The Trump administration does not want any drones over the US soil — no unauthorized ones anyhow. It has approached the US congress and sought powers that will effectively allow it to track and destroy any drone it wants to, as long as it is flying over US soil.
A document outlining the request has already been circulated among the members of the congress, and a classified meeting on Wednesday will see members of the congressional staff discuss the topic in greater detail. The issue at stake here, are computer privacy and aircraft protection laws, that will need to be changed with the Trump administration is to be given the sweeping power it is demanding.
Drones are really nice. I mean its fun to play with them, use them to record aerial footage, and we are already looking at companies which have started delivering parcel with their help. However, what happens when the package they are delivering contain say, bombs? Terrorists have already shown themselves to be gaining in sophistication and we have had reports of bobby trapping the Syrian army”s drones.
The government fears that these drones could be used to wreck havoc if not brought under control. So these new laws will help the government pass out regulations that will enable its agents to quickly track and destroy and UAV that it feels can be a danger. What’s more, the courts would have no jurisdiction to hear lawsuits arising from such activity.
The bill, which has been penned down as part of the annual NDA authorization act, said that drones are:
commercially available, challenging to detect and mitigate, and capable of carrying harmful payloads and performing surveillance while evading traditional ground security measures.
It also said that it was approaching the congress because destroying drones could be deemed illegal under laws that were drafted years ago and are not suitable for today’s context.
