Gun sales surged in the last year, touching record heights amid a backdrop of an ongoing pandemic as well as political social unrest. Fact of the matter is that, people bought up to 23 million guns over the span of the year; reveal a figure published by the consulting firm Small Arms Analytics.
According to CNN that number represents a 65% increase in sales in comparison to 2019. Simply put, people know how and where to buy a gun. However, if you don’t have a use of your firearms any longer, how do you safely and legally destroy those unwanted firearms? That answer isn’t all the time clear.
What does it really mean? I imagine that is what most people think of when they think of AI. Now lets talk about the things we don’t think of or couldn’t possibly imagine. Wasn’t…
Cheap off-the-shelf drones are changing how so-called Islamic State and other groups are fighting - and the world’s militaries are racing to catch up
The ancient Legions relied on the bravest Centurions to lead an army to battle. And by that example, they set the benchmark to their warrior abilities and bravery.
For the ISIL jihadist, the dumbest and most moronic are sent out on suicide missions while the bravest would sit back, and send consumer drones laden with explosives to meet the enemy.
So why are they so brave to operate a drone?
For one, jihadist have a small budget and for that they will strap on an IED to a drone that is the cheapest on the market. So if that isn’t suicide then I don’t know what is. Imagine flying one towards your enemy and suddenly the drone turn tail because of GPS failure and end up bombing yourself? After all, these are not Reeper drones you know....
They don’t use a DJI P4 or P3 with a camera with light bridge. They use knock offs from China usually classified as toy drones that sell for less than 300 bucks—hence the old saying ‘more bang for your buck’.
A drone like the Inspire 1 would be better, since they have a better payload but ISIL jihadist have none of the budget for it. They get their supplies from the Gulf States like Dubai where duty free shopping is a big attraction. But do they fly them for bombing missions? No. the money saved will be better used to recruit more idiots to join the fold.
ISIL jihadist as you know is a low tech guerilla outfit. They do not care much for tech and uses garage made weapons like that stolen Toyota Hilux kitted up to look like Mad Max’s brother-in-law who had a fit. The average jihadist has the intelligence of a mouse and since the war is conducted by Western military experts whose grubby paws tell them where to go and die, it becomes a sad conclusion on what a toy drone in the wrong hands can do.
Now, a cheap kill is what ISIL hopes to achieve. They could order a drone like the DJI and fly it with a weapon load capable of spectacular pyrotechnics which still isn’t enough to kill farm animals let alone scare PTSD suffering stray dogs from the streets of Raqqa or Aleppo.
Even the cheapest drones from Walkera cost in the ballpark of US$500 a pop. To outfit them with explosives and piloting it to send their enemies to meet Allah would be a handsome reward but that is like expecting lesbians to have babies without insemination.
First aerial photography drones don’t fly fast enough to outwit a swarm of bullets fired from a AK47. And a FPV quad laden with explosives don’t fly far enough to save yourself from an aerial bombing from the Russians.
This is how the Pentagon hopes the defense industry would come out with a solution that cost a billion dollars. With the F35 costing more than a third world debt, they hope the anti drone system will cost slightly less.
For the rest of us, the use of consumer drones can be deadly, if you strap a handgun or a flame thrower like that kid from Connecticut. But building one would mean Jihadist would have to go to College to learn how.
