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Counter-UAS News from Around the World
Continuing Maduro Coverage
Bloomberg: Venezuela Attack Highlights Vulnerability to Drone Assassins
The Atlantic: America Is Not Ready for Exploding Drones
GPS World: Venezuelan assassination attempt highlights need for UAV security
LA Times: Venezuela attack shows drones can become assassins. Here’s how they can be grounded
GCN: Army wants to improve drone awareness
The Army is building a system that will allow it to monitor drone traffic over Fort Irwin in California and Fort Polk in Louisiana. Drones serve a multitude of purposes on Army bases, including infrastructure inspection and search and rescue, according to Matthew Hitchon, a principal engineer of systems integration for Inter-Coastal Electronics, the firm working with the Army on this project. However, he said, there’s no “air traffic control or way to view where all of these drones are.” Tracking drones will require they carry a special piece of hardware that includes an LTE position location device and radio. The goal is to make a universal mounting for this hardware that can be placed on multiple drone bodies.
Homeland Security Today: Bioweapons Threat at Large Venues Could Come from the Sky, Fear Security Experts
Drones that can disperse bioweapons are a top worry for operators of venues hosting large gatherings — especially as regulations hamstring drone mitigation efforts and even knocking a suspicious unmanned craft out of the sky could inadvertently unleash a toxic payload such as anthrax spores. “Unfortunately in today’s environment, mass gathering events attended by large numbers of people may be considered a terrorist target due to a large concentration of people, symbolic nature of the event, high-profile attendees and increased media attention,” Lou Marciani, director of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at the University of Southern Mississippi, told the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense in Washington on Tuesday. “So terrorists and other violent criminals are placing significant emphasis on attacking soft targets.”
AUVSI: PIERCE AEROSPACE RECEIVES USAF SBIR AWARD FOR ITS REMOTE IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR UAS
Pierce Aerospace has received a U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research Grant award for its work on Flight Portal ID, a remote identification system for UAS. According to Pierce Aerospace, Flight Portal ID has received international attention for its “sensible approach” to solving the industry challenges of identifying UAS, including its recognition by the International Civil Aviation Organization last fall. “There’s nothing in the market today that readily allows all drone stakeholders, including the public, to quickly answer the question of ‘what is that?’ when a drone is overhead,” explains company CEO Aaron Pierce. “We’ve designed Flight Portal ID for ease of use — knowing that the general public needs to use it. At the same time, identification needs to work with police officers, air traffic control, and other drone operators.”
Marine Times: Marines increase ways to detect and kill air threats, from hobby drones to cruise missiles
As Marine units face evolving drone threats from terrorist organizations and at the same time shore up their air defenses against near-peer air attacks, a few key pieces of gear in the most recent defense bill could vastly strengthen overhead protection. Until recently, Marines tasked with taking down drones or short-range missiles had to link into a vast array of detection devices and then perform a practically 20th century task to take them out. Essentially, a Marine with binoculars scans the air for drones while another Marine zeroes in with a Stinger missile ― first fielded in the 1980s but upgraded since ― to shoot down what is often a few hundred dollars’ worth of a patched together, weaponized or surveillance-type commercial drone.
You Tube: Katana UAV combat flights
A sUAS prowls the Ukrainian countryside.
Drone DJ: Drone pilot fined $160 for flying UAV that hit baby in the face
On July 24 Cassandra Roberts took her one-year-old son Atticus to Crow Creek Park in Bettendorf, Iowa where her little one was hit in the face by a drone. A 19-year-old man from Davenport has since been identified as the drone pilot and was fined $160 for flying the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that his the baby’s face.
ABC 6: Drone protection following attempted assassination of Venezuelan president
Following the attempted assassination of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, drone dangers have been up in the air. After all, it’s hard to have security guards and body scanners protect us from the sky. “Those are designed for 2-dimensional threats, things moving on the ground, now as the average person has access to 3 dimensions through drones there is literally no security,” said managing partner of Black Sage David Romero.
Defense Blog: U.S. Army will blast UAVs out of the sky using microwave weapons
According to theFox News, the U.S. Army is planning to purchase a Counter Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS) from Lockheed Martin with the goal to “field UASs with payloads capable of negating adversary UAS,” the Army said in its solicitation notice. According to a pre-solicitation posted on 3 August, the U.S. Government intends to solicit and negotiate with Lockheed Martin, for high-powered-microwave (HPM) based airborne C-UAS, including the necessary development, integration and support required to meet the government’s performance requirements to field UASs with payloads capable of negating adversary UAS in in a timely and efficient manner.
CNBC: Modern burglars are bringing ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ tactics to your neighborhood
“It was like ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ just without Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon,” he said. It is also the wave of the future, according to security expert Don Aviv, president of Interfor International, a New York-based consulting firm. He said modern burglars are combining old techniques like physical surveillance with 21st-century tools, including the vast amount of information now available online through social media as well as subscription databases.
The Drive: French Secret Service Downs Drone Flying Near President Macron’s Summer Residence
According to Fstoppers, the French secret service (Groupe de sécurité de la présidence de la République, or GSPR) encountered and downed an unidentified drone flying near French President Emmanuel Macron’s summer retreat, the Fort de Brégançon this week, following the warranted, modern fears of drone technologies as democratized tools for terrorist activity.
The Straites Times: Threat from on high: Race on to bolster drone defences
From hand-held copters that zoom around the living room to high-speed craft offering the sensation of flying over the countryside, drones have won over legions of fans – and are proving a growing challenge for security authorities. Experts say models readily available on the market can easily be turned into a “poor man’s weapon”, a remote-controlled bomb or a means of filming a site in preparation of an attack. “This is going to be the weapon of choice for those who feel that they are technically outmatched in other areas,” said Todd Humphreys, an engineering professor at the University of Austin in Texas who specialises in drone research. Already the list of worrying incidents and close calls is long.
Haaretz: Russia Downs Drone Near Its Syria Air Base
Russia’s military said it had shot down a drone that came close to its Syrian air base at Hmeimim on Saturday and was launched from the Idlib “de-escalation” zone controlled by what Moscow calls “illegal military groups”, TASS agency reported. The drone caused no casualties or damage, and the Hmeimim air base is operating as normal, the agency said.