REAL LIFE NEWS: ANTI-DRONE SQUAD UNLEASHES THE BIRDS OF PREY
by Hazed
Police in the Netherlands are contemplating setting up a special squadron to deal with the menace of drones. The members of this elite group will not be humans – they will be eagles.
Training the eagles to go after drones would use their natural abilities to seize prey while in flight. Spokesman Marc Wiebes explained: “The bird sees the drone as prey and takes it to a safe place, a place where there are no other birds or people.”
There’s a video of an eagle taking down a quadcopter at the first link below.
This may or may not ever come to fruition, but the Dutch police are not the only ones considering avian drone-busters. London’s Metropolitan Police has been watching the trials in the Netherlands and likes the idea.
The Met are concerned about the use of drones in crimes. They are being used more and more to smuggle phones and drugs into prisons, and their use near airports has caused four near-misses recently. There has also been speculation they could be used in terrorist plots.
However, animal experts are not convinced this is a good idea. A spokesperson from the International Centre of Birds of Prey in Gloucestershire said it was a “gimmick”.
“Eagles are big, powerful birds; they should not be flown in built-up areas. And secondly in terms of the safety of the bird, you’re asking it to grab hold of a drone, which often have four rotating blades keeping it in the air,” she said.
Maybe what’s needed is not birds of prey, but drones of prey – use bigger drones to take down the smaller ones! Then maybe make it a spectator sport and watch as the robots wage war on each other…
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/01/anti_drone_eagle_squadron/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35519470
