A team of British technology firms has created an anti-drone "death ray" that is capable of taking these machines down by disabling them from up to a mile away.

The increase in unmanned aerial vehicles has led to an interest in weapons specifically designed to combat them, according to The Guardian.

"If I can see it, I can kill it," said Rick Sondag, executive vice-president of Liteye Systems, which sells the device.

The main part of the "death ray," officially called the Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds), is a long cylinder that sticks out from the device like the barrel of a rifle and uses radio waves to bring down drones without affecting other devices that utilize them, such as cell phones or non-threatening UAVs.

Drones have been used to carry out a number of drug drop-offs around prison grounds and have also caused firefighters problems during natural disasters, Digital Trends reported. They have also caused problems around military facilities and nuclear power stations, according to the Daily Mail.

"There have been a number of dangerous or suspicious incidents involving drones in restricted airspace," said military expert Elizabeth Quintana from the Royal United Services Institute. "With the proliferation of drones, these problems are likely to increase in frequency."

"The Government and Civil Aviation Authority are looking into a variety of measures to mitigate these incidents which involve both technical solutions to spot the drones and deny access and also law enforcement options," she added. 

Liteye Systems believes that the market for drones will be very expansive, with applications in everything from airports to homeland security.