‘I always hear them before I see them’: Drones cause fear in Colombia | Articles of Controversy

Attack and control

According to experts, the armed forces are using space weapons for two purposes: attack and surveillance.

“They fight with other weapons, they attack the police and they attack the military,” Bonilla said. “But another very common use is to control areas through surveillance planes.”

He also mentions the use of drones to monitor coca plantations, a key ingredient in cocaine and a major source of military funding.

There, drones are used to monitor plants and laboratories, instead of monitoring a pedestrian or motorcycle.

The Colombian armed forces have acquired their drones through a combination of online purchases – including through consumer platforms such as Amazon and Temu – and through urban and cross-border smuggling. Those weapons are modified for military use.

“Now they are buying commercial drones, like the Chinese DJI models, but not consumer ones, which have a range of about three to four kilometers (1.8 to 2.5 miles),” said Camilo Mendoza, a security analyst and author of the book Colombia Under Drone Threat.

“These are large industrial drones used for surveillance, with a long range, a high ceiling and the ability to carry heavy loads.”

Mendoza estimates that most can carry about 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds), but some can carry 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) or more.

Some are used to haul improvised explosive devices (IEDs), made from plastic tubes filled with industrial explosives and tar.

The explosives are released via a remote ignition.

“They will learn through trial and error,” Mendoza said. “There are even videos that they have posted to their social networks on TikTok and other networks where they try to weigh and balance. So they pick up a pound of rice, raise the drone and say: ‘No, this doesn’t work. Remove it. Add something.’ This is how they learn.

The only examples are increasing. Some teams are also using first-person-view (FPV) drones, equipped with goggles that give pilots a deep view from the drone.

The use of drones in the Colombian war does not mean that the armed forces will abandon traditional weapons, such as explosive devices, bombs and landmines.

But drones have strategic advantages for communities, which are often spread over rural areas. They are also easy to use.

“The average pilot takes about a year or two of their training, depending on the aircraft and the mission,” Mendoza said. “Learning to fly a drone – takes a week.”

He also said that learning to develop and use combat drones has become an international project.

The Colombian military is said to have learned from the war that took place Ukrainewhich Mendoza describes as a “laboratory of modern warfare”.

According to his sources, some Colombians – mainly supporters of the FARC rebels – went to Ukraine posing as former soldiers or police officers, in order to obtain the latest drone technology.