Homeland Security on UAV "Emerging Threats"
 

Received this today from the Homeland Security website - UAV "Emerging Threats." We track the site due to our own Cyber Security projects.

Greg

Some valid concerns on there for sure. Some of the numbers quoted make me wonder (projected sales by 2020), 440 pound MR, and of course the alleged incidents reported to date. I have some doubts on those, but again, the concerns are there. Combined with the commercialization issues, guess all this govt intervention wasn't exactly due to the "non traditional" MR users that don't require any skill or flying ability. :rolleyes:

Thanks for sharing, it's an eye opener.

Gee I'm disappointed that a "traditional" model isn't pictured in that PDF........................................ After all I had to register myself ( thanks AMA) and feel that I should be considered part of the problem too.

All the things we begged the AMA to side step are pictured there. Isn't that special......................................

Mike

And isn't that just simply AMAZING , that of everyone whose ever seen one of my RC model airplanes , And we're talkin literally HUNDREDS of people here , not a single blessed one of them have ever looked at one of them and said ;

"Oh my God !!!! That thing is a National Security threat !!! We need a study on this ASAP !!!!"

:rolleyes: "These are not the Droids your lookin for" :rolleyes:

If it wasn't so sad it would be funny.

Mike

No more sad than blaming the ama for having to register.

I don't recall a huge outpouring of requests to the ama, at least not formally, to sidestep what is in those pictures. Nonetheless the requests that might have been made were appropriately dismissed. The reg would have been required regardless.

Most folks who see our airplanes are in the hobby and would presumably know better..so it stands to reason they wouldn't jump to that conclusion.

That being said....it's ironic that nobody has mentioned the fact that the first real discussion about RC aircraft being used in a nefarious manner had nothing to do with quads...it had to do with yup, you guessed it...traditional fixed wing aircraft. Amazing eh? :rolleyes:

Yea , that's why I changed it from funny to amazing .......

The Homeland Security file tells a couple of stories; 1) The AMA should have disallowed MR aircraft from the start and 2) The AMA saw the possibility of huge influx of money through magazine advertising and increased membership. I firmly believe the AMA is in for the money and the couldn't care less about the rest of us.

Fair enough...do you think the FAA still would have gone through with the reg process regardless of the ama allowing me into the fold?

Yep. Funny thing is that the MR community will never sign on with them. If there's a huge drop in membership after all of us that signed up for two years don't stay on as members where will the AMA be then? This is a prime opportunity for another player in the R/C insurance game. I figure they have a year and a half left to get this sorted out and win us back.

Mike

About 6 or 7 years ago a Massachusetts man was arrested for planning to attack the Pentagon with an RC F86 loaded with C4. He also had an RC F4 that he was preparing.
It's not just multitrotors.

Cessna 421 , I've been saying this all along , the AMA played this to save the AMA first , and the EXISTING hobby a distant second . :mad:

"It's not just multitrotors"

:rolleyes: And yet that's all that's pictured on the Homeland Security report .

Says to me that the DHS seems to think they're the exclusive emerging threat .

I remember that they guy had no clue and never would have succeeded. Now today with the idiot proof technology the AMA loves so dearly it's totally feasible isn't it?.

Mike

Thanks for sharing Greg. After reviewing the document I'm glad to see the Dept. of Homeland Security is developing materials in an easy to comprehend format and using generic terms where applicable to mitigate ambiguity with specific aircraft types.

After looking at them, OMG, that thing is a National Security threat. Just wanted to be the first. :cool:

Mike , I live in Massachusetts and of course followed that story to the minute . The guy , Rezwan Ferdus (spelling ?) of Ashland Ma. IS a dangerous person who had been banned from his own Mosque for becoming more and more of what's today called "Radicalized" . He ended up not getting together with the fellow terrorist wannabes he thought he was meeting , but the US authorities instead who are said to have encouraged his mistaken notion that what he wanted to do was possible , so as to be able to set him up for the terror charges they currently have him held on . Was a dangerous person removed from society by a seemingly legal police sting ? Yes , absolutely . Did they really need to use RC models in the plot , where it never could have worked the way the terrorist envisioned* ? No , I think everyone who holds a TX no matter what's on the other end who cares about any more than just pushing the latest trend saw that as an ugly moment for the hobby in general . A shame some would have to stoop SO low as to be using such an ugly smear on our hobby to make a point , but I guess that's just the world we live in today , eh ?

* His grand plan , like that of all terrorists , was to destroy the building in it's entirety , which of course is totally impossible with the plan he had thought he was participating in . Yes , the fact that he wanted to bring the entire building down , because he was led to believe he could , was revealed during trial .....

The guys a idiot and got 17 years, should have gotten life. Yes he was ( and probably still is) dangerous but stupid and apparently very gullible.

Mike

Have yet to see or hear and any big drop in membership coming, it will ebb and flow like it always has and it will be difficult to tie an increase or decrease on any one issue.

Competition is always great for consumers, but as you know there is nothing even close to the ama out there...nor will there be. They are of course so much more than an insurance game. If it were only insurance....we would have seen another player involved looking ago. If you recall from another thread some secret project was underway....very hush hush..invite only...haven't heard a peep about it. Chances are..it never was or will materialize. Not sure why a club on private property would insist and require AMA if it's just insurance. Why hasn't your club found a viable alternative yet?

+1...most of them are!

Given the fact that Mr and drones vilified here and elsewhere and get blamed for everything (other than the AMA)...it was fair to mention the only threat so far has been tied to fixed wing. Why in the world is that a point to be castigated for bringing up? It should have been mentioned in the first place, but I realize why it's overlooked.

His original plans , while still affiliated with his Mosque (That does preach a peaceful version of Islam BTW) , were to carry out a knife attack , which of course is far more likely to be carried out , like the ones happening in England at the time . When he began openly advocating for such violence his Mosque tossed him out and he hooked up with the US authorities posing as fellow terrorists . It was then that he was "introduced" to this bombing idea , because the authorities could keep a far better reign on that than a random knife attack . Once he got past the point of idea , and actually bought the planes and took delivery of what he thought was the C4 , they had him , with no real danger to the public .

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