The Pentagon Has Gone All Out To Eliminate The Threat Of Drones From Groups Like The Islamic State

American Special Operations forces inspect a drone used by Islamic State militants to drop explosives on Iraqi forces in Mosul in January. Credit Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

New York Times: Pentagon Tests Lasers and Nets to Combat a Vexing Foe: ISIS Drones

WASHINGTON — At the vast, windswept White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico earlier this year, nearly a dozen military contractors armed with laser guns, high-tech nets and other experimental systems met to tackle one of the Pentagon’s most vexing counterterrorism conundrums: how to destroy the Islamic State’s increasingly lethal fleet of drones.

The militant group has used surveillance drones on the battlefield for more than two years. But an increase in deadly attacks since last fall — mostly targeting Iraqi troops and Syrian militia members with small bombs or grenades, but also threatening American advisers — has highlighted the terrorists’ success in adapting off-the-shelf, low-cost technology into an effective new weapon.

The Pentagon is so alarmed by this growing threat — even as it routs the Islamic State from its strongholds in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria — that it has launched a $700 million crash program overseen by two senior Army generals to draw on the collective know-how and resources of all branches of the armed services, Silicon Valley and defense industry giants like Boeing and Raytheon to devise tactics and technology to thwart the menace.

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WNU Editor: The drone threat is becoming global. And while the Pentagon is now spending $700 million to counter the threat .... this budget is going to explode in the coming years.