Government Infrastructure Drone Ops

[PatR]

Anyone currently doing drone work for the U.S. government using drones, hang to to your hat. A ban on all COT's drones is coming down the pipe from the military side. If you're currently flying any of the consumer brands you need to start looking for something that's not being actively marketed to consumers. I can't give more on the subject but be prepared.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Probably going the same way Canada is going with their Complex operations. One of the requirements is the UAV operator must operate a drone that meets a design standards. The approved UAV's start around ten grand.
List of compliant unmanned air vehicles:
https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/opssvs/listing-compliant-unmanned-air-vehicles.html

 

[PatR]

Short version here has anything utilized by the some levels of government has to establish there is no way for a manufacturer to link with the aircraft outside of the customer operation, and all collected data must be secure. Yuneec shot themselves in the foot with initiation of their OTA updating. Consumer convenient but opened a lot of the wrong doors. DJI is off the scale...

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Hmmm, might be room for Autel if they ever get that EVO off the ground LOL

 

[PatR]

It would still be a COTs product lacking certification or waiver, and manufactured in China. The Chinese have a considerable history of building back doors into any of their stuff that collects or generates data. Made in China laptops, security cams, cell phones, security cam doorbells, drones, etc., have all been proven to possess link back properties. They can’t be trusted.

 

[CraigCam]

When you say govt I’m assuming military only? Locally, one of our PD just invested in P4s and a custom drone for crowd surveying during events and search and rescue. Got 6 officers with part 107 certificates and made a public splash.

 

[PatR]

I’m aware of a recent joint infrastructure exercise between military and civilian LEA’s where all COT’s drones were forbidden shortly before the start of the exercise. Of course DJI was the brand in the majority of the COT’s products, which generated a lot of civilian LEA aggravation.

 

[PatR]

Just guessing here but I would not be surprised to learn of a requirement for secure data and C2 linkage along with an outright prohibition of any system that possessed web linkage capability or the option to use a phone, tablet, or other device that might connect at any time with a cell tower or web server.

 

[PatR]

The article is not to my knowledge linked to an active systems ban. The two are separate actions.

Murphy secures critical buy American protections against foreign drones in appropriations committee - sUAS News - The Business of Drones

 

[muguvian]

Are you referring to Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS)? Throwing me with the use of "COT's".
So far I've only seen the individual services make their knee-jerk bans and have received no direction to stop developing our aviation safety program for the Naval Safety Center, which uses Yuneec and DJI aircraft. This will be interesting if it does materialize.

 

[PatR]

My error, the acronym should be COTS.

 

[PatR]

The attached document should explain things better.

 

[muguvian]

Thanks, I’ll pass this along.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Does not seem to be slowing them down selling them to every other service LOL

https://dronedj.com/2018/06/06/dji-announces-a-partnership-with-axon/

 

[PatR]

For the moment, no. As smaller government agencies that coordinate with DHS and military agencies learn of the issues causing the ban I believe we’ll see an impact. There’s already been one large military-civilian critical infrastructure joint exercise take place where all the civil agencies found out they could not use their stuff after they arrived on scene. Only a select few multirotors were allowed to be operated, none of them from consumer level manufacturers.

Our local police departments have concerns about their operational security. They are very intolerant of anyone being able to look over their shoulders in the course of their activities. Anything that enables others to “see” what they are doing will not remain in use very long after they are discovered.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Yeah, cops don't like it when we see them fabricate evidence, or make evidence disappear.