Weaponized Drone Threats: Extremist, Terrorist, and Cartel Overview and Response
Course Description:
This proactive eight-hour course has been designed to train participants in preparation for the emerging and very real threat of weaponized drone use domestically with the United States. Weaponized drone use has proliferated over the past two decades and with such systems increasingly in the arsenals of terrorist (and extremist) organizations as well as criminal groups (cartels). These deadly devices are also appearing on conventional battlefields such as in Ukraine. Plots and minor incidents have taken place domestically related to these systems with ongoing investigations taking place, however, no major incident (resulting in deaths and/or infrastructure destruction) has to date transpired. The course training is provided via a red team (opposing force; threats) and blue team (allied force; response) perspective by counterterrorism experts. Students are trained by means of classroom power point lectures, short videos/video clips, questions, and answers (Q&A), and short discussion sessions and receive a physical training binder containing the course lecture material for retention/note taking purposes.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Early history of drones, gain an overview of the major systems that have developed, and learn about basic drone functioning.
- Recognize what threat backgrounder information that exists related to the emergence of weaponized drones and be aware of past criminal, extremist, and terrorist drone use and associated plots.
- Comprehend the Islamic State’s use of aerial drones for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR,) propaganda, C2, direct attack, and bombardment purposes in Syria and Iraq in a detailed case study spanning the 2014 through 2017 period.
- Understand the fielding and use of aerial drones—including weaponized systems—by the Mexican cartels via a detailed case study covering 2010 to the present era.
- Analyze threat group potentials related to their domestic US use of weaponized drones [along with their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs)] and be cognizant of a range of possible threat use scenarios.
- Be aware of the terrorist attack process and the stages of a weaponized drone attack (pre-, trans-, and post-incident) for response planning purposes.
- Be educated about domestic drone related laws/statutes, officer safety concerns, and a range of countermeasure techniques and technologies.
- Identify projected aerial and other drone threats futures along with those related to smart homes, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and swarming based technologies.
Prerequisites: None
Course Length: 1 Day/ 8 hours
Who May Attend: Law Enforcement, Corrections, Military