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posted by
Woods
on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:51AM
from the computerized-capers-create-cautious-cops dept.
from the computerized-capers-create-cautious-cops dept.
Russian border guards near Kaliningrad "detained" a low-flying drone entering the country from Lithuania last week. According to a spokesperson for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), it wasn't on a spy mission-it was smuggling cigarettes. The autonomous aircraft, which had a four-meter (13-foot) wingspan, flew close to the ground following GPS waypoints and released cigarette cartons from its cargo bay at designated drop zones. When captured, it was carrying 10 kilograms (about 22 pounds) of illicit cargo.
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Russians Capture Cigarette-Smuggling Drone
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(Score: 1) by gishzida on Saturday May 17 2014, @11:10AM
Put a high power microwave "gun" on it with something that listens for the radio signature of a drone. [I don't know if drones have a radio signature but I imagine they do leak EM radiation since they have to 'phone home']
Hear the signature, point and click. The microwave pulse will fry the drone's receiver.
Of course to do so would make you an enemy of the state responsible for the drone [the US is not the only one flying them]... tho' I'd imagine that were you to do this to a US drone you'd get put near the top of the hit list.
As for a "shoot down" like the article? Shooting down a Mexican Mafia shipment or as in this case the Russian Mafia will significantly reduce your life expectancy as they don't particularly like it when someone attempts to cut into their profits and they don't have any kind of "moral imperative" other than to survive and make a profit at any cost. [Sound like any other entity in modern society?]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:37PM
Actually that sounds like a good way to silently and undetectably do away with drones... would be durn hard to pinpoint when the drone just disappears off the airwaves. Of course if there are multiple drones... but if we've let it get that far, we're already screwed beyond salvage.
Yeah, going after a rival mob's drones might elicit more response than you can handle... unless you're the government, the biggest mob of all. I'm wondering to what extent this incident stems from "Hey! My bribe didn't arrive!"
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1) by gishzida on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:49PM
Actually yes they would know when and where it went down. Think about it. For a "MilSpec" class drone, the data stream back to home base will probably include the drones current GPS coordinates, speed and direction... when the signal disappears that's there they start looking...
Even if the drone only phones hope every few minutes the know characteristics of the vehicle and its last known position would tell you the maximum distance it could have traveled [that's one of the tricks they used to narrow the MH370 flight to the southern Indian Ocean].
You take a shot at someone's drone you better be long gone when the backup search and recovery team arrives.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:59PM
There is that, if it's a stationary attack -- but depending on the range of the attack it might be an unmanageably large swath of ground, unless they stage a fullscale invasion.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Saturday May 17 2014, @09:34PM
Sounds to me more like a great way to bait your rivals/criminal targets. Down the craft, and wait for them to come collect - until somebody comes to claim it, you don't really know who's running the thing. Replace the cargo with an IED (or a disguised tracking module, if you're the gov't) and you're set to profit nice and tidy.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday May 17 2014, @10:05PM
Haha, yes, sounds like a great way to bait the trap...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.