Across the globe, we’ve seen law enforcement officials develop answers to eliminating drones possibly used by terrorists. One of those options: eagles.
Back in 2016, the Netherlands first tested the viability of eagles in the anti-drone arms race. They wanted to see if eagles could safely take down quadcopters without enduring any physical harm. Now France is following suit, training eagles to intercept possible rogue drones operated by terrorists.
According to the French air force, drones constitute “a credible threat for a terrorist mode of action on our national territory just as they do for external operations.”
While current weapons to take down drones include “jammers” and other emerging technology, the air force sees eagles as the most effective and least expensive way to disable the devices.
French officials acquired eagle eggs last spring and started training them as soon as they were big enough. The eagles were taught that there’s food aboard the drones and are not only capable of attacking them, but also detecting the drones.
The eagle extraction is also cleaner than “jammers” or possibly shooting down the rogue drones and won’t cause crowds “any extra damage.” Besides all that, an eagle snatching a drone out of the sky just looks plain cool.
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