Summary: The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point published its “Sentinel” magazine for July 2025. This latest issue analyzes the use of drones in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the implications towards the terrorist threat landscape, as well as terrorist radicalization and other online activity.
Analyst Note: The issue’s featured article explores the impacts of the war in Ukraine on the potential for drone terrorism. Specifically, the article examines three of the most relevant drone types to counterterrorism—DJI Mavics, FPV racing drones, and Shahed-type long-range attack drones—whose “affordability, accessibility, and adaptability enable precision strikes, bypass traditional defenses, and democratize air power for state and non-state actors alike.”
The issue’s monthly interview is with Adam Hadley, executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, which works to disrupt terrorist activity online. He explains that despite the growth of AI, most terrorist activity online today is still “quite rudimentary. It’s sharing content, it’s having conversation, it’s looking for bomb-making materials, it’s doing basic ISR work.” Nevertheless, he cautions that unless Western society accelerates our understanding of AI tools, “hostile nation-states will overtake us, and the more sophisticated terrorist organizations will as well. It is a race against time.”
Another article examines six (foiled or executed) lone actor Islamist attacks in Europe since October 7, 2023. The author finds “a recurring radicalization pattern involving emotionally vulnerable, digitally native individuals exposed to algorithm-driven Islamist content in social media, but predominantly on TikTok.” He writes that a convergence of radical content and the normalization of extremist narratives online, particularly targeted toward susceptible youth, “has transformed contemporary jihadism into a fluid, networked, and increasingly aestheticized movement—one capable of inspiring violence not through clandestine training camps, but through swipeable videos, viral slogans, and online ‘tribalism.’” The last article examines the current threat from Somalia based jihadi groups.
Original Source: https://ctc.westpoint.edu/ctc-sentinel/
Additional Reading:
- (TLP:GREEN) Recent Congressional Hearing and a Research Report Examine the Increasing Drone Threat to the U.S. Homeland
- (TLP:AMBER) Government Reports Find Foreign Terrorist Organizations Continue to Release Propaganda Exploiting Current Events to Inspire Supporters to Conduct Attacks
Related WaterISAC PIRs: 1, 2, & 4
