Over the past four decades, suicide attacks has become the weapon of choice for terrorist organizations from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to the Islamist fundamentalists of Islamic State (IS). However, with the advent of consumer drone use by terrorists groups in the Middle East – which has risen significantly in the past year, particularly on the part of IS militants – that may now be on the brink of changing.

Now that experimentation is taking a different form. On October 2, 2016, IS militants flew a small, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) affixed with an IED on an attack mission, killing two Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and wounding two French paratroopers (Haaretz, October 13, 2016).

The incident may have been the first successful terrorist UAV-IED attack, but militant groups have been exploring the potential of drones for years. As early as 2001, al-Qaeda deliberated over using a remotely operated aerial explosive device against G8 Summit leaders in Genoa, Italy. The group also planned to attack the British House of Commons with an anthrax-filled drone, with an additional plot to attack commercial aircraft using remote-controlled planes with explosives attached to them (Center for Arms Control, 2005).

tuco wrote:Inevitable?

laklak wrote:

Father O Rielly wrote:
You don't know who those hard noses are who have taken up residence in the crowded allyways of town, but you do know that you don't like them, and further, those that have asked too many questions have come to grief. You are more concerned about scratching out a living for your six kids and wife in a brutal economy. You come home one day and find your shack is a burning ruin, kids dead. Collateral damage, the US is saying. How complicit are you?

I seriously doubt that they have no idea who the hard asses are.

laklak wrote:

Father O Rielly wrote:
You don't know who those hard noses are who have taken up residence in the crowded allyways of town, but you do know that you don't like them, and further, those that have asked too many questions have come to grief. You are more concerned about scratching out a living for your six kids and wife in a brutal economy. You come home one day and find your shack is a burning ruin, kids dead. Collateral damage, the US is saying. How complicit are you?

I seriously doubt that they have no idea who the hard asses are. Like I doubt the locals had no idea who was living in that decrepit mansion in Abbottabad. Or for that matter that the Pakistani authorities didn't know. From what I've seen, these hard asses don't exactly hide their presence, they're out there digging pits to stone women to death in, burning schools, flogging and hanging people. If a bunch of white supremacist militiamen took up residence in my neighborhood I'd certainly know about it. That said, I'm sure there are people who don't know, or don't support them and are too terrified of reprisals to speak out. I'm sorry for that, but it doesn't change my decision to use the drones rather than attempt a capture. Sometimes life sucks.

It isn't as easy as it looks to fly a SEAL team into hostile territory, evading small arms or even more sophisticated air defenses, land in an urban area controlled by hostile armed forces, fight through a rabbit warren of streets, find the person they're looking for, extract him without harm, get back to the copters (which have to be defended by more troops during this whole process), and then get out safely. I think it's one HELL of a lot harder than it looks and that's why it isn't done more often, but I'd have to defer to Weaver on that one.

Drones certainly aren't foolproof, but they're a hell of a lot more accurate than carpet bombing.

Last winter, on the outskirts of a large U.S. city, an FBI hostage rescue team set up an elevated observation post to assess an unfolding situation. Soon they heard the buzz of small drones — and then the tiny aircraft were all around them, swooping past in a series of “high-speed low passes at the agents in the observation post to flush them,” the head of the agency’s operational technology law unit told attendees of the AUVSI Xponential conference here. Result: “We were then blind,” said Joe Mazel, meaning the group lost situational awareness of the target. “It definitely presented some challenges.”

[. . .]

Mazel said counter surveillance of law enforcement agents is the fastest-growing way that organized criminals are using drones.

Some criminal organizations have begun to use drones as part of witness intimidation schemes: they continuously surveil police departments and precincts in order to see “who is going in and out of the facility and who might be co-operating with police,” he said.

Drones are also playing a greater role in robberies and the like. Beyond the well-documented incidence of house break-ins, criminal crews are using them to observe bigger target facilities, spot security gaps, and determine patterns of life: where the security guards go and when.

[Continues . . .]

Google's drone delivery company is testing a quieter delivery drone after its original model annoyed people and their dogs

Nick Bastone , Business Insider US
Jan 07, 2019

In late December, the Wall Street Journal reported on complaints from residents of Bonython, the Australian township where Wing, the drone delivery company spun out of Google, had set up shop.

Wing is testing using drones to deliver everyday staples like groceries, hardware, and over-the-counter medicines. Townspeople compared the sounds of Wing's delivery drones as a "chain saw gone ballistic," causing some to spend less time outside, even as it caused the town's canine population a considerable amount of anxiety.

On Friday, a Wing spokesperson confirmed with Business Insider that it has begun testing a quieter drone that "blends in" with nearby sounds.
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