Attack Of The Model Planes.
By Michael Reynolds | Related entries in News, Technology, The War On TerrorismThis is the kind of thing that sounds silly at first, but may not be:
PARIS (AFP) – It may sound like science fiction, but the prospect that suicide bombers and hijackers could be made redundant by flying robots is a real one, according to experts.
The technology for remote-controlled light aircraft is now highly advanced, widely available — and, experts say, virtually unstoppable.
Models with a wingspan of five metres (16 feet), capable of carrying up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds), remain undetectable by radar.
And thanks to satellite positioning systems, they can now be programmed to hit targets some distance away with just a few metres (yards) short of pinpoint accuracy.
Security services the world over have been considering the problem for several years, but no one has yet come up with a solution.
We have a prejudice in favor of hi-tech solutions. We spent a very long time, and a lot of money, worrying about ICBM’s and cruise missiles. We were hit with passenger jets, and in other locations with car bombs, IED’s and explosives-packed speedboats. If these remotely-piloted planes and helicopters can carry something the size of a mortar round, or an artillery shell, the enemy could launch what would amount to a highly precise artillery strike on the Pentagon, Capitol or White House.
If I were Osama I’d be Googling “remote-controlled planes.”
This entry was posted on Monday, May 8th, 2006 and is filed under News, Technology, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 8th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
I’m thinking that we will come with FM Jammers of some kind , which is what most of the remotes run on.
May 8th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
I suspect that with a 110-pound warhead, you wouldn’t have to degrade the GPS accuracy very much to make this essentially useless as anything other than an area-effect terror weapon.
May 8th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
I don’t see why this is an inherently silly thought (though I do see why it’s damn scarey).
Process control, anyone? Been around for a long, long, long time … .
May 8th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
This is rediculous, frankly. Al-Qaeda probably has the resources to get their hands on hobbyist model helicopters, not large payload-carrying drones. This is just yet another, “Oh, look! Yet another way for terrorists to strike us!” article. And there are far more effective, cheap ways of dealing destruction to be worried about.
May 9th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Charlie don’t surf!!
Osama don’t Google!!
What kind of idiots are you guys?? Why blow their money on some tech, which these clowns couldn’t care less about, when they have plenty of willing jihadis that are a hell of a lot smarter than some fault prone gizmo.
You assume these people don’t want to die for the cause. When costly high tech meets massivly available low tech, low tech wins. You bozo’s better watch out for hijacked gasoline tanker trucks and cell-phone detonated railroad tank cars.
May 9th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
I don’t think you can get to the White House or Capitol with gas trucks. Qaeda tried to knock down the Trade Center, failed, retooled and succeeded. They missed the Capitol in 2001, and I suspect they want to finish that bit of work. They have to top themselves, don’t forget, they won’t impress anyone if they just blow up some rail line. I think they still want New York and DC. Remotely-piloted planes would let them hit the WH directly. Incidentally, Hamas has already flown an RPV over Israeli lines.
May 9th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
This fringes on a specific interest of mine.
Suffice to say that the article, as far as it goes, is about 2 years out of date.
Example – 2 years back the first privately funded and publicised UAV flight from Newfoundland to Ireland. home site here.
Not bad for a bunch of old farts playing with toy airplanes!
They are “amateurs”. Given two watches with GPS capability (redundant backup) and feedback control systems, a lot can be achieved…