The Author is Former Director General of Information Systems and A Special Forces Veteran, Indian Army

The US began developing drones, including bird-drones in the 1950s. Obsessed with domestic surveillance in the Cold War, some of these drones were augmented to become assassination weapons, which have been used at least in seven countries during the war on terror. In 2013, the US Army procured more than 30 drones that looked like birds of prey.

A bird-drone developed at Stanford (USA) in recent years has talons for landing on branches. When attached to a quadcopter, it becomes a bird-like robot that can land and stabilize anywhere. The EU is also developing bird-drones under its ‘Griffin Project’. France has developed the ‘Bionic Bird’ and is also developing an insect-like drone – ‘Metafly’.

In July 2018, it was reported in these columns that China had deployed hi-tech spy bird drones code-named ‘Dove’ after conducting some 2000 test flights.These Dove drones mimic the flapping action of a bird's wings to climb, dive and turn in the air, replicating about 90 per cent movements of real doves. Making very little noise, they are hard to detect especially since they attract actual birds to fly alongside them.

Based on migratory data, groups of migratory birds are caught, digitised and capsules of germs are attached to them with a computer-controlled chip. These birds are released to the flock of birds migrating to the target countries. On reaching the area in the target country, the bird is killed and the germs released.This is a far more sinister, effective and virtually no-cost method of biological attack.

The Dove can fly at speeds of up to 40 kmph for a maximum of 30 minutes and is fitted with high-definition camera, GPS antenna, flight control system and data link with satellite communications. Even new holographic technological radars may not be able to detect the Dove drone, making them serious threat for air defence systems.

Reports of 2018 revealed 30 Chinese military and government agencies had been using Dove drones and related devices in at least five provinces in recent years. Possibly, these drones are also augmented as assassination weapons with built-in face recognition software, akin to the US. These drones pose a new angle to terrorism and assassinations, especially if launched in swarms.

MetaBird

MetaFly

In the ongoing Ukraine conflict, Russian forces came across US-funded bio-weapon labs in Ukraine. Captured documents included instructions from Pentagon to destroy all evidence to prevent it falling in enemy hands. An agreement signed between the US Department of Defence (DoD) and Ukraine’s Ministry of Health in 2005 disclosed multiple US-funded bio-labs in Ukraine for undertaking research, development and storage of pathogens under US supervision. Later, news emerged of Pentagon–funded bio-labs in another 24 countries.

Russia has accused Ukraine for conducting experiments of dangerous pathogens on humans. But the evidence it brought to the United Nations, was brushed aside by Antonio Gutteres, UN Secretary General without even looking at the evidence by saying that the UN has no mandate to investigate such issues; despite appropriate frameworks in place including the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the UN, to hear the clarifications from the relevant country in a fair and impartial manner.

Being from Portugal which is founder member of NATO and member of the EU, plus having been appointed UN Secretary General for a second term on June 18, 2021 with Western support, Gutteres is an apparent American stooge.

Now something more sinister in context of Pentagon has come to light. The Arria Formula Meeting on Biological Security regarding the biological activities in countries including Ukraine,held by the UN Security Council on April 6, 2022, in which the US and the UK abstained. During this meeting, General Igor Kirillov, Chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defence Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, accused the US of the following (https://youtu.be/ClocWTBIEp8):

• Establishing bio-labs in 36 countries and connecting them to a unified system.
• Spending over $5 billion on military biological programme since 2005.
• Modernising some 60 bio-lab facilities in territories bordering Russia and China alone.
• Ukrainian bio-labs conducts research and monitor biological situationof 30 facilities in 14 populated areas.
• Ongoing research on diseases and epidemics focused on means of release and testing, even without the knowledge of the governments of these countries, and experiments relating to coronavirus including bats used to transmit this virus.
• Pentagon accesses scientific data available with environmental specialists and zoologists after studying migratory birds; observing them throughout the seasons - path these birds take each year on their seasonal journey from one country to another and even from one continent to others.
• Based on migratory data, groups of migratory birds are caught, digitised and capsules of germs are attached to them with a computer-controlled chip. These birds are released to the flock of birds migrating to the target countries. Exact location of the digitised birds is continuously monitored by satellites. On reaching the area in the target country, the bird is killed and the germs released.
• Russia has in its possession digitised migratory birds captured in Ukraine.

Migratory birds crisscross the globe every year, travelling great distances. The Arctic Turn, a medium-sized bird, travels 90,000 km every year from Greenland in the North to the Weddell Sea in the South. In October 2020, a bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) reportedly flew for 11 days straight from Alaska to New Zealand, traversing a distance of 12,000 km without stopping, breaking the longest nonstop flight among birds known to scientists.

This is a far more sinister, effective and virtually no-cost method of biological attack. It goes without saying that the US would have spread diseases in many countries over the years (experimenting or intentionally) whether as an enemy, to curb economic progress of the target country or simply to make money.

Whether the current pandemic deluge in China is courtesy Pentagon will never be known but China can be expected to be working on similar bio-weapons

There can possibly be no greater crime against human race than the above but the US will go scot free with the UN compromised. That is why Anthony Stephen Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the US President was collaborating in biological research with the P-4 lab in Wuhan, China. Little wonder also why Bill Gates is warning of more variants of the viruses coming – he has possibly already calculated how many billions he would cull out of it.

Whether the current pandemic deluge in China is courtesy Pentagonwill never be known but China can be expected to be working on similar bio-weapons since it keeps tabs on all type of research in the West, also stealing what it can. As for India, secret development of bio-weapons is out of the question given our moralistic high ground, even though Chanakya had said, “Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.”

However, we need to take the above threats seriously and given the fact that we have already developed loitering munitions, we should speedily develop bird-drones for surveillance and for assassination for use against terrorists and the enemy.