North Dakota creates task force to counter threats from rogue UAS activity
An unmanned aircraft park near Grand Forks will anchor a North Dakota task force aimed at defending against threats from rogue UAS activity.
The UAS Detection and Counter-UAS Task Force, which will be based at Grand Sky, will coordinate amenities and efforts needed to test countermeasures against threats posed by threatening drones, Gov. Doug Burgum announced Wednesday during the Drone Focus Conference in Fargo.
"This task force underscores our commitment to investigating UAS detection and countermeasures for the safety of our citizens and our airspace, as well as opportunities to further diversify our economy," Burgum said in a news release.
The task force will focus on identifying threats by UAS technologies, developing a testing area for countermeasures and allowing operators to "deploy protective technologies in response to identified threats," according to the release.
Tom Swoyer Jr., president of the Grand Sky Development Co., will co-chair the task force with Nicholas Flom, the Northern Plains UAS Test Site's executive director. The task force, which met Wednesday, will report to Lt. Gov. Brett Sanford, who oversees the test site.
"North Dakota's support of the UAS industry makes it the perfect location to conduct this necessary work, and Grand Sky is the ideal base camp for operations," Swoyer said in the news release, adding North Dakota's air traffic is light compared with other parts of the country. "At Grand Sky, companies can identify a technology they want to test and have it in the air the next day, compared to waiting months for runway space with no guarantee that the flight will take off as scheduled."
The concept of counter-UAS tactics is relatively new, Swoyer told the Herald. The new release suggested the "potential for nefarious activities" has increased with the rise of UAS technology in recent years. Researched has focused on primarily on military applications, but North Dakota wants to look at commercial applications as well, the release said.
"There are people who are going to use them for good purposes, and there are people who are going to try to figure out how to use them for bad purposes," Swoyer said. "We have to guard against all of the bad purposes.
Swoyer said military personnel in theaters of conflict are seeing more drone-based attacks, but he also gave other examples like drones being used to transport drugs across the border or arming drones with weapons.
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Burgum also suggested rogue drone activity is happening in North Dakota.
"We saw this in our state this last fall when we had civil unrest," Burgum said. "But when you've got the rogue use of drones in domestic protests, along borders, around critical infrastructure, it's highlighted the urgent, urgent need for us to have better solutions for how we counter the nefarious uses of UAS."
Last fall, Dakota Access Pipeline protesters used drones to fly over law enforcement.
I really don't know what to think. I don't want just anybody flying spy-eyes over my head, but I don't trust either the Feds or local cops to "keep me safe"...
There have been multiple reports of Drones and even RC Aircraft equipped with cameras flying over sensitive areas in the U.S., to include military sites and Nuclear Energy Production facilities. This is a credible threat at this time. Doesn't take a very big drone to deliver a small bomb to a crowd.
True. But... what does that tell us about "what to do"? Unless drones are entirely outlawed (good luck with that!), we have a problem for which I see no easy solution.