Daily Mail – by SARAH GRIFFITHS
These days drones are used for everything from farming to surveying remote regions to waging war.
So it makes sense that one Dutch designer has penned the Drone Survival Guide, which like bird watching charts, shows the various shapes and sizes of flying objects by their silhouettes.
Ruben Pater’s guide, however, details the differing kinds of flying robots used at war, as well as survival tips of how to hide from them.
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Dutch designer Ruben Pater has penned the Drone Survival Guide, which like bird watching charts, shows the various shapes and sizes of flying objects by their silhouettes
The majority of the drones selected for the chart are from NATO member countries, including the UK, France, Germany, U.S. and Canada.
This is because these countries have used drones in wars such as Afghanistan and are also more transparent than some other countries in disclosing information about the robots, such as their wingspan.
However, the chart also includes drones from India, China, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
In the air: A Reaper from 39 Squadron on its approach to Kandahar after a mission. Air Vice-Marshal Philip Osborn, Joint Force Command Capability Director, said the UAVs were an ‘indispensable military capability’
THE RAF’S NEW REAPER UAV
Experienced ‘pilots’ operate the RAF’s £10million Reaper (UAV) from a hi-tech control centre in East Anglia.
The controversial craft – about the size of a small executive jet – take off from conventional runways in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan.
They then fly above the battlefield for up to 14 hours, with cameras beaming live high-definition images and radar data to commanders and crew on the ground.
Keeping a silent eye on a huge area, the devices are able to warn of enemy ambushes or IEDs, and locate and monitor targets while airstrikes are planned.
Once authorised, they can launch the weapons to destroy them and it only takes seconds to act against enemies such as terrorist leaders and insurgents planting roadside bombs.
It uses a skull icon to show that a drone is used for attack and a little eye to denote a surveillance vehicle.
The chart, which Mr Pater describes as ‘21st century bird watching’ shows the vast array of flying war machines used today from the giant 130ft wingspan of the Global Hawk drone to the petite Parrot AC quadcopter, which measures just 23 inches.
He said: ‘Most drones are used today by military powers for remote-controlled surveillance and attack and their numbers are growing.
‘The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicted in 2012 that within 20 years there could be as many as 30.000 drones flying over U.S. soil alone.
‘As robotic birds will become commonplace in the near future, we should be prepared to identify them. This survival guide is an attempt to familiarise ourselves and future generations, with a changing technological environment.’
Mr Pater told Popular Science that he was inspired to make his guide after watching people in Gaza filming drones overhead to work out by the silhouette whether they were a major threat or not.
The chart bearing the drone silhouettes also resembles the Airplane Spotter Cards issued during World War Two, which were designed to help servicemen differentiate between friendly and enemy aircraft.
Mr Pater said that it was difficult to divide the drones into military and domestic categories as some models, such as the Scan Eagle, is a military drone used by NATO forces and is also used by the police in the Netherlands to track down drug dealers and growers.
While the guide was intended as art, it includes survival tips taken from Al Qaeda’s guide to countering drones, published in 2013.
They include hiding under dense tree canopies, spreading pieces of glass on cars and roofs to reflect light and using space blankets, which hide heat from infrared cameras.
The guide itself is printed on aluminium paper so it is ‘a useful tool to interfere with a drone’s sensors,’ Mr Pater said.
‘On a more associative level the mirrored material reminds us that drone surveillance is ultimately people watching people. In a way we are looking at ourselves through sophisticated mirrors,’ he writes.
The guide itself is printed on aluminium paper so it is ‘a useful tool to interfere with a drone¿s sensors,’ its creator Mr Pater said
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2528902/21st-century-bird-watching-Drone-guide-lets-sky-gazers-spot-flying-military-robots-silhouettes.html#ixzz2oVtohVPd
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