Fight steps up against drones
The government is looking at ways to stop illegal drone flights, including water cannons and jamming devices
SECURITY officials are running experiments on new ways to track – or intercept – drones flying illegally over areas such as the capital and nuclear power stations.
They are offering €1million to anyone who can come up with “innovative ideas” to combat the drones and are considering methods including “water cannons and more generally, throwing stuff at them” security agency SGDSN told TF1.
This comes as around 10 drones were spotted over Paris in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, around the Eiffel Tower and Trocadero and on the eastern edge of the city. That followed about another 60 seen since October, the Interior Ministry says.
The SGDSN (Sécretariat Général de la Défense et de la Sécurité Nationale) says experiments are being done until the end of the month on different methods of bringing them down. They are also looking at how to monitor them more effectively with new radars – as they admit there is a zone at 50-100m altitude that is not covered by ordinary aviation radar.
Ways of jamming drones’ guidance systems are being researched as is the possibility of obliging drone makers to include chips in them allowing them to be tracked.
The SGDSN is also seeking other “more innovative ideas” and has put out an offer of a million euros for potential partners to help with this.
Police are being left helpless to deal with the problem at present – as in one incident on Tuesday night, when they tried to chase a drone in a police car in the east of the capital, but lost it. Witnesses said it was later seen to land and be collected by four men, who made off on the Périphérique.
The phenomenon is raising questions as to the motives of those involved and even whether drones could be used to carry bombs.
However an expert told TF1: “The drones we’ve seen going over are about a kilo, which means they can carry a few hundred grams, no more... It’s understandable if people have concerns about the use of drones but most drones are used by farmers [for checking on the progress of crops], by TV stations to create attractive images, as a hobby by people filming their garden, the countryside, the seaside.... They’re not trying to make illegal flights over nuclear power stations or the Elysée.
“The most likely hypothesis is it’s people trying to have their 15 minutes of fame; it’s not hard, if you know how, to fly a drone over a restricted area.
“They’re probably programmed flights, under GPS control. You set it off to go to certain GPS points and then pick it up later somewhere else.”
Flying drones in banned areas is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a €75,000 fine.
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