London: The military of a G7 nation has purchased a drone gun or drone jammer made by a jointly Australian and US-owned company to trial in the Middle East, according to the device's manufacturer, for what could possibly be use against the Islamic State.
DroneShield, a company based in Sydney and the US state of Virginia, told the Australian Stock Exchange on Monday that one of its DroneGun test units was purchased by the military of a G7 country "understood to be deployed for testing in the Middle East."
"While the fact that the sale involved only one test unit means that the revenue from the sale is not material, the sale is important in that this is the first sale of DroneGun to the military of a G7 country," DroneShield said.
"The sale comes as ISIS and other non-state actors rapidly increase their use of consumer/commercial drones for terrorism," the company said.
The official spokesperson for the global coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria confirmed last month that IS fighters are using grenade-strapped drones in both countries in a technique Major General Rupert Jones insisted was a sign of their "desperation."
The Australian IS-fighter Neil Prakash has been reported as having led a cell plotting armed drone attacks, before he was arrested in Turkey where he is still detained.
DroneShield says its rifle-shaped, backpack kit operates across a 2-kilometre zone and can immediately disable a drone's live video transmission while ensuring the drone remains intact for forensic examination
The United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan make up the G7. The club of powerful nations once included Russia but the country was kicked out of the group following Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Britain's Ministry of Defense confirmed to Fairfax Media that it was not the purchaser. On its website, DroneShield says the DroneGun "is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, in the United States, other than to the United States government and its agencies."