How much C4
...can a quadcopter carry?
I'm sure the bad guys must have thought about something like this already. Maybe the next step is random rotated notched jamming and new radio comms for the spooks to match the notches.
The US Secret Service is investigating how a drone came to crash into the White House in the early hours of Monday morning. The two-foot quadcopter drone invaded White House airspace at around 3am and crashed on the southeast side of the presidential property, prompting a security lock-down by Secret Service agents. President …
I don't think it enough to flatten a building. There's reports of drones coming across the US/Mexican border with a couple of pounds of drugs each. Apparently, the drug cartels are working on payload and range.
But as drones get bigger and more sophisticated, I'm sure we'll see someone try. If not C4 or Semtex, maybe something home-made.
When it comes to payload capacity, most quadcopters can carry a couple hundred grams at most. If payload and range are the target, it would be a much better choice to use a standard fixed wing design. Scaling that up to carry a few kilograms (or couple dozen) is not that hard.
Isn't that the general idea of terrorism* that the actual action is insignificant, but the reaction produced is what counts?
As pointed out elsewhere, a chemical, biological or nuclear payload would get more press scare stories. Since it's all about insane extrapolation rather than actual danger.
Maybe you could land a drone with influenza or TB on it? Since those kill hundreds of thousands of people a year, they must be dangerous. As compared to avian/swine flu. Or Ebola. Or *insert dumb medical scare story*.
*The type wot we is supposed to be scared off, rather than a nation state using military resources.
Not a lot.
It if it was detected on time it could have been jammed. White House same as most objects of such significance worldwide has jamming gear. Not that this would have helped in the days of pi-pilot and arduino so you can have a fully autonomous drone assembled in your basement.
Continuing the "risk assessment", a quadcopter cannot carry anything even remotely close to the 50 kg on a large aircraft model. It is slow, has a massive IR signature regardless of the engine and quite vulnerable - nowhere near as dangerous as a model aircraft and especially as a glider.
If the attacker is a glider (in its final phase) the short range IR guided missiles cannot lock on, so the only thing which can defend it is a phalanx. Frankly, if you live on Connecticut avenue, I suggest you move house. At least until the Feds have a fleet of drones of their own in the air 24x365. This is one of the two options to defend against this - fight fire with fire and drone with a drone. The other is good old blimp barrage from WW2 days. Effective then, effective now.
You're not going to be able to destroy any significant part of the White House with a quad copter and some C4. Now, you might be able with a quad copter and a small charge to cross into White House airspace and take out the President's helicopter right after takeoff or before landing.
The quad in the picture seems to be a DJ Phantom which can be programmed through an easy to use mobile app to fly to specific locations by using GPS. I assume that's what happened here. Perhaps the battery ran out and the drone dropped to the floor before being able to fly back to it's master.
I wonder how effective jamming would be in this scenario. You'd have to jam the GPS signal I guess.
"This is one of the two options to defend against this - fight fire with fire and drone with a drone. The other is good old blimp barrage from WW2 days. Effective then, effective now."
Clearly, there can be only one viable course of action: surround the White House tightly with giant-ass Tesla Coils! If you do it right, you could even have them play the anthem on every 4th of July! I would also recommend a drawbridge and a moat with laser-equipped sharks, but hey, it's just an idea...
There was a story of an American microbrewery that was using a drone to deliver 12 packs? of beer to ice fishermen in the Great Lakes region, but the plug was pulled on it once the FAA heard about it. http://abcnews.go.com/US/faa-slaps-drone-beer-delivery-service-ice-fishermen/story?id=22314625
How much C4 equals the weight of a 12 pack of beer?
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I was thinking the same sort of thing. Maybe with a deployable net payload instead of a shot pattern. Such devices were well known as naval cannon ammunition in the days when the the objective was to shred the sails and rigging of enemy ships. I'm not suggesting installation of 32-pounders on the White House roof, but maybe an 8 or 10 gauge shotgun?
A micro-iron dome is needed I think. Combine it with radar sensitive enough to pick out birds from the air, and a deep learning network for target analysis and you might be able to stop drones. Either that or just get some farmers with shotguns on the lawn.
While I still think that a shotgun is the quickest solution it does require that the user has some skill - a Micro-Patriot missile system is probably the best solution - and could have other applications too.
I wonder how a Micro-Patriot would work against Pheasants?
Kick-Starter anyone?