Can We Control The Civilan UAV Jungle?
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Up to the month of August, over 600 UAVs were detected making their way too close to passenger planes, not to mention the drone that landed on the White House lawn. This phenomenon of complete lack of control over the civilian drones is raising many conerns for a while now, and the legislation proposed by Chuck Schumer tried to answer those concerns. According to the legislation, UAV maufacturers will be forced to define restricted areas for flight by using a software installed in the the drone. The software, called Geofences, is meant to prevent the drone from fluong towards certain GPS coordinates thus furthering it from sensitive locations such as airports.
However, it seems that once again hackers shatter the hopes of computer experts. Although this software can prevent an amateur operator from reaching areas such as the White House, hackers have already demonstrated their ability to bypass these softwares while the drone is up in the air. They’ve managed to break into the program and make the UAV ignore the manufacturer’s instructions regarding flight restrictions.
“Identifying low- altitude and slow- speed aerial vehicles from other objects is a technical and operational challenge,” said Navy Adm. William Gortney. And still the Fedeal Aviation Administration, the Department for Homeland Security and the military are doing their best. Recently the U.S.Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, directed a drill near Washington meant to test the capability to detect and intercept drones.
“How do you differentiate between a 10-year-old kid who just doesn’t know any better and is flying something from a hobby shop and somebody who’s flying that identical something from a hobby shop but has nefarious intent?” said Air Force Maj. Scott Gregg. “You can’t tell that with a radar or an infrared sensor.”
There are already researchers working on creating a system to counter small privately operated drones which offer to use radar and electro-magnetic frequencies in order to intercept UAVs in secured facilities. At the end of the day, the best defense against small UAVs is somewhere along the line between relying on the manufacturer’s software updates, which have not been proven affective so far, and intercepting the UAVs – a dangerous task which could frighten passerbys. In the meantime, we should all let the great mind working on this matter keep working.
