The Army has released video showing soldiers training to shoot down enemy drones amid the growing use of exploding aerial vehicles by the Islamic State.
In the video, soldiers with 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment capture an “enemy” drone during the Army Warfighter Assessment 17-1 exercise at Fort Bliss, New Mexico, on Sunday. At one point, a soldier aims a DroneDefender, manufactured by Battelle, at a small drone in order to bring it down.
Battelle’s website said the DroneDefender, which looks like a double-barreled rifle, disrupts the enemy’s use of remote-control or GPS to disable a drone without firing a shot.
On Wednesday, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, asking her for a briefing on the service’s quest to quickly field technology that can disable exploding enemy drones, which have appeared in the fight against the Islamic State.
“The recent use of an explosive unmanned aerial system by the Islamic State — resulting in several coalition deaths and injuries — reveals a new threat from America’s adversaries with access to inexpensive and commercially available unmanned aircraft,” Hunter wrote in the letter. “While this incident occurred amid operations in Iraq, I am no less concerned about the use of this method by the Islamic State, and other actors, to launch domestic attacks on soft targets.”
The military on Oct. 12 said it was rushing technology to the field to fight “flying IEDs,” which have killed troops from other countries.
“We’ve seen the enemy use a variety of drones, and improvised drones, and modified drones. Some of those are quadcopters, and that sort of thing. We’ve seen them use items that you can just buy,” Col. John Dorrian said. “There’s nothing very high tech about them. They can just buy those as anybody else would. Some of those available are on Amazon.”
