Jack Kemp

Many decades ago, I witnessed a half time at a football game in which the Air Force Academy (the team is called the Falcons) had their trained falcon put on a show for the audience. I don't know if they put on that show anymore, but the Air Force Academy does bring a trained falcon to football games and I saw their falcon at the 2012 Air Force Week in New York City, with a woman cadet as the bird's handler. Years ago I learned that this tradition was started by an Academy cadet who knew falconry and went and found a young falcon in the mountains near the Air Force Academy in Colorado - and trained it as their teams' mascot. From that point on, a cadet is assigned to carry on the tradition of handling and caring for a falcon.

But in Europe, where falconry began, a new use has been found for trained raptors. And this time it is actual eagles. Perhaps this practice may spread here, if PETA doesn't stop it - but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting.

Previously I've noted that Holland has trained eagles to take down unauthorized drones in some areas. At the web page from the Guardian, you can scroll down and see a still image and video of a handler with a Eurpean cousin of our National Bird, a Dutch resident bald eagle. See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/01/dutch-netherlands-police-birds-unauthorized-drones

Now France has joined in this practice, using trained eagles to thwart terrorist attacks.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/meleanamoore/2017/02/22/france-employing-eagles-n2289090?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=
France Turns to Eagles for Counterterrorism Measures

Meleana Moore
|
Posted: Feb 22, 2017 10:10 AM
Eagles thrive digging their talons into their prey to complete the kill, so why not employ them to kill inanimate objects, such as those ever-looming drones? It turns out, that is just what the French are doing, heading back to the old days of falconry. However, this specific air force base that is training the eagles is one of five bases in France that employs the birds of prey--granted, the other bases utilize the birds to scare away other fowl when aircrafts land and take off.
Thus, in response to tragic terrorist attacks and the growing popularity of drones in the terrorism arena, the French military has started a program of training golden eagles from birth to take down suspicious drones, instead of to intimidate living things, according to the Washington Post.The Post explained that the French turned to eagles when presented with the question of destroying drones in highly populated areas--as shooting them down becomes risky in such areas.

February happens to be the month that the four eagles (d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis) piloting the program were ready to be let out to officially test what they had been practicing since birth.

The Post reported on the progress of one of the drone-destroying-eagles, d'Artagnan, explaining how, "the bird covered 200 meters in 20 seconds, slamming into a drone, then diving with the wreckage into the tall grass."
The military is even designing personalized mittens to protect the birds' extremities from potential blasts

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:22 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 519 words, total size 3 kb.