By akademiotoelektronik, 02/03/2023

Jihadists, paramilitaries ... The disturbing use of drones by criminal groups

It is a constantly increasing phenomenon that worries staffs and security services.The jihadists, criminal and paramilitary groups seize the drone as a lethal weapon, like the attempted assassination against the Iraqi Prime Minister.Moustafa al-Kazimi came out unscathed Sunday from an attack on trapped drones, as before him, Venezuelan socialist president Nicolas Maduro, victim in 2018 of a failed attack attributed to the opposition.

"This confirms what we already knew: short -range attacks are more and more viable, not very difficult to finance or organize technically, and potentially quite precise," sums up Michael O’Hanlon, researcher at Brookings Institution Institution.In recent years, all the armies of the world have wondered about the use of drones in their arsenal.But also on the risk of seeing this weapon proliferate within non-state groups, especially since drones are almost over the counter.

Jean-Marc Rickli, director of global and emerging risks at the Center for Security Policy in Geneva (GCSP), underlines in this regard "the growing importance of double-use technologies, that is to say commercial technologies usable tomilitary ends ".The expert finds an increasingly wide use of this remote controllary tool from the targeted, criminal or terrorist attack, until the attack in good and due form with swarms of drones.A sky suddenly saturated with small skilled, fast and the flight is coordinated.

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As in the operation launched by the Houthi rebels in Yemen against oil installations in Saudi Arabia, in 2019, after defeating Saudi Air Defense systems."We find on the drone market made for this type of mission," notes Jean-Marc Rickli, evoking small Chinese drones capable of flying in swarm or Russian Kalashnikovs, equipped with wings, "a flying ak47, sold as a weaponanti-drone but usable for offensive purposes ".

In the Iraqi case, "three drones" were launched, according to security sources.Two were killed but the third was able to explode his charge.Iran has condemned the attack, but the Islamic Republic is among the suspects, as many analysts, especially since it has notoriously among the regional powers that have developed the sector.

A threat that grows

"Drone's attack seems to confirm recent trends demonstrating Iran's desire to carry out armed action against regional adversaries," said Soufan Center on Monday morning, an American private and strategic analysis institute.Ultimately, in the Middle East as everywhere else, drones will undoubtedly penetrate and move the daily life of war, asymmetrical conflicts and international terrorism.

The Iraqi example "underlines the potential use (of drones) in targeted assassinations", analyzes Jeremy Binnie, defense specialist in the Middle East for the specialized British publication Janes."The threat increases, while the components become more and more effective, allowing companies to increase the payload that the device can wear", for the greatest interest of insurrections and other jihadist groups, notes the researcher.

Opposite, the defense is organized but remains lagging behind, concentrated in particular on the jamming of control waves, images or frequencies of the GPS used by civil drones.

Strong disruptive potential

Schematically, a drone is guided by three channels: radiofrequency, telecom network (4G, 5G), or preprogrammed GPS coordinates, recently summed up a security source on the sidelines of milipol, the states' internal safety fair, near Paris.More and more personalities protection services are equipped with scrambling systems of these channels."It is as if we were crying stronger than the operator of the drone, who finds himself paralyzed", the time to shelter the target, she explained.

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The years to come should see the problem is increasing with a very high disruptive potential because each type of drone must respond to an adequate adequate tactical formula.As for traditional kinetic systems - missiles, anti -arsenals - they are "considered inappropriate for defense (anti -drone) in inhabited areas", recalls Jérémy Binnie.