back to article Reaper aerial killbots enlist mobile phones against owners

American Predator and Reaper unmanned flying hunter-killer robots will soon be equipped to track and listen in on mobile phones. The move is sure to be greeted with fear among tinfoil-clad bunker residents, but could also lead to calls for a no-nonsense enforcement campaign against noisy cellphone users in public places. …

COMMENTS

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  1. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    Terrorist?

    Ow! I said I was here as a *tourist* you cloth-eared electronic pillock!

    Yes please, just beat out the flames on the sleeves for me. Thanks.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    strewth

    < removes battery from mobile >

    not that I've got anything to hide officer..

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Question...

    If that drone in the picture is really a drone, then who is that brave soul pictured serving in the The War Against Terror (TWAT) signaling to?

  4. Peter Hawkins

    Just a thought

    In the accompanying picture, just who is the US ground crew directing his hand signal at .. ???

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    another

    terminator-esque weapon, feed my paranoia some more why dont you?

    thanks.

  6. gareth

    @Peter Hawkins R.E. Just a thought

    um i would guess the pilot sat behind a computer screen watching him via a camera mounted in the front. it kind of helps to be able to see where the drone is going when taking off and landing

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    @AC and Peter Hawkins

    The pilot. He's just not in the aircraft.

    Of course, all that could be just for show, to make you think there _was_ a human pilot....

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @Peter Hawkins

    Good point; yelling "Don't tase me, bro!" didn't even work with human beings. God knows what he hopes to achieve against a mechanical death machine.

    In other news, World doesn't think Terrorism is a real enemy, but is too busy watching XFactor to overthrow government.

  9. Gordon Pryra
    Black Helicopters

    Big scam

    So much for cutting edge tech.

    That photo prooves this is just one more of those "dwarfs in machines" scamms.

    Like the magical coca cola vending machines of the 1830's where "A fully automated thinking machine" handed out the beverage of choice.

    Looks like someone in the Pentagon is going to loose his job when they realise that, alongside fuel, the thing needs burgers and frys to fly

  10. David Ramsden
    Flame

    They're kidding themselves.

    The US is just fuelling this endless cycle, by pi**ing everybody off. They'll have no friends left soon. How long before SkyNet?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    the photo ...

    seems to show a brave member of the military trying to stop the killbot. What happened next? Was there a shootout? Did the drone deploy deadly damaging devices? Need more pics to tell!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    @AC,Peter Hawkins

    The guy in camo is signalling to the soft pink squidgy thing sat in a nice safe bunker somewhere, looking through the fancy (and expensive) optics aboard the UAV.

    Just cos these things can fly themselves around the world, don't mean they can park worth a damn! (Mind you, look what James Bond did to that Beemer they gave him that time...)

    On a lighter note, don't forget that the facial recognition systems in use in the majority of British shopping centres (to alert the rent-a-lpods to "undesirables") still boast about a 60-70% "guaranteed" accuracy rate - so as well as missing 30-40% of Bad Guys, that means it also 'hits' 30-40% of Non-Bad Guys... not too bad if it's just some mall rat with his nice uniform come to escort you from the premises cos The Computer told him you're really a hoody-wearing PFY[1], but not so good if it's Hal 2008 dropping a few million bucks-worth of laser-guided missile onto your location cos you were late paying BT[2]...

    [1]Always assuming you're *not* a hoody-wearing PFY, obviously :-)

    [2]Or complained about the BT/Phorm Alliance... wait, what's that noise overhea.........

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sorry wrong number

    I'm 01789111855 not 0178911185........ beeeeeeeeep

  14. ImaGnuber

    Tienamen Reaper

    Doesn't that photo remind you of the brave guy in the Tienamen Square photo? Kudos to the Reg photographer brave enough to get out there with him to get the shot.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Strafing with hellfires?

    Oooer, they made hellfires some kind of cheap disposable weapon fired in rapid succession now or something?

  16. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    Tinfoil

    "....The move is sure to be greeted with fear among tinfoil-clad bunker residents...." I'm sure Dick Destiny will soon have a piece telling us it's an invasion of privacy or the like to listen in to jihadi phone calls, they're all just innocent dupes being led astray by the nasty Predators drones, etc, etc.....

  17. ImaGnuber

    Short Gun

    As it has been pointed out that the guy is obviously waving at a dwarf hidden in the Predator doesn't this suggest a 'Top Gun' type cinematic treatment featuring, say, Tom Cruise? They wouldn't even have to build up the pilot's seat so that he could see out of the cockpit!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    function creep...

    You read it here first folks - these grim Reapers will be used to...

    - 'remove' cars parked on double yellow lines or overstaying their meter,

    - 'prosecute' people dropping toxic litter such as a sausage roll, and

    - to 'educate' parents who dare to want to put their kids in the best schools...

    But don't worry, it'll all be captured on CCTV for us to watch on Sky TV.

    Hilton because she wants to be caught being 'chastised' on TV

  19. Anonymous Bastard

    @Tienamen Reaper

    It reminds me of a scene in Austin Powers where someone gets run over by a steam roller very very slowly...

  20. Mike Powers
    Pirate

    We could use this in California

    ...to enforce the car-pool lanes. "SOLO DRIVER DETECTED IN CARPOOL LANE...DEPLOYING STERILIZATION WARHEAD..."

  21. Big Al
    Pirate

    Why don't they do this already?

    Given that the Russkies allegedly used triangulation on mobile phone signals to bump off a Chechen warlord way back when Chechnya was something that interested the press, why the hell has it taken so long to add a phone tracking capability to Yank drones?

  22. kain preacher

    @Mike Powers

    Screw the diamond lane.

    Wonders if he is the same mike powers in SF

  23. heystoopid
    Black Helicopters

    Hmm

    Hmm , that reminded me , must remove battery from Sat phone and wrap unit in copper foil so plane cannot passively bounce signal of its aerials for target practice !

  24. Aodhhan

    Airman...

    The airman is obviously letting the pilot know about the $5 foot-long Subway sandwhich special.

  25. Steven Knox
    Joke

    Contract

    "Northrop Grumman was pleased to announce last week that it had won a $54.9m contract from the US Air Force to fit the so-called Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) aboard the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper aerial wardroids. "

    Sounds like they got a pretty good deal on their cellphone contract, there.

  26. Eugene Goodrich

    You are all worry-warts

    This thing sniffs terrorist mobile calls, not regular ones. If you don't have a terrorist phone, which sets the T bit on its outbound voice-data packets, you've nothing to worry about.

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