Predators to the Rescue

Predators to the Rescue
Where Hurricane Katrina hit last year, the Air Force wanted to send in Predator drones, to serve as robotic spotters for search-and-rescue teams. The Federal Aviation Administration, still squeamish about drones flying in civilian airspace, negged the plan, however -- too much risk of a crash with a manned aircraft, the bureaucrats said. But a new deal between the flyboys and the FAA should allow the Predators to pitch in, the next time disaster hits. "A Predator would be limited to flying in restricted airspace at an altitude of 19,000 feet," Defense News reports. "Other aircraft would be expected to stay out of the Predator’s way." On short notice, the four disassembled [Predators] and their trailer-like control center could be loaded into a C-17 Globemaster III transport plane or on trucks and dispatched to the disaster region... From an airfield as far as 150 miles from the search area, a team of two pilots and two sensor operators would handle the Predators’ takeoffs and landings. Back at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., pilots and sensor operators would fly the search-and-rescue phase of the sortie and be in radio or phone contact with recovery operations workers. The Air Force uses a similar split operation for flights over Iraq and Afghanistan. In a disaster zone, Air Force tactical air control parties and others could use laptop computers hooked up to small antennas to view live Predator images and talk with the crews flying the aircraft. In addition to sending pictures from its thermal imaging and video cameras, the Predator can also determine location coordinates for rescuers. For example, the Predator can provide an approximate Global Positioning System map coordinate for anything it sees. At night, the aircraft’s laser spotter can mark areas for rescuers wearing night-vision goggles.

Pentagon Seeks Fleet Of Massive DARPA Spy Blimps

Pentagon Seeks Fleet Of Massive DARPA Spy Blimps
Hovering 12 miles up, airships will scan vast expanses
Steve Watson - Friday, March 13, 2009
The Pentagon has announced intentions to launch an entire fleet of giant 450-foot-long airships which will act as a massive airborne radar system providing perpetual surveillance of vehicles, planes and people on the ground.
The Pentagon said Thursday that it intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant dirigible that will operate on hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels, floating 65,000 feet above the Earth for 10 years, reports the LA TImes [2].
The airships will be around twenty times larger than the Goodyear Blimp, giving ground operators the capability of monitoring an area hundreds of miles in diameter at a time with surveillance equipment, such as high-resolution cameras, in addition to the football-field-sized radar antenna.
Although very large, the airships will be invisible to both the naked eye and ground radar because of their distance from the earth, hovering around 12 miles above the ground.
The craft would also operate beyond the range of any hand-held missile, many surface-to-air missiles and most fighter planes.
The airship, named ISIS (Integrated Sensor Is the Structure), no doubt after the Ancient Egyptian goddess [3], is being developed under an agreement between the Air Force and DARPA, the Pentagon’s semi-secret research arm.
Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force describes the airship as “constant surveillance, uninterrupted”.
“When you only have a short-time view — whether it is a few hours or a few days — that is not enough to put the picture together.” Dahm said.
The Pentagon has described the project as a tool to be used over urban battlegrounds abroad. But, like DARPA’S”Combat Zones That See [5]” project, there’s no reason ISIS couldn’t float over major cities such as New York or Chicago without anyone knowing.
A similar program known as WALRUS [6]was effectively killed off by Congress in 2006. However, the ISIS program has been floating around (pun intended) since 2004.
“We will apply this technology to track people emerging from buildings of interest and follow them as they move to new locations,” announced DARPA’s Paul Benda at a conference in March 2004 [7]. “Imagine the impact it will have if ISIS tracks the movement of individuals for months. Hidden webs of connections between people and facilities will be revealed.”
In 2006, reports [8] regarding the project resurfaced as DARPA courted defense contractors Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to develop the airships.
The Air Force has signed an agreement with DARPA to develop a demonstration dirigible by 2014.

Police use drone to spy on V Festival (Guardian, 21 August 2007)

Police use drone to spy on V Festival (Guardian, 21 August 2007)
Police used a remote-controlled spy drone to watch crowds at the V Festival, first time the technology has been used at a major public event.
70cm-wide flying surveillance device, fitted with high-res still an color video cameras, and infrared night vision capability, was used to keep tabs on people and gather intelligence.
The battery-operated drone’s four carbon-fibre rotors are so quiet they cannot be heard from the ground once it is higher than 50 metres, and at 100 metres it cannot be seen with the naked eye. It can fly 500 metres high. The vehicle, which takes off vertically, can be flown even when out of sight, because it beams images back to video goggles worn by the operator.

Use drones:
- Fire Dept – aerial view of buildings on fire for safest way to proceed
- The Olympics
- Firearm officers want to use in stand-offs with armed criminals.

MW Power, the company that distributes the technology in the UK, plans to improve the drone’s capability by adding a so-called ‘smart water’ spray – a liquid infused with chemicals that give each batch of the liquid a unique identity. It infuses one’s clothes and skin and could later be used to identify them.

No legal barrier preventing a private security firm or a paparazzo photographer from using the technology, but MW power said that it was only licensing the vehicle to customers from the military or emergency services. It costs less than 1k a month to lease.

Noel Sharkey – expert in robotics at University of Sheffield – worried about increasing use of robotic vehicles in military conflicts and policing.