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MILITARYcutting-edge tools to the likes of NATO military and
the United Nations..
“Small UAS can be seen as a highly effective and
cheap platform for surveillance and payload deliv-
ery,” CEO Oleg Vornik tells Newsweek via email. “A
small UAS can easily carry up to a few pounds of
weight—this is a lot of explosive or biological or
chemical weapons.”
“What’s more,” he adds, “at $1,000–$2,000 per
UAS, and swarming technologies available today—
think of giant fi gures in the sky or fi reworks, all
generated by choreographed drones—this can be
easily in hundreds of drones, each carrying a dan-
gerous substance.”
Even if suggested controls were put in place,
he says, the threat would only partially be ad-
dressed.“UAS can be purchased today in a complete-
ly unrestricted way, being considered toys, essen-
tially. Registration would solve some of the issue,
but consider how many unregistered fi rearms get
used for terrorism,” Vornik says. “The pilot of the
drone would also be invisible/diffi cult to catch in
an attack, making it more appealing to use”
In addition to the physical threat, he warns of
potential cyberattacks employing UAS. “Call it a con-
spiracy, but we received reports that the Ever Given
container ship—yes, the one that blocked Suez Ca-
nal and stopped much of sea traffi c—was due to a
cyber hacking from a drone, when a request for ran-
som was denied,” Vornik says. “We are now hearing
of this commonly from ship customers, especially
in areas close to the better-known rogue states.”
DroneShield recently released the 6th edition
of its counter-UAS factbook, which details the
scope of potential threats posed by small drones.
The guide covers recent events in drone warfare,
including the 2019 attacks on Saudi Aramco oil
sites, claimed by Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement
but blamed by Saudi Arabia and the U.S. on Iran.
It also gives examples of the latest innovations by
China and Russia, and identifi es some of the most
popular heavy-lifting UAS that could be used more
discreetly than their larger cousins.
The report provides potential solutions as well,
including a range of detection capabilities such
as radio frequency, radar, acoustic, optic and
multi-sensor systems. It also lists neutralizing assets
including radio frequency jammers, GPS jammers,
cyber tactics, directed energy attacks, counter-UAS
drones and kinetic systems capable of blasting UAS
out of the sky.”Without dedicated C-UAS system
for detection and defeat of such UAS,” Vornik says,
“there would be no warning and no time to react,
until it is too late and the damage is done.”
As to whether such tools and methods can be
employed before the next attack, he has doubts.
“We live in a reactive society,” he says. “Boulders
across the pathways have only started to be placed
after terrorists used vehicles to bulldoze through
crowds, as an example.”
“We need to be more proactive in setting up UAS
detection and defeat systems across areas where
large gatherings of people are likely, the high pro-
file places, sort of areas which would be terror
sweet spots,” Vornik says. “Law enforcement and
homeland security personnel need to be trained for
this threat, much like more conventional attacks.”Counterclockwise from
opposite top: A Saudi
Arabian oil processing
plant after an attack
by drones in 2019; a
U.S. military Predator
drone and the team
responsible for its take
offs and landings in
Kandahar, Afghanistan;
and DroneShield
CEO Oleg Vornik with
one of his company’s
anti-drone devices.