Drone Killing Eagles

I saw this article over on live science and thought it deserved a thread here at ATS. Trained bald eagles as a countermeasure for small drone attacks, being adopted by the Dutch police.

The newest additions to the Dutch National Police (DNP) are North American "immigrants": bald eagles that are specially trained to take down airborne drones.

The initiative is a first for law enforcement, according to DNP officials. They announced in a statement, released Sept. 13, that the DNP is currently the only police force in the world to include raptors on its roster for drone defense.

Another snippet:

The eagle-eyed trainees are taught to see drones as prey and respond accordingly, officials said in the statement. Just as eagles capture prey and bring it to their nests, the trained eagles not only disable the drones but also relocate a safe distance from crowds.

www.livescience.com...

I don't have much to add in the way of opinion at the moment, I just think this is a noteworthy tactic that is being developed to counter the risk of small drone attacks against dignitaries and such. A full grown bald eagle would be more than a match for your average small flying drone. It looks like the weaponization of avian raptors isn't obsolete yet. Discuss.

Pheew.... my first thought was, are they freaking killing eagles with drones now? That would have been terrible.

Glad this wasn't the case.

Have there been any cases of commercially available drones being used to kill people?

(By the way, I think I recognise that avatar of yours.. from what movie or series does it come from?)

I do wonder if it's practical, I mean, lets assume I go planning an attack with a drone somewhere... I only need a few minutes and I have done my ''attack''... so now someone sees me and thinks I'm suspicious so they call the police and the police sends in their eagle drone killer (they need 30 minutes at least (guess work).. More then enough time for me to drop this bomb where I want.

So they train these special police with their eagles, costing money and I wonder if it will ever be used (successful).

No some kids acting stupid and a cause for troubles (example) in their neighborhood, the police over here don't act on it!! no they train bald eagles..

Maybe I'm missing something but this country is crazy about rules and regulations, the most little danger they see they make rules for it...
but on the same time they lack with dealing with allot of problems because, they don't want trouble?

a reply to: TheLaughingGod

His avatar is from Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal IMDB.

a reply to: Pluginn

Sometimes, measures are taken to give the impression that something is being done about a possible problem. Never underestimate how many people need a false sense of security.

I think I agree Pluginn and enlightenedservant on this one. Doesn't seem like this would be very effective but what do I know.

a reply to: jappee

Thank you.

a reply to: Pluginn

I gave a star... But, it's refering to small Quadra copter drones. Toys.
Though i have seen people pack explosives to the toys and shoot them out of the air for fun.

OP. My concern is for the Eagles. Once this catches on, some whack job is going to outfit the blades with razor edged blades. Way to dangerous for a bird of any size.
I would rather they send another drone with a net.

The props on drones aren't like buzz saws to eagle flesh? Pouncing on a quadrocopter in the air wouldn't result in a puff of feathers and both crashing to the ground?

They trained dolphins to find underwater mines, too.

Boom!

Edit: adding link about dangers of drone props (with pics).

a reply to: Bigburgh

That is what I thought too. What if there were small explosive or something attached? I don't see this ending well for the Eagles.

a reply to: TheBadCabbie After reading all the responses so far I've come up with an idea for the ultimate solution.


Us Bald Eagles to spot and target the drone in question.
Then have the eagle control a drone equipted with a net to capture the rogue drone and guide it to a safe spot.

My BEST IDEA yet today!! *Thanks contributors!!

Also us the OPs style of animation from their avatar to illustrate how this would work with some really cool action hero patriotic German/American music!
(another great idea)

Eagles be like...

a reply to: TheBadCabbie

Anything an eagle can do a modernized full auto shotgun with the shells dahlgren etc developed long ago for project RHINO and CAWS could do much better.

Hell, they even had some very cool RAP shells for long shots. RAP= Rocket Assisted Propulsion.

If that don't work dust off the Polsten gun blueprint and maybe do a reduced caliber version of the ramjet 30mm shells that had sustained 1400 meter per second velocity to max range.

Any one of these, or several combined, would be cheaper, better, and more versatile than eagle teams.

In ww1 they employed experienced shotgun hunters to shoot down rifle grenades.

I thought I'd write a general reply to the thread instead of trying to reply to everyone individually.

A lot of people are wondering about the effectiveness of raptors in this scenario. I think the mission here is to provide protection from the average commercial drone that has been weaponized, most likely by having an explosive payload. The eagle could intercept and remove the drone from the protected area. (Yes, Chief's Mom and Intrprtr, it may not end so well for the eagle.)

You have a visiting dignitary that you need to protect as he moves from the limo to the hotel lobby. Eagles. You have a red carpet event, and want to protect the arriving and departing VIP's from IED drones. Boom. Eagles. Got 'em covered.

To those wondering how the eagles might hold up against drone rotors, the article says:

Tough, scaly skin on eagles' feet protects them against bites from most of their usual prey, and likewise protects them from being harmed by small drones' propellers. Larger drones, however, might prove more damaging. The DNP reported that the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) will design a special "claw protector" — called klauwbeschermer, in Dutch — that it will use to keep the eagles from being injured in the line of duty.

To roguetechie, the specialized use envisioned seems more like protection from IED type flying drones, not military drones. These are situations where you can't just bust out the Pgun, or lob shotgun shells of any type(at least not without possibly creating a panic or killing innocent bystanders). Also an eagle flying is just an eagle flying, it's not as obvious or easily assailable as a weapon emplacement might be. I like the direction your mind went with that though, and it makes me wonder if many drone tactic threads have been done here yet? If so, any juicy ones you or any of the other members might be able to point me toward?

Toward the tactical side of the discussion, from the article:

Michel Baeten, an operational manager for the DNP, told news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) that using birds of prey is one of several methods Dutch police employ to combat drones, alongside electromagnetic pulses and laser technology.

Baeten called eagles "one of the most effective countermeasures against hostile drones," the AFP reported.

a reply to: TheBadCabbie

I can see eagles being useful in the very narrow set of circumstances you describe.

I was more of thinking about defense in depth from weaponized commercial units and light to medium military units.

In answer to your question, no there's not really any good UAV defense threads because in general the information you'd need to build really good anti UAV equipment is tightly controlled because it's basically miniaturized antiaircraft weapons.

Really, quad rotors aren't that scary, what I'm worried about is when someone figures out there's an even better and simpler configuration that would be much faster, just as maneuverable, and much scarier.

Sensitive site you want to protect from surveillance drones? Eagles on the job. Fetch me my klauwbeschermer!

a reply to: TheBadCabbie

I'm interested in this so I thought I'd give it a bump. I was going to post about it but found yours; not by using the ATS search engine but while looking for what forum to put it in.

I'm a lifelong wildlife lover and especially so for birds. The following, brief (37 sec.) video has over 282 thousand hits since being uploaded in January which really surprised me, so this endeavor must be of great interest to many.

"Guard From Above."