During the battle of Mosul, more and more information about the use of drones militants of the “Islamic state” (banned in Russia organization — approx. of the author). Despite the loss of territory, suburbs and districts of Mosul, according to U.S. Central command for the past two months, not a day goes by without the appearance of the enemy drones in the air. Aviation Coalition has to strike at the drones on the ground, on platforms launch drones and workshops, where they gather and to arm.
Drones Islamists can be divided into several types:
• drones-bombers, dropping explosive devices from the air;
• drones-bombers, used for the collision with the target and detonation;
• drones-mines lying on the ground and exploding upon inspection of the man;
• drones-scouts, leading from the air video for intelligence purposes;
• drone operators, leading the movie to create propaganda films.
The first news about the destruction of drones Islamist Coalition strikes began to appear in summer 2015, and winter 2014 the social network of the Islamists blew up the news that “Islamic state” during the assault on the airbase of the Syrian government forces in the Eastern province of Deir El-Zour has been successfully used drones filled with explosives. It is the suddenness of the unusual and unexplained air strikes, Islamists, demoralized by remaining on the positions of Syrian soldiers. Event 2014, the year is not given much importance in the media, but life showed that this was only the beginning of active use of drones by the enemy.
January 3, 2017, the Iraqi police succeeded in the South-East of Mosul to knock off three homemade drone Islamists, dropping the explosive on the attacking force.
#Iraq Federal Police Units shot down 3 #ISIS UAVs that were dropped “grenade & mortars” on forces in Al-Wahda SE #Mosul. pic.twitter.com/rh2kYihGi0
— Day Iraqi ?? (@iraqi_day) January 4, 2017
January 7, during the fighting for the bridge over the Tigris in Mosul, Iraqi forces allegedly with quadcopters IG was dropped ten explosive devices in just one hour standoff.
Basically the Islamists use conventional Chinese household quadcopters (the same model DJI Phantom) which can be freely purchased online, and add a makeshift trigger mechanism, discharging, for example, grenade grenade.
#ISIS drone modified to drop small explosives like rifle grenades.
In October 2016 in Syria had shot down a drone even with the attached shot from an RPG. This drone bombers could be used to attack government tanks from the air.
In October of the same when you try to survey as it first appeared, crashed the drone at the position of the Kurdish militia, the Peshmerga under Mosul, exploded his battery, which was actually an improvised explosive device of the Islamists. Killed two Kurdish fighters and two French commandos were injured. According to The New York Times, it was the first confirmed case of deaths of soldiers on the battlefield from drones of the Islamists.
The representative of a group of U.S. troops, leaders in Iraq and Syria operations against ISIS, Colonel, U.S. army Brett Sylvia also reported that the drones of the Islamists in Iraq killed civilians and damaged military equipment, but refused to name the number of victims and the nature of the damage.
However, in addition quadcopters IG constructs and their homemade drones, workshops for the production which is a real hunt. American soldiers in Iraq are well advised to consider each drone in the air or on the ground like a bomb.
Iraqi forces and the Kurds don’t accept this tactic of the Islamists seriously and with pleasure shoot down drones with small arms. For them it’s more or less shooting at a target than the elimination of real threat.
Such a waste of ammo wasted not happy with American advisers and they are looking for cheap ways of dealing with the drones of the Islamists. In theory, on the battlefield will experience drones, which detect the drone of the enemy and break their lines of communication with operators, mobile, portable, electronic warfare, existing aircraft suppression of radio signals.
Battelle, in turn, has created a gun directed energy DroneDefender capable of jamming communication channels of quadcopters at a distance of 400 metres. According to unconfirmed reports, already sold hundreds of these guns to the Pentagon and the armed forces of the allies. The problem is that this gun works well in open areas but not in urban combat. That is, its use during the assault on Mosul would be unlikely.
In fact, Iraq and Syria have become a testing ground for the Coalition in this matter. Until recently, bombs, drones were only in the plans of terrorists and posed a real threat in the Western countries only in isolated cases. Since 2002 and until the beginning of the war in Syria and Iraq, it was noted only about 10 cases of planning or the use of drones with explosives. Iraq and Syria show that the use of cheap domestic drones as weapons can be quickly put on stream.
While there are talks about diplomatic missions of Western countries in the hot spots you need to get protection from the drones, but there is an understanding that terrorists can start a massive air attack in the USA or Europe.
The more that with time and development of technology, drones will be able to lift more weight, to stay in the air longer, away from the operator further and become more Autonomous.
We can say that Iraq and Syria were the first real reconnaissance to large-scale wars drones.
