DHS says it needs $100M worth of counter-drone tech to protect America The US Department of Homeland Security has revealed plans to spend more than $100 million on systems designed to take out hostile drones. While not a formal announcement per se, DHS published a notice Wednesday in its Acquisition Planning Forecast System, revealing its intention to acquire Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems ( …
"Army has even experimented with crashing an explosive-laden drone into an opposing airborne unit. "
Like the Ukrainians are doing day in day out. Difference is their drones don't cost a million dollars a pop.
They are also using them to clear mined roads by dropping a small charge next to the mine, flying off and then the charge detonating.
The drone that crashed into a firefighting aircraft was being flown illegally. A well publicized large fine might advertise how illegal it is to do that. I hold a Part 107 license in the US to fly drones commercially and the test for that is no joke. A good half of the questions are what's asked when testing for a basic general aviation license. Just like any pilot, I have to check NOTAMS and TFR's prior to taking off. Even if there are no notices posted and I see police or firefighting activity going on, I have to land (or not take off).
Possible drone attacks are now being used by parts of the Trump administration to go after wind turbines under the guise that they make detecting the drones much harder. While there may be some validity to this it's not like some modern RADAR systems can't determine the differences in motion between a wind turbine and a drone. I am curious as to exactly what size a drone has to be to produce a detectable return and I assume ground/water clutter would still be a much more usable space for drones to hide. Of course another big problem for drones using wind turbines for stealth is getting drone cancer and running into dead whale carcasses or huge piles of dead birds if they try to use clutter to hide. And yes wind turbines they do kill birds but domestic cats and sky scrapers kill a couple of orders of magnitude more.
Of course, Trump & his administration have many enemies and there are many undesirables: Blue cities, people who could be more caucasian, people who could be a good deal richer, the EU, Japan, women probably not to mention people who loudly complain about the Trump administration.
If Trump has no problem sending in the army and what might as well be his presidential army (namely the National Guard) into LA & DC, why would his use of drones to such places and against such, em, enemies be any different?
I remember the Big Drone Fear that struck last year, and which Dear Donald said he'd fix the moment he got into office. I haven't heard word one about it since January 20th, whether it's because <sarc>Donald solved the problem</sarc> or because he and his MAGA allies forgot about it.
Same thing with UFOs/ UAPs.
