Security expert Alfonso Camacho-Martinez is now recommending that Colombia’s security forces take the same step. “Colombia could draw valuable lessons from Ukraine’s many inventions, showing that combative and lean innovation is possible and that layered defense systems can be built at scale if procurement is reformed and industrial partnerships are expanded – all with a sense of urgency,” he writes in his analysis.
Colombia’s army was the first in South America to introduce its own drone battalion in October. But an initial assessment is sobering.
“The Colombian state’s response has been slow and patchy,” according to an analysis by Laura Bonilla, deputy director of the Pares Foundation in Bogota. “Anti-drone systems have been purchased, technology donated and military personnel trained, but vast areas remain unprotected. Armed groups are adapting, changing their frequencies and planning autonomous flights. Shooting down one drone is not enough when ten more are ready to take off.”
The drone conflict between rebels, drug cartels and security forces is still in its early stages.
