Tri-Service
Daesh 'Could Use Drones In UK Terror Attack'
Daesh could use drones to carry out a terror attack in the UK, Admiral Lord West has warned.
The former head of the Navy said tighter safeguards were needed to control commercially-available drones in Britain.
He also called for safety switches to be introduced to stop them flying near potential targets.
It comes as the Foreign Office said it had evidence that the terrorist group was converting drones to carry explosives in the middle east and using them for surveillance and propaganda purposes.
Foreign Office Minister, Baroness Anelay said:
"The Government has a range of material, including images, that provides evidence that Daesh has used small, commercially available unmanned aerial vehicles in Syria and Iraq to extend their surveillance capability, produce propaganda material and carry small improvised explosive devices."
The former security minister, Admiral Lord West said it would be easier for the militants to use drones in the West as they were more readily available in the shops, he said:
"I don't think our control of drones is as tight as it should be. If they are using them there, then in fact they are probably even easier to use them here because you can get them so much easier. You can pop into any store and buy them. Therefore I am very concerned."
He said he was pressing the government about restrictions on the technology:
"There is a thing you can do which makes the drone inoperative if it goes on to a boundary of some area, it just stops being able to function. I think that should be mandatory in drones.
"The other thing is, I think buying drones of a certain size - let's say ones that can carry two pounds weight and above - you should, rather like getting a gun licence, have some way of proving who you are and registering."
"Daesh is like water at the top of a building, it spreads across and tries to find little gaps it can run through. This will be one of the little gaps it is looking at. I think it would be foolhardy for us not to look to our defences for this."
The Department for Transport is looking at ways to stop drones entering sensitive areas using technology knows as geo-fencing.
The possibility of introducing a drone registration scheme is also being looked at by minister.
The US and Ireland already have similar schemes in place.
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