The Metropolitan Police Department’s unit in charge of patrolling the Diet building, the prime minister’s office, the Imperial Palace and other significant locations in Tokyo will be equipped with the drone in mid-December.
“Terrorist attacks using drones carrying explosives are a possibility,” a senior member of the police department’s Security Bureau said. “We hope to defend the nation’s functions with the worst-case scenario in mind.”
Only one crime-fighting drone will be initially deployed. It will be launched if another drone enters restricted airspace and does not comply with police warnings.
A 3-meter-by-2-meter net will hang from the bottom of the six-propeller drone to capture and entangle suspicious drones.
The Metropolitan Police Department had been considering ways to use drones to capture other drones since an unmanned aerial
machine carrying radioactive soil from Fukushima Prefecture was found on the roof of the prime minister’s office in April.
The net will allow police to stop drones from entering restricted airspace and it will also prevent the offending drone from falling down onto the street below, where it could damage a vehicle or injure a pedestrian
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