Dutch cops train anti-drone eagle squadron Dutch cops are mulling the idea of a drone-busting eagle squadron - one of a range of possible methods under consideration to wrest back control of the skies from UAV hordes. Trained eagles are apparently a deadly serious proposal, and police video released over the weekend shows talons can be effective weapons against a …
Meh. Better to use Dragon's Breath rounds. If the drone was within range, it had it coming.
Seems like a completely stupid idea if you ask me, those propellers could do serious injury to the birds. While eagles offer some serious advantages in terms of speed, manoeuvrability and targeting ability (eyesight) the risk posed by the drone would have to be significant to even consider deploying the eagles.
I think you may be underestimating the Eagles.
The feet are basically skin bone sinew and talon evolved into weapons, they are probably pretty tough if you think of the average Eagles use of them they need to withstand some punishment, and strong as well after all a Golden Eagle can pull a goat of a cliff.
Not sure how tough the blades are on a bigger drone, but I'd bet the Eagle would learn to adapt its strikes as well.
Or you could always fly a Harpy Eagle pretty sure that would sort out any commercial drone.
"In Kazakhstan they use golden eagles to hunt wolves."
Those same people are a small tribe of Kazakhs who have lived close to the land for generations. They treat the eagles as equals, allowing them to live in their homes and share their meals. They capture and train the eagles as chicks, and as part of the training they teach the eagles to hunt and survive in the wild. Then after 4-6 years they set the eagles free. These people live in a free symbiosis with the birds.
The last thing these people need is an army of suits flocking to their little world to mob them for eagle-training techniques that will be abused and misused because the suits will take only the method they want as a means to their own ends, not the philosophy and mutual respect the Kazakhs have developed that goes with it.
No - they are more used to dealing with civil servants in uniforms. Every part of the civil service in that part of the world has a uniform. Every time I have dealt with a bureaucrat in the place, there have been lots of people in uniforms hanging around.
Also eagle hunting in Kazakhstan is not confined to a small group - it is a widespread and popular sport in which many people across the country (and it is big country) participate. They have annual competitions in which they hunt foxes using eagles. It is truly spectacular, and the locals are justifiably proud of their birds.
As for releasing them - no. They are too valuable - each bird is worth many thousands of dollars, and they are kept for many years because they are too expensive to replace.
Small consumer UAVs are generally designed not to do much damage if things go wrong, so they have flexible plastic blades.
Larger ones for professional purposes such as TV production can have metal or composite blades so I think the eagles are going to want to be a bit more careful with those.
those propellers could do serious injury to the birds
It's a shame the commentary was only in Dutch because they addressed that. For a start, the propellors themselves are no match for the talons these birds have (in the video you can hear the satisfying "njack" of a propellor dying against those talons), and they are working on further protection of the "legs" (sorry, no idea what the bird term is).
You also have to keep in mind that prey can also put up a fight, so some natural armour is already present. As for deliberately "targeting" parts of the bird like eyes, do you really expect a remote controlled device with feedback latency (transmission + operator delay) to stand a chance against a natural predator who has the brains, sensors and a manoeuvrability developed by millennia of evolution? I admire your optimism, but my money would be on the bird.
Bloody tough things eagles, forget about being injured by drones, they don't flinch at taking on light aircraft!
Alan the co-owner of my old flying school (now sadly departed) was flying his Cessna 177 over the Northern Spanish mountains, when a massive wild eagle swooped down and attacked the wing of the aircraft, then flew on unharmed.
We'd might have been tempted to put it down to tall tails around the club's bar, but we saw the aircraft before it was repaired, and there was a dent and a series of 6 inch long scratches which looked very much like talon marks.
So an excellent idea for getting rid of drones, but lets just hope they aren't a bigger threat to the aircraft!
In another Reg article today is a report of a near miss between an Airbus 321 at 1500 feet and what was presumed to be a water rocket. It is astounding that the world record altitude for this type of device is 825 m.
Something on similar lines has the potential to be an ideal countermeasure against drones, when fitted with a lightweight control system (R Pi?) and ground-based guidance. On its return to Earth a two litre plastic bottle would do little damage to people or property.
How about altering one of those little Estes model rockets that I used to have so much fun with as a kid? You could have quite a lot of fun with one of those. I've even wondered about mounting some of the really tiny models (or just the engines themselves with fins and a nosecap glued on) to a large quadrotor for, er, just because I can.
Guidance systems would be tricky and will make it exponentially more expensive, so I think the best solution in this case is simply the application of more dakka. Maybe a dozen or so of these mini-rockets, dumbfired sequentially Katyusha-style.
What an effing waste of money. How is this supposed to work out? "Oh look, there is a suspicious looking drone heading towards the Binnenhof (Houses of Parliament), better call in the eagles!".
At the same time, while there are about 10.000 inmates in Dutch jails, about 15.000 convicts are not incarcerated, because they were allowed to wait for the outcome of their court case in freedom. After sentencing, they just don't show up. Finding them is not really a priority of Dutch police. Training eagles apparently is. Guess what would make me feel safer?
If you're really worried about the cost, maybe you can get the National Rifle Association to help. Turn them loose with the concept and you will probably end up with free chain-gun armed good American Bald Eagles that also come with little speakers that play a rock-and-roll soundtrack once the drones are engaged.
You might have to allow them to be known as the Netherlands Rifle Association in return, but hey, small price to pay...
The good news is that the Dutch government can use the end of the Lord of the Rings as kind of a proof of concept video.
Or pushing this to the illogical extreme (Hey, if you wanted thoughtful commentary, why are you reading the El Reg forums in the first place?) you could hire The Eagles to do a promotional concert for this service. Maybe something from their catalog can be the theme song? "One of These Nights" comes to mind. Any song with lyrics like "Coming right behind you, swear I'm gonna find you" and "Gonna get you baby, one of these nights" seems like a really good fit.
Glenn Frey would probably have approved.
I like and admire Corvids, but I suspect they're not suited due to attack style. Raptors attack with their mighty talons, so they can snatch a drone right out of the air. Crows (and gulls) use their beaks to attack. They would have to stab and batter the thing until it's damaged enough to fall. Sticking your head into a group of spinning blades is more dodgy than going in with toughened feet.
If you're going for alternatives I'd nominate pigeons. There are so many of them that you could just train them to dive straight in the propellors, or you could train them to fly in groups and do what they do best: shit. Even if it doesn't down the drone completely it'll be a VERY stubborn man who tries again after having to clean that off..
I fly model sailplanes and because they use the same lift phenomena as raptors use to stay aloft I'm used to flying with hawks. They don't usually bother you unless you get too close to a nest during breeding season (or maybe they're just having a bad day). When they do they can leave large dings in your plane -- these planes are too big to carry off -- but typically you can avoid them even with a not very maneuverable ship. If you are flying something that's faster and more maneuverable then its possible to get round on their six -- they really HATE that!
This video shows that its possible for a raptor to pick up a small, stationary, quadcopter. If someone is interested in nefarious activity -- or just plain fed up with being bothered by this sort of thing -- then it would be relatively straightforward to employ some countermeasures (strips of metal charged to a high voltage on the arms might be a good place to start). The birds are good at what they do but they really aren't that bright -- their hunting prowess comes from rabbits never living to pass on avoidance strategies.
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That was against a Spyrit Max FPV T2M which reportedly weighs 580g with the camera and prop guards, which they didn't have on for the tests, and it's smaller (230mm diagonal motor-motor distance) than the DJI Phantom sized quadcopters such as my Cheerson CX-20 (360mm motor-motor) that weighs 1.2kg with camera+3 axis gimbal, along with powerful brushless motors and the option of 9 inch carbon fibre propellers that can do some serious damage if they strike you (or an eagle).
A fresh post from someone on the CX-20 thread at rcgroups.com:
"The very first quad I owned was a wrecked CX20 that a friend had given me after it was attacked by a bald eagle at 200 feet. The shelk was a mess but with the exception of the ESCs everything else was intact. He told me the eagle was killed and shredded quite badly. That was with the standard CX20 8045 props."
So if that happens with the standard plastic props, carbon fibre ones on a 450 size quad would most likely take the bird's legs clean off if it tried to grab it mid-flight.
What were those cops even thinking, pitting flesh & bone against plastic & metal like that?
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