Just days after the U.S. military confirmed the existence of an Islamic State (ISIS) drone factory in Iraq, the coalition targeted four more “unmanned aerial vehicle [UAV] construction facilities.” The first drone factory was located near Mosul, while the more recent targets were closer to Tal Afar, less than fifty miles to the west of Mosul. All five facilities were being used by ISIS to convert commercially available “off-the-shelf” drones, mainly “quadcopters,” to use for both surveillance and dropping explosives on Iraqi military forces and their allies.
CENTCOM (U.S. Central Command) told THE WEEKLY STANDARD that there is no evidence that ISIS is building drones from scratch or that ISIS is exporting its drones outside of combat areas in Iraq or Syria. However, CENTCOM also told TWS that its target selection was in part designed to “limit the use, production or possible exportation of drones.” [emphasis added]
A CENTCOM spokesperson added, “We spend considerable time researching and developing target lists to ensure maximum effects against ISIL capabilities and continuously seek legitimate targets and strike once facilities like these are discovered.”
While the large majority of the drones are used for surveillance, CENTCOM acknowledged that some ISIS attacks using weaponized drones have been effective. CENTCOM deferred to the Iraqis for details of those attacks.
The U.S. military first publicly confirmed the existence of weaponized drones and facilities to outfit them to TWS last week.
