The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - DHS Drones to determine if person is armed and to intercept cell phone signals

Come and take it. · March 7, 2013, 08:21 PM

Something else that should be considered if the technology is reliable enough for the drone to be weaponized over populated areas.

When the drones are over areas of Pakistan I don't think american citizens are concerned (they should be) whether or not a drone could misfire on an unintended target , Experience interference that could disable it causing it to crash on a populated area while armed with weapons or hacked and become a danger in that respect.

If I am not mistaken a college tech class was able to hack a government drone (they were asked to see if it could be done) and landed it. The Iranians have hacked US drones.

So in that respect the idea that a drone would somehow be a magic bullet for use against a human target in anykind of populated area where US civilians could be accidentally injured or killed would not be the wisest idea.

I can see however where a drone could be used to hit a target like the Waco compound. Especially hard targets like the Waco records vault. Which was annihilated using some form of penetrating explosive device.

Or at a location like Ruby Ridge where the target was isolated from the general public.

These could also be hit however by manned craft using Joint direct attack munitions. What is good about the Drone is that if there were an "un" intended accident that resulted in the deaths of individuals other than the primary target it could always be blamed on a glitch and not on human error.

March 7, 2013, 08:21 PM	#41
Come and take it. Senior Member Join Date: May 16, 2009 Location: Kentucky Posts: 999	Something else that should be considered if the technology is reliable enough for the drone to be weaponized over populated areas. When the drones are over areas of Pakistan I don't think american citizens are concerned (they should be) whether or not a drone could misfire on an unintended target , Experience interference that could disable it causing it to crash on a populated area while armed with weapons or hacked and become a danger in that respect. If I am not mistaken a college tech class was able to hack a government drone (they were asked to see if it could be done) and landed it. The Iranians have hacked US drones. So in that respect the idea that a drone would somehow be a magic bullet for use against a human target in anykind of populated area where US civilians could be accidentally injured or killed would not be the wisest idea. I can see however where a drone could be used to hit a target like the Waco compound. Especially hard targets like the Waco records vault. Which was annihilated using some form of penetrating explosive device. Or at a location like Ruby Ridge where the target was isolated from the general public. These could also be hit however by manned craft using Joint direct attack munitions. What is good about the Drone is that if there were an "un" intended accident that resulted in the deaths of individuals other than the primary target it could always be blamed on a glitch and not on human error.