Drone spy planes are coming to your city soon. And for extra security, they may well be packing "non-lethal" weapons, such as tasers and rubber bullets. And here's the good news -- it looks like anyone's going to be able to buy them!
Digital Journal reports (5/24/12) that Montgomery County, TX is getting a drone (naturally, funded by the Ministry of Homeland Security) that will be able to fire "non-lethal" weapons such as tasers and rubber bullets.
For some time now, the U.S. Army has had a Lethal Miniature Aerial Munition System (LMAMS), basically a robotic model airplane that drops small bombs, all in the name of the Global War on Terror.® Now, according to geek.com, the Army is working on a "non-lethal" bomb that this little thing can drop, and when they're done, it's going to be evaluated by the Ministry of Homeland Security for domestic use, and maybe even sold to local police departments.
Actually I'm a bit less worried about local police departments, because even though there is the occasional yahoo factor, which can of course become a major concern, there is at least the possibility of local control as well. With the ever-mysterious Ministry of Homeland Security there seems to be no way of reigning them in, as Congress seems to be incapable of exercising any kind of control through the traditional budgetary mechanism.
And these are cropping up everywhere. Seattle, for instance.
And here's a handy training drone training film.
And here's the Youtube caption for this video:
Imagery from the Scout Micro-UAV, offered by Helios Global Tracking in collaboration with Aeryon Labs. This footage is from an exercise at a major US Army Training Facility in the Pacific Northwest in October 2011. The exercise involved the Military Liaison Units of Vancouver and Calgary Police Departments. The Scout was flown by Helios personnel in support of tactical assault exercises and utilised the 10X optical zoom and FLIR camera payloads.
Note that this was
a. At a military base (probably in Fort Lewis);
b. Involved the "military liaison" units of Vancouver and Calgary Police departments. (militarization of civil police work?)
c. The FLIR camera allows bodies to be seen through darkened windows.
And here's something interesting. Aeryon Labs, the makers of one of these little filing POS's actually sold one to the Libyan rebels.
Now, I ask, if the Libyan rebels can get one of these, what keeps somebody really nasty from getting one?