The rumours have panned out… The Dwelling Workplace (through the NPCC) & MOD try to tug a quick one on the UK drone group, they need civilians to foot the invoice for the rollout of tech that was developed for the battlefield, referred to as SAPIENT. They’re making use of stress to the CAA packaged up in a regurgitated citing of Gatwick 2018 together with some drama queen police name statistics.
SAPIENT is a MOD-developed management protocol, it’s change into an ordinary for C-UAS within the UK, it’s meant to combine AI & sensors, and it could management CCTV, sensors akin to radar & effectors akin to jammers.
The protocol itself can be utilized to determine & classify not solely drones however individuals, male from feminine & a weapon from a digital camera or microphone.
Egos being as they’re the Coverage & Laws Lead for the NPCC has put his work with RID & the CAA on LinkedIn. DSSI information has reported that the Defence Science & Know-how Laboratory (Dstl) has been working with the NPCC to ship a SAPIENT-based system “that advantages the MoD’s procurement actions.”
Seemingly partly on account of loads of hysteria about drones within the Ukraine (which ignores the actual fact you’ll be able to’t simply purchase a grenade within the UK), there’s a need for a system to trace drones & pilots, although it appears clear nobody desires to be clear about that nor to foot the invoice.
So what higher manner than to stress the CAA to get the drone group to consider it’s been consulted after which dump the price of the system at their toes?
Frankly, if the MOD & Dwelling Workplace wish to throw away the privateness of UK drone operators & use them as Guinea pigs the least they may do is be upfront and foot the invoice.