Photo: www.defenceweb.co.za
While the cult of peaceful protests expands worldwide, Brazil’s anti-2014 World Cup being the most recent one, in the other part of the globe engineers are looking for better ways to abolish crowds without using guns. South African company Desert Wolf has recently unveiled its Skunk riot control drone at the IFSEC (International Fire and Security Exhibition and Conference) security exhibition outside Johannesburg.
Whether protests should become illegal or not is a matter of democracatic values and could take hours of discussion to start with. However, most of the countries in the world have not yet made this step, so it’s only natural for companies specialized in surveillance to try to find the proper solutions to an “unruly crowd.”
This drone might not be the same with world’s first auto-follow AirDog, but it’s allegedly a premiere worldwide. According to its creators, the Skunk is designed to control crowds without endangering the lives of security staff. Bright strobe lights and on-board speakers enable operators to communicate with and warn people.
In case the one controlling the remote decides it’s needed, the drone can use its four paintball guns to disperse or mark people in the crowd. Four ammunition hoppers can load different types of amo such as dye marker balls, pepper spray balls or solid plastic balls. Payload capacity of the unmanned aerial vehicle is 88 pounds (40 kg) but since the gun assembly weighs around 15 kg the aircraft has an excess of power.
The Skunk also features two high definition day cameras and also a FLIR thermal camera for night vision capability. According to Defence Web, the first 25 units will soon deliver to its customers in the mining industry and the UAV will enter service around June/July. A full system including cameras, ground control station etc. will cost around 500,000 South African Rands ($46,546).
This drone might not be the same with world’s first auto-follow AirDog, but it’s allegedly a premiere worldwide. According to its creators, the Skunk is designed to control crowds without endangering the lives of security staff. Bright strobe lights and on-board speakers enable operators to communicate with and warn people.
In case the one controlling the remote decides it’s needed, the drone can use its four paintball guns to disperse or mark people in the crowd. Four ammunition hoppers can load different types of amo such as dye marker balls, pepper spray balls or solid plastic balls. Payload capacity of the unmanned aerial vehicle is 88 pounds (40 kg) but since the gun assembly weighs around 15 kg the aircraft has an excess of power.
The Skunk also features two high definition day cameras and also a FLIR thermal camera for night vision capability. According to Defence Web, the first 25 units will soon deliver to its customers in the mining industry and the UAV will enter service around June/July. A full system including cameras, ground control station etc. will cost around 500,000 South African Rands ($46,546).
Google News