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The Anti-Drone Drone

A bigger, badder flying copter debuts to catch trespassers


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It's a dog-eat-dog world—and now a drone-eat-drone one, too. At a February demonstration in La Queue-en-Brie, France (right), Malou Tech showed off the Interceptor MP200 and its “antidrone strategy”—capturing smaller unmanned copters with a net. The remote-controlled, defensive ambusher could be law enforcement's airborne answer to an emerging security threat. Earlier this year personal flying bots were spotted hovering suspiciously over cultural and diplomatic landmarks in central Paris. Since October 2014 officials have recorded more than 60 incidents of drone activity near France's capital and its nuclear plants. In 2012 the nation adopted civilian drone legislation that has begun to go into effect, including a requirement for permissions to fly over populated areas. Here in the U.S., laws and regulations that govern flight of unmanned aircraft are still evolving.