海角大神

When she was聽embedded with Iraqi聽soldiers聽in Mosul last聽fall, researcher Vera Mironova says the Islamic State regularly buzzed her unit with聽camera-equipped drones to record information on troop聽movements.

In one instance, two drones hovered above聽the patrol,聽causing聽nearly 100聽soldiers聽to open fire, says聽Ms. Mironova.聽Only one聽of the drones fell to the ground in the barrage.

鈥淭here is no other way to take them down,鈥� says Mironova, an international security fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School鈥檚 Belfer Center who聽traveled to Mosul to conduct field research.

Over the past 90 days, US officials say they have spotted 92 enemy drones, most of which are off-the-shelf models outfitted with cameras or explosives. Drones聽have聽killed聽and injured聽local and western forces,聽though it's unclear how many. In October, drones killed two聽Kurdish fighters and injured聽two French commandos.

The arrival of consumer-grade聽drones on the Iraqi battlefield makes the聽fight against the Islamic State the first major conflict in which all sides rely on聽unmanned aircraft.聽Going forward,聽the US military聽may never face another military聽adversary聽without its own聽fleet of drones and聽autonomous聽weapons.聽

Now, American and local forces are scrambling to come up with new ways of fighting back against drones, testing weapons and technologies on the battlefield to thwart the growing聽aerial menace.

鈥淭his commercial, off-the-shelf drone capability that they have is much less damaging, much less effective [than other ISIS tactics like car bombs] but it is also something that鈥檚 more difficult to do something about,鈥� says US Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for聽the聽US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq.

Though聽a聽handful of defense companies are developing antidrone weapons,聽none of聽their innovations聽have seen widespread adoption. Most operate as jammers, disrupting the signal between the drone and its operator. One of these drone guns, the DroneDefender appeared in a photo that was reportedly taken on a US base in Iraq.聽Neither the military nor the manufacturer, Battelle, can comment on the specific types of drone countermeasures currently used in Iraq.

Designed to look and feel like a rifle, the DroneDefender fires an electronic signal that can force a drone to return to its owner, hover in place or land. In a little more than a year, Battelle has sold more than 100 of the devices to the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and a foreign military organization.聽

鈥淭hese are kind of early days and we鈥檙e seeing what drones can do and how they鈥檒l be used,鈥� says Katy Delaney, a spokesperson for Battelle.聽The Ohio-based company聽does not disclose the cost of the DroneDefender due to business sensitivity issues but says it is considered "affordable" in the "competitive landscape."

Although products like the DroneDefender may be new to the market, nonstate actors have been using unmanned aircraft for聽more than聽a decade. As early as 2004, Hezbollah sent an Iranian-made unmanned aircraft into Israeli airspace. During the 2006 Lebanon War, the聽militant聽group flew a drone rigged with explosives into an Israeli warship.

Since then,聽low-cost consumer drones聽have become nearly ubiquitous. In the US,聽the Federal Aviation Administration had registered more than 325,000 drones compared to 320,000 piloted aircraft聽by early last year. Now there are more than 670,000 registered drones and the FAA estimates that there could be as many as 7 million by 2020.聽

鈥淭he threat that runs through all of this is lower barriers to entry,鈥� says Peter Singer, a聽senior fellow and聽strategist at聽New America, a Washington-based think tank, and聽author of "Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century."

鈥淲e can reasonably project ten years out that robotic systems are going to be even more widely available but also simpler, easier to use and more autonomous," he says.

On the home front, these drones may prove just as much a threat as they do on the battlefield,聽delivering聽drugs and contraband to inmates. In one such instance in London, a quadcopter brought a sack of drugs and cellphones directly to the window of a prison cell.

A team of Canadian and Israeli researchers聽 this fall about how they聽used a drone to remotely hack and control smart light bulbs, demonstrating how unmanned aerial vehicles could wreak havoc on the internet-connected electronics. And almost two years ago, a Connecticut teenager built a quadcopter capable of firing a mounted handgun.聽

鈥淭hree years ago you had to convince [perspective clients] that it was going to be a threat. It was more theoretical,鈥� says Josh Desmond, vice president of business development at DroneShield. His company makes unmanned aircraft detectors and聽an antidrone gun.

鈥淣ow it鈥檚 more that people want to talk to us. There鈥檚 no convincing them that it鈥檚 going to be a threat. It already is,鈥� he says.聽

Detectors are legal in the US but makers of antidrone weapons are prohibited from selling their equipment to anyone other than the federal government. That's聽because the jammers may also block telephones and radios, a violation of Federal Communications Commission regulations.

Some laws affecting drone countermeasures date back almost a century, says Jonathan Rupprecht, an聽attorney聽focused on drone law. He聽says聽the Federal Communications Act of 1934聽prohibits anyone from manufacturing or even marketing an unlicensed jammer in the US.

鈥淲e may need to start adapting quickly and maybe have some specific provisions 鈥� that say you can operate said drone countermeasure,鈥� he says.聽

For those worried that America now faces a new threat, security analysts say that automated technologies are most likely concerning because they鈥檙e new.聽

鈥淣ew technologies come along and they give new options to terrorists and criminals,鈥澛燦ew America's Mr. Singer聽says. 鈥淔or a regular American, if you鈥檙e worried about someone shooting up your kid鈥檚 school, unfortunately we don鈥檛 have to wait for a world of robots to know that鈥檚 a real danger.鈥�