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Russians Capture Cigarette-Smuggling Drone

posted by Woods on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the computerized-capers-create-cautious-cops dept.

AnonTechie writes:

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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  • (Score: 1) by gishzida on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:49PM

    by gishzida (2870) on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:49PM (#44629) Journal

    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

    by Reziac (2489) on Saturday May 17 2014, @12:59PM (#44630) Homepage

    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.