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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 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.