US Special Ops to use seized Chinese drones as targets in military competetion

More than 500 Chinese-made drones confiscated by the state of Florida under a controversial executive edict were initially slated for destruction. Instead, an unconventional military initiative has redirected them from the incinerator to the firing range.

The small quadcopter drones will be transferred to U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), headquartered in Tampa, where they will serve as live targets in a three-day counter-drone competition next month. Some will even be “hunted like ducks,” using shotguns, according to organisers, Bloomberg writes.

The plan stems from an emerging effort to inject urgency and creativity into U.S. attempts to close the gap in the rapidly evolving global drone wars. The event — billed as the largest counter-drone destruction exercise ever held in the United States — is being coordinated with the nonprofit United States National Drone Association (USNDA), founded late last year by Marine reservist Nate Ecelbarger.

Ecelbarger told Bloomberg News that he created the group after losing “sleepless nights” over the state of America’s drone defences. The Florida donation of hundreds of drones, not previously reported, provided an unusual opportunity to test a wide range of countermeasures.

The competition aims to feed practical insights into an increasingly heated debate over how best to stop hostile unmanned aircraft on the battlefield. According to Ecelbarger, shotguns will be among the methods evaluated — not as a primary tool but as a “last-ditch” option if standard counter-drone systems fail.

The results are expected to inform U.S. military and homeland security planners as drone technology proliferates globally and adversaries deploy inexpensive, commercially available platforms in new and unpredictable ways.

By Khagan Isayev