UAV surveillance for the Secret Service

[dll932]

It occurred to me that unfortunately, Obama might be pretty vulnerable in public, since not everyone likes the idea of a black man in the Big Chair, so I called my local Secret Service branch and suggested they employ uav's to watch the tops of buildings when he's outside. The agent I talked to seemed to like the suggestion. Who knows? You might see them in the sky over parades, etc. soon.

[johnorama]

Your idea is great for those selling UAV's but it is not very practical. For most urban scenarios, a UAV is not worth the effort to watch over a single person, or look for a single person (most probable threat) when you don't know where they are coming from, where they are or where they are going. Also, it can take from 6 to 50 people to support a single UAV mission depending on the UAV used. The FAA does not currently allow UAV's over populated areas either.

I flew UAV's for Border Patrol and I found that finding a group of people in open terrain without any intelligence on their location, direction, speed or intent is just short of impossible. To move the same technology into an urban environment with even less success and tremendous risk to those below.

I was present for GW's second innaugural parade. The night before, my wife, daughter and I were able to walk up and touch the bullet proof glass of the presidential viewing area for the parade, only 24" from the presidents chair. During the parade there was a Huey w/snipers in a tight orbit under 500' over the president, numerous men in tactical gear on rooftops and in windows all around and who knows what/who they had that you couldn't see. There is also fielded technology that can instantly detect the origin of gun fire and its path. And last, I used to market devices that could detect if a sniper was pointing their rifle at you before they pulled the trigger. In short, the dude is protected and there is plenty of systems in place to identify a threat before it acts.

The Secret Service dude you talked to was curteous and thankful for your suggestion because he was likely trained to be that way.

A UAV may be better suited for persistant surveillance prior to an event to detect changes in the environment such as a new item next to highway, traffic in unusual times or locations, signal intelligence.

To support my statements, I have operated 6 military UAV's in most environents since the early 90's.

[c_matt92]

Your idea is great for those selling UAV's but it is not very practical. For most urban scenarios, a UAV is not worth the effort to watch over a single person, or look for a single person (most probable threat) when you don't know where they are coming from, where they are or where they are going. Also, it can take from 6 to 50 people to support a single UAV mission depending on the UAV used. The FAA does not currently allow UAV's over populated areas either.

I flew UAV's for Border Patrol and I found that finding a group of people in open terrain without any intelligence on their location, direction, speed or intent is just short of impossible. To move the same technology into an urban environment with even less success and tremendous risk to those below.

I was present for GW's second innaugural parade. The night before, my wife, daughter and I were able to walk up and touch the bullet proof glass of the presidential viewing area for the parade, only 24" from the presidents chair. During the parade there was a Huey w/snipers in a tight orbit under 500' over the president, numerous men in tactical gear on rooftops and in windows all around and who knows what/who they had that you couldn't see. There is also fielded technology that can instantly detect the origin of gun fire and its path. And last, I used to market devices that could detect if a sniper was pointing their rifle at you before they pulled the trigger. In short, the dude is protected and there is plenty of systems in place to identify a threat before it acts.

The Secret Service dude you talked to was curteous and thankful for your suggestion because he was likely trained to be that way.

A UAV may be better suited for persistant surveillance prior to an event to detect changes in the environment such as a new item next to highway, traffic in unusual times or locations, signal intelligence.

To support my statements, I have operated 6 military UAV's in most environents since the early 90's.

I agree with what you said here, but would like to add some to it. The reason UAV's were thought of to be helpful was to survey the roof tops. These are being surveyed very well by manned aircraft. In many situations, I would rather throw unmanned up there, but the benefit that having a human in the bird is that if there is an intimidate threat, they can neutralize it. I really don't think you want to be able to do that, at this point in technology and in as crowded of a place as this is, with anything unmanned.

[dll932]

Points taken. Still, I think flying them over the tops of buildings would act as a deterrent, if nothing else.

[Bg~]

And last, I used to market devices that could detect if a sniper was pointing their rifle at you before they pulled the trigger.

How does that work? Reflections from the scope?