Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by the Islamic State: Nature of the Threat

Abstract

The proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) on the battlefield does not exclude terrorist actors. Recently, there is an evident increase in the number of incidents when the so called Islamic State has used UAVs. This article tries to describe this relatively new phenomenon and present an overview of main types of the potential Islamic State’s UAV employment in Europe. Despite the fact, that the UAV use by terrorist actors will probably not have strategic impact by itself, it constitutes a new challenge for state security agencies.