ISIS Using Kamikaze Drones in Iraq
The Pentagon has confirmed at least three attacks by the Islamic State (ISIS) using drones as explosives in kamikaze-style tactics.
The tactic was suspected as early as 2015, when a Facebook page for "Friends of the YPG YPJ," a Kurdish defense force fighting ISIS in the Syrian Civil War, posted a picture of destroyed drones with the title "YPG Shoots Down 2 ISIS Drones." ISIS has now used the tactic against the Iraqi Army.
Without the massive budget for constructing drones available to the American military, ISIS relies on commercial drones like the popular DJI Phantom for its attacks. With 28 minutes of flying time and the capability to hit speeds up to 44 mph, the most advanced Phantom could be easily turned into a quick-use remote-controlled bomb. Popular Mechanics has reached out to DJI for comment.
Only one of the drone attacks has caused casualties, but others have shown capable of landing at a checkpoint and destroying buildings. Other attacks not involving drones directly have been able to act with extreme precision, suggesting drones are also being used by ISIS in their more traditional form of espionage.
While US-Iraqi coalition forces have destroyed whatever capabilities ISIS had in these particular instances, drones-as-bombs is a tactic with rising popularity worldwide. Nations have taken to the tactic with greater sophistication than ISIS, with South Korea building a kamikaze drone capable of tracking North Korean missiles through mountain ranges. Israel's Harop drone is "essentially an unmanned missile plane," and has been sold to India, Azerbaijan and Germany. The United States has its own version of kamikaze drone, and its a matter of debate if Iran has also begun using the tactic.
Which all leads to the question of how this has caught the American military by surprise. "We should have been ready for this," said P. W. Singer, a specialist on robotic weaponry, to the New York Times, "and we weren't."
Source: The New York Times
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