A dangerous new world of drones

Psst: they're still talking only about military drones.... :shifty:


...oops, wait, they are onto the real danger now. :dead:

Oh dang! :o

The trick comes in hijacking drones. For the smaller off-the-shelf drones it's as easy as finding the right radio frequency but for complicated military drones it's a little bit harder. Note, I said little because it can still be done by a group of university researchers and/or by the Iranians:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18643134

So, when you can hijack a signal, you can block a signal. I would wager that around about now they are working on ways to block signals to drones, which can then be rolled into a system that blocks the operators signals and replaces them with your own. Thus turning the drone that was going to kill you, into a weapon you can use against the people trying to kill you.

Of course, such technology isn't going to be available off the shelf, but it will probably trickle down the systems of those in organised crime if drone warfare does take off in the cities, and also it will probably become available to law enforcement officers as well...knowing the way that equipment requisition in the forces happens, it will probably happen some time after the organised crime get their hands on it.

The problem comes when drones are used as 'suicide' weapons. Take a drone, load it with explosives, fit an impact trigger. Hover it at about 100 ft above your target and then cut the engines. Sit back and enjoy the fireworks. That could be a little hard to work against as you're not only having to override the control signal, you're having to do so before the drone hits the ground/roof/car/whatever.

Then again, this technology isn't exactly new:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...model-car.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_tracked_mine

And I'm sure that more people have used RC cars as tracked mines in wars somewhere. They would be daft not to.

Danke, although I was thinking more something like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...0px-Hyper8.jpg

with some remote triggered plastic explosive in it. Of course, you'd have to make sure the frequency of the detonator and the RC weren't the same otherwise it would be very embarrasing when you told it to drive forward... :haha:

That is a very impressive little bit of kit though, I did love some of the stuff that the Libyan freedom fighters were coming up with. Some very clever people there.

Imagine a robot the size of a bee with a bee's agility. Give it a stinger filled with a deadly poison and fly it into the neck of an unsuspecting victim. It'd be the ultimate in precision guided munitions. You could even watch the attack unfold from a bee sized surveillance drone sitting on a wall or tree branch nearby.

That's the next step I'd wager.

Funny, back in the 1990s there was a British TV drama called 'Bugs', it was quite good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugs_(TV_series)
One episode even had a Russian sub in it! :doh:

However, the episode I'm thinking of (and this being the internet, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ledDTfftpcA) had tiny 'seeker' darts which honed in on a targets DNA for the kill. There were also small explosives which were able to camoflage themselves when placed on a surface which they then stuck to. Can't remember if they were in the same episode or another one.

I knew I hated bees for a reason.

Well its still not too late to jump on the gold bandwagon, it would be a very smart move for anyone right now.

Israeli army fears drones will be used to hit strategic sites

Yes, I know this news item has already been posted.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24036964

Trust the Germans for flying-bomb innovation :D

I knew somebody was going to try that sometime!

Seems like a brilliant idea...but then, why do people fly model planes down the street?

Captain Hindsight to the rescue with ifs ands and buts.:up:

:har::har:

They could have at least put a pulse jet engine on it, for the full experience. :nope:

"We don't know where it's going to go...but it's gonna GO!"

:rotfl2: