Dutch Government Starts Program to Hunt Drones, with Birds

[Centurius]

 

A lot has been written about possible security risks posed by emerging technologies such as drones and many solutions have been proposed. The Dutch company Guard From Above has decided to go with a very low tech solution to this high tech problem. Using birds of prey specifically trained for the task they intend to provide a solution to possible hostile drones that provides minimal collateral damage.

The threat of drones being used in this way has been on the rise with a report of the Oxford Research Group a short while ago that indicates such organizations as ISIS have considered the idea. Events such as a drone with radioactive sand landing on the office of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the German Pirate Party intentionally dropping a drone in front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Dutch Police has ordered research into whether the birds can engage in these operations painlessly and if need be provide them with additional protection. It is intended to be used in cooperation with other measures rather than a standalone solution.

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Personally I really like this approach and if it can be done without causing significant harm to the birds I welcome it very much. 

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To the mods, my apologies for not including parts of the article. As it is Dutch it seemed to not be the best plan so I've tried to translate the core of the article. I can however add snippets if you want.

Original Article: http://nos.nl/artikel/2084071-hoe-voorkom-je-aanslagen-met-drones-met-een-roofvogel.html
Company Website: http://guardfromabove.com/
Oxford Research Group Report: http://remotecontrolproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Hostile-use-of-drones-report_open-briefing.pdf

 

[Nup]

Holy cow that'd be BA. I'm not sure how the birds would do it without getting hurt, but it's like the aural version of laser sharks. Haha. Very interesting though. 

[Deli]

Can the bird handle bigger, more powerful drones as well?

[christianled59]

Just imagine flying your drone, recording beautiful landscapes as you unknowingly fly over private, government owned land and then a giant fucking eagle comes and beats the ever living shit out of your drone. I wouldn't even be mad. 

[Centurius]

1 minute ago, Deli said:

Can the bird handle bigger, more powerful drones as well.

They're still working on that at the moment I believe.

[Maslofski]

1 hour ago, Deli said:

Can the bird handle bigger, more powerful drones as well?

yes, they can take on any drone, it's called a bird strike

[Castdeath97]

But why not just fight fire with fire and use drones? What is the advantage of using birds of prey?

[christianled59]

31 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

But why not just fight fire with fire and use drones? What is the advantage of using birds of prey?

Intelligence and accuracy. If we can train them to hunt drones like prey, millions of years of evolution is light years better than any current form of drone AI we currently have.

[Flight1sim]

Honestly chasing drones with drones seems like a better idea.. those blades spin REALLY REALLY Fast, poor birds. 

[Centurius]

53 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

But why not just fight fire with fire and use drones? What is the advantage of using birds of prey?

Well they're going for multiple approaches, using other drones is one as well but apparently it's easier to train the birds to take the drone to a safe area where it can no longer hurt civilians. Basically security services will determine on a case by case basis which is better.

20 minutes ago, Flight1sim said:

Honestly chasing drones with drones seems like a better idea.. those blades spin REALLY REALLY Fast, poor birds. 

Agreed, the birds already have their own defences though and they're looking into getting some kind of armour to protect them.

[Flight1sim]

Just now, Centurius said:

Well they're going for multiple approaches, using other drones is one as well but apparently it's easier to train the birds to take the drone to a safe area where it can no longer hurt civilians. Basically security services will determine on a case by case basis which is better.

Agreed, the birds already have their own defences though and they're looking into getting some kind of armour to protect them.

But again, it's an animal. Birds were used for jobs centuries ago. It's the 21st century, why use an animal when a drone would be a lot cheaper and effective. 

[captain cactus]

I'm curious to see how they'll protect the birds against the spinny blades of doom (read: propellers).

 

Also, only us Dutchies can think of this, can we. Well it's a lot better that shooting it out of the sky ('Murica, that's for you).

[captain cactus]

21 minutes ago, josap said:

In some cases it can be more effective to use animals for this kind of tasks since they will blend into the landscape better. This means that a drone can be intercepted without the drone operator realising it is being intercepted until it has already been intercepted.

Oh look, that's a pretty bird, let me take an arial photo of that.

 

Oh look, that pretty bird went for my drone because it was tasked to do so. Damnit.

[Yog]

I've always loved falconry...pretty cool that they can do this. However, with the spinning blades and such I'd be concerned for the bird's health. Hopefully they can do this without harm.

Gotta love the low-tech approach for a high-tech problem.

[captain cactus]

24 minutes ago, Yog said:

I've always loved falconry...pretty cool that they can do this. However, with the spinning blades and such I'd be concerned for the bird's health. Hopefully they can do this without harm.

Gotta love the low-tech approach for a high-tech problem.

To partially translate the 2nd video: the bird's feet are already pretty hard by nature, their feet have armored scales that can block rabbit teeth and snake fangs so any damage done by the drone is minor, but they're looking into more ways to protect the bird from the drone, including the feet.

[SansVarnic]

Watch a police eagle take down a drone.

By: FOXNews

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/02/01/watch-police-eagle-take-down-drone.html

Well if you live in Holland and want to illegally fly a drone, the government may have a pet eagle to take it ou of the sky.

 

Quote

Police in Holland are touting a unique anti-drone weapon – a specially trained eagle.

The Dutch National Police have trained an eagle to take down Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as revealed in a video posted to YouTube Sunday.

Without quoting most of the article, basically the Hollanders are training eagles as intercept and attack birds against drones.

What do you think?

Honestly I am not for this myself though as intriguing as it may be.

Edited February 2, 2016 by SansVarnic
Forgot my opinion.

[stconquest]

I see talon-less eagles as they attempt to take down more robust quad copters

[Heizu]

Seems like it would painful for the eagle if he faces a more heavy duty drone...

[theninja35]

Quite smart. Not "out there" like drone-catching drones are, so that's a plus. Doesn't go against the country's own laws, so that's a plus. Fast and definitely efficient, so that's a plus.

Honestly, the only negative I see is that it may hurt the eagle, as the two have mentioned above. But maybe they'll introduce Iron Claws, small iron gloves on the feet in the color red and yellow with awesome blue lasers on them.

Or we can use sharks with freakin' laser beams.

[Bensemus]

This doesn't really seem like a good idea. There are already intercept drones being worked on. This puts the bird in danger and it seems to incapacitate the bird as well. It looks like the bird has a strip of cloth attached to each ankle which help catch the drone but make it impossible for the bird to land properly until someone untangles the bird and drone. 

[GoodBytes]

Merged. Already posted.

[SansVarnic]

5 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Merged. Already posted.

Hmm search did not show anything, but oh well. Thanks

[SansVarnic]

23 minutes ago, Bensemus said:

This doesn't really seem like a good idea. There are already intercept drones being worked on. This puts the bird in danger and it seems to incapacitate the bird as well. It looks like the bird has a strip of cloth attached to each ankle which help catch the drone but make it impossible for the bird to land properly until someone untangles the bird and drone. 

The strips are for the handlers to maintain a hold of the bird so it wont fly off. FYI

[Trik'Stari]

+10 to the badassery stat for The Dutch

[obsidian1200]

I can't express how much I love this idea, though I'm reminded of that scene in the Nolan Batman films where they're talking about escalation. Coming soon for your drones, anti-eagle tasers!