Brace for a drone arms race
Kiwi prisons are having to contend with a new threat from the skies – drones dropping contraband to inmates.
Despite innovative schemes overseas to intercept the airborne smugglers – including a ‘‘death ray’’ in Russia and trained birds in the Netherlands – New Zealand prison guards at the moment have to spot the incoming drone, judge its flight path, sprint in that direction and hope to beat the prisoners to the drop point.
Corrections chief custodial officer Neil Beales, said he was concerned about delivery drones and confirmed three incidents of drones caught near Kiwi prisons.
‘‘We, to date, have not had a particular epidemic of drones being used over our sites.
‘‘But that’s not to say it won’t happen in the future.
‘‘We certainly aren’t resting on our laurels.’’
Contraband finds are increasing – in the past financial year, almost 8000 were uncovered. Drugs accounted for about an eighth of the discoveries.
X-Craft chief executive Philip Solaris said New Zealand could even choose the trained bird option – perhaps with kea.
‘‘The idea with bird capture is that they are not just going to drop the drones, they are actually going to fly away with it.’’
Overseas, Dutch and French authorities have specially trained eagle ‘‘air forces’’ to keep their air space secure.
When a drone is spotted authorities release a flock of highlytrained birds-of-prey to capture the drone in their talons and destroy it.
Solaris believed governments should be thinking about drone defence.
‘‘It’s not science fiction. I don’t think there’s a silver bullet for this – you end up wanting to have a Star Trek tractor beam.’’