Air power has been one of the defining characteristics of US military supremacy for the last six decades. The ability to see what is happening, and strike at anytime and anyplace, has given us a unique advantage in every war, skirmish and anti-terrorist strike. The sheer cost and complexity of developing and operating military-grade aircraft and airbases, along with training pilots and equipping supply lines, has meant that no other country or organization has been able to compete for air superiority with us. However, our own enthusiasm for unmanned drone use throughout the middle east may have helped sow the seeds of a new challenger to our monopoly on air power — the DIY drone air force.

This week, ISIS — now the most feared terrorist organization on the planet — released video footage captured by an off-the-shelf drone of a Syrian military base it later attacked. It has been speculated that the video is from a $500 DJI FC40 model. While not exactly an air force yet — the caption on the video read “From the drone of the army of the Islamic State,” it is likely only a matter of time that well-funded terrorist organizations like ISIS find a way to stock up on these inexpensive items. Obviously, the utility of cheap, battery-powered, consumer-grade, drones is relatively limited — mostly to surveillance and target-spotting for now — but those aren’t the only drones being used by terrorists and small countries without traditional air forces.

US doesn’t have a monopoly on weaponized drones any more

Earlier this year, Israel used a Patriot missile to shoot down what it said was a drone operated by Hezbollah flying off its coast. Hezbollah said it didn’t own that drone, but that it has flown a drone — one that it assembled from an Iranian design — 35 miles into Israel. More recently, in July Israel shot down a Hamas-operated drone over Ashdod in southern Israel. Even more alarming, Hamas has shown video footage of drones armed with rockets, and says it has a design for others that operate more or less like a cruise missile.

According to Hamas, this video shows a rocket-armed version of one of its drones. Whether or not that particular video is for real, there is no question that the cat is out of the bag when it comes to easy access to air power. Gone are the days when US-led export controls could be relied on to keep sensitive military technology out of the hands of terrorists or un-friendly governments. There are too many places where this technology is developed, and it is far too inexpensive and accessible for simple embargoes to work. So while we labor to set up a rational regulatory paradigm for drone use in the US, it will also be important to figure out how their use will affect us worldwide.