The Islamic State's Drone Innovation

Archambault, Emil; Veilleux-Lepage, Yannick

Abstract

This chapter provides a survey of IS’ drone program, how it came to embody this most salient menace, and how IS innovated in its use of drones. To this end, we outline how IS built structures to centralise drone development and modification, as well as how they used them for attacks, to film and direct other operations, and for reconnaissance. Finally, we argue that IS’s innovation lay mainly in its use of drones for propaganda, rather than in the oft-cited threats of terrorist attacks or weapons of mass destruction deployment. The first part of this chapter presents how IS built a highly centralised drone program with established structures for training, acquisition and modification. The second section analyses IS’ different use of drones and how the group used drones for offensive operations and to command and control other types of attacks, notably artillery and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices. The third section argues that IS employed drone imagery in propaganda to further its claim to effective sovereignty and control of its territory. The final two sections analyse the importance of the IS drone program for wider studies, notably of the threat of dissemination of knowledge about non-state drone use. Ultimately, we argue, the IS drone program represents one of many pathways of non-state drone development.

Citation

Archambault, E., & Veilleux-Lepage, Y. (2024). The Islamic State's Drone Innovation. In J. P. Rogers (Ed.), De Gruyter Handbook of Drone Warfare (243-254). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110742039-017

• Online Publication Date: Sep 3, 2024
• Publication Date: Sep 3, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jan 26, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 4, 2025
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 243-254
• Series Title: De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences Handbooks
• Book Title: De Gruyter Handbook of Drone Warfare
• Chapter Number: 17
• ISBN: 9783110741926
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110742039-017
• Keywords: armed drones; non-state actors; terrorist groups; Islamic State; Visual Propaganda; terrorist innovation; sovereignty
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2164601
• Contract Date: Aug 4, 2023