Sneak Peek At Drones

 Sneak Peek at Drones

As we inch closer to new technologies are we making this world messier? This was my first impression when I learnt about the Drones, popularly used by the American government during combats.

Drones are actually unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) which are pilot-less, vehicles to augment the surveillance capacity of the nation during military operations stealthily. It can be operated autonomously either by computer operated by the pilot from the ground or from a computer in other flying vehicles. They were devised initially to meet the requirement of the stealth surveillance in highly sensitive and strategically important defense locations. Currently, a huge menagerie of drones is available in various sizes, forms, shapes and purposes. They can be as huge as a size of the regular manned aircraft or as small as pocket of a back pack. Their surveillance capacities are immense. They are used during naval operation as well to detect any floating mines under water.

Sea borne Drone

They have immense capacities and can be put to best use by integrating the police force to carry out domestic surveillance. A farmer can use it to watch his fields, a builder can employ it to survey construction sites, and film makers can use it in films and Universities for scientific research. Hobbyists can use it the way they want. Different states in US wanted to adopt these drones for various purposes like fire fighting, avalanche control, oil & mineral exploration, remote sensing, detecting forest fires tracking down illegal trafficking along sensitive borders. Since they are aerial vehicles surveillance of inaccessible areas like dangerous terrains and difficult tracks is possible. Hence they are best used for forest survey or in disaster struck areas. British Petroleum has employed these vehicles from the government to survey the extent of oil spillage.

With its numerous capacities, it has flip side like privacy concerns over the use of the data concerned (law is not clear about what information the government can collect using drones), compilation of this humongous information, issues of hacking raises serious problems like tracking UAV during a mission. As they don’t have thinking capacity there is a huge risk of colliding with other flying objects within its range of operation.

Drones are the most powerful surveillance tools available till date. They can detect any object of 15cm size from 6000mt height in 12 different angles. Drones devised recently have a capacity to cruise from a height of 20,000ft for four days at a stretch. This enormous capacity indicates alarming precision and accuracy of the information.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a US government agency's permission is required to obtain Certificate of Authorization (COA), for using drones for non-recreational purposes to fly in national space. Getting approval from FAA is very time-consuming process, due to the rapid increase in the number of the permissions sought by various states and public entities. Now changes, in the form of setting up new drone testing stations and quick clearances of the application are going to find a place in the new bill.

Drones have the unique record of being put to ruthless usage during air combats. Huge numbers of overt and covert attacks were carried out by the Americans in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most of the covert attacks that resulted in death several innocent civilians were unreported. As the days for withdrawal of peace troupes from Afghanistan is nearing, the whopping 7500 drones employed by the US defense administration might be rendered jobless. Officials are busy devising alternate plans to use these highly sophisticated stealth devices for domestic use.

Hence there is growing restiveness among the civilians of the nation. People are gravely concerned about the role of drones in domestic surveillance, which can tear the curtain of their privacy. Drone technology is evolving at a rapid pace like the Darwin’s finches. With easy access of military grade technology, drones might become more powerful and freely available. In near future anyone with an iPhone and $50 can own a drone and play around with it. What has been developed as war –tactic can now boomerang and can become a menace soon. So there is a hue and cry about its usage and regulation.

 

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