Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Drone assassins are cheap, deadly

and available in your local store
You don't need the military to pull off an attack of the
drones. They're capable of incredible destruction and
now available to everyone.
by Jennifer Bisset
September 14, 2018 5:00 AM PDT

Aug. 5, 2018. In the heart of Venezuela's capital, Caracas, Nicolás

Maduro was delivering of a rousing speech. He stood high on a
podium, speaking to a parade of military troops. The event was
broadcast live on national TV. An hour in, the Venezuelan president
flinched. His eyes widened. An unexpected object flew by.

It was a drone, carrying explosives along the city's historic Bolívar

Avenue. Allegedly, this was an assassination attempt using a
remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle -- the kind of drone you
can buy from any electronics store -- fitted with explosives.
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Jai Galliott, a nonresident fellow of the Modern War Institute calls
the event in Caracas a "modern form of assassination."

Advancements in consumer drone technology mean commercial

drones are more stable in the air. They have better communications
systems. They can lift heavier loads. At less than $800 online,
they're within the means of average people who want to record
themselves on an adventure trail, or capture their kid's football
game. 

Drones are also capable of incredible destruction and, crucially,

anyone can get their hands on one. Is it possible to stop bad actors
from using drones in terrorist attacks? Answers are difficult to come
by.

Off the shelf, into trouble

In 2015, an off-duty employee, reportedly for a US government
intelligence agency, showed how easy it was to infiltrate a highly
secure building. He borrowed a friend's 2-by-2-foot DJI Phantom
drone, and accidentally flew it onto the White House lawn. Officials
didn't catch it. The White House's radar was calibrated for bigger
threats like planes and missiles.

In 2016, Kurdish forces shot down a small drone in northern Iraq, an

unidentified "off the shelf" drone that exploded and killed two
fighters when pulled apart for examination.

This January, a swarm of homemade drones fitted with explosives

was thwarted by military countermeasures before it could descend
on a Russian air base in Syria.

Drones come in many varieties. Most military drones closely

resemble planes. The MQ-9, used by the US Air Force, has a
wingspan of 66 feet (20 meters). Store-bought drones can fit in the
palm of your hand. All have varying degrees of autonomy. Some
military drones can fly autonomously, but can't use their weapons to
target and kill without a human in the loop. Yet.

"The history of military technology is one of fighting war more and

more remotely," says Toby Walsh, an AI professor at the Australian
Academy of Science. "This would be the ultimate step, where there
wouldn't be any human in there."
An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) gets  prepared for a training mission at
Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, on Nov. 17, 2015.
Isaac Brekken/Getty Images

The Drone Hunter

In Caracas, after first noticing the drone in midair, Maduro continued
his speech. Two minutes later, an explosion thundered overhead.
Reports put it at less than a football field away. Bodyguards rushed
to surround the president. Fourteen seconds passed, and then a
second explosion reverberated two blocks away. The attack injured
seven soldiers.

According to Venezuelan authorities, the explosions were caused

by two DJI Matrice 600 drones, fitted with 13 pounds (almost 6
kilograms) of C4 plastic explosives -- the type used by military and
law enforcement. Maduro's political opponents have been blamed
for the attack.

With drone attacks like the one in Caracas and others splashed
across the media, people are becoming increasingly aware of the
many ways commercial drones can be used.

"Bad guys are turning their minds over that as well," Galliott says.
"That's just the risk that comes with any new technology."

Commercial drones are a challenge for security personnel, who

must take into account not only stopping the drones, but tracking
their origin point.

Now playing: The best drones available today

The main countermeasure used by law enforcement is signal

jamming. There are two methods. The first involves jamming the
radio frequency used to control the system, typically frequencies of
2.4GHz or 5.8GHz. The second involves jamming the GPS signal
drones use to find their way back to operators.

But there are downsides. Jamming the frequencies potentially

blocks out all other devices using the same frequencies. Jamming
the GPS costs law enforcement the ability to track a drone back to
the perpetrator. Worse still, with loss of signal, most modern drones
are programmed to automatically land -- not ideal when they've got
a bomb attached to them.

Another option: Shoot the thing down. But if there are explosives
on board, that's a potential risk to civilians on the ground.

But what if the threat could also be the solution?

Utah airspace security company Forten Technologies has made a
drone to take out other drones. The "Drone Hunter" autonomously
tracks enemy drones, shoots out a net at 80 mph and drags the
drone to a secure location.

Ultimately, the measures taken against a drone are dependent on

the context and on what a law enforcement agency wants to
achieve.

"It's a complicated area," Galliott says.

Events like the one in Caracas aren't confined to political events, he

notes. The beach, open-air shopping malls, airports, football games,
all are potential target areas the FBI and local and state police
departments should be aware of.

An MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), carrying a Hellfire missile Jan. 7,
2016.
John Moore/Getty Images

Meet the Predator

The first reported drone assassination attempt came 17 years ago. It
involved the US Air Force's Predator drones, not a commercial
drone.

It was 2001, less than a month after 9/11. The War on Terror was
unfolding in Afghanistan, the US campaigning to rid the country of
al-Qaeda. Mullah Omar, supreme commander of the Taliban, was
tracked to a building in the southern city of Kandahar. Despite being
an untested quantity, despite the blurry rules of using it, the Air
Force tasked the Predator with destroying the building and those
inside.

It didn't go well. Instead of the building, the propeller-driven spy

plane, armed with Hellfire missiles, targeted a vehicle outside,
killing several bodyguards. In the ensuing chaos, the Taliban leader
escaped.

"If you take the current technology, which is semiautonomous

weapons like Predator drones, and remove the human, then you
should be very worried," Walsh says.

An international debate among artificial intelligence experts is

raging over whether lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) should be
prohibited. This July, 2,400 scientists and artificial intelligence
specialists, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Walsh, signed a
pledge calling on governments to create pre-emptive laws against
LAWs.

But Galliott believes the Caracas attack proves the civilian use of
less advanced drones is a far more pressing concern.

"That's the point that escapes people with the emphasis on these
military systems," Galliott says. "They are high-level systems a
civilian could not repurpose without a whole team of people.
Whereas these off-the-shelf things, they're available here and now."

Consumer drones are becoming more advanced by the day. DJI,

which makes drones mainly for aerial photography, increases the
battery life and range of its drones every time it releases a new
model. The company's entry-level Phantom 3 quadcopter flies for
25 minutes at a range of a half-mile (1 kilometer). The next step up,
the Phantom 4, runs for 28 minutes up to 3 miles.

The DJI Phantom 4.

Dave Cheng/CNET

A representative from DJI says that the company is aware of its

drones being used in the Caracas attack, but that the
"overwhelming majority of drone pilots fly safely and responsibly."

"DJI makes drones entirely for peaceful purposes and deplores any
misuse of a technology that has brought great benefits throughout
the world," says Adam Lisberg, head DJI spokesman for North
America.

Some safety measures have been put in place.

In the US, drones already have a legal restriction on how high they
can fly -- 400 feet. So the solution could come down to "limiting the
range of the systems," Galliott says.

He says governments will inevitably need to look at what can be

done to control the impact of drones. In Venezuela, authorities have
issued arrest warrants for 27 people in the aftermath of the alleged
assassination attempt, including military figures and opposition
politicians.

The kicker: Anyone could learn to build a similar device. "People

are being trained on how to develop these things in high school,
university," Galliott says.
Online forums, like MavicPilots.com, are filled with discussions
among "amateur" drone builders. "Many actually give guidance on
how to remove protections directly programmed into commercial
off-the-shelf products," Galliott says, like height or range limits that
are artificially imposed.

He warns that it's not beyond the capacity of determined people to

build their own systems.   

Anyone could turn a drone into a deadly weapon, he adds. 

"And that's much more difficult to stop."

27

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 Tesla

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