Following increased terrorist use of drones, France is employing a similar tactic as the Dutch police in training eagles to snatch them from the sky.
VICE released an interview yesterday with Nick Waters from open source investigation house Bellingcat, in which the former military analyst spoke of a database containing 113 images of Islamic State drone attacks during the first 20 days of February. "We're only seeing the successful attacks: how many attacks missed, malfunctioned, [or] were shot down," he said. "This means there are many more drone missions we haven't seen."
The decreasing cost of consumer drones, increased capabilities, and their ability to carry attacks in previously difficult locations are making them increasingly attractive to terrorists and ever more concerning to security agencies.
Dutch police began training eagles to snatch rogue drones from the sky in January last year and seven months on they confirmed the efforts were a success. A video demonstrates a training scenario where a VIP is being escorted to a meeting and an enemy drone is seen in the distance. The VIP is led back to his car while the eagle takes out the drone.
After being hit with several horrific attacks in the country, and further arrests being made at concerning rates, France has been observing the Dutch trials and has decided to begin training its own fleet of eagles to protect against rogue drones in crowded areas.
The first brood of four eagles – named d’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis after characters from The Three Musketeers – have been trained using meat attached to drones and will soon cast off from peaks in the nearby Pyrenees Mountains. Earlier this month, d’Artagnan flew off a tower and covered 200 meters in 20 seconds to wreck a practice drone.
Another brood of eagles has been approved by the French government, according to Agence France-Presse. The military is designing high-tech accessories to assist the birds so, hopefully, something like a small EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) will reduce the danger posed to the eagles while protecting the public.
Do you think eagles should be used to counter drones? Let us know in the comments.
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