That is truly terrifying. I'm in the drone hobby and it's extremely unregulated. You can easily change DJI drone settings to fly way above and farther than legal limits. DJI should not allow this.
I think the scarier drones are the home made ones, as it's impossible to regulate them, they can go super fast and be super precise, but the skill cap for piloting them, let alone making them, is very high. If we do end up with a lot of Ukrainian vets, I expected to see more custom made drone attacks, particularly in assassination attempts, as that's what I think they'd be best at given the technical limitations.
Very interesting Daniel. Yes, I think this in an interesting angle about how much the drone companies are responsible for this and need to put in more restrictions. It seems the smaller drones don't pose much threat but these bigger ones can be extremely dangerous and the worrying thing is they could get much worse. What do you mean by home made ones? Like they make the entire drone from scratch? Isn't that really hard. Best there.
(And good to have another Verdin here, after working with Javier Verdin on this story!)
By home made, I mean the FPV suicide drones. All of those are FPV and many of those are home-made, but they're easily acquired as well. You'd need to know how much lift they can generate so you can calculate payload size though, and have a capable pilot, they are significantly more difficult to pilot in comparison to consumer grade drones.
That is a distinctly troubling event. Colombia trains & fields some of the best light infantry around. The last thing the world needs is cartel sicarios w/ more & better TTP’s.
Indeed, and Colombian mercenaries have been in high profile hits from Haiti to Ecuador recently. Great to hear your voice here and all best there Marine E-7
Thanks for this interesting post. It figures the cartels would pick up on this technology. Yes, one can find ready employment as a drone operator in these conflict zones. There is a problem though. I was reading that the Russians figured out pretty quickly that while eliminating the drones and blocking their signals was effective, killing the operators themselves worked too. They started hunting for where the drones came from and killed the operators. Great post.
Thanks much Daniel. Yeah, Fernando pointed out how the drone operators are vulnerable to snipers. It's frightening how these wars are developing in parallel from Russia-Ukraine to Israel-Gaza to this lesser understood hybrid conflict here. I wonder how the U.S. would respond if someone drone bombed on U.S. soil? I imagine a very hard response.
Drones, or the word salad definition, UAV's(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), as a weapon have been developed by Israel for over 20 years and thoroughly tested on Palestinians and other targets of their choosing all the way even to Sudan. Israel is the world's leader in drone exports, and has been for many years, amounting to almost $2 billion a year as part of a $13 billion weapons export business. Governments around the world and criminal organizations have been the customers for these weaponized UAV's. Training has also been offered along with the product. Reports of Israeli personnel have been reported in the worst criminal and government war hotspots around the world over the years. In 2023, Israel's Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, said "The remarkable data unveiled by the Israeli defense establishment, reaching new heights in defense exports, showcases the State of Israel’s strength and excellent technological capabilities. Through the creativity and innovation of both the Israeli defense establishment and the Ministry of Defense, we not only outpace our adversaries but also sustain our qualitative edge.” Israel is the Godfather of the weaponization of drones.
Russia has been extremely successful in countering the UAV threat from the Ukraine UAV's supplied and directed by NATO. Russia has built mobile anti-UAV defense systems that block the UAV's navigation and transmission capabilities with an electrical magnetic pulse. The drone crashes after the disruption of communication. Russia has been able to track the locations of the launching of UAV's by Ukraine/NATO probably by drone and satellite surveillance and destroying the NATO intelligence and operations bunkers in the Ukraine. The Russian "Rat" armored mobile anti-drone vehicle maybe the type that the Mexican government would have to use against cartel drone attacks. The vehicle has directional microwave suppression and lasers for destruction of drones. Mobility is the key.
The United States first narco-drone seizure was in Calexico, California with the drone carrying 28 pound of heroin on four different occasions. In the following 5 years there were 170 different official instances of "Air Drug Express", certainly just the tip of the iceberg that was flown across the border. The Border Patrol has purchased in recent years 6 Citadel Titan anti-drone systems and the United States has demonstrated and used the handheld Skywall drone defense system and this would probably be the first drone defense system that the Mexican government would purchase.
Now for the real horror show brought to you by your tax dollars at work in the United States. DARPA which is the Defense Advanced Research Projects has develop an aerosolized delivery system of a bio-weapon contained in a drone. That's right the "Air Drug Express" of Ebola dropped on your house and front door. DARPA has for years been the horror house of research and check out darpa.mil for the banal description of what they are actually involved in. They have been a project that Dr. Joseph Mengele would have been proud of.
Wow, that is fascinating new info there. Yeah, right now the Mexican army needs to get drone defenses and also use them. And this is the problem with this tech and a benefit to the people making it - you provide a problem and a solution. Terrifying prospect about the drone bio weapon.
I have the perfect antidote to the darkness and violence of this crazy world. I just played it tonight. Sing the chorus out loud and it will always make you smile and forget. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTznxeSgGTk
Ha ha. Love it. They play a bit of rock n roll at parties here in Mexico so I get to dance a few of these numbers. And I'm a music fanatic as well - I'll try and bring some more in the mix here. Cheers.
Procol Harum- saw them in concert in the sixties which shows how old I am. There was big debate on whether the singer was black and when the sing first came out there were no pictures of the band. Now here is a song that was revolutionary when it came out in 1966- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUii9c4GGRs
I predict after this Ukraine thing is over, a lot of Ukrainian drone engineers will be looking for work in Mexico.
That is truly terrifying. I'm in the drone hobby and it's extremely unregulated. You can easily change DJI drone settings to fly way above and farther than legal limits. DJI should not allow this.
I think the scarier drones are the home made ones, as it's impossible to regulate them, they can go super fast and be super precise, but the skill cap for piloting them, let alone making them, is very high. If we do end up with a lot of Ukrainian vets, I expected to see more custom made drone attacks, particularly in assassination attempts, as that's what I think they'd be best at given the technical limitations.
Very interesting Daniel. Yes, I think this in an interesting angle about how much the drone companies are responsible for this and need to put in more restrictions. It seems the smaller drones don't pose much threat but these bigger ones can be extremely dangerous and the worrying thing is they could get much worse. What do you mean by home made ones? Like they make the entire drone from scratch? Isn't that really hard. Best there.
(And good to have another Verdin here, after working with Javier Verdin on this story!)
By home made, I mean the FPV suicide drones. All of those are FPV and many of those are home-made, but they're easily acquired as well. You'd need to know how much lift they can generate so you can calculate payload size though, and have a capable pilot, they are significantly more difficult to pilot in comparison to consumer grade drones.
Thanks for the (worrying) info.
Be afraid! http://www.hisutton.com/Trends-In-Ukraines-Attack-Drones.html
Ouch. I am!
That is incredibly cool! And scary!
That is the worry. There are already reported Colombian mercenaries in Michoacan. These things could get bigger and more lethal. Best there TomC.
That is a distinctly troubling event. Colombia trains & fields some of the best light infantry around. The last thing the world needs is cartel sicarios w/ more & better TTP’s.
Indeed, and Colombian mercenaries have been in high profile hits from Haiti to Ecuador recently. Great to hear your voice here and all best there Marine E-7
Congratulations! You found your career path!
Thanks for this interesting post. It figures the cartels would pick up on this technology. Yes, one can find ready employment as a drone operator in these conflict zones. There is a problem though. I was reading that the Russians figured out pretty quickly that while eliminating the drones and blocking their signals was effective, killing the operators themselves worked too. They started hunting for where the drones came from and killed the operators. Great post.
Thanks much Daniel. Yeah, Fernando pointed out how the drone operators are vulnerable to snipers. It's frightening how these wars are developing in parallel from Russia-Ukraine to Israel-Gaza to this lesser understood hybrid conflict here. I wonder how the U.S. would respond if someone drone bombed on U.S. soil? I imagine a very hard response.
Drones, or the word salad definition, UAV's(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), as a weapon have been developed by Israel for over 20 years and thoroughly tested on Palestinians and other targets of their choosing all the way even to Sudan. Israel is the world's leader in drone exports, and has been for many years, amounting to almost $2 billion a year as part of a $13 billion weapons export business. Governments around the world and criminal organizations have been the customers for these weaponized UAV's. Training has also been offered along with the product. Reports of Israeli personnel have been reported in the worst criminal and government war hotspots around the world over the years. In 2023, Israel's Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, said "The remarkable data unveiled by the Israeli defense establishment, reaching new heights in defense exports, showcases the State of Israel’s strength and excellent technological capabilities. Through the creativity and innovation of both the Israeli defense establishment and the Ministry of Defense, we not only outpace our adversaries but also sustain our qualitative edge.” Israel is the Godfather of the weaponization of drones.
Russia has been extremely successful in countering the UAV threat from the Ukraine UAV's supplied and directed by NATO. Russia has built mobile anti-UAV defense systems that block the UAV's navigation and transmission capabilities with an electrical magnetic pulse. The drone crashes after the disruption of communication. Russia has been able to track the locations of the launching of UAV's by Ukraine/NATO probably by drone and satellite surveillance and destroying the NATO intelligence and operations bunkers in the Ukraine. The Russian "Rat" armored mobile anti-drone vehicle maybe the type that the Mexican government would have to use against cartel drone attacks. The vehicle has directional microwave suppression and lasers for destruction of drones. Mobility is the key.
The United States first narco-drone seizure was in Calexico, California with the drone carrying 28 pound of heroin on four different occasions. In the following 5 years there were 170 different official instances of "Air Drug Express", certainly just the tip of the iceberg that was flown across the border. The Border Patrol has purchased in recent years 6 Citadel Titan anti-drone systems and the United States has demonstrated and used the handheld Skywall drone defense system and this would probably be the first drone defense system that the Mexican government would purchase.
Now for the real horror show brought to you by your tax dollars at work in the United States. DARPA which is the Defense Advanced Research Projects has develop an aerosolized delivery system of a bio-weapon contained in a drone. That's right the "Air Drug Express" of Ebola dropped on your house and front door. DARPA has for years been the horror house of research and check out darpa.mil for the banal description of what they are actually involved in. They have been a project that Dr. Joseph Mengele would have been proud of.
Wow, that is fascinating new info there. Yeah, right now the Mexican army needs to get drone defenses and also use them. And this is the problem with this tech and a benefit to the people making it - you provide a problem and a solution. Terrifying prospect about the drone bio weapon.
I have the perfect antidote to the darkness and violence of this crazy world. I just played it tonight. Sing the chorus out loud and it will always make you smile and forget. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTznxeSgGTk
Ha ha. Love it. They play a bit of rock n roll at parties here in Mexico so I get to dance a few of these numbers. And I'm a music fanatic as well - I'll try and bring some more in the mix here. Cheers.
Well it is almost summer so here it is- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAM1k9vEVqg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as1NcX31szs
Man, that original is a classic. I hadn't heard the cover but that looks some nuts sixties stuff. Talking of which - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0vCwGUZe1I
Procol Harum- saw them in concert in the sixties which shows how old I am. There was big debate on whether the singer was black and when the sing first came out there were no pictures of the band. Now here is a song that was revolutionary when it came out in 1966- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUii9c4GGRs