Tag drones

Well OF COURSE Drones Can Be Used As WEAPONS

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager Leave a comment

It’s rather insane that it took this long for the US Department of Homeland Security to issue a warning to law enforcement about the potential use of drones/UAVs as weapons or to further the criminal enterprise.  If you’re not familiar with the DHS bulletin, see this CBS News story.

For those of you who have been steady readers of mine, you can probably tell that I’m pro-drone.  However, just like anything else, someone is bound to adapt the technology for their own malicious purposes.  While we are still getting our act together in figuring out how to apply UAV technology for myriad good and purposeful things, there have been those out there trying to figure out how to use the same technology for advancing criminal and terrorist agendas.

Amazon and others want to use UAVs to deliver packages.  Well guess what –drug cartels will certainly be using them to deliver packages of drugs.  The US military uses UAVs to strike at terrorists in unfriendly territory.  Terrorists, criminals, or even your run-of-the-mill stupid people, can do the same.  Have you seen this article about a teen who mounted a handgun to a UAV?  UAVs are great for providing a birds-eye view of any situation, but when operating in a disaster environment they can’t impede responders as they did in the recent wildfires in California.

I have no doubts that terrorists somewhere, foreign or domestic, are playing with UAV electronics and explosives to determine how best to deliver those deadly packages.  As inevitable as it is, do we ban the use of UAVs?  Well we haven’t banned cars or moving vans, and both have been used to transport explosives.  The good outweighs the bad, so we have to figure out how best to deal with it.

The fact of the matter is that all well intended technology can be used for not so good purposes.  Does this mean we do away with the technology?  No.  Does this mean we do away with innovation?  No.  It does mean that we have to stay a step ahead of those who have ill intent or practice in stupidity.  Prevention, protection, and mitigation against these things is a constant challenge.  We now need to be aware of a new threat and address it.  It’s something we’ve done through time.  People built walls around their towns to protect themselves and their property from people and animals who would do them harm.  Attackers innovated and approached walls with ladders, so defenders built taller walls and other defensive technologies.  Today we use physical barriers to prevent vehicles from getting too close to buildings, locked doors to prevent entry, and cameras to monitor.  Perhaps the threat of an attack from the air will require other measures.

Has your company or jurisdiction considered the threat UAVs may pose to your interests?  What are your thoughts on deterring attacks?

© 2015 – Timothy Riecker

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS SOLUTIONS, LLC

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Progress with FAA with UAVs

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager Leave a comment

Tuesday morning I attended a panel discussion hosted by the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce focused on providing information to areas businesses about the FAA‘s selection of the former Griffiss Air Base/Oneida County Airport as one of six sites in the nation to test integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into commercial airspace.  The presentations were excellent, with efforts centered around the NUAIR Alliance, a conglomerate of public, private, and educational entities working toward testing airspace integration technologies and protocols, as well as various uses and applications of UAVs, including those for agriculture, commercial enterprise, and public safety. 

Interestingly enough, as mentioned by the panelists, UAVs, or drones as they are often referred, have been in regular use in other nations for years.  Japan, for example, has been using UAVs for agricultural applications such as spraying crops, for the last 10 years.  France, too, has been using UAVs for various purposes.  Here in the US, we largely face matters of regulation as the barrier to utilizing UAVs for non-military applications.  The FAA, who would enact these regulations, is largely looking at matters of safety related to the integration of UAVs into commercial airspace.  Researching these matters and making recommendations to the FAA through real life application is the goal of NUAIR.  Amongst the partners of the NUAIR Alliance are private firms who wish to use UAV technology for agricultural and commercial applications.  These companies, smartly, are now in on the ground floor of this technology in the United States.

With most drones being relatively inexpensive, this technology is accessible for both small farmers and large companies.  Amazon, the online retain giant, has already expressed interest in using UAVs to deliver packages.  As for public safety applications (I’ve written before about this), the possibilities are practically endless.  Those who have privacy concerns have little ground for blocking development of these life saving tools.  Current privacy laws, up to and including the US Constitution, already address these concerns and provide the foundation for UAV applications in law enforcement.  The new Fox show, Almost Human, which is set in the future, brilliantly displays heavy use of drones to track suspects and serve other law enforcement purposes which are better served with smaller, more agile UAVs rather than the piloted helicopters we use today.  These are faster to deploy and minimize human risk.  Thus far, the show has not displayed any use of UAVs with the capability to use lethal force.  Law enforcement aside, there are numerous other public safety applications.  A recent article about massive boulders crushing a farm house in Italy displayed images and video, reportedly taken by UAVs.  Consider similar technology leveraged for a missing person search or to gather information on the extent of a wild fire or damages from a tornado. 

The future of UAVs is exciting and I’m thrilled for the test grounds to be practically in my own back yard.  I’m looking forward to the first UAV sighting near my property as the NUAIR partners conduct tests.  Technology certainly is exciting!