Drone fiasco

What I find really stupid is the people criticising the government for not regulating drones.  Short of banning them, nothing they could do would stop this from happening.
Even banning wouldn't work unless they search every car.

What I find really stupid is the people criticising the government for not regulating drones.  Short of banning them, nothing they could do would stop this from happening.
Even banning wouldn't work unless they search every car.

Yes it is funny how the public reacts. It could be balloons or remote controlled cars on the runway. Perhaps the word "drone" is taken to be sinister.

Perhaps the word "drone" is taken to be sinister.

What happens when an aircraft flies into one is sinister....

They were appealing to any witnesses that had video footage good enough to identify the make and model so they could jam the signal controlling it. I think a jamming system is what they really need.  The military use ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) to disrupt the signals associated with guided missiles, and if this problem with drones continues then I can see major airports deploying something similar.

I also expect they will expand the 1km drone exclusion zone around airports to 5km in line with the USA practice.

I do like the idea of "killer drones" shooting down unwanted drones, using lasers, as described in this article, but interceptor drones using net technology already exist.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46639099

Security firms have also found a way of using "interceptor drones" that can lock onto a target, release a net and disable it in mid-air.

This type of system was deployed at the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February, and has been used by police in Tokyo for the last three years.

Lasers are another option: both the US and China have experimented with technology that can shoot down a device within seconds of locating it.

Engineering company Boeing has developed a high-energy beam that locates and disables small drones from several miles away. It is said to use infrared cameras that can work in low visibility, such as fog.

Earlier this year, China demonstrated a laser gun at a weapons exhibition in Kazakhstan. The so-called "Silent Hunter" was claimed to be effective in helping police intercept drones and other small aerial targets with "high accuracy".

"Sir, we have an unauthorised drone in the exclusion zone".  "Okay Smithers, release the drones."

via Imgflip Meme Generator

We don't have any details, but I doubt these drones are using any signal but GPS.  And they certainly cant block that.  Seems self evident that jamming signals at an airport is a bad idea.

I also doubt the bad guys will observe a 5km zone when they ignored all the current rules already. 

Maybe next it will be drones flying outside the airport and shining lasers at planes.

We don't have any details, but I doubt these drones are using any signal but GPS.  And they certainly cant block that.  Seems self evident that jamming signals at an airport is a bad idea.

Pre-programmed flight pattern?  Even so, GPS signals can be jammed. Military GPS signals are encrypted but can still be jammed.

http://mil-embedded.com/articles/securing-military-gps-spoofing-jamming-vulnerabilities/

A common misconception, however, is that a secure military GPS receiver is immune to jamming. “It’s easy to jam even the encrypted signal,” he adds. “Signals from satellites are so weak that even a one-watt to 10-watt jammer can deny GPS coverage for a large area of both military and civilian signals.”

A slight tangent - apparently the technology already exists.

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/strategies-stopping-rogue-drones-flying-illegal-airspace/story?id=59973853

The Mail is reporting that that they may have the wrong guy. Apparently he's just a nearby enthusiast who writes drone reviews. His profile says he likes "drones and planes".

Pre-programmed flight pattern?  Even so, GPS signals can be jammed. Military GPS signals are encrypted but can still be jammed.

http://mil-embedded.com/articles/securing-military-gps-spoofing-jamming-vulnerabilities/

I was thinking that you can't jam GPS at the airport because planes use it for everything. 

When I first heard this story, I thought it was a hoax and i am still only partially convinced.  I really think it could have been zero or one actual drones, and the rest pure hysteria.  People seeing birds, or even seeing drones in the sky because they really want to.  I won't make up my mind without more actual information, but I think hysteria is a real possibility.

Just saw video of the drone taken at Gatwick. So there was at least one.

The Daughter says that she knows people who work at archeological sites in the Middle East. At one of them they use drones to do scanning - and if they fly the drones too high, the jamming signals put out by whatever variety of insurgent/government forces is in the area whacks the drones and they fall like a rock out of the sky. Every now and then a "newbie" operator on the project flies a drone too high....

And they've just let the older couple they had arrested go, and are now offering a reward (50K?) for info.  I know I'm jaded, but I'm thinking there's some pimply-faced teen/twenties nerd boy out there in his mama's attic/basement who got some good video of the airport the other night, had his jollies, and is now laying low. If so, unless he does it again, they'll never find him. Until he posts the video somewhere.

I was thinking that you can't jam GPS at the airport because planes use it for everything. 

When I first heard this story, I thought it was a hoax and i am still only partially convinced.  I really think it could have been zero or one actual drones, and the rest pure hysteria.  People seeing birds, or even seeing drones in the sky because they really want to.  I won't make up my mind without more actual information, but I think hysteria is a real possibility.

The landing and takeoff systems used at airports don’t use GPS so that would not be a problem.

We don't have any details, but I doubt these drones are using any signal but GPS.  And they certainly cant block that.  Seems self evident that jamming signals at an airport is a bad idea.

Not true Jimbo, GPS can be very effectively blocked.  That's why in the military world we refer to it as Civil Navigation (CivNav). Because we use something similar but more sophisticated and way more difficult to block.  Tbh, most civil aircraft also don't rely on GPS...

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Pre-programmed flight pattern?  Even so, GPS signals can be jammed. Military GPS signals are encrypted but can still be jammed.

http://mil-embedded.com/articles/securing-military-gps-spoofing-jamming-vulnerabilities/

Which is why we normally use a best position overlay from multiple sources including civnav and encrypted GPS. The position is then continually updated using inertial navigation rather than a satellite based system.

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