Terrorist and enemy military threat from microdrones and UAV.
 

Good afternoon. I'm not sure if this thread has been done before, please feel free Mods to delete or move.
A while ago I was in the grounds of a private stately home. Catching my eye a smart car emerged, a table set up and I believe one of these was launched and flown. microdrones UAV - platform for aerial inspections, aerial video, aerial photography,

A very small,discrete remote controlled aircraft is how I would describe it. All in all it was up and about flying for perhaps 1 hour, landed then packed away and gone. I am guessing taking pictures of the big house and grounds. Or maybe just a jolly. I have to admit that although I have seen UAVs abroad, I had never seen one of this particular type before, and how actually good it was at what it did.

My guess is that these craft will become more and more available, and probably cheaper and mass produced.

I think it inevitable, seeing as we use them now for military use, that some people will eventually use them actually in Great Britain against ourselves, in a variety of ways.
My questions.
1. Is the threat from these craft acknowledged?
2. Is the threat taken seriously?
3. Could we counter the threat?
4. Is the RAF responsible for policing the skies against them? Or the local police?
5. is it practical for the RAF, now to form into defence units against them?
6. Am I over-reacting?

Fancy a debate?

I personally think that one day somebody will try and use these craft against us and ours. You are all intelligent people, put my mind at ease.Can we stop them?

I can imagine that people in the Herefordshire area have and are looking into the use of micro-UAVs for recce, surveillance and munitions delivery. It's a damn sight easier and more accurate than a close target recce by night, though an alert sentry may well be able to spot such a device fairly easily.

If we are using them then we must expect them to be used against us.

You can buy your own for £350 or build one to your own spec.

DJI PHANTOM QUADCOPTER in Stock with GPS Ready to Fly RTF by DJI Innovations - Quadcopters Uk official DJI Dealers for the Uk


Multi Rotor UK - Index

This one's even got Tom Cruise providing the backing music ;)

Don't worry ... effective countermeasure technology is available :ok:

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/r...irs/148067.jpg

Hat, coat ... door

Am I correct then in thinking anyone can simply buy and fly one of these machines as they wish?
Are you required to register them with say, CAA?
I mean do the UK authorities do that? Keep a track?

The stately home I mention above is regularly overflown at fairly low level by UK Mil and Civilian aircraft (on approach to their respective aerodromes and bases).
The UAV was up to a height of (I'm estimating) 300 feet.


Granted we are not Israel, but their methods pretty straightforward (and perhaps practiced) in dealing with them.(Video shows an F16 (I think) shooting one down with an AAM a year or two ago).

I wonder if we could realistically do this today in the UK, but I doubt if it is ever really been actually practiced by the RAF. I think perhaps it should be, and I stand to be corrected?

Small ROVs are already extensively used in several industries, notably broadcasting and film making as a cheap means of getting overhead shots. You'll occasionally see the shadow of one crop up in programmes like Top Gear for example.
I've no idea what their payload is and I'm not about to Google it but I'd imagine if they were going to be used to carry explosives it'd need to be done by someone with access to proper stuff rather than some radicalised buffoon with a pile of hairdressing products and fertilizer?

One of the Animal Lib orgs used one of these but unfortunately flew it over private property in the US during a shoot with predictable results.

The payload must be several kilo then if they carry cameras used in industry. When they use it they will probably obtain a small amount of plastic explosive, a small live camera for relay via net streaming, mobile phone and detonator or such. A flying IED. Terrorist emphasis will be upon surprise, accuracy and proximity to a target upon detonation and a defenders initial inability to counter.
It will come. In fact it has probably already been used somewhere.
I've no doubt our counter-lot have already thought this all through (a la Olympics and the air defence installations).
Is it a police job to defend against though, or RAF? I'm just interested, and I'm sort of surprised the RAF in an age of constant cutbacks, don't try and plug themselves a bit more here (turf protection for jobs and careers etc).

ANO
 

check out the ANO here.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP393.pdf

Even get kids helicopters with video recorder for less than £60.

These things are amazing - I actually thought they were thousands of pounds to buy.
I'm going to get one - for purely peaceful purposes if your reading this, spooks.

"and I'm sort of surprised the RAF in an age of constant cutbacks, don't try and plug themselves a bit more here (turf protection for jobs and careers etc)."

New stream available for RAF Regiment Recruits

"Shotgun shooting specialist" ;)

That six-rotor job with gimbal-mounted camera is impressive. Wonder what the control handset/transmitter range is and whether or not line-of-sight is required?

Waterborne threat
 

Wasn't there a similar topic to this on here, a few years back but as a part of a UAV debate? Or was it on E-Goat or ARRSE, where someone pointed out with a quote on 'further down the food chain' stuff gets passed down. The nightmarish scenario of a container ship / pleasure boat / sailing up the Thames (or any other waterway for that matter) and the bad guys letting loose a fair amount of MAVs with IED.

Chopper

Are you saying the bad guys use MAV's with IED's to sink the ships ?

Why not just use another high speed boat and ram it ? A lot easier and far more controllable both in terms of accuracy and detonation / effect.

The author of that topic / thread stated he thought that the ships used as a launch platform against cities and towns akin to a poor man's Tomahawk. As in couple of dozen of hundred or so MAVs / RC a/c lifting off and causing havoc and damage to people and property.

Speedboats can be sunk by GPMG or cannon fire from a helo, if caught :) as seen during Operation Prime Chance / Praying Mantis by certain units in North Carolina and Kentucky :cool::cool: and by the Flying Leathernecks finest.

Cheers

They use 2.4GHz spread spectrum. On a good day the range can be up to a mile or a little more.

You can get what they call 'first person view' where the camera on the quad transmits pictures back to a screen in your transmitter or goggles.

Bit of a monster