RAF chief: Our Reaper drones (sorry, SkyGuardians) stand ready to help British councils The Royal Air Force is set to start testing its rebranded Reaper drones in UK skies over the next few weeks – and senior officers are planning to make them available to local councils. Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, head of the RAF, made the bizarre pledge about local authority assistance in a speech announcing the …
"Exactly why the RAF would be assisting local councils with an aircraft capable of mounting 18 Brimstone missiles wasn't explained in CAS's speech"
Littering, graffiti, fly tipping and spitting in the street, they are big issues for most councils.
Some collateral damage maybe, with a few demolished buildings, but the town centre could do with some new buildings anyway, a fresh start, and providing work for local builders :)
I don't think so.
I think our existing legislation works just fine.
I once watched a [unarmed] policeman arrest a soldier for carrying a loaded weapon in a public place. The soldier wasn't some lunatic; he was following orders that hadn't been properly thought through.
Or Derbyshire Police will be on the 'phone to the RAF.
"If the Citizens refuse to behave even when we used the spy-in-the-sky, then we'll have to take more extreme measures."
(though having typed that, I'm not sure if that's Derbyshire Police or Judge Dredd)
Sadly, it's not just them any more. Since the first lockdown and large numbers of people not driving much, to a summer where going abroad was risky, time consuming and potentially exorbitantly expensive, we now have people who pre-pandemic rarely drove far, during pandemic barely drove at all and now are driving all over the UK on holidays and think the left lane is only for lorries and have taken out membership of the Middle Lane Owners Club.
It just isn’t the middle lane anymore - I regularly drive the M1 from London to Yorkshire, on the 4 lane stretches, the sheer numbers of morons sat in the 3rd lane from the left is shocking. Well, it was shocking, not any more.
No more public education messages on TV and no police enforcement other than by always on cameras (and only for speeding) means we’re moving towards a US freeway model with 3 or 4 lanes of parallel traffic vice ‘overtaking’ lanes. The only time I’ve seen the police over the last few months has been during an accident or using the road as a way to move around the county - normally in convoy. Never thought I’d say this but get them back on the roads enforcing basic driving standards!
"It just isn’t the middle lane anymore - I regularly drive the M1 from London to Yorkshire, on the 4 lane stretches, the sheer numbers of morons sat in the 3rd lane from the left is shocking. Well, it was shocking, not any more."
Yeah, I do Leicester to Leeds and back regularly too and yes, twats sitting in lane 3 of 4 at 60mph is definitely a thing too. If lane 4 is doing 65, I have been known to pass them in lane 1 at 70, with an empty lane 2 between me and the slow traffic.
My car is more efficient at 70 than 60. Same revs on the engine, different gear.
Yeah - I remember the old mantra of '50 is more efficient than 70'. Doubtless true for our 1966 Morris Minor (I doubt that it could reach 70!), completely untrue for our hybrid C-HR. That seems to have asweet spot at about 75 (although, like all hybrids, it's better with changes of revs rather than steady speeds for a long time.)
I'm in N. Derbyshire so typically join M1 just South of Sheffield at either 28 or 29 depending on what route \I take, join the "variable speed limit zone" at either junction - however, no matter how quiet the roads are, the limit is always set (at less than 70, obv)
Caveat, not tried it at 2 AM or similar as work does not involve silly hours of day travel (usually!) but daytime weekdays and weekends its always been set below 70 (sometimes fair enough when road busy, but often its WTF experience as roads quiet )
sheer numbers of morons sat in the 3rd lane from the left is shocking
Almost as bad as some of the yoof round here that are frankly baffled by the concept of cycling on the road as opposed to on the pavement[1]..
Kids cycling on the pavement I don't have an issue[2] with. But once they get big enough and experienced enough they *should* be on the road and leave the pavements to pedestrians and dog walkers[3].
A nice missile strike would recify the situation I think.
[1] "But where should I ride if I'm not allowed on the pavement" one whined to me as I wouldn't move myself and the dogs out his way.. He really didn't seem to comprehend that the road was usable.
[2] And I believe there is an explicit pernission in the Highway Code for it.
[3] It's not especially busy on the roads here except for 8:30-9am and 17:00 to 17:30. So I don't have an issue walking out into the road to give space for other people or kids. But I do object people trying to force me into the road so they can illegally ride on the pavement.
Not just the Highway Code, it's also covered by the Highway Act, i.e. in law.
So in the UK it's actually illegal to cycle on the pavement (unless it's designated as part of a marked cycle lane of course). So your example 'yoof' are potentially opening themselves up to prosecution and a fine.
Yeah, I can understand the Police using military resources at times to assist with operations, but Local Authorities? What might they currently use aerial surveillance for? Anything thing they'd normally need, I'd expect them to hire in the relevant commercial services, eg aerial photography or whatever. Military aerial assistance implies some sort of emergency and the emergency service, eg fire and police should be dealing with that.
Local authorities think they are more important than they are.
Incompetent, don't get me started, I've seen it first hand.
So much money wasted.
Underfunded, yes.
But if they had any idea of what the outside world works like they would offer 3 or 4 times more value for money.
Give them an inch (pea shooter) they'll take a mile (hellfire) to get you for stopping (not parking) in a car park. Fuckers.
Also, try getting in touch with them to complain...
My local council don't take phone calls unless legally obligated, e.g. noise nuisance.
Even then the call is not always answered.
Grrrrr.
For example find illegal buildings, dumps, pollution, etc - a commercial server may be more expensive and doesn't have the capabilities of this system. In many countries law enforcement agencies are using satellite images from Google and others to identify issue hard to catch otherwise. The government already spent a lot of money for this system - it's both training and make them useful.
For the record, I haven't supplied any downvotes, but you seem to have replied to yourself because of a downvote and might not see what you just said. To paraphrase: People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing.
Without writing a book on the topic, the problems with a totally open society / totally intrusive spying network are generally that it leads to abuse by tyrants that get control of it, and it promotes antisocial behavior as it gets used for personal vendettas.
It can be empowering for say an environmentalist to be able to study military level surveillance to find illegal mining or logging operations. If that also empowers the neighborhood scold to study the backyards, heat signatures, and personal records of all visitors to someone they don't like, then the price is too high in my opinion.
"Exactly why the RAF would be assisting local councils with an aircraft capable of mounting 18 Brimstone missiles wasn't explained in CAS's speech"
Clicked article exclusively for the answer to this question. Left disappointed. What possible bylaw enforcement use that doesn't violate privacy laws could these have? And why wouldn't you just use a much smaller camera drone instead of these monsters?
I really would love to see them, alas I see many aircraft but few exciting ones as I live under a final approach on westerly days. Once or twice I’ve seen an AWAC mushroom carrier using the ILS for training or calibration.
I hope these flying bots have ADS-B.
There have been unmanned, civilian-equipped drones flying over the UK for years. A work colleague, also a pilot, made reference to them giving off their transponder signals as is mandatory for a civilian operation.
Quite what they are doing is anyone’s guess, but police or home intelligence gathering seem the most likely objectives.
These comments are unfortunate, our Armed Services were the last branch of the government that didn’t seem to be run by utter twunts who were just in it for themselves. At one point this year, when the vaccine distribution needed to be done, I was all in favour for the army just taking over for a couple of years.
So many cynical conspiracy theory based comments.
The actual reason for these is that the Council refuse collection is so expensive the RAF bases are looking to dispose of their waste by literally fly tipping ...
Open brown bin? "Dump Leylandii clippings!"
Open Green bin? "Go with the officer's empty whisky bottles!"
Or was that the airspace of a council where the black bin is green and the green bin is black ...? Oh bugger, should have actually been the blue bin next to the orange bin with the dark green glass tray inside. "Prepare to jettison the apology note ... "
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