Thales WK450 Drone: UK Army using French Watchkeeper drones to police the UK skies

The Army's latest "spy in the sky" unmanned aircraft is due to begin flying over British skies this week.

Thales Watchkeeper WK450, a reconnaissance and surveillance unmanned air system (UAS), has a wingspan of 35 feet and can fly at an altitude of up to 16,000 feet.

It has been designed to loiter over areas of interest for "significantly longer" than existing systems, providing clear surveillance pictures to troops on the ground.

The aircraft boasts two sensors - a day and night camera which produces 24-hour high-definition images and a radar sensor, allowing it to see in all conditions.

These images are relayed in real time to a ground control station that acts as the aircraft's cockpit - reducing the need to deploy troops to "potentially dangerous" situations.

Watchkeeper, which has been tested in West Wales since 2010 and is nearing the end of its trials, is expected to take a "significant role" in future military campaigns.

This week, highly-skilled pilots will fly Watchkeeper in restricted airspace over the Ministry of Defence's Salisbury Plain Training Area in Wiltshire, overseen by military air traffic controllers.

The Army is due to begin its own training later this year.

Colonel Mark Thornhill, Commander of 1st Artillery Brigade said: "Watchkeeper is a state-of-the-art system coming in to service now. It can fly for longer, it flies off rough strips, it has better sensors.

"Watchkeeper is designed specifically to support worldwide operations in many different locations.

"Watchkeeper is a fantastic capability because it will allow us to provide real-time imagery back to the ground commander so that he can then take appropriate action depending on what he sees and what he learns from that imagery.

"Therefore, he will be able to perform in a much better fashion and make much better operational decisions based on the imagery we are providing to him."

Watchkeeper, which is being developed by the French corporation Thales in the UK, is unarmed and does not carry any weapons. It has already clocked up 500 hours of flying time in West Wales.

Sc-Fi RoboCop (2013) "Omnicorp Product Line" - YouTube

The video were revealed today as part of the early viral marketing campaign for Jose Padilha‘s new RoboCop, which will star Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Hugh Laurie.

The film is set for release in August 9, 2013, but you can see the new ED, and seemingly a tease of RoboCop in the video.

Those with a keen memory for the original film will note that the video below seems to position ED and RoboCop as complimentary technology, rather than competing interests. So that’s a bit different than what we saw in the Paul Verhoeven movie. Wonder how that factors in to the new take?

That image above is a shot of the redesigned ED-209 automated security sentry drone from OmniCorp — you may remember the original ED-209 as the roaring, bullet-spitting hulk that went haywire in a boardroom demonstration and lead to the fictional funding of Sci-Fi hero RoboCop.

Cell Phone Jammers: A Convenience or a crime?

A cell phone jammer is a small device that looks like a walkie-talkie. It is used to prevent cell phones from receiving signals from base stations.

Cell phone jammers block cell phone operations by sending radio waves along the same frequencies that cellular phones use. The radio waves cause interference between the cell phone and its ability to communicate with cell phone towers.

Cell phone jammers come in a variety of sizes, can affect large or small radiuses, and can target a variety of cell phone bands (frequencies used to communicate with towers).

Jammers either disrupt phone-to-tower frequencies or tower-to-phone frequencies. The latter is typically more effective.

Cell phone jammers are illegal according to FCC regulations. The reason is because cell phone jammers could prohibit emergency vehicles from communicating with each other.

It can also disrupt police communication and jammers may prohibit someone from reaching emergency services if they're used incorrectly.

Pain - The Weapon of Choice for the US Police? Portable pain weapon in police hands - New Scientist

Portable pain weapon may end up in police hands - tech - 30 September 2009 - New Scientist

HE Pentagon's efforts to develop a beam weapon that can deter an adversary by causing a burning sensation on their skin has taken a step forward with the development of a small, potentially hand-held, version. The weapon, which is claimed to cause no permanent harm, could also end up being used by police to control civilians.

The idea of the weapon is to "create a heating sensation that repels individual adversaries", according to the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) in Quantico, Virginia, which develops less-lethal weapons for the US military and coastguard.

Tests with a rifle-mounted infrared laser, carried out at a US air force lab near Dayton, Ohio, have determined a combination of laser pulse power and wavelength that causes an alarming, hot sensation on the skin, but which stops short of causing a burn, says JNLWD project engineer Wesley Burgei.

"We have established the minimum irradiance to cause a sensation and have characterised where thermal injury begins," he says. "But the exact operating irradiance which balances a useful military effect with a conservative margin of safety has not been nailed down yet."

That's something that will have to be done before the weapon is deployed, as too powerful a laser beam could permanently blind someone if fired at their eyes. Weapons that do this are banned under the UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons.

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