Drone radio frequency jamming will be variously fitted with reconnaissance cameras

August 2016 demonstrates that Hezbollah has integrated mini-drones into their arsenal and are using them to drop munitions on rebels in northern Syria (AMN, August 9, 2016). This signal jammer effort aimed to build on Hezbollah’s successful September 2014 drone attack, which killed an estimated 23 “Syrian rebels” (Remote Control Project, January 2016: 11). In another incident in October 2016, two Kurdish soldiers were killed and two French injured by an IS drone that exploded after attacking troops in northern Iraq (al-Jazeera, October 12, 2016).

Interestingly, some of these U.S. counter-drone tactics are notably reminiscent of al-Qaeda’s reaction to U.S. drone strikes as reflected in both recovered al-Qaeda internal documents and observed behavior. For example, four of al-Qaeda’s “22 Tips of Dodging Drone Attacks” read as follows:

Placing a group of skilled snipers to hunt the drone;
High power jammers of and confusing of electronic communication;
Using general confusion methods and not to use permanent headquarters;
Discovering the presence of a drone through well-placed reconnaissance networks and to warn all the formations to halt any movement in the area.

According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), commercial airline pilots have reported over a 100 close call situations or drones in visible proximity of the aircrafts at the airports. Sales of Drone have been estimated to cross the 140,000 mark in 2016, an increase of 50% over its sales in 2015. However, this would increase the chances of collisions with the commercial flights because in April 2016 British Airways Flight 727 reported to the Metropolitan Police that he believed a drone had struck his aircraft. In order to cope with these security threats, monitoring drones (MDrs) deployment is required for surveillance, hunting, and wifi jammers device of the amateur drone (ADr).

If there are three cellphone jammers in the group, the first one is used for reconnaissance from a height of 1-1.5 km, the second one for electronic warfare, and the third one is a transponder that transmits intelligence information to the control center (it flies at a height of 4.5-5 km or higher). More often, the group consists of two devices for reconnaissance and uplink. It is likely that if two UAVs are engaged, the one used for reconnaissance additionally carries equipment for electronic jamming,” the ATO HQ said.