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Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

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Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#201

Post by GordonS »

colinmhayes wrote: post #68
LinuxBender wrote: post #7

Somewhat off topic, what I find curious is that gangs have not yet started really making use of drones. I've heard of them being used to drop drugs and phones into prisons, but not much else. Some of the higher end hobby drones can fly just as high as general aviation aircraft and really fast and carry a lot of weight. Or perhaps I have missed the stories?

I'm surprised no one has been assassinated by a drone. Train a computer vision model for the target, attach a gun, and let it fly around until the person is found.

The US has killed 10-21k people with drone strikes since 9/11, including 1-2k civilians and hundreds of children [0]. Of course, real numbers are likely much higher.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_U.S...

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#202

Post by jazzyjackson »

aaron695 wrote: post #190
jazzyjackson wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really enjoyed that totally tangential solar system link, thanks for that But no way am I downloading that pdf

> But no way am I downloading that pdf You should learn Tor And a sand box program like Sandboxie If you are worried about tracking (like the PDF pinging back with a zero day) you'll have to look at Sandboxie's internet restrictions. Or use something like Tails which does everything. I won't link these because you need to do your own research to find what you want.

Thanks, if I still had a Qubes laptop lying around I wouldn’t have minded, but I do most of my hackernewsing on iOS, which could use a better sandbox…

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#203

Post by plutonorm »

GlassOwAter wrote: post #58

Plasma lasers https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2020/05/11/us-nav...

Thanks - you've just solved UFOs for me. Reading around this there also seems to be the possibility of naturally produced plasmoids.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#204

Post by kqvamxurcagg »

015a wrote: post #125
radley wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the drone... proceeded northwest at high speed and climbing, with the helo and another LE helo in trail. The copter began to climb and flew out of the TUS area about 50 miles to the northwest of town into the middle of nowhere desert out by the mine west of KAVQ. It was last seen climbing through 14,000’ and into the undercast, where it disappeared. > the mystery craft was essentially playing with them by repeatedl…

To my memory; these things have been repeatedly popping up in the southern US; Arizona and Texas. Maybe not for under $1k. But under any price? Is it physically possible? Yes. We're not talking about a hobbyist guy in his garage here. We're talking about either US Military accidentally caught in a game of cat and mouse with local law enforcement, or more likely: drug cartels. Both organizations operate heavily in the…

Agree with your analysis here. I don’t think this could be military otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing a press release and release of audio under freedom of information. If this was under serious investigation doubt we wouldn’t of seen the audio released as well. My bet would be the helicopter pilots got overexcited and the FAA is comfortable this is just advanced hobbyist equipment.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#205

Post by dismalpedigree »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #192
ben_w wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comms can also be laser, and the drones can be pre-programmed and self guiding. Though in either case, you can still always dazzle either the sensors or the comms (MEMS sensors used for inertial guidance are vulnerable to ultrasound IIRC). And I’m sure the military either have or are developing an anti-drone-drone.

Well the military has AESA radars that can be programmed to act as a microwave laser so there’s that. A Faraday cage won’t be of much help if it’s literally cooked.

Um. What do you think the grid of wires in the window of your microwave is for? Its a faraday cage to keep you from being cooked.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#206

Post by lmilcin »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #194
lmilcin wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it is impossible. A (relatively) simple solution would be to use something with more dense power source, maybe fuel. RC enthusiast use fueled engines routinely, it isn't something special. There are various types of advanced fueled engines for RC use from traditional 2-4 stroke miniaturized engines to turbofans. They are not very common on small quadcopters because of lack of response. Quadcopters depe…

I never said it was impossible, but I did say that I "ruled out" a quad. I meant very unlikely, not that it was impossible. There are quads that have >1 hour endurance, and there are quads that can do 100 mph, but none that can do both, even with gas. To make a quad that can go 100 mph and stay in the air for an hour is a crazy big stretch of existing capabilities. I'd love to see an example, because none of these co…

> I never said it was impossible

I never said you did.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#207

Post by weystrom »

telside wrote: post #189
nostrademons wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saw some guys racing drones like the first video in a local park. Every bit as fast and maneuverable, but they had them going through 6 ft gates on a course roughly the size of a football field. I assume they're not really human-controlled because I could barely track where the drone was, let alone give it precise controls for how to pass through the gate. Went home and told my wife "If we ever get into a war, humani…

I fly FPV drones. The idea they are not human controlled is absurd. They handle like nothing else. There is literally nothing else to compare them to so they seem almost alien. You could dive bomb a gate yourself after maybe 10 hours of practice in a simulator. Of course the first time you try you won't even be able to keep the drone in the air but really quickly the controls become second nature. The irony is the gu…

I fly FPV drones too and the batteries suck and this thing seemed to have 40+ minutes of flight time.

Even top of the DJI drones (which are not exactly freestyle/racy) would top out at around 30 minutes.

Not implying aliens, but I wish we had that kind of battery technology in my Nazgul5, if it's a drone they've seen.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#208

Post by jonplackett »

05 wrote: post #151
jonplackett wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most impressed by the camera tracking. Is that automated or is someone that good at pointing a camera? (First link I mean)

Probably head attached GoPro

Good point! Still very stable. Good head control!

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#209

Post by rwbhn »

jcrawfordor wrote: post #133
dreamcompiler wrote: post #66

"There's no line of sight...it must be satellite controlled." Oh FFS. There's a lot of real estate on the ground where an operator could have been sitting and flying the thing with a high-powered FPV rig. FPV systems don't require satellites, and you can put a basic one together for less than $1000.

I don't think that's super clear - it seems to have covered somewhat over 20 miles but more importantly passed over a substantial (4k feet prominent) mountain ridge. That would make reliable control by line of sight radio very suspect and I don't think the operator would have risked it unless they had control by satellite or a high degree of confidence in its autonomous capability. Around the point it passes over the…

Maybe the operator was on the ridge?

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#210

Post by imtringued »

bserge wrote: post #162
rualca wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why even use drug mules if you can just drone everything over the border? A few weeks ago there was a news article on how drug cartels were using cheap Chinese VTOL drones to smuggle drugs across the Mediterranean between Morocco and Spain. https://english.elpais.com/spain/2021-07-15/spanish-police-s...

Nice machine, but no way in hell it costs that much to build, the manufacturer is making a killing lol

Large drones are expensive just like any other aircraft.
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