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When drones fall from the sky
WP ^ | June 20, 2014 | Craig Whitlock

Posted on 06/20/2014 4:46:39 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse

More than 400 large U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, a record of calamity that exposes the potential dangers of throwing open American skies to drone traffic, according to a year-long Washington Post investigation.

Since the outbreak of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, military drones have malfunctioned in myriad ways, plummeting from the sky because of mechanical breakdowns, human error, bad weather and other reasons, according to more than 50,000 pages of accident investigation reports and other records obtained by The Post under the Freedom of Information Act.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: crash; drone; drones; dronescrash; uas; uav; wot
the correct term is UAV....
1 posted on 06/20/2014 4:46:39 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: LeoWindhorse

What people need to remember is that the Predator was largely a proof-of-concept platform that was put into production, bought in quantity and put into service because it was the best thing available at the time.

It was then expected to do things that it was never designed to do. Like operate in icing conditions, for instance.


2 posted on 06/20/2014 4:50:17 PM PDT by tanknetter
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To: LeoWindhorse

People can’t drive. I don’t need them flying stuff around my face.


3 posted on 06/20/2014 4:51:03 PM PDT by Noamie
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To: LeoWindhorse

4 posted on 06/20/2014 4:54:36 PM PDT by shove_it (long ago Orwell and Rand warned us of Obama's America)
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To: LeoWindhorse

5 posted on 06/20/2014 5:13:42 PM PDT by shove_it (long ago Orwell and Rand warned us of Obama's America)
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To: LeoWindhorse; All

What, exactly, are the laws regarding accidental trap shooting accidents involving drones?

Lawyers?

Anyone?


6 posted on 06/20/2014 5:14:55 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth
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To: WorkingClassFilth

Perhaps more difficult to knock down than commonly thought.

I think it will take some kind of home built version of the Phalanx with radar guidance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QzrS0BVJynM


7 posted on 06/20/2014 5:25:36 PM PDT by nascarnation (Toxic Baraq Syndrome: hopefully infecting a Dem candidate near you)
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To: LeoWindhorse; SunkenCiv

Ping to excellent long rehash of WaPo “part I” article on coming domestic military drone issue but with a focus on the “terror of accidental drone crashes” and not the terror of government violation of constitutional rights or the use of drones by terrorists to attack the US military or citizens.

FReepers seem to be suffering from “drone exhaustion”...

Why do the media continue to focus on the potential for accidental drone crashes when a Retired Admiral, Denis Blair, former Director of National Intelligence (DNI), has already declared that he expects terrorists to use drones to try to kill the president!

See:

http://runwaykillzone.com/2012/01/15/rezwan-ferdaus-could-have-attacked-obamas-air-force-one-in-a-runway-kill-zone-rkz-not-unlike-jfks-dealey-plaza/

In January of 2013 Retired Admiral, Dennis Blair, made the following speculation: “I do fear that if al Qaeda can develop a drone, its first thought will be to use it to kill our president, and senior officials and senior officers. It is possible without a great deal of intelligence to do something with a drone you cannot do with a high-powered rifle or driving a car full of explosives and other ways terrorists now use to try killing senior officials.”

He was actually a bit late with this warning because in September of 2011 al Qaeda wannabe, Rezwan Ferdaus, had already been nabbed in an FBI sting and charged with conspiring to crash two GPS-guided model airplanes packed with C-4 explosives into the Pentagon and the Capitol Building.

Ferdaus’s plans fell apart as he tried to obtain the C-4. But was it really necessary to load his drone UAV with explosives for it to be deadly?

Even a small model aircraft has sufficient mass to achieve lethal kinetic force if that force is applied in the right place, such as a vulnerable location in a “kill zone.” It is in such a kill zone that a president can be at risk. Killing he president wasn’t Ferdaus’s first thought, as Admiral Blair had speculated, but it could have been.


8 posted on 06/22/2014 9:05:06 AM PDT by Seizethecarp (Defend aircraft from "runway kill zone" mini-drone helicopter swarm attacks: www.runwaykillzone.com)
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