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Drones around the White House

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Just like you could jam cell phone signals, you can jam the signals that control the plane. I'd presume the technology exists and that this has been thought of before. Drone appears on radar, click, a large band of frequencies are now "jammed."
 
Why is the president so important anyway? Its not like they aren't replaceable. The people who are more important are the generals and other people with the old knowledge that goes back decades. Attacking the president hurts the country's pride and sense of security, but it doesn't hurt the country in a material way.
Its almost like the president is a decoy or distraction to attract the attention of attackers so that the people with value are off the radar and better protected.

Also, any RC aircraft could hold a mortar round that could be released with a servo lever. That is very low tech by today's standards and would be a terrible attack, and would probably work.
A lot of these little ideas might work, but terrorists usually go for the big attacks, not this little toy stuff.

Also, I hope nothing like this happens in the near future. If it does, everyone in this thread will probably be visited by tall men wearing black trench coats and hats.
 
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Raizinman said:
Just wondering how the White House and other secure sites deal with remote control airplanes and drones? I know the payload on even some of the biggest remote control airplanes can be as much as 15 pounds, but 15 pounds of explosives can be quite deadly. How come there has not been any terrorist attacks using remote control airplanes or drones? Both are easy to purchase and fly? Just wondering what type of high level electronics they use to thwart these type of attacks.
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Guess who is on the Terror Watch List™ now. :awe:

You should know better than to ask questions like this in public.
 
DrPizza said:
Just like you could jam cell phone signals, you can jam the signals that control the plane. I'd presume the technology exists and that this has been thought of before. Drone appears on radar, click, a large band of frequencies are now "jammed."
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Which is wonderful for remote control, but what about pre-programmed paths?

Do people seriously think there's an in-place defense against a drone launched from a few hundred feet away from the white house with a programmed path?

So from launch of a vehicle on the street, to explosion would be maybe 10-15 seconds. Even if you had a minute notice, you'd have a hard time stopping it. Gonna just shoot it down with a pistol or rifle? Good luck.
 
Holy crap. They are talking about this right now on news radio LOL. This exact discussion ahaha. They say this is an actual major concern. In the past, someone flew a rotor copter and landed it at the German chancellor's feet! I found this article posted just two hours ago. They say drones with explosives are the biggest threat according to NYPD.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art....html?ITO=1490ns_mchannel=rssns_campaign=1490

My thought was that if someone is willing to do this, then why not just use a rifle and do it the old way? But with a drone, you can stay out of sight, avoid suspicions, and deliver a high explosive charge which increases chances of success with the attack. So yeah, its a real threat. People could do it.
 
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You do not really need a drone to do such an attack.

Large model helicopters have been around for years. As have been model airplanes with propeller. A large model airplane with propeller can easily create a hole in the door of a car. And i do not mean the window, i mean the door itself can be ripped open on impact. If anybody wanted to do such a terrorist attack, a model airplane can be very lethal.

But small size cameras with a pretty good RF distance have not been around for years. Sooner or later someone is going to try that, but i think security will shoot first at any model airplane, helicopter or drone and will ask questions later. They might even shoot down the one controlling the drone or model at sight.
 
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William Gaatjes said:
You do not really need a drone to do such an attack.

Large model helicopters have been around for years. As have been model airplanes with propeller. A large model airplane with propeller can easily create a hole in the door of a car. And i do not mean the window, i mean the door itself can be ripped open on impact. If anybody wanted to do such a terrorist attack, a model airplane can be very lethal.

But small size cameras with a pretty good RF distance have not been around for years. Sooner or later someone is going to try that, but i think security will shoot first add any model airplane, helicopter or drone and will ask questions later. They might even shoot down the one controlling the drone or model at sight.
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The difference is that you have 360 degree maneuverability with a drone, so it can dive and swoop and change direction almost instantly but is not as difficult to fly as a heli.

As far as jamming, I can think of ways were that would be of little use.

I think someone earlier had it right. People who would go through the trouble and take the risk of doing something like this are far and few between.
 
Hayabusa Rider said:
The difference is that you have 360 degree maneuverability with a drone, so it can dive and swoop and change direction almost instantly but is not as difficult to fly as a heli.

As far as jamming, I can think of ways were that would be of little use.

I think someone earlier had it right. People who would go through the trouble and take the risk of doing something like this are far and few between.
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True, a drone is more easier to fly because of the software fly by wire.
But i think that it all comes down to the quality of the live visual feed. If you cannot see where you are going it is useless. I can imagine that it will happen as more quality cameras with higher quality RF visual feeds become available at a low price. A hand grenade causes enough shrapnel to do serious damage at close range and is not that heavy to carry. A mechanism with a servo is easy made to pull the pin. I wonder why this has not been used in a movie before. If it happens, it is someone with extreme views in a rich country since it is not that cheap. I would expect to see it in Israel vs Palestine if cheap rockets where not easier to make. And Israel security forces will open fire immediately.
 
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William Gaatjes said:
True, a drone is more easier to fly because of the software fly by wire.
But i think that it all comes down to the quality of the live visual feed. If you cannot see where you are going it is useless. I can imagine that it will happen as more quality cameras with higher quality RF visual feeds become available at a low price. A hand grenade causes enough shrapnel to do serious damage at close range and is not that heavy to carry. A mechanism with a servo is easy made to pull the pin. I wonder why this has not been used in a movie before. If it happens, it is someone with extreme views in a rich country since it is not that cheap. I would expect to see it in Israel vs Palestine if cheap rockets where not easier to make. And Israel security forces will open fire immediately.
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They may not be cheap where you are, but for $1000 I can easily buy a long-range drone with payload capacity. There are things a whole lot worse than a grenade. Aerosol spraying comes to mind.

I wonder if drones even get a radar return for all the high-tech weapons to lock on.

3000 people in a the twin towers? How about an outdoor football game - cause a panic and then man the exit doors with a couple loonies with guns.
 
You dont need FPV - with GPS you can be in the suburbs and launch one program to climb to whatever altitude feet fly to your spot then.. Scary stuff.
 
Chances are one of the snipers on the roof of the white house would just shoot it down or perhaps try to find who is controlling it so they can coordinate a shot of the drone and pilot at same time. The entire block would be put under lock down until the FBI arrives to collect the drone and body of pilot and clear the area and try to make it look like nothing every happened.

It would end up on the news for a day as a suspicious object found on white house property and then never be heard of again.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Chances are one of the snipers on the roof of the white house would just shoot it down or perhaps try to find who is controlling it so they can coordinate a shot of the drone and pilot at same time. The entire block would be put under lock down until the FBI arrives to collect the drone and body of pilot and clear the area and try to make it look like nothing every happened.

It would end up on the news for a day as a suspicious object found on white house property and then never be heard of again.
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With GPS the Quadcopter can be flown autonomously you don't need a pilot. Program way points, launch and go about your day.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Chances are one of the snipers on the roof of the white house would just shoot it down or perhaps try to find who is controlling it so they can coordinate a shot of the drone and pilot at same time. The entire block would be put under lock down until the FBI arrives to collect the drone and body of pilot and clear the area and try to make it look like nothing every happened.

It would end up on the news for a day as a suspicious object found on white house property and then never be heard of again.
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You can launch it from your balcony and fly it from your couch.
 
Some of the new larger remote control planes have a camera built in and can have a range of 20 miles. If the plane was painted blue or white, depending on the type of sky and cloud cover, it would be almost impossible to spot until 5 or 10 seconds prior. I also tend to doubt that any sniper would be able to shoot this out of the sky. They might hear it 30 or 40 second prior, but if the color scheme on the plane matched the sky, they likely would not see it until 5 or 10 second prior.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Chances are one of the snipers on the roof of the white house would just shoot it down or perhaps try to find who is controlling it so they can coordinate a shot of the drone and pilot at same time. The entire block would be put under lock down until the FBI arrives to collect the drone and body of pilot and clear the area and try to make it look like nothing every happened.

It would end up on the news for a day as a suspicious object found on white house property and then never be heard of again.
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Snipe a drone at full speed? The ones built for speed hit 100+mph. One with a load would be slower, but even if you cut that in half it's stupid fast. You would need a shotgun, but I still don't think you would even detect it fast enough to do anything about it.
 
Phoenix86 said:
Snipe a drone at full speed? The ones built for speed hit 100+mph. One with a load would be slower, but even if you cut that in half it's stupid fast. You would need a shotgun, but I still don't think you would even detect it fast enough to do anything about it.
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Basic Skeet shooting is around 45mph and even idiots can make hits.
 
OutHouse said:
umm im pretty sure my sons foam electric R/C plane could not lift a 3.5 pound 60mm mortar round.
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LOL. I failed to specify. I mean fixed wing, traditional helicopter or the newer quad rotor type aircraft. They all come in sizes easily capable. Two traditional RC electric helicopters lifted a woman off the ground, like 15 feet up. The small RC electrics did that. Full sized woman. Not like Roseanne Barr full sized, but this was a full sized chick.
You attach a mortar round to the nose of an R/C sail plane, dive it straight down and let it explode on impact like its supposed to. So easy i'm shocked it hasn't been done yet.
 
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