The government recently issued 300
Federal Aviation Permits for low level flying drones to be used by law
enforcement officers to find missing persons and people hiding in deep underbrush.
The infrared see-in-the-dark technology allows them to be used night or day.
Law
enforcement is also lobbying for radar transponders and clearance in populated
areas to avoid collisions with low flying aircraft.
The same technology used to take out
Al-Qaida is now being used by local law enforcement officers on American
Citizens. Sheriff Deputies are deploying them from the trunk of their cars.
This has raised considerable controversy and privacy questions.
US to supply ‘Shadow’
drones to Pakistan: Defense officials
[Ed. Note: India
is very nervous about this. India has Drones in the air now, provided by
Israel. One of the first Drones India purchased was a Harrop Suicide Drone (see
below for video). They have more advanced Drones in the air also. The US
supplying Pakistan with the Shadow Drone is the first step to either being
supplied with more advanced systems, or Pakistan altering the Shadow Drone to
carry weapons. Here's what is in the planning stages by the US Military for the
Shadow Drone, make it a Killer Drone, read below.]
New DOD Effort Arms Low-Flying
Unmanned Aircraft With Precision Weapons
The Defense Department is planning a new pilot program to arm low-flying unmanned aircraft with precision weapons, a move to emulate strike capabilities of higher-flying Predator UAVs that Pentagon officials believe could point toward an entire class of small, unmanned systems capable of killing targets they locate. U.S. Special Operations Command will launch in fiscal year 2009 a technology demonstration effort to equip Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles with laser-guided munitions, according to Pentagon officials. . .“We’re going to weaponize Shadow for SOCOM,” John Wilcox, director of the joint concept technology demonstrations office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Advanced Systems and Concepts shop, disclosed. “We’re also going to look at weaponizing a couple more small UAVs.” With one-to-five-pound weapons, these tiny killers could take out high-value targets — “or hold a target at risk until bigger and better operational platforms with more ordnance get onto the battlefield.”
The Defense Department is planning a new pilot program to arm low-flying unmanned aircraft with precision weapons, a move to emulate strike capabilities of higher-flying Predator UAVs that Pentagon officials believe could point toward an entire class of small, unmanned systems capable of killing targets they locate. U.S. Special Operations Command will launch in fiscal year 2009 a technology demonstration effort to equip Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles with laser-guided munitions, according to Pentagon officials. . .“We’re going to weaponize Shadow for SOCOM,” John Wilcox, director of the joint concept technology demonstrations office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Advanced Systems and Concepts shop, disclosed. “We’re also going to look at weaponizing a couple more small UAVs.” With one-to-five-pound weapons, these tiny killers could take out high-value targets — “or hold a target at risk until bigger and better operational platforms with more ordnance get onto the battlefield.”
