The company that makes these minature spy and kill drones is not only selling to the US military but also to local police forces. Should future police want to spy or assassinate leaders of demonstrations or other government opposition they will have a powerful and hard to detect weapon to do so. The drones fly almost silently, weigh under 6 lb and can explode on contact with the target without killing lots of other people nearby.

AeroVironment describes the Switchblade as the warfighter's “magic bullet”. It can rapidly provide a powerful, but expendable miniature flying Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) package on a Beyond Line-of-Sight (BLOS) target within minutes. This miniature, remotely-piloted or autonomous platform can either glide or propel itself via quiet electric propulsion, providing real-time GPS coordinates and video for information gathering, targeting, or feature/object recognition. The vehicle’s small size and quiet motor make it difficult to detect, recognize, and track even at very close range. The Switchblade is fully scalable and can be launched from a variety of air and ground platforms.

The Switchblade's payload and launcher, weighing less than six pounds total, can be carried in a backpack by a single soldier. The mini UAV, which sends streaming video and GPS coordinates back to its operator, can be transformed from an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance UAV into a mini bomb striking a target beyond the line of sight.

The battery-powered vehicle has a very low visual, acoustic and thermal signature. AeroVironment says the the weapon can also be deployed from submarines, ground vehicles and a manned, as well as unmanned, aircraft.

From http://defense-update.com/products/l/switchblade_31122010.html

 

In the January 4 Huff Post, attorney and author John Whitehead reported on the militarization of local police. Some police forces are now equipped with spy drones. Whitehead reports that a drone manufacturer, AeroVironment Inc., plans to sell 18,000 drones to police departments throughout the country. The company is also advertising a small drone, the “Switchblade,” which can track a person, land on the person and explode.

How long before Americans will be spied upon or murdered as extremists at the discretion of local police?

Recognizing the privacy danger, if not the murder danger, the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a report, “Protecting Privacy From Aerial Surveillance.”https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/protectingprivacyfromaerialsurveillance.pdf

 

This entry was posted on January 15, 2012 at 11:02 PM and has received 2020 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This article on the losses of rights in the US is in the Washington Post. Now not only are alternative news site talking about this issue, a main stream newspaper is too. Perhaps it is time to "Occupy the Constitution"... then at least we would be the home of the brave even if no longer land of the free.

And in a signing statement with the defense authorization bill, Obama said he does not intend to use the latest power to indefinitely imprison citizens. Yet, he still accepted the power as a sort of regretful autocrat.


An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will.

The framers lived under autocratic rule and understood this danger better than we do. James Madison famously warned that we needed a system that did not depend on the good intentions or motivations of our rulers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Benjamin Franklin was more direct. In 1787, a Mrs. Powel confronted Franklin after the signing of the Constitution and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His response was a bit chilling: “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”

Since 9/11, we have created the very government the framers feared: a government with sweeping and largely unchecked powers resting on the hope that they will be used wisely.

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-the-united-states-still-the-land-of-the-free/2012/01/04/gIQAvcD1wP_print.html

This entry was posted on January 15, 2012 at 3:08 PM and has received 767 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.