[ad_1]
Introduction:
The potential use of drones in a terrorist incident or attack against a critical infrastructure and soft targets is a growing concern for law enforcement agencies worldwide as the availability of drone technology becomes more widespread globally. Days after three people including two Indians were killed in Abu Dhabi in a drone attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the UAE government has ordered to stop all flying operations of private drones and light sports aircraft in the Gulf country for a month. In the past few years there have been several cases of drones being used by terrorists for planned and attempted attacks in various parts of the world. India has also witnessed increased rogue drone activity along its Western border with Pakistan in the recent years with drones dropping weapons, ammunition and drugs.
How drones became a tool of terror?
- The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) in February 2021 published a report titled, The Role of Drones in Future Terrorist Attacks.
- Here, the AUSA said the Islamic State made the first successful use of drones for terrorism.
- “Occasionally the group would strap an explosive onto a small drone and try to land it near a military outpost, as it happened in October when a booby-trapped toy aircraft exploded as Kurdish fighters were examining it near the northern Iraqi city of Irbil.”
- Earlier in 2013, Al-Qaeda attempted a terror attack using multiple drones in Pakistan without success. From 2016 on, the Islamic State made drone attacks a regular feature in its operations in Iraq and Syria.
- The threat was so serious that in 2019, European Union Security Commissioner Julian King warned that European cities could be targeted by terror groups using drones.
- Besides the Islamic State, the Hezbollah — active in Palestine and Lebanon, the Houthi rebels, the Taliban and several terror outfits in Pakistan are known to employ drones for terrorism.
- The threat of drone attacks from the Pakistani side is very real.
- Sighting of drones near India-Pakistan border and the Line of Control (LoC) has been frequent. Some of them have carried weapons to the Indian side.
- In 2019, security personnel reported 167 sighting of drones from Pakistan, according to the official figures. In the pandemic hit 2020, there were 77 sightings.
- In September 2019, the Punjab Police had seized a drone-dropped arms consignment to bust a terror module, which was receiving supplies from Pakistan. The seizure included AK-47 rifles and China-made pistols.
- Another drone-dropped arms consignment was seized in Punjab’s Gurdaspur in June 2020. The same month, the Border Security Force (BSF) shot down a drone in the Hira Nagar sector of Jammu. The recoveries included the US-made M4 rifles.
- In January 2021, the Jammu and Kashmir Police caught two persons as they were picking up drone-dropped arms consignment.
Why preventing drone terror attack is difficult?
- The surveillance technology including radar systems that India has deployed at the borders or lines of control is meant for tracking bigger objects, helicopters, planes and missiles.
- Drones are smaller in size as small as 2 feet or only 60 cm than previously popular UAVs but can fly for several kilometres at a speed ranging from 125 kmph to over 950 kmph, according to the AUSA report.
- Preventing drone attacks requires jamming of drone systems and shooting them down.
- Laser-based Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) are being talked about as a defence system against drone attacks.
- In India, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed two anti-drone DEW systems.
- They can use powerful 10-kilowatt laser to engage aerial targets at a distance of 2 km. However, mass production of these systems is yet to take place.
How do you prevent a drone attack?
- It is very difficult to locate small drones and the ones operating them. One needs to deploy drone-detection technology and subsequent countermeasures to tackle this threat.
- Drone detection can be RF-based or via conventional radars tuned to detect drones or via electro-optic payloads that use thermal imaging.
- Once identified, you can launch a kinetic energy weapon against the drone or jam it or confuse it by jamming its GPS.
- Israel’s Iron Dome and other missile systems act within seconds. Detection and action against drones will happen at a very fast pace but it will take some time to gain that kind of capability.
- Critics are of the opinion that since the Centre has not allowed the use of drones for delivery of goods and food items, it will hinder its usage in the e-commerce and logistics industry.
- Also criticised the blanket restriction on the height limit of 400 feet. According to them, this would restrict the drones to amateur usage only and would hinder its use in mapping or surveying.
Security threats posed by drones:
- National Security Issues:Drones have demonstrated the potentials for their threat to the security of a country. Drones are operated remotely and can strike where it wants it to strike. Raising serious security issues.
- Terrorism:Drones have been used by various terrorist organisations like ISIS in Syria and Iraq to hit their targets.
- Conflict Zones: Drones are becoming security threats particularly in conflict zones where non-state actors are active and have easy access to the technology. For example: 2019 twin drone attacks on Aramco crude oil production in Saudi Arabia.
- Potential weapons of mass destruction: What makes combat drones in the hands of non-state actors most dangerous is the threat of them being used to deliver weapons of mass destruction.
- Aviation safety: Drones flying too close to commercial aircraft has called for regulations.
- Privacy:Drones have been used by the paparazzi to take the images of individuals breaching their privacy.
- Critical infrastructure: unregulated drones, UAVs and remotely-piloted aircraft system are a “potential threat” to vital installations, sensitive locations and specific events
- Cross border smuggling: Over the past two years, drones have been deployed regularly by Pakistan-based outfits to smuggle arms, ammunition and drugs into Indian territory. Drones fly low and therefore cannot be detected by any radar system.
Way forward:
- Security agencies should work on developing more modern anti-drone weapons like ‘sky fence’ and ‘drone gun’ to counter terror or similar sabotage bids by these aerial platforms.
- The Tokyo police have been using ‘flying nets’ attached to legal drones to capture and neutralise rogue UAVs. the Taiwanese police have been testing RF jammer guns to bring down rogue drones.
- The other anti-drone technology is through geofencing agreements with commercial drone manufacturers, a technique that will prevent UAVs from flying near critical infrastructure by pre-programmed codes put in by manufacturers.
- India needs to invest more in counter-drone research and technology and procure them in a planned manner to address the security concerns arising from rogue operations the unmanned aerial vehicles.
- There is a need to develop partnerships between counter-drone companies and public sector units (PSUs), government organisations like Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other private organisations.
- The Ministry of Civil Aviation could potentially look at making the existing regulations for unmanned aircraft systems more stringent.
- The answer to the emerging threat of rogue drones, though serious, is not over-regulation but smart regulation, creating a balance between the evolving drone sector and the emerging security concerns.
- This needs to be done with investing in cutting-edge technologies for countering drones and indigenous R&D, with the support of government grants besides private investments.
- ‘National Counter Rogue Drone Guidelines’ is a step in the right direction outlining ‘procedural means’ of prevention, deterrence and denial and ‘active means’ of detection, interruption and destruction. This must be coupled with ‘Counter Rogue Drone Deployment Plan’ based on vulnerability analysis
[ad_2]