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 …

[Anonymous Coward]

Time to get tough

"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 :)

[The Man Who Fell To Earth]

Posse Comitatus Act

Maybe Britain needs one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Posse Comitatus Act

Following our glorious military victory in Afghanistan we now declare war on fly-tipping ?

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

Re: Posse Comitatus Act

Given how badly the war on drugs failed, a war on fly tipping would probably lead to a stained mattress in every front garden in the land.

[Tom 7]

Re: Posse Comitatus Act

You dont need to fly tip these days, Set up an Amazon account and get them to throw your shit in people gardens for pretty much free.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Posse Comitatus Act

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.

[werdsmith]

Re: Posse Comitatus Act

Infrared cameras looking for the bright glow given off by attic-smallholdings.

[Falmari]

Re: Time to get tough

@AC "graffiti" Banksy, your days are numbered, 18 Brimstone is the number ;)

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

Re: Time to get tough

Good. Bloody vandal.

[MJI]

Re: Time to get tough

Fly tippers please.

They will dump anywhere.

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: Time to get tough

Littering, graffiti, fly tipping, spitting in the street and the fixed penalties they can issue, are big issues for most councils.

FTFY

[Spike of Bayswater]

Re: Time to get tough

Actually not. But don’t waste Daily Mail narrative.

[xyz]

Can't they just rent them out?

Amazon has been looking at using drones for years and these ones drop things, so perfect fit!

[IGotOut]

Isn't it obvious?

Put out you bins out on the wrong day.... BLAM! No more bin for you sunshine!

[EvilDrSmith]

Hope we don't get another lockdown

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)

[Arthur the cat]

Re: Hope we don't get another lockdown

I'm not sure if that's Derbyshire Police or Judge Dredd

I'm not sure there was much of a difference during the first lock down.

[Roger Kynaston]

Mrs Miggins?

Does she provide a slap up lunch in her pie shop?

[Anonymous Coward]

capable of being flown in the same airways as passenger airliners

Get a flight with ryanair - get shot down FOR LESS!!!

[Blofeld's Cat]

Er ...

Allegedly the drones are already equipped to deal with "Old Farmer's bin loading" or something like that.

[Anomalous Cowturd]

Re: Er ...

Well played, Sir.

This one's on me.

[macjules]

... can also mount aerial surveillance equipment

So you get a photo of the smoking crater where your car was recently incorrectly parked together with an £18,000 bill for the missile used to take out your car and the whole block surrounding it?

Moments like these need @RAF_Luton

[c3me]

Re: ... can also mount aerial surveillance equipment

Just the car, not the buildings - as demonstrated in Kabul when and aid worker and 7 children + the car were allegedly removed from the chessboard. :-(

[IceC0ld]

Local councils keeping an eye on 'Alans Snack Bar' methinks :o)

[s. pam]

Sill they be armed with…

Anti BMW & anti Audi lane hogging missles?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

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.

[Just Another SteveO]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

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!

[dirtygreen]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

The US is different though. It's legal there to overtake on the inside, with the result of considerably less stress all round. Contrary to the huff-and-puff here.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

"I'm not overtaking on the inside Officer, I'm maintaining a steady 60mph while the other lanes do 0 -> 90 -> 0 (repeat for hours)"

[Robert Grant]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

They drive on the other side, my intelligent friend.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

Those people hogging the middle lanes may not realise the left lanes are empty because they have covid related sight impairment and are on their way to Barnard Castle in County Durham to check out their eyesight

[Tom 7]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

Not done much motorway driving of late but when I used to have a camper van you couldn't safely drive it in the inside lane because the lorries had made a couple of ruts in the tarmac and the camper used to oscillate down them.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

"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.

[Missing Semicolon]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

Petrol's so expensive that traveling over 60mph is profligate folly, surely!

Of course, once the National Speed Limit is reduced to 50 "to save the planet" it will cease to be a problem.

Give it time.

[Anomalous Cowturd]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

"Of course, once the National Speed Limit is reduced to 50 "to save the planet" it will cease to be a problem."

They did it in the 70s, for the oil crisis, so there's nothing to stop them doing it again.

[Cederic]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

My car is more efficient at 70 than 60. Same revs on the engine, different gear.

Especially going past Sheffield. I drop from 7th to 4th to make sure I add as many diesel particulates as possible while going through their obnoxious 60 limit on the M1.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

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.)

[tiggity]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

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 )

[werdsmith]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

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.

Yes, nothing wrong with that. Perfectly legitimate driving.

[SEDT]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

With so many dash-cams out there I no longer undertake (much). And that's despite it becoming safer to do so with the new additional empty lane between you and those who needlessly occupy the penultimate right hand lane.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

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.

[Tom 7]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

Round here the youth cycle in the road because the pavement is blocked with parked vehicles/

[Boothy]

Re: Sill they be armed with…

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.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

New livery

Will they get a shiny new paint job for it's civilian work like the Boris Force 1 Voyager?

[Fruit and Nutcase]

From RIPA to Reaper

Don't give local authorities ideas - they used RIPA to check on school kids attending schools out of catchment area - what will they get up to with a Reaper

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: From RIPA to Reaper

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: From RIPA to Reaper

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

"What might they currently use aerial surveillance for?"

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "What might they currently use aerial surveillance for?"

Yes, there will be a lot of people really scared they can no longer make easy money destroying land, or take advantage of places where they cannot be seen easily....

[trindflo]

Re: "What might they currently use aerial surveillance for?"

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.

[John McCallum]

If local councils use their resources can we then get live updates on the location of the bin wagons then?

[Anonymous Coward]

@John McCallum

They could maybe do live broadcasts of people bonking outdoors. It would be a lot greener than having to drive somewhere remote in the hope of doing a spot of dogging.

[Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells]

Typical local council.

Trying to acquire a military that could fight off most non-G20 countries but can't roll-over a garden waste bin collection subscription.

[Geez Money]

"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?

[ThatOne]

> And why wouldn't you just use a much smaller camera drone

Prestige: You need to show you clearly and beyond dispute have a bigger one...

Just like with cars.

_{Says the guy driving a SUV...}

[JohnMurray]

Our local council

....uses civil enforcement officers to penalise car drivers stopping for a pee in a layby!

With an armed drone, they can penalise them with the death penalty and save all the court time...

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Ring Ring

Wing Commander, it's the Home Secretary on the line with the coordinates of a boat in the English Channel. Do we have a ReaperSky Guardian fuelled and armed that can be sent over?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ring Ring

You jest, but sadly flag-shagging gammons would be kremeing their kecks over just such a scenario.

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of you are interested

It looks like the are testing right now. As of 09:10

www.flightradar24.com

RAF Syerston.

Lots of vertical motion.

I think they need more work on the inviability cloak.

[werdsmith]

Re: For those of you are interested

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.

[trindflo]

inviability cloak

Nice.

[Alan_P]

Re: For those of you are interested

Yeah saw that too yesterday. It was flying around Lossiemouth and the Moray Firth, BBC has an article: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-58544715

[Winkypop]

No more conservatories outside permitted development

*** BLAM ***

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

[codejunky]

Hmm

To be fair if it can replace helicopter duties it should cut down on fuel usage for the police. Fly tipping has been mentioned a few times and would be a good reason to use these devices. Just hope nobody bombs a wedding

[Swiss Anton]

Berkshire council may have a use.

With appologises to the former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman

"Come, friendly Brimstone missiles, and fall on Slough! It isn't fit for humans now,"

[MooseMonkey]

Shame

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.

[seven of five]

Re: Shame

Have the poor lads from the army take over the country? From Greatest-Deal-Ever-Boris?

Don't you think suicide rate is high enough is high enough already?

[Slabfondler]

At what cost?

By that I mean how many £'s/hour to operate one of these?

[Andy The Hat]

Cynics!

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 ... "