Fox News alert: US fears Iraq has transported GPS guided drones to America

Fox News Channel | 02/24/03 | Brett Baird

[Pokey78]

Drones or pieces of drones that have GPS mapping may have been sent to Iraqi agants in US to spray chem or bio weapons over US cities.

[Squantos]

Yep..... We used to have a demolition duty we called ADR in Explosive Ordnance Disposal ADR= Ammunition Destruct Request from the munitions dumps when a lot number of ammo went south.

When we got on our range we destroyed it pretty much as we wished and our barrett 82A1's got a good workout when .50 caliber came across for ADR.

We had a trap thrower and a bunch of clays we played with (try shooting em with a 1911A1....no straight 100's but fun none the less) and used the barrett to "try" and shoot some clays. We got lucky hits on about a 2 out of 200 ratio........But hey when the ammo is free and it's uncle sugar's barrels were burning up. Training can be fun !

Stay Safe !!

[smith288]

wait till they go over the pond and shoot them down...how many could they have?

[Travis McGee]

But it was my impression that Saddam was going to use this thing on Tel Aviv.

Did he call and tell you that, or is it just your wild-ass guess?

If Iraq provided Atta with anthrax at the Prague meeting, it's interesting that it's destination was the USA, not Israel.

I don't expect any "Made In Bagdad" tag to be on any drone we find post attack.

[Blue Scourge]

Hmm, interesting.

I heard someone write into fox and say "The idea of drones using GPS to attack our cities is preposterous".

Hannity replied that "just like people flying planes into the WTC is preposterous...right."

Good reply in my opinion. Nothing is impossible anymore.

[AmusedBystander]

They have to assemble them, of course..

At least these jobs aren't being exported outside the country.

[harpseal]

That really should be its own post.

[znix]

You can't shutdown the "civilian GPS".

Okay im following part of your explanation here. If the C/A channel is required to make use of the encypted channel then what can be done?

[Travis McGee]

Cessna 182 with off the shelf equipment?

That would be easy, but not important, since presumably they have more suicide pilots.

The GPS guidance would only be required for drones too small (and stealthy) to have a human pilot.

[Catspaw]

My first interpretation of the report was that they were going to use the GPS-guided missles for specific targets.

We have the Garmin 76S. You can program it to a waypoint (a whole lot of waypoints), but using it to guide a missle is another thing entirely IF you're going for a specific target and the GPS signals are degraded--then you'd only get close. If you're going for a general area, it'd probably the job.

[Squantos]

Did ya happen to see the weenie on FNC this AM talking about what one could mix with mayonase and kill people in a Subway with.............noooo not the sandwich !

Stay Safe !

[Travis McGee]

Im not concerned really, persoanlly I'm confident this story is BS.

I agree. Sounds like an expensive, roundabout and probably relatively ineffective way to do this.

Do you know what sounded like BS on 9-10-01? Destroying the WTC with box cutters.

[Eala]

Well obviously you need some other device to interpret the data from the GPS unit and provide the control. I think it would take rather a bit more than a PIC micro (but then the only PIC I've used is pretty small); when I mentioned a serial port it was just as some means to access the data from the GPS. Using photosensors aimed at the LCD screen just seems a bit complex, for example, esp. if you can access the data digitally.

But it doesn't seem like adding waypoints is all that complex -- compared to all the control functions to be performed (I've written plotting functions but I've never written an autopilot). And would degrading GPS resolution to 50' be all that serious to such a device? It seems like altitude would be the most problematic aspect, but a non-GPS altimeter would take care of that.

[Aeronaut]

What would be affected if we scrambled the signal for a few hours? Any life threatening consequences?

A lot of airplanes use GPS as primary navigation.

[aristeides]

A lot of airplanes use GPS as primary navigation.

Aren't the pilots trained on what to do if GPS fails?

[Travis McGee]

Especially at -100 knot drone speeds.

[Eala]

My first interpretation of the report was that they were going to use the GPS-guided missles for specific targets.

Ah. Mine was for delivery of WsMD.

[clintonh8r]

No. We have to go to the UN again. And again. Andagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagainandagain....

[harpseal]

I hate it when those 3 circles plot out on 3 different oceans.

Yeah but at least you are somewhere on planet earth.

[July 4th]

Yup. Time for some personal homeland defense.

[Aeronaut]

Aren't the pilots trained on what to do if GPS fails?

Certainly. It is a situational awareness issue, however.

If A pilot is making a GPS approach in instrument conditions when the GPS system is failed, (s)he might not notice an immediate difference, and continue into disaster. If they knew the system was off there should be no problem.