Drone aircraft may prowl U.S. skies

[Syrinx]

Unmanned aerial vehicles have soared the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq for years, spotting enemy encampments, protecting military bases, and even launching missile attacks against suspected terrorists.

Now UAVs may be landing in the United States.

A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday heard testimony from police agencies that envision using UAVs for everything from border security to domestic surveillance high above American cities. Private companies also hope to use UAVs for tasks such as aerial photography and pipeline monitoring.

*snip*

In a scene that could have been inspired by the movie "Minority Report," one North Carolina county is using a UAV equipped with low-light and infrared cameras to keep watch on its citizens. The aircraft has been dispatched to monitor gatherings of motorcycle riders at the Gaston County fairgrounds from just a few hundred feet in the air--close enough to identify faces--and many more uses, such as the aerial detection of marijuana fields, are planned.

*snip*

http://news.com.com/Drone+aircraft+may+prowl+U.S.+skies/2100-11746_3-6055658.html

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Is it 1984 yet? n/t

[tyedyeto]

2. We've been there for quite a while (at least 5 years) n/t

[Zookeeper]

3. "...domestic surveillance high about American cities." ???

Canada is looking better all the time.

[John Barrett]

11. Will they take you?

You may qualify but there are age limits, and financial and or skill sets required. They aren't like the USA where we take anyone illegally.

Skills, money, health, age, it's all irrelevant here. The US taxpayers have to cover it, when it should be the business people that want them. Sorry, kick my butt for hijacking your thread on domestic surveillance.

[shadowknows69]

4. Anytime you see one

make sure you call the Air force, local newspaper, local radio stations, local and national tv news organizations, UFO investigation organizations and local police and report in detail your "UFO" sighting.

[Garbo 2004]

7. They might be mistaken for Saddam's terraist drones. That would be

interesting...

[Lostnote06]

5. Them damned pot growers are next....

....can we borrow your states airspace for some exercises.....wait a second ,do they have to ask?...lol

[proud patriot]

6. NOOoooooooooooooooo!

[madrchsod]

8. one can take pictures

from rc airplanes with digital cameras..i guess anyone can spy

[mmonk]

9. Sheeesh.

So much for the black helicopter scenarios.

[kestrel91316]

10. My dad was a career USAF officer and worked for years on the

early (1970s) development and testing of these things. He must be rolling in his grave at the thought of them being used against Americans on American soil (he wasn't any RW nutjob).

[RebelOne]

24. My cousin retired as a Lt. Col. from the Air Force

and is now the chief engineer for the Predator program and he is a RW nut job.

[kestrel91316]

35. My dad was a Roosevelt Democrat, and with two daughters

who both wound up as medical professionals, he was very much a feminist. ROTC was the only way for him to get through college (poor family; paid his own way) and afterwards the USAF seemed like an exciting, promising career, and had great benefits, and besides that he had a special knack for being able to do way more than he was asked, no matter what the task. I got ahold of his performance reviews recently, and they all indicated his superiors thought he could go all the way to general. (Why he didn't is another sad story altogether)

There was not a drop of fascist authoritarianism in my dad!

[Rex]

12. 'domestic surveillance high above American cities'

Sleep well America.

[ThoughtCriminal]

13. Will they be armed with Hellfire Missiles

In case they think they see OBL's limo parked outside?

[Webster Green]

14. Soon...they will be targeting missles at "domestic terrorists"...

You know....potheads, animal rights activists, peace activists, environmentalists, gay rights activists, Quakers, legislators who speak truth to power......

[hunter]

15. If I catch one can I keep it?

:evilgrin:

[file83]

18. So I have something to shoot at with my fully automatic machine gun!!

[ngGale]

16. A FISA gift, from the skies...

how quaint. :sarcasm:

[file83]

17. Drones over my property? GREAT TARGET PRACTICE!!!

I've been looking for challenge, this will be fun!

[Marie26]

19. They already are.

I'm in NC, next to Gaston County & have seen one pass by. I swear!

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. Big Brother Is Watching YOU

[niyad]

21. so THAT's what those damned things were at Holliman years ago--

and they used to get mad at me when I would ask about the ones that crashed (they had some really inventive stories about what they were and what they were doing)

[clu]

22. I saw a drone in north Texas a year ago or so

I'm in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas. It looked like a very high-flying kite that turned and changed direction over a commercial area. After changing direction it flew out of sight.

I wonder if it was city, county, state, or fed. managed.

[Vexatious Ape]

23. Makes me want to

scrawl something nasty and un-american on my roof.

[MadHound]

25. I have one thing to say

PULL!

Seriously, these things would be great target practice. And I've got a buddy of mine who is seriously into RC planes, and has been thinking that RC dogfights would be really cool. Well, now he's got a practice target.

Seriously people, start shooting these things out of the sky, claim innocence(but I thought it was a terrorist drone officer) but keep on shooting them down. Otherwise this is going to become the norm, each and every urban area with its own little fleet of drones, watching all the time.

[Canuckistanian]

29. You're not going to shoot these UAV's down

They fly so high, you can't even hear them.

[MadHound]

30. Depends on the type of drone

Sure, the big ones will be flying at 18,000 ft or higher, but the little ones will be flying much lower. There have been a couple of instances in both Iraq and Afghanistan where these smaller, lower flying drones have been shot down with groundfire.

Or, like I said earlier, equip a RC plane with a small remote firing gun and go get into a dogfight:evilgrin:

[Canuckistanian]

31. That would fun to watch

I can just see the operator, sitting in Virginia or Colorado saying, "Uh, Major? We've got incoming fire, here. What's the procedure?"

[MadHound]

32. I've got a buddy of mine who is seriously into RC planes

He's got a couple that are six feet long or longer. It is amazing what they can do, he's even rigged one of them to be a bomber. The "bombs" he uses are paintball bombs, but still, he's become quite good. He really wants to dogfight them, and we've done dogfight runs with two of the planes. But if he thinks that he could get the jump on a drone and shoot it down, he would do it just for the sheer hell of it. Catch the drone just right, come from up above and behind, and he could shoot it down without the operator knowing what had hit the drone.

I'm going to have to pass this on to him, he's going to have so much fun:evilgrin:

[flamingpie2500]

26. They may want to use them to find whats left of the Bush supporters!

[bigtree]

27. Now we're paying attention

wait till the weaponized ones make their debut here in the states.

[hunter]

36. Just wait 'til a malfunctioning drone hits a school...

Will they blame it on terrorists?

Assholes.

[electropop]

28. There's a UAV flying right now on the SouthWest border.

I worked on the project to put it there.

[mb7588a]

33. I live a mile and a half north of the White House,

and I often wonder if the small propellor planes I hear are these drones. Only thing that normally is allowed to fly here is elpresidente and elmer fudd.

[dogday]

34. I live in Houston and they fly over the city

a good bit... Since I am right off two major highways, I see a lot of what goes on....