Item — HN Reader

Philly, 1985: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing

"There was an armed standoff with police,[5] who lobbed tear gas canisters at the building. The MOVE members fired at them and a gunfight with semi-automatic and automatic firearms ensued.[32] Police went through over ten thousand rounds of ammunition before Commissioner Sambor ordered that the compound be bombed.[32] From a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter, Philadelphia Police Department Lt. Frank Powell proceeded to drop two one-pound bombs (which the police referred to as "entry devices"[31]) made of FBI-supplied Tovex, a dynamite substitute, targeting a fortified, bunker-like cubicle on the roof of the house.[29]"

Police helicopters are modified civilian aircraft and yet they have been used by the police, through improvised means, to bomb people. The drone over Minneapolis is a MQ-9 reaper, aka "predator B", hunter-killer UAV.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper

"In 2006, the then–Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General T. Michael Moseley said: "We've moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper."[6]

The MQ-9 is a larger, heavier, and more capable aircraft than the earlier General Atomics MQ-1 Predator; it can be controlled by the same ground systems used to control MQ-1s. The Reaper has a 950-shaft-horsepower (712 kW) turboprop engine (compared to the Predator's 115 hp (86 kW) piston engine). The greater power allows the Reaper to carry 15 times more ordnance payload and cruise at about three times the speed of the MQ-1.[6] "

3 comments

> The drone over Minneapolis is a MQ-9 reaper, aka "predator B", hunter-killer UAV.

I'd guess this is a Gorgon Stare drone.

https://longreads.com/2019/06/21/nothing-kept-me-up-at-night...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon_Stare#Development

Ok, so that’s a real thing, and not just a Charles Stross / Laundry Files reference.

I guess it’s not too surprising that you would want to keep an eye out for rioting.

Missiles would be a whole new level of messed up, though.

I think it’s unlikely that CBP has armed aircraft. Might be the same model numbers as things the military uses, but they likely don’t have any reason to have them weapons capable and probably don’t have the weapons even if they weren’t actually demilitarized prior to them obtaining the aircraft.

> Missiles would be a whole new level of messed up, though.

Of course they'll eventually call them "non lethal payloads" :P

The interesting things that could be done when you have a line of sight to these things, a little bit of knowledge of RF modulation and have nothing left to lose…

from the wikipedia article linked above:

> Philadelphia Police Department Lt. Frank Powell proceeded to drop two one-pound bombs (which the police referred to as "entry devices"[31]) made of FBI-supplied Tovex

Is this the tech that's essentially a bunch of phone camera sensors stitched together?

It's obviously sinister and is a pretty good hint at the end goals, but "Hunter-Killer" is also the project name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAF_Hunter-Killer

> Hunter Killer

So Skynet's schedule is coming back on track once again.

https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/HK-Aerial

I felt a moment of disgust but then decided I actually like this better than terms like "kinetic defense". At least be honest.

This is a really important distinction. The media really buried the lede calling it a Predator, which I associate with recon/surveillance only. The fact that it’s MQ-9, capable of carrying all manner of weaponry including 4 air-to-ground missiles and 2 laser-guided bombs (according to the Wikipedia page—who knows what this particular UAV is carrying) really changes my evaluation of how bad this is.