With the rise in popularity of drones, including amongst the criminal element, solutions to increasingly crowded skies have become a hot topic. Dutch police have recently come up with a rather green way of combatting illegal drones, namely, training eagles to hunt them in the sky.
And drones used irresponsibly have cost millions of dollars in damages. In two separate instances, drones operating near forest fires forced the airways to be closed to aerial fire-fighting vehicles, preventing additional resources from being brought to bear on the dangerous flames. Even a single drone colliding with a fast moving aircraft can cause the aircraft to crash and endangers the lives of those within. Another instance mentioned by CNBC was "Last year, two men pleaded guilty to smuggling heroin by drone across the U.S.-Mexico border. And another case was recorded where police intercepted a drone carrying drugs, tobacco and porn into a state prison in Maryland, U.S. in August."
Due to instances like this the Dutch police have come up with a green solution to the rising problem of illegal drone use. They've been training eagles to hunt drones in the air. The strength of the birds is easily enough to take down most of the more commonly used UAVs, potentially even without damaging the aircraft. One of the advantages of using the birds over nets is the ability for the drone's landing location to be controlled. Instead of shooting down the drone with a net or another gadget, which could cause it to crash into a crowd, the eagle simply grabs the target and takes it back to the handler.
But the project is still under development, because "even though they have toughened talons, drone rotors could still damage the bird. A spokesperson says the force will look at ways to better protect their flying counterparts while they conduct trials over the next few months." If the team can develop ways of protecting the birds from the rotors, eagles could be the next evolution of anti-drone combat.
