biomorphic micro air vehicles to spy/kill (bzz)

[Ed Jewett]

How the Air Force biomorphic micro air vehicles will spy and kill unnoticed

Gizmodo 02/08/2010
According to this video from the Air Force Research Laboratory, Micro Air Vehicles will be more like robotic birds with spy and attack capabilities, capable of blending with the environment. Not only these things would be able to position themselves to perform long-term surveillance duties, but they would be enable to engage enemies individually, attacking humans with incapacitation chemicals and even explosives.
http://www.nextgov.com/web_headlines/wh_...swire_home
I thought the Micro Air Vehicles would be small hovering robots but, according to this video from the Air Force Research Laboratory, they will be more like robotic birds with spy and attack capabilities, capable of blending with the environment.
Not only these things would be able to position themselves to perform long-term surveillance duties, but they would be enable to engage enemies individually, attacking humans with incapacitation chemicals and even explosives. The future is going to be a lot of fun. [Design World Online]
http://gizmodo.com/5466620/how-the-air-f...-unnoticed
The U.S. military has been working for a while on tiny, buglike drones — to serve as miniature flying spies, Defense Department robot-makers say. But this video, from the Air Force Research Laborat... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSS29-THbyY&feature=player_embedded# 4.5-minute video


Flashback to this item from Citizens for Legitimate Government:

'The investigation doesn't list what kind of bug it was.' Military says 'large insect' distracted Minot AFB missile driver --Shipment also contained two 14-gallon tanks of liquid rocket fuel 09 Oct 2009 A truck driver who lost control of a semi-trailer carrying missile parts from North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base was distracted by a "large insect" that flew in a window and landed on the driver's back, the military said in a report released Friday. The Air Force said the truck from the base's 91st Missile Wing, which overturned Aug. 31 on a gravel road in northwest North Dakota, was carrying rocket engine parts for intercontinental ballistic missiles but no nuclear material. It was the second crash of a base vehicle in just more than a year. The Air Force spent about $5.6 million last year to recover an unarmed booster rocket for an intercontinental ballistic missile after the truck carrying it overturned in July 2008.

[David Guyatt]

I can see how spying would be an option for these mini-mosquitos, but attacking people - leastways more than one - sounds to me like it's a military wet dream aimed at drumming up funding.

But I suppose if you had a swarm of them operating together, this might be possible.

[Ed Jewett]

David, I had occasion to read a draft RAND paper on the application of swarm AI systems applied to UAV's to be used in homeland security as part of an invite to participate in a future project with folks set up through a university in Oklahoma near a former military base for simulation and training purposes; I declined, and I think they caught wind of my need to take that simulation technology in the wholly opposite direction, so they declined further contact. That was years ago.

What we read about in the common public press is, I think, at least in some cases, merely a timely release of information because it is clear that the public has already gained knowledge of something out there now freed from within the realms of black budget technology which means that the application is no longer someone's brainstorm but real, likely in use or ready for use, etc. There is also a new wave of larger UAV technologies, sort of death from the sky 2.0 as it were, with larger units able to carry more, flying off carriers and. no doubt, other naval platforms or any mini-base now operating as a FOB. (There are thousands of FOB's on the Pentagon vest,)

[Those Jung books will be here any day now. I just received word they have been shipped. Perhaps there is food for further posters, satire, understanding, exposure of the evil, and -- dare I hope-- for prevention.]

[Ed Jewett]

One need only Google "swarm UAV's" to see how far it has come.

What we need to develop is swarm AI applications to awareness and enlightenment, little bomblets of sanity and morality.

I think of them as IED's. Improvised enlightenment devices.

In the past, those who tested delivery of biological warfare agents injected light bulbs with the little buggers and dropped them into subway ventilation shafts.

Imagine if we could engineer something similar that would involve infectious connectedness.

[David Guyatt]

David, I had occasion to read a draft RAND paper on the application of swarm AI systems applied to UAV's to be used in homeland security as part of an invite to participate in a future project with folks set up through a university in Oklahoma near a former military base for simulation and training purposes; I declined, and I think they caught wind of my need to take that simulation technology in the wholly opposite direction, so they declined further contact. That was years ago.

What we read about in the common public press is, I think, at least in some cases, merely a timely release of information because it is clear that the public has already gained knowledge of something out there now freed from within the realms of black budget technology which means that the application is no longer someone's brainstorm but real, likely in use or ready for use, etc. There is also a new wave of larger UAV technologies, sort of death from the sky 2.0 as it were, with larger units able to carry more, flying off carriers and. no doubt, other naval platforms or any mini-base now operating as a FOB. (There are thousands of FOB's on the Pentagon vest,)

[Those Jung books will be here any day now. I just received word they have been shipped. Perhaps there is food for further posters, satire, understanding, exposure of the evil, and -- dare I hope-- for prevention.]

Thanks Ed.

What little I know about UAV's is restricted to the larger drone aircraft like the Predator, which is deadly I understand. But I hadn't considered the same idea applying to insect sized UAVs. Silly me, I suppose.

Btw, I am sure you'll find the Red Book fascinating. You have to wonder why Jung wrote a clause in his Will that this would not be published until the year 2000 (although it's taken another 10 years to finally arrive due to wrangling by his family, I believe). Jung himself was not the sort of person (imo anyway) who would've worried about any sort of impact on his reputation this book might have had - he was well beyond those sort of ego concerns. So it seems to me there was another factor that made his inlcude this restriction. ???

[Ed Jewett]

David, the Red Book will have to be dessert, maybe for the holidays next year. That will give me time to read and digest the first three you recommended. I have a long way to go to catch up.

Maybe Jung will be a category for that game show with Palin et al.

"Alex, I'll take Jung's Archetypes for $1,000."

Name this archetype, Sarah.

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:rMqRd...387128.jpg

http://themes.stumpnet.net/Jeopardy%20%2...ong%29.mp3

[Ed Jewett]

Britain: Police UAVs Might be Armed with Non Lethal Weapons

February 11th, 2010 Via: Wired:
Police forces all over the UK will soon be able to draw on unmanned aircraft from a national fleet, according to Home Office plans. Last month it was revealed that modified military aircraft drones will carry out surveillance on everyone from protesters and antisocial motorists to fly-tippers, and will be in place in time for the 2012 Olympics.
Surveillance is only the start, however. Military drones quickly moved from reconnaissance to strike, and if the British police follow suit, their drones could be armed — but with non-lethal weapons rather than Hellfire missiles.
The flying robot fleet will range from miniature tactical craft such as the miniature AirRobot being tested by Essex police, to BAE System’s new HERTI drone as flown in Afghanistan. The drones are cheaper than police helicopters — some of which will be retired — and are as wide as 12m in the case of HERTI.
Watching events on the ground without being able to act is frustrating. Targets often got away before an unarmed drone could summon assistance. In fact, in 2000 it was reported that an airborne drone spotted Osama bin Laden but could do nothing but watch him escape. So the RAF has been carrying out missions in Afghanistan with missile-armed Reapers since 2007. From the ground these just look like regular aircraft.
The police have already had a similar experience with CCTV. As well as observing, some of these are now equipped with speakers. Pioneered in Middleborough, the talking CCTV allows an operator to tell off anyone engaging in vandalism, graffiti or littering.
Unmanned aircraft can also be fitted with speakers, such as the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), which could not only warn fly tippers that they were breaking the law but also be loud enough to drive them away.
The LRAD is a highly directional speaker made of a flat array of piezoelectric transducers, producing intense beam of sound in a 30-degree cone. It can be used as a loudhailer, or deafen the target with a jarring, discordant noise. Some ships now carry LRAD as an anti-pirate measure: It was used to drive off an attack on the Seabourn Spirit off Somalia in 2005.
LRAD makers American Technology prefer to call its product a device rather than a weapon, and use terms such as “deterrent tones” and “influencing behaviour.” Police in the US have already adopted a vehicle-mounted LRAD for crowd control, breaking up protests at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh last year, although there have been warnings about the risk of hearing damage.
The LRAD has been tested on the Austrian S-100 unmanned helicopter, and the technology is ready if there is a police requirement.
But rather than just driving them away, a police drone should be able to stop fleeing criminals in their tracks. Helicopters already mount powerful searchlights, and strobe lighting capabilities can turn such systems into effective nonlethal weapons. High-intensity strobes can cause dizziness, disorientation and loss of balance making it virtually impossible to run away.
This effect was first harnessed in the “Photic Driver” made by British company Allen International in 1973. However, it has taken improvement in lighting technology (such as fast-switching Xenon lights) and an understanding of the physiology involved to make such weapons practical.
A “light based personnel immobilisation device” developed by Peak Beam Systems Inc has been successfully tested by the US military, and work to mount it on an unmanned helicopter in the States is under way.
This sort of light would be too dangerous for a manned aircraft because of the crew being affected. But an unmanned “strober” could be a literal crime stopper, and something we could see deployed within the next couple of years.
Posted in Police State, Rise of the Machines, Technology | Top Of Page

One Response to “Britain: Police UAVs Might be Armed with Non Lethal Weapons”

1. williamspd Says:
   February 11th, 2010 at 2:43 pm I experienced LRAD as used by the UK police in South London, in the summer of 2004. At about 2am, a high speed vehicle chase diverted down narrow residential streets and the chasing police car used LRAD to broadcast a tight directional message to pull over and stop.
   Deafeningly loud if you are caught within its arc, almost inaudibly distant if not. I think most of the street woke up but went back to sleep without realising what it was. Only because I am a night owl and close to the front door, was I able to hear it in the next street and head outside as it sped past playing its repeated message. Incredibly loud one second, then almost inaudible after it went by.
   

[Jan Klimkowski]

UAV or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is a psyop phrase designed for use in the homeland to make these weapons palatable if used on the homeland population. (Homeland is of course a psyop term adapted from the Nazi playbook.)

When "UAVs" are used against "terrorists" or "the enemy" in foreign countries populated by "dusky" subhumans, they are called Reapers or Predators.

In fact, what these articles suggest is that Reapers and Predators will soon be used on domestic civilian populations engaged in such "criminal" behaviour as "protesting".

I'm sure it would easy to fit the Reapers and Predators to deliver "non-lethal crowd control weapons" such as the incapacitant BZ. See here:

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...php?t=3106

[Ed Jewett]

Tehran Uses China’s High-Tech Trucks to Squash Protests

• By admin
  
• February 11, 2010 |
  
• 2:54 pm |
  
• Categories: Rogue States
  

The Tehran regime has new gear to help squash today’s pro-democracy protests: high-tech anti-riot vehicles, imported from China.
Live bloggers of the events reported seeing the vehicles stationed around the city, noting “it appears that they will be used in the suppression of people’s protests today.” Suppression may be a bit of an understatement since the armored vehicles are apparently “equipped with water cannons that can douse people with boiling water or teargas.”
One Iranian opposition site reports that the vehicles “have a capacity of 10,000 liters to shoot cold and hot water, and three 100 liter tanks to shoot burning chemical liquids” at a distance of up to 70 meters. Manufactured by Dalian Eagle-Sky Co., the vehicles cost an estimated $650,000. The site also said that “a lot of extra burning liquid, paint, and tear gas was purchased” in addition to the vehicles. The riot stoppers are another example of how China is surpassing the European Union as Iran’s biggest trading partner.Iran is also using paint in more low-tech suppression tactics. Having successfully restricted the digital flow of information by cutting off access to GMail, the Iranian government is using spray paint and paintball guns to mark protesters in order to easily identify and arrest them later. Jason Shams over at the Daily Beast notes that the regime forces “marked people with spray paint or shot them with paintball guns when they couldn’t arrest them because things were too chaotic. Later, when things died down and the mass groups dissipated, the Guards arrested those with paint on their clothes.”

– Caitlin Hamilton is an intern at WIRED’s New York office. This is her first post for Danger Room.

[Photo: Dalian Eagle-Sky]


Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/...z0fH03uMcr

[Bruce Clemens]

Y'know...as advanced and as high-tech and as secure as they are...they can be taken out with what?...2 or 3 rounds of .22 calibre to the tyres.

Sorry...that was my Second Amendment American Patriot thing coming through...I forgot...It no longer applies.