ICYMI : How Commercial Drones Changed War

Angry Planet

Matthew Gault

War, Politics, Conflict, Government, History, News

4.3 • 882 Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2019

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicles have been a cornerstone of America’s campaign against Islamic insurgents in the Greater Middle East. Predator and Reaper drones crisscross the globe firing hellfire missiles on U.S. enemies. Other countries have operational drone fleets, but few match the might and ubiquity of America’s.

But journalists on the front lines in Iraq have seen a disturbing new trend - Islamic State using retail quadcopters to drop their own munitions with surprising accuracy. Mosul is the frontline in the fight against ISIS as well as the frontline in a new arm’s race. One that pits the tiny drones of the Islamic State against the budding anti-drone technology of the West.

To be clear, Islamic State’s commercial quadcopters rigged with grenades and manufactured missiles is nothing compared to the power of a Predator firing off hellfire missiles with pinpoint accuracy. But that’s cold comfort to a civilian killed by a handmade explosive dropped by a quadcopter over the streets of Mosul.

This week on War College, Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Kesling walks us through the drones of Islamic State. He’s back from the fighting in Mosul and saw his share of quadcopters as well as the innovative solutions coalition and Iraqi forces are using to fight against them.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Love this podcast.
0:02.0	Support this show through the A-Cast supporter feature.
0:05.0	It's up to you how much you give and there's no regular commitment.
0:09.0	Just click the link in the show description to support now.
0:12.0	Hello, if they're War College listeners, it's me your humble host, Matthew Galt.
0:16.6	We are doing a rerun today.
0:18.3	This episode's been on my mind lately as we look at what happened in Saudi Arabia with the Hutis and the drone attack or ballistic
0:25.6	missile attack depending on how you classify things, who you talk to, what intelligence you believe.
0:32.4	This is an episode from 2017 that looks specifically at the
0:35.3	drone force of the Islamic State. I wanted to rerun this before we dived into that
0:40.6	topic because I think it speaks to the complicated nature of that region and how
0:46.8	different everyone's abilities are and how different everyone's technology is.
0:53.0	Not all rebel groups are made the same.
0:57.0	So the sort of thing that you would see if you go down to the mall and want to buy something that will carry around like small camera, you can fly it around your neighborhood.
1:10.0	Those are the same sorts of drones that Islamic State has been weaponizing.
1:16.0	You're listening to War College, a weekly podcast that brings you the stories from
1:28.9	behind the front lines. Here are your hosts. Hello and welcome to War College. I'm your host Matthew Gull. With us today is a
1:49.6	staff reporter at the Wall Street Journal, Ben Kessling. Ben just returned from the
1:54.2	front lines of the fight against Islamic State and Northern Iraq. He spent time in
1:58.2	Mosul with coalition forces and did some of the early reporting on a new
2:01.2	battlefield phenomenon,
2:03.0	the drones of Islamic State.
	...

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