Dft Consultation - Future of Drones in the UK

[Rob Buckley]

Please note that the DfT have today launched a consultation on the future of drone regulation in the UK. Please take the time to respond.
Thanks
Rob


We wanted to let you know that today we are publishing our consultation ‘Taking Flight: The Future of Drones in the UK’. The measures in the consultation are part our wider drones programme and strategy, and will help shape the content of a draft Drones Bill which will be published later this year, as well as other future measures.

The measures under consultation include:

- Proposals for regulating and mandating the use of ‘apps’ on which pilots would file flight plans ahead of take-off

- Additional powers for the police to enforce the law

- Using new counter-drone technology to protect public events and critical national infrastructure, and stop contraband reaching prisons

- Introducing minimum age restrictions for drone owners in addition to the new tests they will need to take

- Whether the 1km restriction around aerodromes, introduced as an amendment to the Air Navigation Order in May this year, is sufficient.


You can find a link to the consultation here https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/drone-legislation-use-restrictions-and-enforcement
and it will run until 17 September 2018.

We would appreciate your help in reaching out to your contacts and encouraging them to contribute their views to the consultation.

Thank you,

DfT Drones Team

[chris-berry]

I've just read the consultation and the one thing that does jump out is the future option of electronic countermeasures to jam signals in order to reduce the threat from a drone in certain locations/circumstances.

Given drones use 2.4ghz, presumably if a club/model aircraft was flying within range it would also be affected?? That concerns me!!

[Steve Perry]

PacSec Security researcher Jonathan Andersson has developed a tidy hardware module capable of fully hijacking a variety of popular drones and remote control gear running over the most popular protocol.

Trend Micro's advanced security group manager told The Register he developed the Icarus box, and it only needs to be within range of a drone to hijack it with injected commands.

Any radio controlled device using the popular DSMx radio platform are affected.
Full article https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/27/hackers_icarus_machine_steals_drones_midflight/

[Steve Mansell]

Unfortunately, I am more than capable of losing control of my planes without any assistance from a third party. It may provide us with a new excuse though!

On a more serious note, the original aim of these "drone regulations" was to improve air safety, but the future capability to override or block control seems to add another level of risk (depending on how it's implimented).
Steve