SWARM OF DRONES DESCEND ON ARIZONA NUCLEAR PLANT

[E90RAW]

Has anyone seen this article about the drone swarm over the AZ nuclear plant?

The Night A Mysterious Drone Swarm Descended On Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant

The mysterious case of mass drone incursions over America's most powerful nuclear power plant that only resulted in more questions and no changes.

www.thedrive.com

 

[iaincaradoc]

Hadn't seen that one, but the Arizona Republic (local newspaper) ran an article a few days ago.

 

[E90RAW]

Hadn't seen that one, but the Arizona Republic (local newspaper) ran an article a few days ago.

Im surprised they dont shoot them down. Dont you think that would be standard operating procedure?

 

[iaincaradoc]

Im surprised they dont shoot them down. Dont you think that would be standard operating procedure?

With what? The effective range of a shotgun is about three hundred feet.

 

[Geekser]

I saw that article when someone posted a link in this forum a few days ago - and frankly, this kind of activity concerns me. I wonder what their purpose is and I also wonder why security isn't tighter and they didn't get shot down or something. Who knows what sort of nefarious activity could happen from someone flying a sophisticated drone with an explosive payload.....hopefully that won't happen - but it seems to me they are being a bit lackadaisical by not doing something to stop them.

 

[E90RAW]

I saw that article when someone posted a link in this forum a few days ago - and frankly, this kind of activity concerns me. I wonder what their purpose is and I also wonder why security isn't tighter and they didn't get shot down or something. Who knows what sort of nefarious activity could happen from someone flying a sophisticated drone with an explosive payload.....hopefully that won't happen - but it seems to me they are being a bit lackadaisical by not doing something to stop them.

Agreed! And they were flying overhead for 80+minutes.

 

[E90RAW]

With what? The effective range of a shotgun is about three hundred feet.

There has to be a weapon that could hit a 2 foot drone, no? I am also surprised they didnt scramble the military jets to take a look. They are always training out there anyway. And why wouldn't they have that device that can identify the location of the drone operator? Clearly I may be watching too many movies!

 

[TreeHugger]

There has to be a weapon that could hit a 2 foot drone, no? I am also surprised they didnt scramble the military jets to take a look. They are always training out there anyway. And why wouldn't they have that device that can identify the location of the drone operator? Clearly I may be watching too many movies!

They didn't want to shoot their own drones down..... ?

 

[iaincaradoc]

And why wouldn't they have that device that can identify the location of the drone operator? Clearly I may be watching too many movies!

I'd love to know how to identify the location of a drone operator if someone's put a drone out on an autonomous mission plan, and all it's transmitting is the video feed.

You can't "triangulate" on the *receiver.*

And they already knew where the drones were.

So, barring GPS jamming (which is a really bad idea) what else are they going to do?

Any weapons or countermeasures could result in "unforeseen impact" downrange. Blind the drones with lasers? Sure. But you've got I-10 to the north, Phoenix and Sky Harbor to the east, the military range to the south, and Ghu only know how many aircraft are downrange of your laser. Shoot them down with something? Possibly. But what's downrange if you miss?

If it happened again today, I'd expect they'd follow the drones and see where they went - assuming they weren't under active control. Now that they've installed passive countermeasures, they should at least know where the control station(s) is/are if they're under active control.

 

[Fred Garvin]

It's a good thing they're working on RemoteID....then they'd be able to quickly identify the rogue operator and take action.

 

[Geekser]

With what? The effective range of a shotgun is about three hundred feet.

A net blasted out of some sort of Mortor type gun would do the trick.

Seems to me, having a bunch of those around the perimeter - would give security a chance to stop or bring down a drone. The challenge is - how to deploy the net at different heights - as each drone in the swarm could be flying at different height levels - with the brains we have in the US - I have to believe there is a way this could be done - accuracy would not be critical if the net was large enough. Just have to be able to deploy it several hundred feet up

- just a thought....

 

[iaincaradoc]

A net blasted out of some sort of Mortor type gun would do the trick.

The effective range of the *best* "net gun" I've seen is about twenty feet. And that's on a human-sized target.

 

[E90RAW]

I'd love to know how to identify the location of a drone operator if someone's put a drone out on an autonomous mission plan, and all it's transmitting is the video feed.

You can't "triangulate" on the *receiver.*

And they already knew where the drones were.

So, barring GPS jamming (which is a really bad idea) what else are they going to do?

Any weapons or countermeasures could result in "unforeseen impact" downrange. Blind the drones with lasers? Sure. But you've got I-10 to the north, Phoenix and Sky Harbor to the east, the military range to the south, and Ghu only know how many aircraft are downrange of your laser. Shoot them down with something? Possibly. But what's downrange if you miss?

If it happened again today, I'd expect they'd follow the drones and see where they went - assuming they weren't under active control. Now that they've installed passive countermeasures, they should at least know where the control station(s) is/are if they're under active control.

Check out the "AARTOS system". I think this is what NYC uses. Fly your drone in restricted area and the police show up in 10 minutes.

 

[E90RAW]

It's a good thing they're working on RemoteID....then they'd be able to quickly identify the rogue operator and take action.

Ive had my drone 5 miles out over open water. When I see a boat I wonder how would they ever would be able to know where the drone came from.

 

[iaincaradoc]

Check out the "AARTOS system". I think this is what NYC uses. Fly your drone in restricted area and the police show up in 10 minutes.

Which doesn't help unless the system is installed *before* the incursion.

 

[Pstik]

It's a good thing they're working on RemoteID....then they'd be able to quickly identify the rogue operator and take action.

Do you think a rogue drone would have ID on them? I think not. They also say they are 6 ft wide and fly for about 2 hours in high winds.

 

[Mark Waco]

I'd love to know how to identify the location of a drone operator if someone's put a drone out on an autonomous mission plan, and all it's transmitting is the video feed.

You can't "triangulate" on the *receiver.*

And they already knew where the drones were.

So, barring GPS jamming (which is a really bad idea) what else are they going to do?

Any weapons or countermeasures could result in "unforeseen impact" downrange. Blind the drones with lasers? Sure. But you've got I-10 to the north, Phoenix and Sky Harbor to the east, the military range to the south, and Ghu only know how many aircraft are downrange of your laser. Shoot them down with something? Possibly. But what's downrange if you miss?

If it happened again today, I'd expect they'd follow the drones and see where they went - assuming they weren't under active control. Now that they've installed passive countermeasures, they should at least know where the control station(s) is/are if they're under active control.

One can always use a pellet long rifle, some are pretty powerful.

 

[Fred Garvin]

Do you think a rogue drone would have ID on them? I think not. They also say they are 6 ft wide and fly for about 2 hours in high winds.

But new laws will fix all the problems....

 

[Mavic Mac]

With what? The effective range of a shotgun is about three hundred feet.

With THIS
I would almost be positive our military/high security areas would have something along these lines

 

[iaincaradoc]

With THIS
I would almost be positive our military/high security areas would have something along these lines

From the link:

"The AUDS system detects the drone using state-of-the-art electronic scanning micro-Doppler radar, tracks it using high precision infrared and daylight cameras and advanced video tracking software, before using a non-kinetic radio frequency (RF) inhibitor to defeat the drone. Using AUDS, an operator can effectively take control of the drone and force a safe landing."

Sounds like something *everyone* should want just under the western path in/out of Sky Harbor Airport.

(That was sarcasm, just in case you missed it.)

If you spot the "power plant" located near Wintersburg, that's the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. Note where Sky Harbor and Luke Air Force Base are.