German chancellor's drone
'attack' shows the threat of weaponised UAVs
At a
campaign rally in Dresden on 15 September, a small quadrocopter flew close to
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere,
hovering briefly in front of them before crashing into the stage practically at
Merkel's feet. Merkel appeared to be amused by the "drone
attack," but de Maiziere and others on the stage seemed a bit more
unsettled by the robo-kamikaze.
The
quadrocopter, a Parrot AR drone, was operated by a member of the German Pirate
Party as a protest against government surveillance and the ongoing scandal over
the Euro Hawk drone program -- which failed because it could not get certified
to fly in European airspace. In a statement, the deputy head of the Pirate
Party, Markus Barenhoff, said, "The goal of the effort was to make
Chancellor Merkel and Defense Minister de Maiziere realise what it's like to be
subjugated to drone observation." The drone was harmless, aside from
potential political collateral damage to Merkel's Christian Democratic Party,
and the pilot of the drone was released after being briefly held by police.
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