IS makes strange drones but the damage is unpredictable

Iraqi soldiers said that in December, IS militants continuously used homemade drones loaded with explosives to attack them.

According to Popular Mechanics magazine, what Iraqi soldiers discovered during the campaign to liberate Mosul city shows that IS is trying to produce a large number of drones on its own.

An IS drone captured by Iraqi soldiers. Photo: Reuters

Accordingly, Iraqi soldiers discovered an IS factory in Mosul where they planned and produced several types of drones. The most notable of these was a fixed-wing aircraft with small Phantom 4-engine drones installed inside.

It is still unclear why IS built such a “strange” aircraft. Many experts speculate that this aircraft will be a “mother ship” to drop those “child” drones on the target or that the drones will carry traps or explosives that will kill Iraqi soldiers like many previous attacks.

Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saidi of the US Counter Terrorism Training Agency in Iraq said that IS has tried to make many types of drones and “sometimes they put explosives on them to attack our generals and command posts”.

This plan of IS is said to be “inspired” by the US “killer” drone Switchblade, which is used to destroy “high-value targets” such as IS commanders. IS has also released many photos showing that they have captured a number of Switchblades drones in Iraq and Syria.

Not only attacking Iraqi generals and soldiers, IS also targets civilians. A refugee camp in Syria was also attacked by an object that was said to have the shape of a homemade drone. This drone dropped bombs on the refugee camp.

IS begins to utilize high technology

Many experts say that the bombs that IS drops from drones are all marked with paint on the bomb body and some components of this bomb have a honeycomb structure, indicating that it is very likely 3D printed - the most modern printing technology today.

If this information is confirmed, it is likely that IS has acquired this modern technology and they can easily share the designs of their homemade weapons such as bombs or guns on the Internet for their extremists and supporters to 3D print and use.

Previously, in February, a research team while inspecting an IS weapons factory in Ramadi, Iraq, was also surprised to find strangely shaped and quite large drones made from plywood, styrofoam [a type of foam plastic-ND] and polystyrene [a type of plastic with good electrical and thermal insulation properties].

The team also discovered disassembled parts of the Strela surface-to-air missile and found that IS was trying to mount the missile's warhead on a large drone to use as an anti-helicopter weapon.

This is because the Strela missile's warhead is too large and heavy to be mounted on the small four-engine Phantom drone that IS often uses for reconnaissance purposes or to carry small explosives.

According to experts, using drones to launch Strela missile warheads has several distinct advantages over conventional missile launches.

First, launching a missile warhead from a drone will not leave traces like launching a conventional missile, making it very difficult to detect. In addition, launching a missile warhead from a drone will not trigger the warning system from the helicopter, and the warhead will not be fooled by the infrared system emitted by the target to deflect it.

Although these IS drones are still quite primitive, experts still believe that IS will accelerate the development of these drones like they did with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq.

To deal with this threat, the US military has quickly deployed jamming and anti-drone equipment to Iraq. In addition, the US Army has also published a manual for soldiers on how to deal with these types of drones./.

According to VOV