Assassination by drone in USA - how soon?

[Boyo_Jim]

@guizot

Or just a regular plane? What can a drone do that a person in plane can’t do already?..

A small drone or radio controlled plane can take off from a very tiny place, perhaps somebody’s back yard. Or you could even throw it to launch it. And you can get one without a pilot’s license, and you can fly one with a lot less training.

[Broomstick]

@Diceman

There’s a scary thought: add a sharpened metal edge to the rotor blades of an RC copter.

You don’t have to sharpen the blades. They move quite fast enough to be meat slicers. There have been operators dismembered or killed by their RC helicopters.

@Boyo_Jim

I would be willing to bet their security teams aren’t normally walking around with radio gear to jam drone aircraft.

Assuming it’s remotely controlled, you just have to broadcast on the same frequency as the UAV operator, at least for civilian type aircraft. I would be really surprised if the military doesn’t have some sort of jamming device that could do that.

As far as payload, you only need an ounce or two, maybe less, of high explosive to kill somebody, if you can deliver it accurately enough.

You don’t need explosives if you use a RC helicopter, the rotors are potentially deadly. An RC jet (there are model jets) wouldn’t need that, they can attain very high speeds and they have very hot exhaust, either one of which could do terrible things.

Although yes, potentially you could add a nasty payload…

@usedtobe

“Drones” (aka remote-controlled model airplanes, available since when?) also require relatively friendly terrain - they are slow and cumbersome - any half-decent military could shoot one down.

There are RC aircraft capable of vertical take off and landing. There are RC jet aircraft that, despite their small size, can attain speeds of hundreds of miles per hour because they are powered by real jet engines (real small jet engines, but jets nonetheless).

Any why could a drone not be equipped with a GPS receiver and just enough intelligence to guide it to a pre-programmed XYX target?

That technology already exists. I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to start constructing a how-to that might lead to trouble, and I have no interest in causing that sort of mayhem myself.

@guizot

Or just a regular plane? What can a drone do that a person in plane can’t do already? Can they get around undetected because of their size?

Yes, their size can make detection difficult. Flying one 15 or 20 feet off the ground between buildings, for example, and no aviation radar will be able to detect it (radar can’t see through buildings). It’s been a problem with ultralights large enough to carry a person that they don’t always show up on civilian radar, mini-aircraft even more so.

@Boyo_Jim

A small drone or radio controlled plane can take off from a very tiny place, perhaps somebody’s back yard. Or you could even throw it to launch it.

Yes and yes.

And you can get one without a pilot’s license, and you can fly one with a lot less training.

Well, if you want to hit a specific target it does require some practice. On the other hand, there are RC flight simulators that are pretty darn good and would allow a person to get some useful practice in before actually flying the real thing.

Put me in the camp that says it’s possible. I don’t know if we’re going to see it soon, there are certain logistical issues, but then I’m not one of the Bad Guys, I don’t know their funding or how desperately they’d want to do something like this.