- The FBI wants to hear from you if you build tethered drones
- An official request for information has been sent.
- Drones connected by cables are more difficult to lock and take down
If you own a drone that can’t be locked wirelessly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to talk to you: the intelligence agency has issued a Request for Information (RFI) for such a device and for any company that might provide one.
That’s why The RFI (Above drone dj), the most important element in this case is the control of the optical fiber. The drones you deliver to the office should have older wired technology that keeps them connected to a ground station and controllers, rather than the wireless connectivity used by the best consumer drones.
As DroneDJ notes, drones in conflict zones are also switching to wired operations, especially in Ukraine: this means they cannot be jammed wirelessly and must instead be shot down, which is more difficult to achieve.
The obvious downside is that it takes a lot of cables to achieve any range with a wired drone, but with these flying machines Now I can use it They pack up to 80km of cable on a roll, meaning they can still cover impressive distances.
“Of all sizes, classes and abilities”
Not surprisingly, the FBI is a bit coy when it comes to saying what these tethered drones might be used for. For now, the agency just wants to know which companies could potentially supply these drones.
“All sizes, classes and capabilities will be assessed,” the FBI says, but drones submitted for assessment must comply with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which means they must pass appropriate security checks.
The FBI says it uses drones (or unmanned aerial systems) in “many aspects of response and on the ground at various incidents.” They currently seem interested in new models that can’t be locked wirelessly, although of course they can always be turned off by cutting the cables.
The role of drone technology in warfare and law enforcement continues to expand: we recently saw a Chinese study detailing how a fleet of thousands of drones could block access to a small country’s satellites.
