Report on the risk of hostile use of drones by terrorists and other threat groups

A report published earlier this month by the Remote Control project (within the Oxford Research Group) looks into the ‘hostile use of drones by non-state actors against British targets’. The report notes that civilian drones, which become more and more sophisticated, are at risk of being used by terrorist and other hostile group against targets in the UK. It is shown that several terrorists and criminal groups have already deployed drones for attacks and intelligence gathering. There is increasing concern that drones can be used as affordable and effective Improvised Explosive Devices. The best defence against the hostile use of drones is said to consist in the employment of a hierarchy of countermeasures encompassing regulatory, passive and active countermeasures.