PDF: Countering Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAV)

A recently published US Army manual on countering drones.

“Units should always assume the enemy is using a UAS to observe or attempt to observe them. Modern, friendly, and allied sensors—which include a host of robust long-range and short-range radars, optical devices, and audible alert systems—face challenges detecting the UAS Groups 1, 2, and 3 at sufficient ranges. Because of this, threat UASs may go undetected while operating at a standoff range. This limits friendly ability to detect them and creates smaller engagement windows.

(…) Threat UASs have limitations. Poor weather conditions can short-circuit them or prevent their sensors from collecting. High winds can prevent them from flying at all. Some commercial UAS emit electronic data that if collected can reveal its operator’s location. Weather conditions like heavy fog or cloud cover can degrade their intelligence collection capabilities.”

RCMP drone expansion comes with hefty price tag, prompts concerns of ‘mission creep’

RCMP officer with Draganflyer X4-P model.

By Vancouver Sun/Postmedia News, December 31, 2014

The RCMP is exploring an array of uses for unmanned aircraft — from aerial traffic surveillance to reconnaissance missions during hostage crises to perimeter security at major events — and some divisions appear willing to pay big bucks for new drone technology, internal documents show.

Mounties in Alberta are looking at acquiring a fixed-wing drone — costing at least $350,000 — to respond to search and rescue missions and other emergencies.

But the expanded use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are raising concerns about “mission creep” among privacy advocates and with regulators at Transport Canada who, according to the documents, have recorded “airspace violations” by some police agencies.

RCMP Spending Nearly $100 Million to Spy on Mohawk Tobacco Trade

By Muna Mire, Vice, March 26 2014

The same Conservative government that dismissed a federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women as too costly, has allocated $91.7 million over five years in its budget for a high-tech surveillance operation along the Quebec-Ontario border with the US in order to find and shut down Mohawk-run underground tobacco operations. The funds were set aside specifically for a “Geospatial Intelligence and Automatic Dispatch Centre,” which will rely on a number of different and costly surveillance technologies.