ISIS is now using consumer drones in warfare, say Iraqi Security Forces. The group has discovered numerous attacks by the radical group delivered via off-the-shelf drone quadcopters.
When we hear the term “drone warfare” for many of us it brings to mind the Obama administration’s controversial use of sophisticated drones in Somalia, Libya and Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013. But few hobbyists flying commercial drones around the backyard with their kids would imagine their techy toys being used and weapons of warfare. This, however, is exactly the kind of experimental warfare Iraqi troops have seen ISIS start to use as security forces have attempted to drive the radical insurgent group out of Northern Iraq.
According to a report by Engadget, ISIS’ latest warfare tactics have included the use of commercial quadcopters you can buy off the shelf of any gadget retailer. ISIS is equipping these drones with grenade-sized explosives and using them as bombers and single-mission vehicles. The makeshift drone fighters have proven effective; they’ve been used to kill civilians and damage military equipment reported Kurdish media network, Rudaw. While ISIS has yet to use the drones for chemical warfare, as the terrorist group hones their strategies that could come into play as well.
While the Iraqi Security Forces have also utilized commercial drones in their military operations, thus far, they haven’t used them for actual combat; rather for tasks like scouting or calling artillery strikes.
The guerrilla nature of ISIS’ commercialized drone attacks may have lead to some successful missions by the terrorist organization; however, Iraqi Security Forces have acquired various anti-drone weapons like gun jammers to combat these kinds of attacks.
These commercial drone bombers, however, aren’t ISIS’ first foray in drone warfare. In November, Popular Science reported that field investigators from the Conflict Armament Research group, discovered a number of drone-making workshops in Ramadi that were run by ISIS.
Though rudimentary in appearance, these scratch-made ISIS drones managed to kill several Kurdish fighters as well as injure two French Commander in October 2016.
While the idea of using commercial drones to drop bombs sounds alarming, Popular Science notes that drones have far more valuable uses than completing small, targeted attacks. Since small drones have a limited amount of weight they can carry, their explosives are limited as well. However, using the drone to direct, for instance, a vehicle loaded with explosives toward a location where it can do the most harm, is a far more troubling way these drones can be leveraged by the radical insurgent group.
