We want weaponised urban drones flying through your house, says UK defence ministry as it waves a fistful of banknotes
- Reference: 1600261369
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/16/mod_urban_weaponised_drones_tender/
- Source link:
Positioned as three "challenges" for industry to overcome, the MoD hopes to attract drone companies that won't worry about fitting "lethal payloads" to their craft.
"Commercially available small UAS [unmanned air systems – military-speak for drones] have already been used overseas, by forces hostile to UK interests, to deploy cheap, low-observable, armed capability across the battlefield," said the MoD on its competition tender [1]webpage . "The UK therefore wishes to advance military capability through tactical weaponised UAS, specifically to reduce threat to life for UK forces operating in urban areas."
Challenge 1 is "the development of an optimised Unmanned Air System suitable for use in urban environments", while challenge 2 consists of developing some kind of Terminator-style weapons fit (or possibly a bomb) to be attached to the result of challenge 1.
Challenge 3, as can probably be guessed, consists of merging challenges 1 and 2 to produce a drone that can reliably fly around cities without bumping into buildings – supposedly while bumping off Her Majesty's enemies. Key to winning the challenges is ensuring one's drone is unfazed by "high obstacles, urban canyons and enclosed spaces" as well as "a complex electromagnetic environment."
"We are looking for ideas that reduce the mental strain on operators and to improve performance – but solutions must ensure that they remain under full human control at all times," added the Ministry's Defence and Security Accelerator. The £900k pot is divided into £150k lots, with no single "solution" being eligible for more than £150k at a time.
Military thinking on drones appears to have evolved from making [2]drone-zapping laser weapons to [3]arming one's own drones and finally building and deploying them, as yesterday's announcement shows – though MoD [4]interest in anti-drone systems is still present .
Unlike in the US, where companies making drones tend to be offshoots of larger tech firms and therefore vulnerable to things like [5]employees from other departments kicking off at the weaponisation of their ideas , companies bidding for UK small military drone work tend to be small and specialised in their fields – or fully paid-up members of the military-industrial complex, as Dwight Eisenhower once described it. ®
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[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unmanned-air-systems-in-urban-environments-pre-qualification/competition-document-unmanned-air-systems-in-urban-environments
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/25/mod_anti_drone_system_20m/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/11/12/brit_military_killer_drone_tech_report/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/04/09/dasa_anti_drone_tech_competition/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2018/06/02/ai_roundup/
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Dystopian future
I'm sure the people at the MoD are having wet dreams about a dragonfly-like drone that can kill someone with a poison dart like the hunter-seeker from Dune. It's only a matter of time.
Re: Dystopian future
Check out Salvation on netflix... they just used one to kill the president?
Re: Dystopian future
The president is dead? Wahooo...oh I mean "my thoughts and prayers etc. etc."
Re: Dystopian future
He's not dead, he's just moved on to developing exclusive resort communities and exciting residential real estate properties in the afterlife!
@IGotOut -- Re: Dystopian future
Icon says it all - - - ->
Re: Dystopian future
>people at the MoD are having wet dreams
Imagine a cheap $100 drone programmed to sit in sleep mode for weeks/months, programmed to take off look for blue/green/brown uniform or a helmet and aim for the face - where it short circuits its lithium battery or detonates a shot-gun shell of powder. All of which can be bought, imported, assembled by anyone with no suspicious or restricted materials.
Is this likely to be used by or against an official army with a mutli $Bn defence budget fighting against insurgents in an urban environment ?
Oooooh! I think know the answer to this one, is it...
“Is this likely to be used by or against an official army with a mutli $Bn defence budget fighting against insurgents in an urban environment ?”
Yes.
Re: Dystopian future
Some bloke tried to demo his system at Gatwick. It wasn't received well.
Re: Dystopian future
Novichock. Then you won't need those pesky perfume bottles.
Just load that bank of drones, launch the mother ship, and...
Re: Dystopian future
If it's awarded to Crapita (and why wouldn't it?) you can look forward to a 0.5Kg robotic gnat that flies in random directions. Guidance and weapons to come in Phase 2, obvs.
Re: I don't think I'd be willing to help speed its arrival for 150k
don't worry, there'll be PLENTY of those scrambling to participate. After all, the race is on, and it's only going in one direction. After all, you don't want our streets to be invaded by RUSSIAN!!! or CHINESE!!! drones killing our children and we-can't-do-anything-about-it, DO YOU!?
And, says the PM, with his usual bright smile and brisk voice, I'm ABSOLUTELY positive that this weapon capability will render all, practically all other weapons useless, and so that we can live in everlasting peace and prosperity at last!
Re: I don't think I'd be willing to help speed its arrival for 150k
Yeah, but with or without drones we will still be living with the Brexit shit around our necks.
So a drone may not kil you, but those at the very bottom are going to struggle even more.
Brexit, brought to you by those old white racists that want us to bring back 1955.
Re: I don't think I'd be willing to help speed its arrival for 150k
@A/C
Help me out please.How did the topic of weaponised drones get turned into a Brexit thing?
Just saying
Cheers… Ishy
Re: I don't think I'd be willing to help speed its arrival for 150k
Really? As plenty of non whites voted for Brexit, particularly those from SE Asia who were promised unlimited immigration to bring in staff from India etc....
Going back to 1955 (or earlier) morally isn't just restricted to elderly white men, its also something beloved by many UK feminists, who love the idea of a feminist led Jane Austen type society
Re: Dystopian future
You may have been thinking of [1]Dark Angel . Although the TV series almost pre-dates mobile phones (they appear in series 2) it has aged well.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204993/
Perfectly safe
Re: Perfectly safe
I'm sure this tech will never end up in the hands of drug gangs and organized crime either.
Re: Perfectly safe
Why does new technology always seems to be developed for death and destruction?
Have we run out of peaceful uses for it already?
Re: Why does new technology always seems to be developed for death and destruction?
Once all the porn uses have been exhausted
Re: Once all the porn uses have been exhausted
There are porn-drones!?
Mind you, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised [see #34]
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:-)
So... free guns!!??!
As an American, I love free guns! As soon as a winner is decided, I finally know who I can contract out my EMP project to!
Go whitey!
Re: So... free guns!!??!
OK, so this may have been sarcasm. If it was, it's just not funny. If it is not, you're Donald tRump, and I claim my $5.
Why do these military procurement stories remind me of Feynman's story of going to some reception or other and talking to an armny bod who waid they just wanted the scientists to come up with a way of using sand as tank fuel?
In other news...
Sales on Cricket Bats and Louisiana Sluggers and drone signal jammers have increased by 100%.
Drones are a General/Wing Commander's wet dream but... they aren't the solution for everything.
Re: In other news...
Drones don't need to be controlled remotely, so jammers are no use. Just give it the target coordinates and let it navigate itself around buildings etc. It is not significantly more complex than a car's GPS.
Re: In other news...
Says someone who's never had to knock their drone flying a "clear" gps map path out of a tree with a stick.
Dominic Cummings will be rubbing his hands in glee
So much cheaper than redundancy payments for senior civil servants
Reading between the lines ..... but don't forget to remember, pay peanuts, get monkeys
If they want clean skin 00 agents with a whole range of future smarts, why doesn't the MOD just advertise for them normally like everyone else does?
Can they shoot hypodermic darts?
Maybe they could be funded by operation Moonshot, if they can aim a vaccine shot at the person mooning them?
Famous last words!
"... solutions must ensure that they remain under full human control at all times ..."
So, when are DJI going to put in their bid?
Dystopian future
I have a mental image (probably from some film I saw) of the protagonist in his dingy apartment, turning towards the (un-curtained) window and seeing a black drone hovering outside, with its camera aimed at him.
We're too close to this already, I don't think I'd be willing to help speed its arrival for 150k