Flying robot attack 'unstoppable': experts

Flying robot attack 'unstoppable': experts



Electronic Devices : May 07, 2006
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The Yamaha RMAX G1 unmanned helicopter equipped with the YACS-G system that uses a high-precision GPS unit to detect altitude and speed and control all rudders through a computer. Dimensions: 3 m rotor diameter.It may sound like science fiction, but the prospect that suicide bombers and hijackers could be made redundant by flying robots is a real one, according to experts
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The technology for remote-controlled light aircraft is now highly advanced, widely available -- and, experts say, virtually unstoppable. Models with a wingspan of five metres (16 feet), capable of carrying up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds), remain undetectable by radar.
And thanks to satellite positioning systems, they can now be programmed to hit targets some distance away with just a few metres (yards) short of pinpoint accuracy.

Security services the world over have been considering the problem for several years, but no one has yet come up with a solution. "We are observing an increasing threat from such things as remote-controlled aircraft used as small flying bombs against soft targets," the head of the Canadian secret services, Michel Gauthier, said at a conference in Calgary recently. According to Gauthier, "ultra-light aircraft, powered hang gliders or powered paragliders have also been purchased by terrorist groups to circumvent ground-based countermeasures."

On May 1 the US website Defensetech published an article by military technology specialist David Hambling, entitled "Terrorists' unmanned air force". "While billions have been spent on ballistic missile defense, little attention has been given to the more imminent threat posed by unmanned air vehicles in the hands of terrorists or rogue states," writes Hambling. Armed militant groups have already tried to use unmanned aircraft, according to a number of studies by institutions including the Center for Nonproliferation studies in Monterey, California, and the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies in Moscow.

In August 2002, for example, the Colombian military reported finding nine small remote-controlled planes at a base it had taken from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

More @ http://tinyurl.com/ohlxc physorg

I don't get it! These little planes, choppers, and missiles aren't silent and they don't fly at the speed of sound. Most of them don't exceed 20 to 30 mph. Small arms fire can and will shoot them down or I can't see why you could not use some sort of jamming device to send them astray.

Now of course if your going to use one as a terror weapon you might have something, however they cannot pack a huge payload. Then you would have to know how to use a GPS and so on. Most of the terrorists in the world are lucky to even read their own language.