THE HAGUE, May 23 (Xinhua) -- A Dutch police eagle will serve to take down rogue drones at the upcoming NATO summit in Brussels, reported Dutch news agency ANP on Tuesday.
The trained eagle will be on standby in Brussels in case drones are flown in unauthorized airspace, said ANP.
Government leaders and heads of state from members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including U.S. President Donald Trump, will attend the Brussels summit on Thursday.
Last week, when football club Feyenoord fans were celebrating winning the Dutch league, a drone-disabling bird was on duty in Rotterdam.
Rogue drones are nuisances when they invade sensitive airspace and private property. When used for criminals purposes, they pose security threats. Training predatory birds to hunt robotic prey has been on the agenda of Dutch police for years.
On Jan. 31, 2016 the National Police Corps released video footage of an indoor demonstration which showed an eagle grabbing a hovering quadcopter drone in its talons and flying off with it to a corner of the training ring.
In another video of an outdoor demonstration released last October, a trained eagle hit down a drone flying towards a group of people standing on the street and keep guard when the drone fell to the ground.
Experts involved in the project called the drone-disabling bird "a low-tech solution for a high-tech problem" by relying on the animal's instincts. The eagle reacts to the drone as it would to its prey -- grab it while in flight and take it immediately to the ground.
