Let me dive into a topic I noticed over at Gateway Pundit – something I have first hand experience with – UAVs. It is the case of the Long Island UAV being tested by a foreign national and others.  Some have called him an illegal alien, but so far all they know is he is an Egyptian Engineer from Sudan. There has yet to be any evidence he is an illegal alien and I would be more than happy to note such evidence if it is solid and not just wild conjecture or fantasizing. Egyptians working in Sudan is not unusual by any stretch of the imagination (they share a border).

I have worked on UAVs for a US company and I can tell you there are hundreds of variations in production and being developed across the world, let alone inside the US. And since modern warfare using the UAVs (and their unmanned surface vehicle, sea-borne and submarine variants) the area is a hot bed of innovations, entrepreneurialism and government funding. For example, here is one listing of the UAVs being worked for the US government.

There are many more out there in private industry being invented. So let’s go to the story that has a few people concerned:

An unmanned drone being built by an engineer on Long Island sparked a large counter-terrorism investigation across the New York area, officials tell WNBC.com. Police said they had stumbled upon overnight testing of the drone at a little-used airstrip in Calverton, Long Island.

When we did our first roll outs of our UAVs, usually runway only tests (no flying) we had to go to little used airports during off hours – because that is when you can take up runway space and time. You have to test these things to make sure they are controllable from their remote controlled systems (usually human operated on the field). It means a runway will be out of commission for a couple of hours. Which means money out of the airport’s pockets. 

So if you are not on a government program with access to a government air strip, you have to go to these out of the way small airfields.  Sounds shady? Not really when you have been in the business. We did this on one program for a major US company here in VA. Our little UAV (the size of a small car) was certainly an eye catcher. 

The investigation began in February of last year, when investigators first learned testing of the drone was underway. Officials said the drone was being designed to carry more than 600 pounds of explosives.

That is actually quite a payload – and the pictures I have seen tells me this number is way off for the size of the UAV in question. For reference, a hellfire missile weighs 100 lbs. Now I would buy 600 lbs of payload, which includes sensors and communications as well as munitions, in a much larger version, but look at the size of the men in the picture and envsion 3-4 them riding this thing into the sky!

This must be a much smaller version, maybe 1/3 or less of the full design. It would maybe carry 50 lbs of payload – probably less.  I would also note that the video shown in the news report is in the morning right before 9:00 AM – hardly an effort to hide something in the dark of the night.

So why am I not all excited because an Arab engineer is working on a UAV in the US? Probably because the investigation is basically over:

In this case, police said there is no evidence any laws were broken as the drone was tested on the ground. Officials said if it had gone into the air without prior FAA approval, it could have been considered a crime. 

While there are no terror links, police said their investigation continues. The engineer, who News 4 New York will not name because he was not charged, did not respond to numerous requests for comment. His drone project has now been taken over by a Maryland-based company that has registered with the FAA, officials said. One investigator said the engineer, at best, had showed poor judgment in trying to do the project in a manner that raised so many alarms.

It is simple to trace the man’s financial support. If it came from the MD company he is legit. These things are not built by one person, you need a team.  My guess is he had American engineers supporting him (trust me on this, there is no way he could get airfield access without some American connections). This is not an example of illegal aliens planning to kill Americans – it is an example of how technology has come so far many of these things start off as ideas in garages all across America.

You don’t need a super-duper PhD to build small UAVs. I have seen people do these all over the place. And the monetary return is enormous. The way the DoD is chewing up UAVs means you could become a millionaire providing even a portion of the UAV fleet to the armed forces – who love these things.

While this may shake up some, this is why I am very much a proponent of listening in on foreign terrorists and their money transactions when they communicate with people here in the US. The technology that makes us the leader in the world can be turned on us in a blink of an eye. Guns don’t kill people, people do. Same thing with technology. This man has been investigated and is not a threat. What he was doing is going on all across this nation as the next generation of Wright Brothers tinker away.

When our nation says we want commercial access to space understand that means engineers have access to the technology that gives humans access to space. These engineers always have had the know-how, but opening up the area to commercialization gives them the green light to work outside the government to some degree (again trust me, that UAV would not fly without FAA approval and beacons – which is probably a feature on the UAV in question, hence the lack of prosecution). 

This is the brave new world we live in, where our fellow humans or countrymen are pushing the future. Terrorists have other interests in the same tools. Now, the question is how do we distinguish the two legally?

Tags: Egyptian, Long Island, Sudan, UAV