The battle for Mosul has been a wakeup call for drone defense. In late 2015 it emerged that ISIS had developed the capability to deliver lethal payloads using modified commercial drones, but in Mosul the attacks reached a new pitch in February with dozens of attacks a day by drones dropping grenades.

While US-supplied jammers have muted the threat for the time being, this is only a temporary expedienct: jammers will not stop drones for long. Meanwhile, developments in Mosul have shown that we can expect the next wave of drones to be equipped with more dangerous weapons, smarter software and dangerous new features (including, of course, swarming) — full story in Scout Warrior here.