Showing posts with label Drones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drones. Show all posts
Sunday, February 27, 2022
Russian Invasion of Ukraine -- Cyber & Drones?
Russia did a slow, methodical build-up of troops and equipment along the Ukraine border with Russia and Belarus that seemed to take at least 6 weeks. I would assume the US knew this was happening in November or December. I completly doubt that anyone in the US Government, or military really believed that Russia was just doing this as an "exercise."
I believe Putin was "testing the waters" to see what sort of reaction he woud get from the US and NATO. The US and NATO could have (and I believe SHOULD HAVE) responded in force by deploying massive amounts of troops, weapon systems, and aircraft in the nearby countries, such as Poland. Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The US and NATO has not done such an exercise for decades. NATO should have also set up medical centers and refugee processing centers in advance. I'm not sure why the US wouldn't our couldn't establish a no fly zone over Ukraine. We have done it in other parts of the world that were not part of NATO.
I just finished reading the fall edition of Air Force Magazine. As retired USAF, I was very interested in the articles describing the space force, Cyber warfare, and drone modernization. I hope the US Cyber experts were attacking the Russian forces in some way to cause chaos. I'd think that the space force would be working to turn off or jam the Russian GPS system and space communication. I also would think that we would be able to use or help the Ukranians use drones to decimate the Russian tank force. On 60 minutes tonight there was an episode that talked about "The Grid" and it said that Russians had the power to damage our electrical grid. We've heard that they also have the ability to damage the Ukranian's "grid" -- I wonder if the US has done the same to the Russian grid? After all, Russia and Russian trolls interfered with US elections on multiple occasions
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Legislation to control the use of Drones.
San Diego has a lot of vested interest in Drones, and it makes sense for San Diego to consider setting up a drone test area as described in this article Drone Test Area This could be somewhat controversial, however the overall issue of Drones is much more complex.
The State of California is having problems passing legislation to put controls on the use of drones. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/28/bills-aim-to-protect-privacy-as-drone-age-dawns/ SB15 was introduced in May by Sen Alex Padilla, AB1327 was introduced by Jeff Gorrell in the Assembly. (http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/aug/04/states-consider-regulation-of-drones-in-us-skies/) However, as of mid August 2013, legislation is having problems getting supporg: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/aug/18/tp-state-may-balk-at-limits-on-drones/.
Most other states are also attempting to write legislation to control the use of drones: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/aug/04/states-consider-regulation-of-drones-in-us-skies/
However it appears to me that we need some Federal legislation that could provide an umbrella for all states to embrace. The Federal legislation could include "model" laws for the states to adopt that would allow state-to-state consistency.
I usually agree with ACLU positions -- but I'm not sure I agree with them here. The ability to test Drones by establishing a safe range for them, doesn't seem to connect to their fear of loss of privacy. The drones could probably be tested over the ocean also -- restricting test ranges doesn't seem to directly connect to loss of privacy.
There has been a lot of controversy over use of Drones. Here is a Union Tribune "panel" discussion about drones: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/apr/05/UT-politics-panel-discusses-drones/ Most of the panelists are concerned about allowing law enforcement to use drones. There is little discussion about allowing citizens or businesses to use the drones.
Also a lot of the concern about drones rightfully seems to focus on airspace. However not much is mentioned about the bandwidth space. There is discussion about making it illegal to "shoot" at drones, presumably with guns, however nothing mentioned about jamming drone control signals or jamming video data that might be relayed from the drone.
The Supreme Court apparently ruled that we own airspace up to 83 feet above our property, but between there and 500 feet where FAA has control is still not controlled. So if Drones stay within that 500 ft limit they are not within the FAA jurisdiction
I believe that one rule the FAA should consider is that all drones must be registered and all must have a standard transponder that squawks a unique IFF code. It might even be possible to require the IFF code transponder to be integrated into the control channel. It could also require a standard GPS data reporting along with the squawk, so everyone will be able to know exactly where it is. Then all citizens could buy a device that would tell them if a drone is overhead by monitoring the RF channels for the IFF code. If they have complaints they can record the IFF code and report it to the FAA.
The Supreme Court apparently ruled that we own airspace up to 83 feet above our property, but between there and 500 feet where FAA has control is still not controlled. So if Drones stay within that 500 ft limit they are not within the FAA jurisdiction
I believe that one rule the FAA should consider is that all drones must be registered and all must have a standard transponder that squawks a unique IFF code. It might even be possible to require the IFF code transponder to be integrated into the control channel. It could also require a standard GPS data reporting along with the squawk, so everyone will be able to know exactly where it is. Then all citizens could buy a device that would tell them if a drone is overhead by monitoring the RF channels for the IFF code. If they have complaints they can record the IFF code and report it to the FAA.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Drones at home raise fear of surveillance society
I believe we need a serious set of laws for use, licensing, operation and sales of drones. The laws are needed to help control the spread of the technology, and to protect our citizens against incursions on our privacy and freedoms.
Drones of all sorts are a wonderful technology for so many applications by companies, military, and police. They are inexpensive, and can be a "force multiplier" for small military or police forces to allow them to do so much more. However they are a two edged sword, that can end up hurting us. If these same drones were in the hands of terrorists, they could spread diseases, plan attacks against civilian targets, or actually deliver bombs to targets. If our government agencies use the devices to track citizens, it can help them catch "bad guys" but it could also be misused by them to blackmail, "fish" for reasons to arrest political opponents, or simply violate the privacy of citizens. How can we control them?
This Associated Press article was in North County Times this week: Drones at home raise fear of surveillance society: It states that thousands of drones will be patrolling the US skies by the end of the decade. I think this is very conservative -- I would say 10s or 100s of thousands of drones may be patrolling by that time, if there are no other controls. How will we know that the use of drones will be controlled. Are we to assume that we are always under surveillance? Will we be made aware of drones? Will we be permitted to have "anti-drone" technology, such as jammers, dazzlers, or drone warning devices? Or will they be made illegal? For example, when radar speed detection devices were given to the police, many states and cities tried to make radar detection devices illegal. I'm not sure that making them illegal is constitutional, but I don't think it was ever truly tested in the courts. Just like the "watchers" feel they have a right to watch, I believe citizens have the right to "watch back" and to be permitted to use technology to detect when they are being "watched."
There are techniques to detect if a camera is being pointed at you. Those devices are used in movie theaters to detect people who may be trying to video record a movie. Could citizens use those devices to detect drones overhead? Or would they be made illegal? If someone used one of those devices they could inhibit an important criminal surveillance activity. It could also damage the delicate imaging sensor on the drone. If a citizen tried to jam
Ryan Calb wrote an article in March 2012 Wired "Drones, Dogs and the Future of Privacy" which pointed out that the FAA is allowing more drones and requiring licenses, but is resisting attempts to release the names and organizations who are licensed to use Drones in the US. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center have tried to sue the FAA to get the list of users under the freedom of information act. However they have been unsuccessful so far. So the Government already is trying to "hide" the use of drones, and are restricting the use by civilians. I suspect that this trend will continue, don't you? Of course the government doesn't want the "bad guys" to know that they are under surveillance, that could cancel out a lot of the benefits from using them. However it could also protect the rest of the citizens from mis-uses of the technology.
This article in the LA Timse today Drone makers urge U.S. to let them sell more overseas points out the difficulty of containing the technology. US manufacturers have restrictions on sale, but China and Israel are selling them to anyone. So if some day Israel is attacked by drones, I don't think they will be able to complain, since they are undercutting our restrictions on sales of these weapon systems to other countries.
It appears that almost anyone can build their own pretty sophisticated airborne drone, let alone water or land vehicles. There was a recent excellent article in Wired Magazine ("How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom" ), by the editor, Chris Anderson, who runs this web site: http://diydrones.com/ -- It is clearly a wonderful hobby to build and use these devices, and they are being used more and more for all sorts of purposes. The sophistication of the drones has grown along with the sophistication of hand held smart phones -- They have inertial navigation, gps, cameras, and all sorts of other wonderful features.
Drones of all sorts are a wonderful technology for so many applications by companies, military, and police. They are inexpensive, and can be a "force multiplier" for small military or police forces to allow them to do so much more. However they are a two edged sword, that can end up hurting us. If these same drones were in the hands of terrorists, they could spread diseases, plan attacks against civilian targets, or actually deliver bombs to targets. If our government agencies use the devices to track citizens, it can help them catch "bad guys" but it could also be misused by them to blackmail, "fish" for reasons to arrest political opponents, or simply violate the privacy of citizens. How can we control them?
This Associated Press article was in North County Times this week: Drones at home raise fear of surveillance society: It states that thousands of drones will be patrolling the US skies by the end of the decade. I think this is very conservative -- I would say 10s or 100s of thousands of drones may be patrolling by that time, if there are no other controls. How will we know that the use of drones will be controlled. Are we to assume that we are always under surveillance? Will we be made aware of drones? Will we be permitted to have "anti-drone" technology, such as jammers, dazzlers, or drone warning devices? Or will they be made illegal? For example, when radar speed detection devices were given to the police, many states and cities tried to make radar detection devices illegal. I'm not sure that making them illegal is constitutional, but I don't think it was ever truly tested in the courts. Just like the "watchers" feel they have a right to watch, I believe citizens have the right to "watch back" and to be permitted to use technology to detect when they are being "watched."
There are techniques to detect if a camera is being pointed at you. Those devices are used in movie theaters to detect people who may be trying to video record a movie. Could citizens use those devices to detect drones overhead? Or would they be made illegal? If someone used one of those devices they could inhibit an important criminal surveillance activity. It could also damage the delicate imaging sensor on the drone. If a citizen tried to jam
Ryan Calb wrote an article in March 2012 Wired "Drones, Dogs and the Future of Privacy" which pointed out that the FAA is allowing more drones and requiring licenses, but is resisting attempts to release the names and organizations who are licensed to use Drones in the US. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center have tried to sue the FAA to get the list of users under the freedom of information act. However they have been unsuccessful so far. So the Government already is trying to "hide" the use of drones, and are restricting the use by civilians. I suspect that this trend will continue, don't you? Of course the government doesn't want the "bad guys" to know that they are under surveillance, that could cancel out a lot of the benefits from using them. However it could also protect the rest of the citizens from mis-uses of the technology.
This article in the LA Timse today Drone makers urge U.S. to let them sell more overseas points out the difficulty of containing the technology. US manufacturers have restrictions on sale, but China and Israel are selling them to anyone. So if some day Israel is attacked by drones, I don't think they will be able to complain, since they are undercutting our restrictions on sales of these weapon systems to other countries.
It appears that almost anyone can build their own pretty sophisticated airborne drone, let alone water or land vehicles. There was a recent excellent article in Wired Magazine ("How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom" ), by the editor, Chris Anderson, who runs this web site: http://diydrones.com/ -- It is clearly a wonderful hobby to build and use these devices, and they are being used more and more for all sorts of purposes. The sophistication of the drones has grown along with the sophistication of hand held smart phones -- They have inertial navigation, gps, cameras, and all sorts of other wonderful features.
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