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Comment by ptero | Hacker News Reader

Neither FBI nor Pentagon have ability to fly drones in the US airspace at will. On the contrary, they, like everyone else, have to get FAA approvals and those always leak. And usually in fact published by the FAA who needs to warn pilots of potential threats -- one could go to the official FAA website and search those NOTAMs.

Ignoring FAA by the FBI or the military just doesn't happen, the price to pay is WAY too high.

NSA or spooks could theoretically be behind this, but why do it where it annoys people and attracts attention and not in some desert or foreign place? Something doesn't add up.

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Isn't airspace around all military installations exempted from this? How would you train your people to use your drones otherwise?

What's more, the feds are clearly signalling that these are ours. As others point out, you can't say its not an adversaries asset unless you know whose it is. Which would suggest either they are flying these illegally, they have some kind of exemption to fly in civilian air space, or they are being flown in military air space that is observable from non-military locations.

There are special use airspace regions, but those are widely published so joyriders do not stumble there by accident.

I am virtually certain those UAVs fly outside of it, otherwise there would not be much public attention to that.

Agree that the signalling strongly suggests government use.

While completely true, it doesn't address the fact that CIA, NSA, FBI and other gov agencies have used their control or secret ownership of 'private' companies to break federal regulations in the past. They _could_ be using some sort of cutout to confuse the ownership/control to get around regulations.

They don't need approval for under 400 FT AGL in class G airspace.

The idiots reporting on it have NO idea how high these drones are. And the military has a bunch of carved airspace in various places. I think last time i looked (4 weeks ago), there was some reserved airspace off Cape Hatteras for the US Marines.

To add to your last point, looking at maps of drone sightings in the area, the biggest hotspots are in reserved airspace over military assets, including ones that store and load nukes on ships.

If they were truly a threat, or some random person's drones, they would have been taken care of nearly instantly.

I have personally seen the response of someone flying their drone in that airspace. They do not hesitate to send out goons with guns strapped over their shoulders and megaphones to make it clear that what you're doing is very much not okay.

Last I checked (things could have changed) they do not need approvals for hobbyist use. Official government use and even sponsored research absolutely required approvals. And this is very likely not a hobbyist.

The FBI, NSA, and all other civilian agencies must follow FAA regulations but legally speaking the military doesn't. The military operates aircraft in domestic airspace under a memorandum of understanding with the FAA which basically states that they'll follow the regulations. This makes things easier for everyone and prevents mishaps. But if the military chooses to violate that agreement then there aren't really any enforceable legal consequences.

> Neither FBI nor Pentagon have ability to fly drones in the US airspace at will.

And neither of those agencies ever did anything they're not "able" to do... regularly...

Attracting attention in one direction can be misdirection. I have no idea if that is the case here, simply felt like it's an avenue not considered.

I can imagine a parallel chanel where FAA is informed but NOTAMS are not issued, or issued selectively.

There is a NOTAM for these.

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