Concerns raised over Shahed kamikaze drone listings on Alibaba — they featured AI guidance to lock onto ‘people, building, vehicles, ships, etc’

Alibaba has removed the listings that were highlighted by ABC news.

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Chinese eTail giant Alibaba has removed listings and suspended the accounts of sellers that were found to be advertising “cruise missiles” and “suicide attack drones.” Australia’s ABC News uncovered the concerning sales of several one-way attack drone models, some of which looked strikingly similar to the Iranian Shahed design , others with a cruise missile profile.

The Alibaba “commercial” listings touted the drones as “pesticide sprayers,” or for “aerial mapping”.

However, ABC dug into the product catalogs to confirm the Shahed-a-likes were “suicide attack drones” capable of carrying 2kg (4.41 pound) warheads for distances up to 100km.

Moreover, with their thermal imaging and AI guidance, these devices could "achieve autonomous locking of targets (people, building, vehicles, ships, etc.)”
These kamikaze drones would not be casual impulse buys.

ABC reports that the listing prices of the cruise missile style drones were approaching $50,000.

If that sum was reported in Australian dollars, it equates to approximately USD $35,000.

ABC continued to look closely through the various supplier catalogs it found from the Alibaba suppliers.

One of the China-based suppliers offered five kinds of "suicide attack drones" with two having near identical dimensions and specs to the Iranian-made Shahed 136, says the news report.

Drones inhabit a twilight dual-use segment of the commercial landscape.

Many can quickly and easily be adapted for peaceful purposes or war duties.

An Alibaba statement received by ABC News, was clear, though.

The online retailer stated that it “strictly prohibits the sale of military weapons.” It also acted quickly to remove what it characterized as non-compliant third-party listings.

Talking to a handful of the suppliers, the Australian news organization saw that the sellers generally didn’t care what the drones they sold were used for.

For example, one of the retailers contacted shrugged “After the customer makes a purchase, what they use it for has nothing to do with us.”
Is the delivery what you expected?

Importantly, just because these kamikaze drone adverts exist, it doesn’t mean that the advertisers would actually ship these exact products.

We reported on overclocking expert De8auer falling victim to fake metal exporters on Alibaba recently.

That transaction meant €40,000 down the drain, and orders delayed.

Who knows what you would have got if you ordered a Shahed-a-like before the listing was removed?

We’d imagine it would be difficult to complain and get any recompense from a Shahed lost in the post, or after receiving a tiny replica, or another scam item.

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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware.

He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

Notton said: “After the customer makes a purchase, what they use it for has nothing to do with us.” Pretty much.

The internet started off as a military invention, as did jet engines, rockets, GPS, radio everything, etc.

Though if you want to put it on a controlled device list, it's up to the local governments to enforce some kind of regulation on it.

Like in my area, you have to buy a civilian drone license, register your drone's serial number, and download a map of where you can fly it.

txfeinbergs said: Pretty sure if you were going to use it to kamikaze someone, local regulations would not be much of a concern for you.

Notton said: I think the main hurdle in that use would be acquiring explosives because you have to register to even acquire the base materials in most areas.

Kinetic alone is unlikely to be useful.