As drones get cheaper and more powerful, even off-the-shelf consumer drones are being turned into weapons. Headlines about ISIS using them to drop bombs in Iraq are sending shockwaves through the drone industry.
But the danger isn’t just in war zones. Open-air stadiums with tens of thousands of sports fans here at home make perfect targets for terrorists.
Jaz Banga is the co-founder and CEO of Airspace Systems and worries such an attack could come any day.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) JAZ BANGA, CEO AIRSPACE SYSTEMS, SAYING:
“These drones started carrying, from going from grams of payload to pounds of payload … while they were great for photography, the ability from the carry payloads and the speed that they were getting to and the longevity in the air, the duration in the air was making them into poor man’s cruise missiles.”
Banga is recruiting big names in Silicon Valley, including Guy Bar-Nahum, one of the inventors of Apple’s iPod. And it’s not just airspace systems: At least 70 companies are now working on counter-drone technology.
One major challenge: you can’t just shoot a drone out of the sky. The debris could injure those below. Even worse: what if the target drone carries a biological or chemical weapon?
Airspace’s solution: Fire a net to snare the target and bring it back to the ground.
Airspace ystems hopes to start deploying its drone hunter as soon as this summer. Some big stadium owners, including the New York Mets, as well as a government-run defense technology incubator are already interested in the technology.
(REUTERS)
