It's that time of year again. Time to attack the mall like a soldier on a mission with a list of must-have gifts for friends and family alike. But what do you get your paranoid friend who fears that drones are the first step in the inevitable robot apocalypse? How about a state-of-the-art drone gun? Spoiler. You'll have to wait for the FCC's blessing before you can get one.
According to Kelsey D. Atherton for Popular Science: "The latest, from DroneShield, is the plainly-named “Dronegun.” The company claims the weapon has a range of over a mile, and promises to immediately cease video transmission back to the drone operator. While borrowing a form-factor and name from firearms, the Dronegun appears to be like other anti-drone jamming rifles: an antenna attached to a computer and shaped like a gun.
We’ve previously seen the DroneDefender, an anti-drone antenna-rifle by Battelle Memorial Institute. We’ve already seen photographs showing weathered and deployed DroneDefenders in Iraq. And abroad makes sense; DroneShield’s Dronegun page contains a large and explicit disclaimer that “this device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, in the United States, other than to the United States government and its agencies” until it’s authorized by the FCC. Why the FCC? These antenna-guns are jamming and control devices, sending radio signals that interfere with and overpower the commands given by the drone’s pilot. Jamming devices are prohibited within the United States, no matter how useful they may prove on the battlefields around Mosul."