Pentagon Documents the Military's Growing Domestic Drone Use (zdnet.com) 36
New data on the Pentagon's domestic drone use documents 11 missions during the 2018 fiscal year. That's up from 11 missions over the entire span of 2011 through 2017, as noted by Dan Gettinger, co-director of Bard College's Center for the Study of the Drone. ZDNet reports: Most of the military's 2018 missions fell under the category of "Defense Support of Civil Authorities." That meant responding to requests from the governors of California and Oregon for support during last year's wildfire season, as well as helping the South Carolina National Guard with its Hurricane Florence flood response. Defense Department drones were also on call throughout 2018 to provide Southern Border support for a regiment of the Army. In 2018, the military also used its unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in three cases to provide Defense Department installation and airspace support. It also responded to a request from the governor of New York for support during an emergency response training exercise. And for five months during the fiscal year, it used drones to support the US Customs and Border Patrol's counterdrug operations.
They are just looking to the future (Score:2, Insightful)
With the upcoming Fascism, the military will mostly serve to keep the masses under control. They see that clearly and are preparing for that mission.
Military (Score:2)
The police already have actual assault rifles, armored assault vehicles, and grenade launchers. Why would you need the military?
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Well the police get this hardware from the military so the military is the justification for getting these tools created and training on them.
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The police already have actual assault rifles, armored assault vehicles, and grenade launchers.
Those weapons require police boots on the ground, police need to get up close, and things get "messy". Despite what you might think, some police will feel a little "squeamish" when ordered to fire a grenade at a criminal.
With a drone it's not so up close and personal . . . more removed, like a computer game . . . so killing is "cleaner".
And for five months during the fiscal year, it used drones to support the US Customs and Border Patrol's counterdrug operations.
Well, there's our solution to The Wall Problem right there: Who needs a real wall, when we have a "Drone Virtual Wall" . . . ?
Actually my solution to the problem would b
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More people to shoot rioters. Also, the police is local and may have some residual respect for the population. The military does not care.
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OK, let's play a game. I'll name a socialist country I'd be happy living in, and you name a fascist one you'd be happy living in. I'll go first: Norway.
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Norway isn't "socialist". They rely on their capitalist system to finance their social programs. The usual term for this is social democracy. Someone who advocates for this is a social democrat.
In any event, even if you were to term Norway "socialist" for strange branding reasons, unless your country sits on huge reserves of oil and gas and has a tiny population to actually care for it is not much of a realistic model.
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When are you moving?
FUD (Score:2)
Using drone to help civil authorities during a wildfire, hurricane relief, or National Guard training exercise.
And I like how TFA shows a drone armed with missiles; those are useful for fighting a wildfire I suppose.
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And I like how TFA shows a drone armed with missiles; those are useful for fighting a wildfire I suppose.
What, you never heard the saying "Fight fire with Hellfire Missiles"?
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Every network is decrypted and the raw product finds its way back to local law enforcement.
The US mil looks at everyone approaching the USA from another nation.
Local law enfacement like the "legal" support they get from their Fusion centers (~US mil) about the movements and communications once such people enter the USA.
Vast datasets to track people from their own nations and all over the USA once they enter/use
As long as they're not armed, cool. (Score:4, Insightful)
Unarmed drones are just sky cameras - fairly cheap, and basically a slightly different shade of the other sky cameras we have in the form of satellites.
As long as they're coordinating with the FAA, and validly serving the public interests rather than doing it for income or favors to third parties, I'm generally cool with it. It's actually a relatively cheap way to keep those folks busy and maintaining a large-scale force of pilots and software that would likely be useful in future intelligence-focused hot zones.
Armed drones on the other hand have WAAAY too many forms of major liability - from theft, to crashes, to irresponsible use, to accidents even with responsible use. I say don't even have them installed with hard points to install weapons, and make converting them to armed drones require several forms of permission and emergency confirmation at the least - and even then, that's more the job of the police during emergencies.
If you want to train with armed drones, do it in simulations, or rarely in the desert in existing ordinance testing zones. Don't risk the liability of using them anywhere near populated areas or in any kind of unrestrained use - that's way outside the military's realm of responsibility.
Ryan Fenton
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>>So you're OK with warrantless surveillance?
It already exists from public spaces - like with satellites or various police/traffic cameras. No warrant needed, therefore warrantless surveillance.
In cases where a warrant would be needed - like flying to places that the FAA wouldn't permit anyway - then no, I'm not OK with that.
I'm sure there's also some loopholes I wouldn't be OK with - but as far as what the article mentions about using them for fire fighting or similar unarmed public interest uses, s
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Wouldn't it be better to let the firefighters have their own drones instead? The military drones are not designed to track and put out fires.
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The US mil watches a lot of people globally once they show an interest in the USA and seek a way to enter the USA.
Some use fake documents, some enter with correct documents and a very fake story. Some just wonder into the USA at random locations as illegal migrants.
Once the person watched enters the USA illegally as an illegal migrant/with a fake life story that crime is the start of legal US law e
Drones (Score:2)
may be handy in the elimination of police high speed pursuits. They could either track or target the vehicle...
Drones could also be useful in surveillance of high crime areas that have not deployed sufficient camera coverage.
Not that anybody would ever take advantage of drones for their own personal/political gains.
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1. An expensive mil jet with cabin pressure and a lot of tracking and detection that cant be detected as its flight path is in one direction and it looks like any normal mil flight. Collect it all over a state, city like over any US global war zone.
Cost and crew make that a unique mission as to not show who/what was collected on. Police methods cant show the origins of such mil flights in open court.
2. A smaller aircraft with a lot of the same equipment. Mo
DC (Score:2)
Around the DC / Northern Virginia area, I occasionally see military drones flying at night.
(Yes, that's what they are. I'm an aircraft pilot and I know what I'm looking at.)
I've seen them at very low level flying above the road, and also flying around on military bases that are bisected by public highways. At first you think it's a helicopter until it gets close enough.
Big surprise...