Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, stated that while advances are being made in the operational use of drones against Boko Haram terrorists, other long-term plan for the deployment of technology to neutralise major security threats are being put in place under the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.
I was gathered that part of such long-term technological warfare plans includes the Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna where a limited number of specially-screened intakes are now undertaking specialised studies and research in aeronautics, aerospace engineering and avionics at diploma and postgraduate levels.
The report from the US Combating Terrorism Center, which analysed the evolving threat in ISIS and its affiliates’ deep interest in drones, notes that the terrorists have also been studying how to jam signals from American military drones.
The Islamic State is a group known for doing things a bit differently, for its capacity for innovation, and for its many ‘firsts’; two of those ‘firsts’ happened within months of each other.
“The first occurred in October 2016 when the group used a bomb-laden drone to kill, after the explosive hidden within the drone killed two Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers who were investigating the device; another ‘first’ happened in January 2017 when the Islamic State released a propaganda video that showed nearly a dozen examples of the group releasing munitions on its enemies from the air with a fair degree of accuracy via quadcopter drones it had modified,” it stated.
Among others, the report went on to paint a picture of the threat that terrorists’ mass deployment of weaponized drones could pose.
“Future attacks using not just one, but multiple aerial drones should be expected, too; the Islamic State has displayed such a capability.
“During a speech in May 2017, the current head of US Special Operations Command, General Raymond Thomas, noted ho