Suchergebnisse

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) commonly known as drones are currently used in a wide range of operations such as border monitoring, aerial reconnaissance, traffic control and military interventions in armed conflicts. These aerial vehicles are expected to be reliable, automated and sometimes autonomous machines, albeit the human factor continues to play a crucial role in programming and control. At their genesis, drones were complex, large and reserved to an exclusive club of technologically advanced military powers. They tended to be used against technologically weak military targets. Developments in the price, size and sophistication of drones has now enabled almost anyone to purchase them. These contemporary machines are often small, and, with increasing usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has put them in the cost and usage range of almost any combatant. Therefore, there is a need to re-think strategies and tactics for their use. These 'mini-drones' rarely have the sophistication and capabilities of 'conventional' drones, but they do have the ability to provide an asset in large numbers and increasing capabilities. Although they might not have such attributes as the lifting capabilities of the larger models, they can be used economically and en masse and so have can have a different but equally effective outcomes. This paper examines the swarming and associated abilities to overwhelm a combatant as well as bring extra functionality by means of extra sensors spread throughout the swarm. Thus, sophisticated AI provides a swarm with various types of functionality to the drones: for instance, dummy/distraction drones, kinetic and non-kinetic attack drones, surveillance drones as well as drones that can be equipped with wireless access points and deployed to configure an ad-hoc flying network. This paper also examines UAV/drone categories and autonomy and also how autonomy and Swarm intelligence (SI) can be used to create efficiency for a variety of operation concepts. ; peerReviewed

Miehittämättömillä siviili-ilma-aluksilla eli droneilla on useita hyödyllisiä mutta myös yleistä turvallisuutta uhkaavia käyttötarkoituksia. Samoin dronetoimintaan saatetaan puuttua luvatta. Tässä artikkelissa analysoin, miten Euroopan unionin uusi dronesääntely vaikuttaa mainittuihin turvallisuusuhkiin. Väitän, että drooneja itseään suojaavat määräykset ovat lupaavia, vaikka ne voivat koitua myös laittomien toimijoiden eduksi. Droonien tahalliselta väärinkäytöltä määräykset eivät juuri kuitenkaan suojaa. Toiminnanharjoittajaa ja ohjaajaa koskevat määräykset nojaavat toimijoiden myötämielisyyteen, määräysten vaatimat tekniset ominaisuudet ovat aikaansa jäljessä ja ohitettavissa, ja valvontaa ja täytäntöönpanoa haittaa droonien hajautettu toimintamalli. Turvallisuusvajeeseen voidaan puuttua ottamalla käyttöön ns. anti-drone -teknologiaa, jolla lainvastaisesti toimivat dronet voidaan havaita ja pysäyttää. Vaikka useat lentoasemat ovat jo ottaneet käyttöön mainittua teknologiaa, EU:n pitäisi harkita sen pakollisuutta kiireisimmillä lentoasemilla. Sääntelystä riippumatta yhteiskunnan kannalta kriittisillä alueilla tulisi kyetä pysäyttämään haitallinen dronetoiminta luotettavasti ja turvallisesti. Tämä pätee myös esimerkiksi vankiloihin ja voimalaitoksiin, joiden suojaaminen on osa valtioiden kansallista turvallisuutta. ; Civil unmanned aircraft systems, commonly known as drones, have many useful applications but can also be used to intentionally cause harm. Additionally, drones themselves can be subject to unlawful interference. In this article, I analyze how European Union's new rules on drones affect such security threats. I argue that the rules on protecting drones from unlawful interference are promising, although the required security features can also be abused by rogue operators. The intentional misuse of drones, however, is not much deterred by the rules that seek to protect persons and property from such misuse. Rules concerning the operator and the pilot assume compliance, the mandatory technical safeguards can be circumvented, and oversight is difficult because drones are mostly operated from outside airports in a distributed manner. One way to fill the security gap is to employ anti-drone technology that detects drones and prevents them from entering sensitive airspace without permission. Although many airports have already adopted such technology, the EU should consider making it mandatory for the busiest airports. Regardless of rules enacted by the Union, though, reliable and safe means of stopping unlawful drone operations should be employed at critical locations. This applies also to areas like prisons and power plants, the protection of which falls within the ambit of national security.

Caused by industrial and military use as well as other sources of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive (CBRNE) materials, the global threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) remains in spite of such weapons being internationally prohibited. With these materials, industrial and transportation accidents are likely in all countries and can also be triggered by natural disasters, such as in Fukushima in 2011. In addition, governments cannot fully control the manufacturing and usage of WMDs, as extreme terrorists have access to as well as the knowledge and motivation to use such materials. Due to multiple large-scale risks, the countering of CBRNE threats requires well-practiced joint operations by different authorities and new technical countermeasure methods. This dissertation studies how two novel technologies, hyperspectral technology and smartphone technology, can be used in CBRNE countermeasures and defence, especially by the police, defence forces and rescue services. The research is carried out adaptively via the concept development and experimentation (CD&E) method by forming the research framework with the generic military and civilian capability requirements of the European and North Atlantic operating concepts of CBRNE countermeasures and defence and by testing the capability requirements with related empirical experiments carried out as a part of the study. The experiments with hyperspectral technology focus on the detection of explosives, chemical warfare agents (CWAs), biofluids and other forensic samples, whereas the tests with smartphone technology deal with mobile emergency alerting, command and control, public warning and the information management of CBRNE incidents. The experiments are carried out with the Central Finland Police Department, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and other units of the Police of Finland, the Finnish Defence Forces, the Rescue Department of Central Finland, the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (Verifin) and the leading Finnish explosives manufacturer, Forcit.