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Everyone is getting their own militarized drone these days (its easy).

AMann

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Rebel missile and drone from an earlier attack on another Saudi facility.

1450 KM (900 mile) operational range, probably using cellular for FPV and drone control. It is rather easily done using off the shelf parts as well, including the duct tape and cardboard, and unfortunately, the militarized parts are easily available off the shelf as well for people in certain parts of the world.

There will probably be a lot more of this happening in the future, so anti-drone technology will have to keep up.
 
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View attachment 81718
Rebel missile and drone from an earlier attack on another Saudi facility.

1450 KM (900 mile) operational range, probably using cellular for FPV and drone control. It is rather easily done using off the shelf parts as well, including the duct tape and cardboard, and unfortunately, the militarized parts are easily available off the shelf as well for people in certain parts of the world.

There will probably be a lot more of this happening in the future, so anti-drone technology will have to keep up.
It's really a sad commentary on the state of the world we live in today...sad but true!! be smart fly safe
 
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Wow, now they’re reporting that the drone strikes knocked out half of the total Saudi oil producing capacity, HALF! That’s about 5% of the global oil supply, even so, get ready for higher gas prices and some even stricter regulations for our hobby in the future.
 
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This is not a surprise. Drones that size have been around a few years. The ones the size of a small crusie missle are not that expensive. IE less thant $10K last time I looked. (that was retail a few years ago for a civil application). Now sophisticated a system would be affordable to most individuals as a hobby never mind a funded terrorist group.

However now "we drone users" have been seen as irresponsible and dangerous with "our hobby" causing terrorism and worse... the rise in the cost of fuel for cars, you can expect that there will be calls for new laws banning drones carrying weapons. (deleted by moderator).

(no one said sanity was a prerequisite to be on this forum :) )

The photo is of one of the type of drones thought to have been used. It is powered by a small petrol engine. Somewhat ironic as they could be cutting off their own fuel supply.

iu.jpeg
 
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This is not a surprise. Drones that size have been around a few years. The ones the size of a small crusie missle are not that expensive. IE less thant $10K last time I looked. (that was retail a few years ago for a civil application). Now sophisticated a system would be affordable to most individuals as a hobby never mind a funded terrorist group.

However now "we drone users" have been seen as irresponsible and dangerous with "our hobby" causing terrorism and worse... the rise in the cost of fuel for cars, you can expect that there will be calls for new laws banning drones carrying weapons. Then the counter campaign from the NRA saying that US Citizens have the right to mount hellfires on their Mavic 2P's.....

(no one said sanity was a prerequisite to be on this forum :) )

The photo is of one of the type of drones thought to have been used. It is powered by a small petrol engine. Somewhat ironic as they could be cutting off their own fuel supply.

View attachment 81758

I think they will be considering the return of Selective Availability for GPS after attacks like this, at least perhaps on a regional level.
 
I think they will be considering the return of Selective Availability for GPS after attacks like this, at least perhaps on a regional level.

That is not going to work. there are multiple reasons why not.

1 GPS is essential for a lot of state users. civil emergency services, delivery services, etc etc etc turning off GPS will piss off a LOT of people to very senior posts in the government. Besides who gets to decised what to degrade or turn off where/when?

2 There is more than one GPS system and at least one of them will be "friendly" you your bunch of Freedom Fighters.....
If there is Selective Availability for GPS then more systems will be developed quickly.

3 Do these drones use GPS? They don't need to. Radio compasses still work well. Also a local spotter within 5-10 miles of the target could pick it up and do local/final course changes. It depends who accurate you need to be. Some targets are the size of small towns.
 
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That is not going to work. there are multiple reasons why not.

1 GPS is essential for a lot of state users. civil emergency services, delivery services, etc etc etc turning off GPS will piss off a LOT of people to very senior posts in the government. Besides who gets to decised what to degrade or turn off where/when?

2 There is more than one GPS system and at least one of them will be "friendly" you your bunch of Freedom Fighters.....
If there is Selective Availability for GPS then more systems will be developed quickly.

3 Do these drones use GPS? They don't need to. Radio compasses still work well. Also a local spotter within 5-10 miles of the target could pick it up and do local/final course changes. It depends who accurate you need to be. Some targets are the size of small towns.
The way Selective Availability works, you can make it regionally selective and also provide key codes for friendlies so they can get actual undiluted coordinates. GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo systems all have this ability if their controllers want to enable it. There are also local GPS jamming units, but like you said, it was an awfully large target and does not require much precision nor accuracy.

You are right though, I wonder if those drones were controlled through something as simple as the cellular system. The possible key player behind them (which I wont name or get political here) has the technical prowess to make them quite sophisticated, but I doubt they would have in order to not be implicated.
 
The way Selective Availability works, you can make it regionally selective and also provide key codes for friendlies so they can get actual undiluted coordinates. GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo systems all have this ability if their controllers want to enable it. There are also local GPS jamming units, but like you said, it was an awfully large target and does not require much precision nor accuracy.

You only need one GPS system to be run by a regime friendly to your cause and use that. Given in that in that part of the world there is going to be at least one player who will be symathetic to your cause with either a GPS system or will get you access to the key codes even if the system owner would perfer you didn't have them. (it's complex out there)

Basically GPS is now so widley used by so many countries, organisations etc etc that turning it off is not an option. This is why there is now more than one system. Because one side is worried the other side will exclude them.

You are right though, I wonder if those drones were controlled through something as simple as the cellular system. The possible key player behind them (which I wont name or get political here) has the technical prowess to make them quite sophisticated, but I doubt they would have in order to not be implicated.

It would not take the "key player" to be a state actor. Most reasonably skilled embedded/electronics developers can knock up a sophisticated system. Actually most hobbyists and a lot of drone racers could do this quite easily with standad cheap commercially available modules.

GPS reciver/decoders are about $30 each from amazon, ebay, marshals, RS, Farnel, Element 14. etc.
TECNOIOT SIM808 Module GSM GPRS GPS Breakout Board SIM808 for Arduino Raspberry: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
How about one with a compass? WFHhsxfh OCDAY NEO-M8N GPS Module with Compass Sensitive for DJI NAZA Lite V1 V2 Flight Controller RC783. Electronic Accessories: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home
about the same for GSM modems. OSTENT GSM Modem with Wavecom Q2303A Module USB Interface AT Commands SMS: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
That gives you three forms of passive navigation with one two way comms.

Also all you need is a radio compass module. The modules are of a similar price these days. This will give you the bearing of a transmitter. For example any of the VOR, VORTAC, TACAN transmitters or indeed any civil radio station (if you know the exact location) You can then navigate to anywhere within a few feet. Most of the information is on civil air maps and the ONC & TPC maps. With a burner phone you could have some near the target area to (ie with in a few KM with eyes on) to do any last minute changes via SMS.

Add in a rasberry Pi (or any one of several 100 similar systems that are very widely available ) and you have an extremely sophisticated multi channel navigation system for less than $150 + a bit of time knocking the code together. There is no reliable defence against this sort of attack other than things like phalanx. .

The problem is with a range of 1500 miles you could lauch anywhere in side one hell of an area, probalby spanning several countries.

OTOH given the size of these drones you could smuggle them in to a local launch site in a pickup truck (with in a few miles) and lunch them balistically given the size of the target, ie forward x yards/metres and go bang.

There is no reliable defence against this sort of attack either.
 
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You only need one GPS system to be run by a regime friendly to your cause and use that. Given in that in that part of the world there is going to be at least one player who will be symathetic to your cause with either a GPS system or will get you access to the key codes even if the system owner would perfer you didn't have them. (it's complex out there)

Basically GPS is now so widley used by so many countries, organisations etc etc that turning it off is not an option. This is why there is now more than one system. Because one side is worried the other side will exclude them.



It would not take the "key player" to be a state actor. Most reasonably skilled embedded/electronics developers can knock up a sophisticated system. Actually most hobbyists and a lot of drone racers could do this quite easily with standad cheap commercially available modules.

GPS reciver/decoders are about $30 each from amazon, ebay, marshals, RS, Farnel, Element 14. etc.
TECNOIOT SIM808 Module GSM GPRS GPS Breakout Board SIM808 for Arduino Raspberry: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
How about one with a compass? WFHhsxfh OCDAY NEO-M8N GPS Module with Compass Sensitive for DJI NAZA Lite V1 V2 Flight Controller RC783. Electronic Accessories: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home
about the same for GSM modems. OSTENT GSM Modem with Wavecom Q2303A Module USB Interface AT Commands SMS: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
That gives you three forms of passive navigation with one two way comms.

Also all you need is a radio compass module. The modules are of a similar price these days. This will give you the bearing of a transmitter. For example any of the VOR, VORTAC, TACAN transmitters or indeed any civil radio station (if you know the exact location) You can then navigate to anywhere within a few feet. Most of the information is on civil air maps and the ONC & TPC maps. With a burner phone you could have some near the target area to (ie with in a few KM with eyes on) to do any last minute changes via SMS.

Add in a rasberry Pi (or any one of several 100 similar systems that are very widely available ) and you have an extremely sophisticated multi channel navigation system for less than $150 + a bit of time knocking the code together. There is no reliable defence against this sort of attack other than things like phalanx. .

The problem is with a range of 1500 miles you could lauch anywhere in side one hell of an area, probalby spanning several countries.

OTOH given the size of these drones you could smuggle them in to a local launch site in a pickup truck (with in a few miles) and lunch them balistically given the size of the target, ie forward x yards/metres and go bang.

There is no reliable defence against this sort of attack either.

It’s all simpler than that - have you seen the Ardupilot site? We made a grounds rover at school using their controller, they have the same for drones and other vehicles as well. People have even installed it in large farm equipment!

 
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Metal storm pods are the answer to these small drone strikes. Shredded in seconds
 
It’s all simpler than that - have you seen the Ardupilot site? We made a grounds rover at school using their controller, they have the same for drones and other vehicles as well. People have even installed it in large farm equipment!


There are several open source drone control software systems available. I was aware of three others but not that one.

My post was pointing out that there are multiple navigations systems, GPS, GSM, Radio compass etc easily and cheaply available that could be used in conjunction to ensure no disruption in a hostile environment. There is a difference between designing s system to fly under "normal" friendly situations and one that has to work covertly in a hostile environment.

However it does show that hobbyists can make a drone "cruise missile" never mind needing state actors. Also that these sort of systems are almost impossible to stop people making from easily available components or defend against without putting things like Phalanx Phalanx CIWS - Wikipedia system all over "everything"

Lets face it if they can get explosives, commercially available drones and electronic are nto going to be a problem

So we can expect a whole load of new anti Drone laws to come out aimed at the average civilian multi rotor drone flyers. Even though the drones in the attack used seem to be more akin to the RC model aircraft or military drones. eg
 
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Making it law to register your drone and having an online test would definitely stamp out this sort of thing!

Absolutley!!!

Name of organisation: Houthi
Email Address: [email protected]
Address : C/o the hut round the back of the Mosque
Nature of business: Terrorism
Drones to Register: See attached list of 500 as we only use each one once.
Pilots: Muhammed (all 20 of them) and Chuck, aka Muhammed (a convert from Kansas).

Also

Name of organisation: KKK
Email Address [email protected]
Address The shack, by the lake in the forest, Alabama
Nature of business: Freedom from Leftist-Liberal Controlled Government
Drones to Register: See attached list of 500 as we only use each one once.
Pilots: Chuck (all 20 of them) and Mohammed, aka Chuck (a convert from Detroit ).

Name of organisation: Cultural Tours of England
Address [email protected]
5 Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8 4QS
Nature of business: Tourism in Winchester
Drones to Register: Mavic 2 Pro
Pilots: Ilich Ramírez Sánchez
 
Yes, but make it law in every country and it will stop this type of thing immediately.
While I agree that registration should be required, as with manned aircraft, world wide I really don't think it will do anything to stop regimes from continuing there assaults on governments they intend to disrupt...JMO...be smart fly safe
 
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