May Change the Face of Security
A new GoPro Karma foldable drone is seen flying during a press event in Olympic Valley, California on September 19, 2016. / AFP / JOSH EDELSON Photo credit should read JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images
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In early October, the terrorist group ISIS killed two Kurdish fighters in the explosion, which was a first for the group. The Taliban was soon to follow up with a propaganda video, filmed with a drone, of a car bomb destroying an Afghan police base in Helmand.

These incidents, and others, have shown a unique shift in the nature of modern war. In today’s battlefields, consumer products are providing low-tech adversaries with high-tech tools for combat.

The shift is that off-the-shelf products “can be readily weaponized against national forces,” according to Dr. Robert J. Bunker, adjunct research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.

In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the outgunned insurgent forces often turned to remote-detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as their main weapons.

According to USA Today in 2013, these devices were the cause of between half and two-thirds of American combat deaths and injuries.

“We are starting to go down the path of having IEDs no longer sitting around as static threats,” Bunker said. “Instead, they are slowly evolving into autonomous weapons that will actually seek out and try to kill troops.

“That is going to become a significant game changer on the battlefield.”

For troops on the ground, this also means that new countermeasures that can knock commercial drones out of the sky could soon become a basic necessity.

A screenshot from a Taliban video shows the terror group using a drone to record a suicide bombing of a police station in late October, in Helmand, Afghanistan. (Screenshot via Taliban propaganda video)
A screenshot from a Taliban video shows the terror group using a drone to record a suicide bombing of a police station in late October, in Helmand, Afghanistan. Screenshot via Taliban propaganda video
Joshua Philipp
Joshua Philipp
Author
Joshua Philipp is senior investigative reporter and host of “Crossroads” at The Epoch Times. As an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker, his works include "The Real Story of January 6" (2022), "The Final War: The 100 Year Plot to Defeat America" (2022), and "Tracking Down the Origin of Wuhan Coronavirus" (2020).
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