Something New For SATCO ?

[CoffmanStarter]

Seriously ...

British Engineering Grads come up with an innovative anti-Drone solution ... Looks promising.

SkyWall 100 (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M6tT1GapCe4)

Probably best not use at Rotary Bases :E

[MPN11]

IME, SATCO needs something to capture speeding vehicles on the Manoeuvring Area, which might need to be bigger ;)


However, a useful step forward to combat the 'Drone Menace'.

[Could be the last?]

There's a long way to go before it is a reliable solution - range & accuracy still need some work! Recent trials were not that convincing, but there is potential.

[polecat2]

Looks like an updated Blowpipe - described by an army officer in the Falklands as "like trying to shoot a pheasant with a drainpipe"

[Pontius Navigator]

IME, SATCO needs something to capture speeding vehicles on the Manoeuvring Area, which might need to be bigger ;)
.
Easy, just get someone to ring around and say the RAFP are there with a radar gun. Works a treat, no speeding, no discip, no cost.

[FantomZorbin]

MPN11
What happened to the ATC Shotgun? ISTR we caught many low-flying rabbits!!

[Martin the Martian]

For the first 20 seconds I thought that video was a wind-up.

Interesting idea, and one I suspect that will be developed, until no doubt some enterprising soul comes up with some kind of jammer that unscrupulous drone operators will incorporate into their equipment.

[charliegolf]

"I got tone Goose, I got tone!"

CG

[charliegolf]

Woudn't a really small TOW be better? If the smart scope is that good, IT can do the playstation tracking bit. No?

CG

[uffington sb]

Shirley the drone operator would have spotted the black landrover hurtling towards his drone, the guy jumping out and assembling the SkyWall out a massive carrying case????

[Danny42C]

FantomZorbin,

What shotgun ? All I remember (on the six airfields I air-trafficked on) was a Verey Pistol.

More likely to be private property, I'd have thought - don't know how the (postwar) RAF would've reacted to that !

As for the drones, how about a (officially sanctioned) rifleman ?

Danny.

[Pontius Navigator]

As for the drones, how about a (officially sanctioned) rifleman ?

Danny.
Hessletine rules Danny - safety trace, stop walls, range safety officer etc. I am just surprised we don't have sandbag walls around points of entry to stop bullets fired by armed guards.

[FantomZorbin]

Danny42C


We had one (service issue) at Finningley when it was the home of the 'Tin-Triangle'.


Do you remember the insert for the Verey pistol that enabled us to use bird-scaring cartridges? When a cartridge was used in an unchoked 12bore the range was very impressive! Maybe that's why the use didn't catch on!

[scarecrow450]

We still have the bird scaring cartridge sleeve adaptor to use in a normal 70 odd year old very.
If we got this anti drone weapon we would be waiting a year for the regt to teach us the wrong way how to use it !

[Danny42C]

Fantom Zorbin,

Yes, our Vereys could fire a "bird scarer" cartridge. This mini-AA fired a small explosive charge fused to burst about 100 ft up, where it made a loud bang and a puff of white smoke.

Unfortunately our crows were very intelligent birds, and soon sussed out that the things were no more danger to them than the fireworks in the grass or on short sticks. They treated all such devices with contempt. (No, I don't really believe the story I once told about one old crow sticking two claws up to us !)

But the Tee Emm story of the horrible death of a wartime WAAF (she and a few lads were larking about with a Verey pistol in the Tower) is sadly true.

I could well see that a twelve-bore would propel such a cartridge much higher, but our Vereys were bored to a size much bigger than 12, so our service-supplied cartridges would not fit.

Danny.

[Danny42C]

scarecrow450,

Whether or not this new device is any good with drones, I can see SATCO and his merry chaps and lasses having no end of fun with one of these.

Suggestions, please !

Danny.

[Pontius Navigator]

Danny, from the balcony anyone sneaking off early.

OC Ops car.

RAFP dog. Make sure the doors are locked.

[MPN11]

The Upland Geese on Stanley airfield were generally unimpressed by the bird-scaring cartridges. I found a second round, very quickly after the first one, tended to wake the dozy b******s up, and then a quick third round might, on a good day, get them to move. Bloody nuisance, they were.

[Pontius Navigator]

MPN, a BDU 33 would get them to lift off but they flew a tighter circuit than the F15 and pancakes long before the next bomb.

[Wander00]

ISTR Black Mac kept a shotgun in the tower at Binbrook..................until there was nearly a nasty accident

[MPN11]

Wander00 ... that rings a bell :)

[I was detached there for a few months during his time, working their MPN11 truck].

[scarecrow450]

Drivers not stopping at the red lights ! That would be more fun than taking their driving permit away !

[Danny42C]

Wander00,

"Black Mac" ! (the terror of the studes at 203 (?) AFS Driffield in the early '50s)

D.

[CoffmanStarter]

Mind you ... Now Her Majesty has 'Banned' drones flying over her Sandringham estate (see The Times today) ... I suspect the DoE might be 'blowing a bit more smoke' through his trusty Holland & Holland should the need arise :}