from the they-always-want-to-be-watching-you dept.
Patrolling the skies these days is hard. There's so many options to choose from: traditional helicopters, new wide-angle surveillance planes, and even the more cutting-edge drones.
Each of these options has its drawbacks. Beyond the initial purchase price, well-tested helicopters typically cost at least hundreds of dollars per hour to send up. One-off surveillance planes are also not cheap, coming in at around $ 1,000 per hour. Drones, while very cheap, are problematic. Law enforcement needs a blanket Certificates of Authorization (COA) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and possibly a specific Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) each time a drone is used above 400 feet.
Enter a small Florida company now attempting to make snooping from the air both cheap and administratively easy. The Drone Aviation Holding Corporation (DAHC) recently announced that it had sold its second-ever "Blimp in a Box" ( http://www.droneaviationcorp.com/bib.html ) for local law enforcement purposes.
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Tuesday August 05 2014, @08:41PM
I figure these guys missed the episodes of Batman; where Riddler has the blimps all rigged with explosives.
Security theater, meet Complete Surveillance, meet Attack vector..
(Score: 3, Funny) by present_arms on Tuesday August 05 2014, @09:13PM
Keeps off your lawn :)
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by strattitarius on Tuesday August 05 2014, @09:22PM
Wiki - Army Balloon Corps [wikipedia.org]
Basically they tethered a hot air balloon and sent them up with a telegraph so the Union could see Confederate troop movements. It all started because the ballooner, Thaddeus Lowe, was captured by Confederate soldiers after he went off course. They thought he was a spy. He convinced them that he was not so they released him. He then took up spying for the Union just as he was accused of.
My kid likes the Berenstain Bears books and I think they do the same thing... give him ideas on how to act up. I now select which books he can read based on what trouble he has already been in.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 05 2014, @11:44PM
After the Battle of Chancellorsville, whereby the blimp service completely missed 60,000 Confederate troops who made a surprise flanking movement to send 133k Union troops running, the blimp contract was not renewed.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday August 05 2014, @09:23PM
No, really? Whodathunkit?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Spook brat on Tuesday August 05 2014, @09:49PM
The DEA already has a tethered blimp stationed south of Ft. Huachuca, AZ. Rumor has it that there is a bounty on its destruction being offered by the drug cartels; must not be high enough for anyone to bother, since the thing is still flying. I wonder if it's made by the same company referenced in this article.
My take on this situation: The AZ installation anecdotally isn't 100% effective at stopping illegal foot traffic in the area. Also anecdotally, there's amazing response time on the part of the DEA to anyone getting near the tether base (similar to rumors about Area 51). This is being reported about an installation over a fairly flat desert.
I don't see how well this would work for an urban environment. The platform would be able to see the street directly underneath itself, and some distance along a street it's directly over; other than that it's blind. Is there any utility in having it watch the rooftops? I can't imagine much crime happens on the roofs instead of the alleys. It would need to be dirigible to be useful. Given that it's dirigible, how is it more palatable to the FAA than a steered drone? You'd have the same issue of it taking up air space.
From the related articles [arstechnica.com] it seems their target isn't dense cities, it's more suburbs like Compton, CA. The company mentioned in the other article wants high-altitude positions so that they can over ~64 sq. km, but according to this article the FAA is restricting them to 500ft and no steering. That's going to take a lot more balloons, cost a lot more, and require many more operators.
Given that this whole concept is screaming to be declared an unconstitutional violation of 4th amendment rights I hope it never sees more daylight than it already has. I'm comforted that (for now at least) it's poor financial outlook will keep it from being rolled out.
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 05 2014, @09:58PM
Also already used by the US military to protect their bases in Afghanistan.
It's a lot easier to see a few guys move around those remote regions than to follow a specific Camry in L.A.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 06 2014, @03:43PM
> Rumor has it that there is a bounty on its destruction being offered by the drug cartels;
> must not be high enough for anyone to bother, since the thing is still flying.
Or they've subverted the guys operating the blimp so that only the competition gets caught.
Seems like there would be very little to stop a quad-copter loaded with C4 from landing on top of the blimp and blowing a big hole in it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ancientt on Wednesday August 06 2014, @04:59PM
Power failure results are significantly different, particularly with a tethered vehicle.
You may not like it, but it is time to assume that anything you do outside is subject to being filmed and possibly displayed publicly. The only places you have an expectation of privacy that the courts seem inclined to uphold are in the bathroom, in your own home and *maybe* in your own business.
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(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday August 05 2014, @09:51PM
Thank God nobody has whipped out the handy-dandy, "Oh the Humanity!" line. Drives me nuts. Zeppelins make a lot of sense in a lot of applications, and that one stupid line has prevented it all. At the same time, hundreds of 747s crash but nobody runs around with their knickers in a twist, wailing, "Oh the Humanity!"
Personally I would love to see fleets of zeppelins take over point-to-point cargo transportation and double as travelling wifi hotspots to end-run governments and companies cough *Comcast* cough that try to cripple the Internet. Think, instead of cargo containers that you have to transfer from semi to train to semi to ship and back again to get from point A to point B, you load the suckers onto one zeppelin and go directly where you need to, no runway required.
Also, surveillance and scientific study would benefit because you can dwell so long with minimum energy expenditure and without stuff like Somali pirates or marine fouling happening to your ship.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 06 2014, @12:25AM
Seems like a blimp would be pretty easy to shoot down.
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Wednesday August 06 2014, @05:32AM
these have been in continuous use since the civil war. modern ones have very powerful sensor packages including IR, Radar, super-HD cameras, and all sorts of other classified crap.
http://www.stripes.com/spy-blimp-surge-needs-more-helium-1.156180 [stripes.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 06 2014, @07:47AM
What gas are they using? When helium becomes more expensive we might be stuck with using hot air and/or hydrogen.