With easy access via online storefronts and similar sources, terrorists and rebels and even government forces from Iraq and Syria to Ukraine’s breakaway Donbass region have been increasingly using small drones. With little training, insurgents can use these tiny flying machines to spy on their opponents, direct artillery strikes, or even possible attack targets directly.
Now, the U.S. Army is warning troops to be on the lookout for these specific threats in a new manual.
In July, the ground combat branch released a new publication calledTechniques for Combined Arms for Air Defense. The handbook includes sections specifically dealing with drones in “groups 1 and 2.”
These two types of pilotless aircraft are “the greatest challenges for Army forces,” the manual declares. “The smaller platform… provides the user with the ability to meet reconnaissance, surveillance, and information collection requirements without being noticed.”
The Pentagon describes the first category as remote control aircraft generally weighing fewer than 20 pounds that routinely fly below 1,200 feet. The next level up are craft up to 55 pounds that can travel up to 3,500 feet in the air. Troops shouldn’t expect drones in either group to fly faster than 300 miles per hour. – READ MORE
