U.S. Sec. Homeland Security Nielsen says “Time is Running Ou…

News and Commentary.

In an editorial revealed within the Washington Post, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen painted a bleak image of drone know-how’s “dark side” and urged lawmakers to present the Department extra powers to cope with rogue drones.

“Drone technology offers the potential to change our world – from enabling historic transformations in e-commerce to faster emergency response,” writes Nielsen. “But the technology also has a dark side. It can be used to spy on us, to threaten our critical infrastructure, or to attack crowds and public places.”

In what is clearly a protection of S. 2836, the Preventing Emerging Threats Act at present underneath dialogue within the Senate, Nielsen tells Congress that they have to act quickly.

“For years, the Department of Homeland Security has worried about the dangers of unmanned aerial systems, and we have sought the legal authority to protect Americans against corrupted aerial devices. Today I have a pressing message for Congress: Time is running out,” Nielsen writes.

The piece is not a love letter to the drone business.  Nielsen introduces the thought of giving the DHS and the Justice Department the facility to shoot down, disrupt, monitor and mitigate drones deemed threatening with a protracted listing of horrifying potentialities: drug operating, smuggling, and terrorism amongst them.

The drone business isn’t blind to the problems.  As safety fears mount, counter drone know-how has been creating quickly.  Many of the issues that Nielsen lists may already be successfully handled utilizing current instruments.

Tim Bean is the CEO of Fortem Technologies, a pacesetter in airspace intelligence and security that has developed the smallest, most correct and most value efficient radar to detect malicious UAVs or these flying in No-Fly Zones.

“We commend Secretary Nielsen for her leadership in calling upon Congress to provide federal agencies with the authority and tools necessary to combat the very real threat of criminal and terrorist drone activity,” stated Bean. “We ask Congress to also empower the private sector in using currently available monitoring and mitigation technologies—including those based on radar—to defend the airspace surrounding its property from drone threats, such as critical infrastructure, public gathering places and corporate campuses.”

With extra cooperation between industrial companions and authorities, and acceptable use of know-how fixes, the drone business may materially and rapidly cut back dangers – and the overblown public notion that drones are an imminent and important hazard to common Americans, which poses a significant menace to the expansion of the sector.  Granting authorities businesses the facility to disable drones and intrude with frequencies with out regard to every other current legislation in the complete legal code, which is what S. 2836 proposes, will not be the most effective or best reply.

That’s the view of the ACLU, who opposes the invoice, and a few drone advocacy teams, who warning that too broad an interpretation of the proposed legislation may trigger issues for legit operators.  It is not a view shared by DHS Secretary Nielsen.

“We cannot afford to wait. Our enemies are aware of our vulnerabilities and eager to exploit them,” she writes. “So let’s stop admiring the problem and start solving it.”

“…Drones will soon become a part of everyday life. Before then, let’s make sure they don’t become an everyday threat.”