Last year, an FBI hostage rescue team in the US was attempting to find an elevated position to scan a situation. Once up there, the agents heard a buzzing noise they couldn¡¯t place. Soon after, they were attacked by a fleet of drones.
The swarm of tiny drones surrounded them making continuous ¡°high-speed low passes at the agents in the observation post to flush them,¡± the agency¡¯s operational technology law unit chief Joe Mazel said at a defense conference in Denver this week. In effect, the drones were able to distract the agents, eliminating their situational awareness and prevent them from doing their jobs.
¡°We were then blind,¡± Mazel said, according to Defense One¡¯s account of the session. ¡°It definitely presented some challenges.¡±
Drones are pretty common these days, and not just entertainment. Professionals use them on the regular for film production and photography, structural inspections on bridges and buildings, and even for search rescue missions. However, they¡¯re also increasingly being used by criminals to carry out robberies, smuggling operations and analysing weaknesses in security forces.
The FBI didn¡¯t elaborate where or when the incident occured, due to security reasons, but Mazel did mention the drones were carried to the area in advance. The criminals had meticulously planned their taking of hostages, and knew the FBI or other response teams would attempt to set up observation and sniper positions nearby. The drones were their response. In fact, aside from annoying the agents, the drones were also broadcasting their footage live to YouTube. ¡°They had people fly their own drones up and put the footage to YouTube so that the guys who had cellular access could go to the YouTube site and pull down the video,¡± Mazel added.