Drone shield

Forces move to defend against ‘hostile’ UAVs

Has the war of the drones started?

The explosive expansion of the drone industry, driven by stunning technical innovations, has caught the global regulators off guard. Developers now offer unheard of commercial opportunities, and regulators are struggling to analyse the past five years, never mind what is coming over the horizon.

Recently Greg Hood, Chief Commissioner of the ATSB, was quoted as saying, “In the first five months of this year, 121 drone incidents were reported to the ATSB. Of these, 68 per cent were ‘near’ encounters with manned aircraft and almost half of these occurred in Sydney.