Drones are one of the more exciting products in the tech market. They have quite a bit of potential to help advance the human race; across a wide variety of industries and use cases. Drones can (and already do) help creators make better video content, they can transport lightweight packages for business or medical purposes, and, perhaps most importantly, they're pretty fun to fly.
Though most of the uses we've listed so far are relatively innocuous, drones are obviously being deployed for militaristic purposes as well. Indeed, Oculus' co-founder Palmer Luckey's company, Anduril Industries, recently published a press release that announced a new type of autonomous, military defense-oriented drone. Unlike other combat drones, the "Interceptor" does not possess any actual weaponry of its own (for now).
Instead, the Interceptor is the weapon. Whether through a manual cue or an AI-powered decision, the Interceptor possesses the ability to autonomously fly toward a hostile drone at high speeds (roughly 100mph) with the intent of ramming itself into the enemy device. Ideally, the hostile drone will be rendered ineffective on impact; if not outright destroyed.
According to Bloomberg, Anduril has already begun shipping these drones out to their military customers throughout the world; most notably in the US and the UK. So, if you're a consumer with a drone flying hobby, it may be wise to steer clear of military installations in the future (which, frankly, you should already be doing) – unless you want to get your drone back in small pieces.
Image credit: The Interceptor by Bloomberg