Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/679566
Assassination by UAVs may no longer be the preserve of governments launching Predator drones... moving vehicles, detonating their payload, and destroying the target. Drones will enable covert surveillance. Alert security forces can see individu- als studying or filming a possible target. Drones could make it easy to survey a target area from afar. A few passes by an insect-sized video drone will be more dif- ficult to detect than the suspicious behav- iour of a human scout. The ease with which those with elec- tronic knowledge can build drones to their own specifications will make defense more difficult. Terrorist technical experts could make drones which are larger, faster, and with extended ranges and unknown ca- pacities. Home-made devices will negate the benefits of licensing or point-of-sale registration. Militaries and air transport authorities are particularly aware of the potential dan- ger from small private drones. Defensive mechanisms are being rapidly developed. It is quite possible that registration of drones, flying restrictions, electronically protected zones, and anti-drone defenses such as net guns, radio signal blockers, or actual firearms, will prevent drone ap- proaches to military bases, airports, and some obvious targets. Walkera Scout X4 3DR IRIS 18 APRIL/MAY 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com t taLKIng TECH attack scenarios The real potential danger lies, as it does with other attack scenarios, in the end- less variety of civilian targets. In coun- tries already most vulnerable to terrorist attack, expensive anti-drone defences of major bases or infrastructure sites may be impractical or too expensive. The attacks themselves will be variable in tactics and firepower. Drone attacks will be more dif- ficult to trace to their originators. Drones will become a danger if terror- ists find it efficient (and spectacular) to use them. As the technology develops the danger will increase. We may find drones replacing suicide bombers, or used in con- cert with traditional attack methods. A drone can evade the defences of a target designed to stop suicide bombers on foot or in a vehicle. Assassination by unmanned aerial ve- hicles (UAV) may no longer be the pre- serve of governments launching Predators drones capable of tracking a target over a prolonged period and launching a missile. Drones sent in close to a target to explode or fire an automatic weapon could replace the more difficult logistics of a sniper at- tack. Civilians at large public events or in markets could be stampeded by drones raking a crowd with machine-gun fire, or landing with an explosive. The danger from drones has been com- mented on in detail by the Remote Con- trol Project of the Oxford Research Group in London. In a report entitled "Hostile Drones: The Hostile Use of Drones by Parrot BeeBop