June 2019 AST Magazine June 2019 AST Magazine | Page 60

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June 2019 - Edition 34
(Kalashnikov, the company behind the AK-47, has introduced the new KUB-BLA drone ‘Suicide
Drone’ at the International Exhibition of Arms and Military Equipment IDEX-2019 in Abu Dhabi.)
But the stakes were raised recently when,
according to the Washington Post, Kalash-
nikov, the Russian manufacturer of the AK-
47 assault weapon, introduced a commer-
cially available “suicide drone” designed
to act like a very low-cost smart bomb. er buys one will have the ability to steer a
bomb with a high degree of accuracy un-
paralleled except by some of the U.S. mili-
tary’s smartest bombs.”
The Washington Post quotes from a Kalash-
nikov news release saying the drone is “four
feet wide, can fly for 30 minutes at a speed
of 80 mph and carries six pounds of ex-
plosives.” While the potential threats of drones
are real and growing, it is important to
see the benefits they are providing, in-
cluding for law enforcement.
Good Uses, Too
In fact, law enforcement may be one of
Putting the threat into chilling perspective, the largest users of the technology.
the Post quotes Nicholas Grossman, a pro-
fessor of international relations at the Uni- The Center for the Study of the Drone at
versity of Illinois and author of the book Bard College reports that as of May 2018,
Drones and Terrorism, as saying, “Whoev- of 910 state and local public safety agen-
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