
Heathrow installs anti-drone system that can locate UAV pilots - prostoalex
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-14/heathrow-airport-gets-thales-anti-drone-system-to-detect-threats
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holoduke
I could make a 2 meter wingspan drone (plane) for under 1000 dollars. That
drone will have a range of about 200km. An avarage airspeed of 100km/u and
payload capacity of 5kg. It flies autonomously using GPS. It still can (to a
lesser degree) without by using barometer and compass. You can use special
equipment to spoof or disrupt GPS signals. But no way that will work on long
distances. My point is. If you want to fly over an airport and drop a bag of
eggs it's perfectly possible. Even with all the counter measures taken at such
places.

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nolongerlowres
I know you’re trying to drive home a point and i agree, but is this really
feasible for under $1,000? I’d estimate something with these capabilities
would be in the $20,000 range at a minimum.

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Jamwinner
I used to dabble in model aircraft. A 'drone' is just a computerized one. I
could regularly cobble one together for a few hundred, most of that being
electronics. The body was balsa wood with shrink film covering, super cheap.
Not everything has to be titanium and carbon fiber. Nowdays, the electronics
are cheaper than ever, and can be strapped to many homebuilt craft with little
issue. This all ignores vto style crafts, which I am unaware of. The hard part
is training your control system, but once calibrated decently you are good to
go.

The problem is the bar of effort. Bombs are even easier to build, yet few with
the will to build one for nefarious purposes seems to be effective in doing
so, even with provided materials (without training, see IEDs). Same with guns,
tanks and other complex items. Anyone can make a gun from hardware store
items, but most criminals will steal one instead. The impulsive instinct that
drives most crime seems a burden on complex tasks.

~~~
pasabagi
I'm not much of a chemist, but I don't think bombs are particularly easy to
build. I do a bit of metal plate etching, and I've found multiple times that
useful chemicals (specifically nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide) are pretty
tricky to get hold of, because assholes use them to make bombs.

I had a friend who was making black powder as a schoolkid, and he actually had
the police turning up at his house to ask questions about his purchasing
history - which is a small sample, but it fits with the basic intuition about
how you'd stop people from building bombs: make non-household bomb-making
stuff impossible to get hold as a private individual, then just monitor people
that make weird purchases of the chemicals that remain.

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pmoriarty
_" Away from transit hubs, common [drone-disabling] solutions include the use
of radio waves to jam the signal used by a pilot to control a drone, or take
over control of the unit. Other methods include dispatching eagles or giant
nets to pull craft out of the sky."_

Wait... drone-catching eagles? Is that for real?

If so, I wonder how the eagle's trained how how its target is communicated to
it. It's not like drones are an eagle's natural prey.

I'd love to see a video of an eagle catching a drone in action.

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codyogden
> drone-catching eagles? Is that for real?

Yes. It's definitely for real.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5DEg2qZzkU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5DEg2qZzkU)

~~~
mongol
That is amazing. I don't understand how they can not be hurt by the rotors
though.

~~~
TkTech
These aren't gas powered or industrial drones, they're used against things
like the DJI Phantom. The Eagle's claws are far, far stronger then the blades
and the low torq.

They can also be given titanium talons like police dogs, if it becomes
necessary.

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tonyedgecombe
The funny thing is there is still some debate about whether there actually was
a malicious drone flying around Gatwick.

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StavrosK
Yeah, I'm not sure I buy this story. Someone with enough experience to build a
drone would be unlikely to go bother an airport for no benefit, and some idiot
buying a random DJI drone wouldn't be able to get near the airport as DJI
drones refuse to fly within a few km of an airstrip.

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panarky
Can't locate the pilot if the drone is autonomously following GPS waypoints.

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onion2k
Drones still send and receive data from the controller in autonomous modes
(the user couldn't cancel the flight otherwise) so they probably still can.

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MacsHeadroom
Not necessarily. Plus drones can easily be controlled over cellular internet.

I don't know about the UK, but where I am it's easy to get a 4G SIM preloaded
with data using bogus personal information.

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jowsie
You don't need any personal data in the UK. They're 50p in the shops. You do
need to activate them with an over the counter top up though. They accept
cash.

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londons_explore
I was under the impression most people wanting to be malicious with drones
will make them controlled by LTE over the internet so they can be hundreds of
miles away.

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tpmx
Looks like it's this system:

[http://www.aveillant.com/products/gamekeeper-16u/](http://www.aveillant.com/products/gamekeeper-16u/)

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skunkworker
[https://outline.com/qLzUjp](https://outline.com/qLzUjp)

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dang
Url changed from [https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/14/heathrow-airport-anti-
dr...](https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/14/heathrow-airport-anti-drone-
system/), which points to this.

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aussieguy1234
The first link wasn't paywalled, but the new link is

