New Details Emerge on the “Highly Modified Drone” That Outran Police Helicopters

Fair enough on the flight ceiling, I misread that, so it's a substantially higher spec drone.

> idiot employee at government contractor) or if they had an interest in doing this

I guess that's where my Hanlon's razor comes in. Idiot employee(s) just seems so much more reasonable to me.

China is testing a hardcore stealth drone over a military base, but chooses one in CONUS in a highly civilian accessible major metro area, and then leaves the running lights on? It strikes me as far less likely than domestic alternatives.

Green is close to the center of the visible light spectrum. If somebody wanted to track it visually from a great distance, (perhaps from a nearby mountain?) this would make it easier to spot.

This would be beneficial for a two person team. The drone operator watching the video feed and a spotter providing positions of pursuit aircraft.

Why not do it like the U.S. and just show off the weapon on soil with domestic press coverage and not risk a diplomatic incident? You don't have to show your whole hand, iirc when they showed the press the B2 they didn't let them see the rear of the plane.

There are a few inconsistencies that lead me to not believe the numbers.

>>It was last seen climbing through 14,000’ and into the undercast, where it disappeared.

>>Department's helicopter was unable to observe the drone when looking through night vision goggles.

If this was heading up to 14k while being chased by helicopters, it wasn't a battery-powered quad. A medium sized drone would have to be powered by IC to perform like that. If it was IC, or even high-powered batteries, it would have been hot enough to look like a flare under night vision goggles.

Or, it didn't go to 14k. It sounds to me like the chase helo lost sight of it and assumed that was because it hit the clouds. The light was dim and the drone had a single flashing light. It is very difficult to judge distance to a single light in twilight. The helicopter could easily have misjudged the distance/altitude. I think the helicopter lost sight because the drone turned off the flashing light. Or maybe the drone lost power and fell. Either way, the chasing helicopter thought it had hit the cloud layer when it fact the drone might have been much lower.

And 14k is 4k above where the police helicopter would have stopped climbing. Aircraft heading above 10k are going to want pressurization and/or oxygen masks. A cop helicopter won't go that high willingly.

>>the fact that it outran two law enforcement helicopters is also concerning

That doesn't mean much. Law enforcement helicopters are nothing special. A fast car or motorcycle can outrun a helicopter in a strait line. And cop helicopters aren't meant to enforce air rules. Every Cessna-172 can outrun a police helicopter. Heck, at night a Cesna-152 could probably evade them, especially if the helos are trying to obey the rules for flying near airports.

Lastly, given the collision risk involved in "chasing" anything in the air, I'm surprised these helicopters were even allowed to give chase. If I were ATC and saw a cop helicopter chasing another smaller helicopter/drone over a populated area I would do my best to stop this before both crashed into a school.

"Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." - Art of War 3:2