Against the drones come the eagles: Experimentation of the Dutch police

Birds of prey trained to intercept and shoot down drones: the Dutch police is testing the possibility of using the Eagles against small jet aircraft used improperly.

The Dutch police is training some birds of prey to intercept and shoot down small flying drones used improperly. The spread of the drones, moreover, has given way to vandals and pranksters who use this small jet aircraft to perform actions that may cause harm to others.

This raises the problem of being able to take the right countermeasures before a drone dangerously used and the most immediate action may not be effective enough. It could, for example: try to take the controls interfering with its radio signal or use a larger drone that can capture it with a network. In any case, the risk is to completely lose control of the fish, leading to a potentially even more dangerous situation.

Law enforcement officials around the world are trying to figure out how to handle emergency situations, where maybe a drone prevents or disturbs the implementation of specific actions or maneuvers. In addition to the various electronic measurements, the Dutch police are also thinking of physical countermeasures, training some eagles because they intercept and capture small drones.

The eagles are trained to recognize and identify the drones and to capture them or shoot them down safely, away from people or objects. Eagles and birds of prey in general are naturally inclined to intercept prey with extreme efficiency in the air, which is why the risk that the drone go completely out of control is significantly reduced.

Obviously, the possible use of birds of prey is limited to small devices since in the case of larger drones could be put at risk the safety and health of the animal. In the video, it comes to an unspecified system of protection for birds.

The trial will last several months, after which the police will decide whether the birds of prey can be effectively used as a countermeasure to the misuse of small flying drones.