Reports of unmanned aircraft interfering with firefighters, buzzing commercial airliners and disrupting airport traffic are on the rise. Now politicians and law enforcement are vowing to strike back at these swarms of hobbyist drones through GPS tracking technology that can locate and even create an invisible fence to control the movement of rogue flyers.
Counter-drone measures have included New York police using a microwave-based system to try to track a drone spotted near Times Square and send it back to its operator, Reuters reported Thursday. News of this test came a day after New York Sen. Chuck Schumer proposed that drone makers be required to include software that uses GPS to track a drone’s position and limit its movement. Drone makers would install this geo-fencing technology in their aircraft to keep unlicensed unmanned aircraft away from major runways and other places where they threaten safety. The Democratic senator, who recently made headlines for his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, has vowed to add this “no fly zone” requirement to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Bill this fall. The bill’s overall purpose is to set the FAA’s funding levels and policy priorities.
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