NEW PREY FOR TRAINED EAGLES: DRONES
PARIS • Under French military supervision, four golden eagle chicks were hatched last year atop drones — born into a world of machines they were bred to destroy.
The eagles — named d’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis — grew up chasing drones, pecking at composite shells. They were rewarded with meat.
On its test flight this month, d’Artagnan launched screeching from a military control tower across a field, covering 200 metres in 20 seconds, then slamming into a drone, diving with the wreckage into the tall grass.
“The eagles are making good progress,” said the French air force’s commander of a program that adapts the art of falconry to the threats of unmanned flight.
Weeks earlier, Iraqi soldiers fired their guns wildly into the sky after a drone dropped a bomb on them. Terrorists have been modifying devices that can be bought in toy stores into weapons and radio-controlled spies.
The French have been concerned since early 2015, when drones flew over the presidential palace and a restricted military site.
No one was harmed, but military officials wanted a way to take down drones without shooting — a potential disaster if one went rogue in a crowded area.
The military has already ordered a second brood.