Commercial Drones (UAVs) and Terrorism
December 14, 2014, Robert J. Bunker
Non-Resident Fellow, Counter-Terrorism
Terrorists and insurgents, specifically radical Islamists but not just limited to such groups, have been considering the merits of taking commercial and gray-area (modified and with military components) drones and placing explosives on them for attack purposes since the early-to-mid 2000s. Other uses, such as for surveillance and as weapons platforms, have also been considered. About twenty terrorist and insurgent drone related incidents—procurement of components, seizure in raids, attempted use, and actual use—have now either taken place or been reported (but not fully confirmed).
Unmanned aerial vehicles in the possession of these groups, which now includes Al Qaeda (and affinity adherents), the Taliban, Islamic State, Hamas, and Hezbollah, have been documented in a growing list of media articles and think tank reports [8]. Al Qaeda affinity linked drone plots in the United States include the April 2007 Christopher Paul (Colombus, Ohio) [9] and September 2011 Rezwan Feradus (Ashland, Massachusetts) incidents [10]. The latter incident is of note because the IED drones to be used—F-86 Sabre and F-4 Phantom scale model jets—also had GPS and high speed (+150 miles per hour) attributes giving them significant precision targeting and kinetic kill capabilities 11].
Such drone incidents have not subsided with three taking place in the last six months. A homemade Hamas drone, armed with what appears to be small rockets, was shot down in Ashdod, Israel in July 2014 [12], an Islamic State drone (a quadcopter) appears to have provided imagery of a Syrian army base prior to a ground assault in August 2014 [13], and Hezbollah released a video of what is said to be a drone attack on al-Nusra Front (Al Qaeda linked) personnel near Arsal, North East Lebanon [14].
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