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All the Reasons Your Toy Drone Is a Threat to British Security

A new policy report suggests all the ways drones could be used—and misused.
Image: concept w/Shutterstock

A UK  report on drones out today takes a long hard look at all the ways drones could be used for security—and how they could be used to threaten it. From terrorists and smugglers to burglars and poachers, it presents a future where drones are every bad guy's surprisingly versatile weapon of choice.

"The Security Impact of Drones: Challenges and Opportunities for the UK" was published by the Birmingham Policy Commission and chaired by Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ. The document outlines all manner of issues facing drone usage by and within the UK, which has recently come under the spotlight in ongoing discussions over regulation.

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This week, the UK announced it would deploy drones over Syria to gather intelligence on IS terrorists, and military use of drones for counter-terrorism is covered in-depth in this new report as a potential opportunity for the technology. But it also highlights how UAVs could be turned against the country. And terrorists are just the start of it.

Under the "potential misuses of UK airspace," the report suggests that RPA (or "remotely piloted aircraft," another term for UAVs) "present a potentially new and useful tool to those of criminal, including terrorist, intent."

ARMED WITH RUDIMENTARY EXPLOSIVES OR FIREARMS, THEY COULD ALSO BE USED TO DELAY PURSUERS OR AS THE INSTRUMENTS OF ATTACK, MURDER, AND ASSASSINATION

Commercial drones, it suggests, could be used by gangs to monitor the movement of police, security guards, or anti-smuggling patrols so as to better plot their criminal mischief. Burglars, train robbers, and poachers could use them as lookouts. And drones won't necessarily be just eyes in the sky—they could get in on the action too.

Larger models might be used to carry smuggled goods; something we've already seen in  Mexican cartels reportedly flying drugs across the border. Alternatively, they could be weaponized. "Armed with rudimentary explosives or firearms, they could also be used to delay pursuers or as the instruments of attack, murder, and assassination," the report states.

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Aside from these more violent offences, the report also forecasts drones as the "weapon of choice" for paparazzi trying to sneak pictures of privacy-seeking celebs.

And all that's before we even get started on the opportunities for terrorists.

In their hands, drones could, the authors muse, fly IEDs through the air to a target, or disperse a biological or chemical agent while its pilot remains safely distanced from contamination.

Lest you think this too fanciful, or perhaps suspiciously close to the plot of a recent 24 season, the authors note that, "While such a scenario has so far not posed a real danger to UK citizens… it is a threat that the UK authorities took seriously during the 2012 Olympics."

Things perhaps get a little more farfetched at the suggestion that even a recreational drone without a payload could be feared as a weapon. Researcher David Dunn is quoted as suggesting that UAVs could be swarmed against a target.

"By virtue of either their kinetic energy alone or their ability to function as mechanical bird strikes, drones pose a significant threat to commercial airliners," he says.

And even the good guys' drones aren't safe—because, after all,  they could be hacked.

But of course, drones in general present a lot of opportunity, too—just as criminals might try to use them for reconnaissance or monitoring purposes, so could police or security workers.

And while the report distances the use of drones by the British military from that of the US military—in his introduction, Omand pointedly notes that drones are "a technology that some nations might want to extend in directions incompatible with international law"—it does concur that UAVs could be of great benefit to protecting national security interests.

In any case, the authors realistically conclude, chances of a complete international ban on either drones or drone warfare are "next to zero." The technology's here; we've just got to figure out how to use it. And, hopefully, how to stop others misusing it.