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Homeland Security bulletin warns of weaponized drones and threat to aviation
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an updated terror bulletin on Thursday highlighting the threat of weaponized drones, chemical attacks and the continued targeting of commercial aircraft.
"We continue to face one of the most challenging threat environments since 9/11, as foreign terrorist organizations exploit the internet to inspire, enable or direct individuals already here in the homeland to commit terrorist acts," reads the bulletin.
[...] "The current bulletin introduces unmanned aircraft systems as potential threats and highlights sustained concern regarding threats against commercial aviation and air cargo," said DHS acting press secretary Tyler Houlton in a statement.
There's been an "uptick in terrorist interest" in using unmanned aerial systems as weapons in the United States and other western countries, according to a senior DHS official. These tactics have been used by terrorists on the battlefield, and the department wants to "guard against those tactics being exported to the west," said the official. The official said that DHS wants to be "forward leaning" about seeing what terrorists are doing overseas and tactics they might adopt in the future.
Since the last bulletin, concerns about terrorist targeting aviation sector have grown, said the official. "[T]errorists continue to target commercial aviation and air cargo, including with concealed explosives," reads the updated bulletin.
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday November 15 2017, @10:12PM (1 child)
DJI drones have the payload of a pack of cigarettes.
You've never actually held any live munition in your life have you,
"forward leaning" sounds like a phrase you might have come up with.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by ElizabethGreene on Friday November 17 2017, @11:28PM
The DJI Phantom 4 has a short range payload capacity of 500 grams, 600 grams if you don't mind the motors getting very very hot. This is sufficient payload for an M67 grenade and a second battery for range.
They aren't dropping those though, this source identifies them as pg-7 heads, but they all aren't like this.
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/01/drones-isis/134542/ [defenseone.com]
For some, it looks like they are using stripped grenade launcher cartridges.
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5db_1498777854 [liveleak.com]
I've counted at least four different munition types on the aircraft. Their highlight reel shows three, the sticks, the pg-7s, and the yellow-tipped round ones.
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a96_1499525712 [liveleak.com]
In another video they bomb a barge carrying vehicles across a river. That one used a stick-and ball munition of unknown origin. (video has been taken down.) I think they were experimenting to find something easily manufactured with a more predictable flight path than the grenade with plastic bag streamer.