Your "Fuck Yeah" Story of the Day

[CountDeMoney]

Terrorists are building drones. France is destroying them with eagles.

Under French military supervision, four golden eagle chicks hatched last year atop drones — born into a world of terror and machines they would be bred to destroy.

The eagles — named d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis — grew up with their nemeses. They chased drones through green grass that summer, pecking futilely at composite shells as seen in Sky News footage. They were rewarded with meat, which they ate off the backs of the drones.

When the eagles were ready — this month — d'Artagnan launched screeching from a military control tower across a field, Agence France-Presse reported.

The bird covered 200 meters in 20 seconds, slamming into a drone, then diving with the wreckage into the tall grass.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/21/terrorists-are-building-drones-france-is-destroying-them-with-eagles/

[Berkut]

That is cool.

It seems like whatever the eagles could do, you could do just as well or better with counter drone drones.

[Grey Fox]

France, fuck yeah.

[HVC]

That is cool.

It seems like whatever the eagles could do, you could do just as well or better with counter drone drones.

A saw a clip a while ago with Japanese drones carrying nets to catch other drones. it was like planet of the apes... but with drones.

[Jacob]

That is cool.

It seems like whatever the eagles could do, you could do just as well or better with counter drone drones.

Yeah?

You think the speed, maneuverability, and instinct of hunting eagles is easily replicated with drones?

How would a counter-drone drone take out its target, do you reckon?

[Grinning_Colossus]

[Berkut]

That is cool.

It seems like whatever the eagles could do, you could do just as well or better with counter drone drones.

Yeah?

You think the speed, maneuverability, and instinct of hunting eagles is easily replicated with drones?

How would a counter-drone drone take out its target, do you reckon?

Speed - certianly
Maneuverability - Maybe - those drones seem pretty nimble.
Instincts - Probably not. But the cost of raising eagles from hatchlings to align those instincts with drone killing seems considerable, compared to just building another cheap drone.

As far as taking them out, I don't see why a drone can't be pretty easily armed with something that can match up with some claws.

And I suspect that in actual combat ops, those eagles are going to spend a lot of time hurt. Tackling a drone out of mid air seems like a good way to get broken wings and lacerated eagle parts.

[Grinning_Colossus]

How would a counter-drone drone take out its target, do you reckon?

It could probably use a chain to tangle up its propellers or something.

[Berkut]

How would a counter-drone drone take out its target, do you reckon?

It could probably use a chain to tangle up its propellers or something.

In any case, I am confident that people smarter than me are figuring that out.


I am rather surprised that it hasn't already been figured out, in fact.

[The Larch]

The eagles — named d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis —

I swear this couldn't possibly be any Frenchier.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm confident these eagles would see better use in a counter-terrorism deployment in an urban environment, say over Paris or other large cities, sporting venues and the like, as opposed to deployment to ISISland, pitted against swarms of drones.

Berkut just wants to see jobs for raptor trainers eliminated.  Always with the automation.  And fuck pilots, while we're at it.

[celedhring]

The eagles — named d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis —

I swear this couldn't possibly be any Frenchier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhNPOxHWyk

[Tamas]

That is cool.

It seems like whatever the eagles could do, you could do just as well or better with counter drone drones.

This ties in nicely with the robots thread: one half of population can be drone-piloting terrorists, the other drone-piloting counter-terrorists! Idle workforce would be periodically culled by one of the terrorist drones getting through.

[The Larch]

The eagles — named d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis —

I swear this couldn't possibly be any Frenchier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhNPOxHWyk

Love that movie. 

[The Larch]

I'm confident these eagles would see better use in a counter-terrorism deployment in an urban environment, say over Paris or other large cities, sporting venues and the like, as opposed to deployment to ISISland, pitted against swarms of drones.

Berkut just wants to see jobs for raptor trainers eliminated.  Always with the automation.  And fuck pilots, while we're at it.

I'd say that they're intended for site defence, like in bases, airfields and the like. As for ways to take down drones, I think there are better ones that don't involve shooting. I know of a security company over here that has recently created a drone division, and one of the services they're advertising is "drone neutralization", and I highly doubt it involves shooting them down.