There is
a quiet revolution taking place in the developed world and there
isn't much coverage in our babbling brook of bullshit, the media. It
is considered illegal to send armed assassins into another country
and blow somebody's head off. However America does this almost on a
daily basis, the reason they seem to get away with it is that they
have managed to do this without sending in armed humans. They send
their armed drones across borders and and pull the trigger from some
air conditioned office in the US. The difference with this method
and an assassin, is that a human assassin may succeed with a simple
bullet to the head, the drone on the other hand will blow up a
building, a car or a truck and tough luck if you happen to be an
innocent by-stander. Ten years ago in America's war against the
world, less than 5% of its military aircraft were unmanned, now it is
approximately 40% unmanned.
This type of technology is far to good an opportunity for the
authorities to ignore, millions of pounds of public money are being
poured into the development of drones of all sizes. BAE leads a
consortium of defence companies that have been handed almost £31
million in regional funding to come up with a way of making drones
capable of sharing our skies with other air users. At the cost of £17
million an old military site in Aberporth in Wales has been turned
into the first and largest centre in Europe specifically for flying
and testing civilian drones. US congress as asked the Air Space
Regulator, The FAA, to free up American airspace for drone use by
2015, the UK is expected to follow suit latter. The FAA also stated
that it expected about 10,000 unmanned commercial drones flying in
America's airspace by 2017.
Though they talk of civilian drones, it is the surveillance aspect
that authorities are more concerned about. Five police forces in
England have tested the use of drones and Staffordshire police still
use them. Kent police have teamed up with their partners in UK,
France and the Netherlands to try to come up with a policy for using
unmanned drones in the English Channel.
The US
Homeland Security use unarmed predator drones to police the Mexican
border. Big Brother has truly arrived.
In about 3 years I would expect to see unmanned drones hovering over
demonstrations, parades, marches and football grounds, and while
you're enjoying that rock concert, have a wee look skywards. There
appears to be no limit to which these drones can be put, from the
very small, photographing everything the authorities want to keep an
eye on, to the larger armed ready to direct force to where the
authorities think it is necessary. Control, that's what it is all about, control of you and me.
