BAE develops a UAV for U.K. police

Police is to use unmanned spy drones to monitor anti-social motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves, and flytippers. BAE Systems, which produces a UAV for war zones, is developing the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent Police. Similar aerial devices have been used in the war in Afghanistan. Using the same techniques in the United Kingdom will undoubtedly raise concerns about the expansion of covert state surveillance.

The Scotsman’s Nicholas Christian writes that documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project, have revealed that the police is developing the drone plan with BAE. The documents have come to light under the Freedom of Information Act. They reveal that the partnership intends to use the drone in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also suggest that the police have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies.

A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year. The Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates U.K. airspace, has been told by BAE and Kent Police that civilian UAVs would “greatly extend” the government’s surveillance capacity and “revolutionise policing.”

The CAA is understood to be reluctant to license UAVs in normal airspace because of the risk of collision with other aircraft. In the future, however, systems that would automatically steer UAVs away from trouble are likely to be developed.

It is understood that five other police forces have signed up to the system as part of a pilot scheme before it is introduced across the United Kingdom. Kent Police’s assistant chief constable, Allyn Thomas, has written to the CAA arguing that military drones would be useful “in the policing of major events.”

BAE drones are programmed to take off and land on their own, stay airborne for up to fifteen hours, and reach heights of 20,000ft, making them invisible from the ground.