Coming Soon: The Drone Arms Race

[harvey007]

Source: New York Times

AT the Zhuhai air show in southeastern China last November, Chinese companies startled some Americans by unveiling 25 different models of remotely controlled aircraft and showing video animation of a missile-armed drone taking out an armored vehicle and attacking a United States aircraft carrier.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/sunday-review/coming-soon-the-drone-arms-race.html

[sad sally]

1. Americans are going to be subjected to drone surviellance very soon.

Now some will scoff at the idea, but to my tinfoil hat thinking, it's not inconceivable that this Ft Drum exercise might take the drones out of the 50 mile zone - say 300 miles further - to keep track of the Occupy Wall Street happening.

Reaper drones to fly out of Drum
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Oct 7, 2011 7:21:48 EDT

FORT DRUM, N.Y. — Unmanned Reaper drones are expected to begin flying training missions out of Fort Drum as soon as the Federal Aviation Administration gives the OK.

The MQ-9 Reapers will be confined to restricted military air space within a radius of 30-50 miles of the army installation in northern New York. FAA approval is expected within a week.

Air National Guard pilots from the 174th Fighter Wing at Hancock Field in Syracuse will remotely control the flights. Maj. Jeff Brown of the 174th says the plan is to fly just one Reaper at a time for now.

The Reaper is used for intelligence-gathering, combat search and rescue, and ground attacks. Army officials say the pilots will randomly pick out targets such as buildings and vehicles to observe during the training flights.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/10/ap-reaper-drones-...

Is the following story more proof drones will be spying on Americans? What next?

But by 2013, the FAA expects to have formulated new rules that would allow police across the country to routinely fly lightweight, unarmed drones up to 400 feet above the ground - high enough for them to be largely invisible eyes in the sky.

Such technology could allow police to record the activities of the public below with high-resolution, infrared and thermal-imaging cameras.
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One manufacturer already advertises one of its small systems as ideal for "urban monitoring." The military, often a first user of technologies that migrate to civilian life, is about to deploy a system in Afghanistan that will be able to scan an area the size of a small town. And the most sophisticated robotics use artificial intelligence to seek out and record certain kinds of suspicious activity.
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Overseas, the drones have drawn interest as well. A consortium of police departments in Britain is developing plans to use them to monitor the roads, watch public events such as protests, and conduct covert urban surveillance, according to the Guardian newspaper. Senior British police officials would like the machines to be in the air in time for the 2012 Olympics in London.
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Military studies suggest that drones have a much higher accident rate than manned aircraft. That is, in part, because the military is using drones in a battlefield environment. But even outside war zones, drones have slipped out of their handlers' control.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/22/AR2011012204111_3.html?sid=ST2011012204147?du

[hack89]

2. Not needed - cameras on lamp poles and tall buildings work better in cities

tall buildings and narrow streets limit the field of view of aerial sensors. Much easier to network standard surveillance cameras - they can look into the shadows and alley ways.