We have renewed interest in drones when two of them blew up in front of the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, making him look like a wimp in front of a video audience of millions. He looked panicked, not concerned. Whoever did it achieved an objective of sorts, though that objective may not have been to kill him.
Many people have been killed by drones, and we seem to forget about that when discussing drones in the commercial sense, those small ones that are controlled by one person who can see what the drones cameras sees in a very tight window of flight. U.S. drones are big, fly long ranges and strike with missiles that rarely miss once locked on. So, these are two different types of aircraft.
We have not yet done much about drones, when there is plenty that can be done. These things are line-of-sight, though manufacturers are working on some that are not. The FAA hasn't even gotten the ink dried on new regulations for drones and it will have to change with these new drones. But drone defenses are already coming along with the prototype drone that loiters looking for other drones. The Israelis have recently shot down another drone from Syria that was larger than the ones Maduro faced. Good thing for him the drones were not bigger.
This is certainly an area that cries out for study committees in the military departments that can craft defenses. We did this with IEDs and some of those efforts were very helpful. The Maduro drones were not effective, but they were a warning. The US needs to start testing some drone defenses that work before we have these things attacking all kinds of targets we wish were better protected.
No comments:
Post a Comment