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posted by martyb on Monday January 28 2019, @02:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the In-USA-UAVs-watch-YOU! dept.

The Pentagon deployed drones 11 times throughout the 2018 fiscal year. That's the same number they deployed from 2011 to 2017 combined. The drones varied from civilian drones to military strike aircraft, and they were used for disaster relief, reconnaissance and everything in-between.

New data published by the Pentagon has revealed when drones were used, what they were used for and how long their missions lasted. Over half of the missions fell under the "Defense Support of Civil Authorities," which only became viable this year after the Secretary of Defense removed oversight requirements.

[...] In total, there were three year-long missions and eight short-term missions which lasted an average of three months each.

Hellfires helping homefires between disaster relief and reconnaissance?

Don't forget to register and license those homebrew hoverers, hmmm?


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday January 28 2019, @04:49PM (5 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Monday January 28 2019, @04:49PM (#793080) Journal

    So how exactly were the uses of these drones performing law enforcement / execution of the laws of the country and states?
    Oh, they weren't. Which means the Posse Comitatus Act has nothing to do with this particular story, as it rare does with any support activities of the defense department. And to the contrary you can find instances (look up the Wikipedia article) where armed forces were directly used in law enforcement and found to be violations of said act.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 28 2019, @08:49PM (4 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday January 28 2019, @08:49PM (#793217)

    What I actually find remarkable is that there were only 11 deployments of all types of drones, less than one per month, in a country with a population over 350M... that's incredible restraint, IMO.

    As for:

    how exactly were the uses of these drones performing law enforcement / execution of the laws of the country and states?

    Back in the 2012 timeframe I worked for a small drone company which provided a service to local law enforcement, giving them aerial intel before they SWATted a drug house. Again, that count of 11 seems vanishingly small if uses like this are included.

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    • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 01 2019, @09:23PM (3 children)

      by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Friday February 01 2019, @09:23PM (#795191) Journal

      I wonder about that count as well. I'm thinking training missions must not be counted, as I'm sure they do training in the U.S.....

      But the execution part: Providing strategic or tactical intelligence isn't arresting anybody - the actual execution of the law. Posse basically says the armed forces shall not be used to make arrests / act as cops. Hence a bunch of MPs got into trouble when they started directing traffic and assisting law enforcement in an actual enforcement capacity.

      Now if the drone launched a missile at the drug dealer's house, different ball of wax.

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      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:31AM (2 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:31AM (#795271)

        They did fit a small grenade to one of those drones and test fire it - managed to kill a pickup truck: engine block and both (simulated) occupants. Then the government proceeded to award the multi-million dollar development contract to their preferred contractor whose plane couldn't hit the target.

        But, no, never did that kind of work for local law enforcement, that I know of.

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        • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Saturday February 02 2019, @02:09PM (1 child)

          by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Saturday February 02 2019, @02:09PM (#795391) Journal

          It's really confusing, though, when any platform can be used for multiple purposes. Only law or procedures stops crossing the lines then. (Thinking of the Philiadelphia MOVE bombing back in the... 80s?)

          But thinking about it, the good old Huey is used by many, many government agencies including firefighting, and it can be easily configured as a gunship. (OK, fine... Blackhawk, then. Same difference and lordy I'm getting older....)

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          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 02 2019, @10:12PM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday February 02 2019, @10:12PM (#795482)

            2 guys in a pickup truck with a bed full of grenades can do an astounding amount of damage before anybody would have a chance of stopping them...

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