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from the catch-and-release-into-custody dept.
The Dutch police have partnered with Guard From Above, a raptor training company based in The Hague, to determine whether eagles could be used as intelligent, adaptive anti-drone weapon systems. The eagles are specially trained to identify and capture drones, although from the way most birds of prey react to drones, my guess is that not a lot of training was necessary. After snatching the drone out of the sky, the eagles instinctively find a safe area away from people to land and try [to] take a couple confused bites out of their mechanical prey before their handlers can reward them with something a little less plastic-y. The advantage here is that with the eagles, you don't have to worry about the drone taking off out of control or falling on people, since the birds are very good at mid-air intercepts as well as bringing the drone to the ground without endangering anyone.
Video (in Dutch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HifO-ebmE1s
(Score: 3, Interesting) by arslan on Wednesday February 03 2016, @09:49PM
The article mentioned they did consider potential injury to the raptors and eluded to "protections" for them..... armored raptors!!!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday February 03 2016, @10:40PM
Next on SyFy: Sharknado XII: Revenge of the Fallen Silver Raptors.