Hand Grenade Drones in Mosul

Miles
by Miles

Attempts at dropping handguns in prisons with commercial drones have been attempted before, but this is the first time a hand grenade has been used with drones, in an offensive setting. How Daesh is arming the grenade, or even dropping it is somewhat confusing. The drone is possibly being used as a sort of “Kamikaze” Drone, driving it into a target, allowing a grenade with the spoon detached to detonate when it falls free of the drone. Drones have previously been used by Daesh to film their own attacks, as well as spying on Iraqi lines. The below video shows one these drones getting shot down by Iraqi forces.

Iraqi forces have also been using drones of their own to likewise spy on Daesh positions in the fight to recapture Mosul.

When I was in Afghanistan in 2014, there were some substantiated stories by some of the drone operators in my platoon about MARSOC using Honeywell RQ-16 T-Hawks to drop grenades on Taliban positions. How true that might have been, or even if it happened at all I’m not sure of, but the stories were certainly there and came from credible sources. Much like most of what happens in Special Operations, it will probably come out 10 or 20 years from now.

Miles
Miles

Infantry Marine, based in the Midwest. Specifically interested in small arms history, development, and usage within the MENA region and Central Asia. To that end, I run Silah Report, a website dedicated to analyzing small arms history and news out of MENA and Central Asia.Please feel free to get in touch with me about something I can add to a post, an error I've made, or if you just want to talk guns. I can be reached at miles@tfb.tv

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  • Diana pierce Diana pierce on Jan 07, 2017

    There seems to be no limits on applications. If it can be fitted on ... it can be used. It can also get a bit scary too.

  • Curtis_15 Curtis_15 on Jan 07, 2017

    Put grande in lightweight glass jar with pin pulled. Drop glass jar. Glass Jar breaks, spoon flies, grenade goes BOOM!

    No need to worry about timers on grenades or strings on pins hoping they pull pin when dropped.

    Favorite trick of Raven Pilots in Vietnam.

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