7 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Something to drone on about
A headline in the Washington Post this week caught the eye of Civis: "Police nationwide are embracing a new first responder: drones."
Just last week, another headline grabbed attention: a drone dropping a bicycle to help an isolated Ukrainian soldier escape.
Well, I never. What next? Perhaps it's time for a little drone about drones because they really are everywhere.
A fascinating, and somewhat frightening, development is how drones are revolutionising modern warfare.
Will they one day rank alongside chariots, composite bows, phalanxes, heavy armour, Roman engineering, and the longbow of Agincourt? Could they match the impact of gunpowder (the death knell for castles) or muskets, artillery, bayonets, rifles, railroads, machine guns, and ironclad ships?
The modern accelerating pace of change is clear when you consider 20th century innovations: tanks, aircraft, carriers, radar, the atomic bomb, missiles, jets, and precision-guided munitions.
The 21st century has already brought drones and unmanned systems, along with cyber and electronic warfare. Now, AI and autonomous weapons are rapidly emerging.
Drones deliver low-cost, high-impact capabilities. They can loiter for hours as reconnaissance outposts and overwhelm defences in swarms.
Ukraine has demonstrated how drones cripple armoured columns, strike infrastructure and reshape strategy.
The drone's hum, like the whine of an artillery shell before it, has become one of the most chilling sounds of modern combat.
★★★
Like any major technology, drones come with both benefits and risks, and we're seeing both on display.
Matariki celebrations in Dunedin over the past two years have been lit up by dazzling LED drones dancing in complex patterns — a shining alternative to fireworks and a better bang for our buck.
Aerial photography and videography can be striking, and drones feature at weddings, in real estate marketing and promotion campaigns. Surveying and mapping are changing course, and agriculture boasts a growing list of uses.
Search and rescue, disaster response, infrastructure inspection, and environmental monitoring have all been transformed by drones.
Civis found some unusual and innovative uses: firing seed pods in remote areas to replant forests, acting as robotic bees to pollinate crops, and even patrolling beaches as shark spotters.
Tracking athletes from above and delivering emergency supplies are also on the rise. And Civis wonders, how many farmers now use drones to herd sheep or cattle?
New Zealand holds a special place in drone history. In November 2016, Domino's Pizza and drone company Flirtey successfully delivered two pizzas by drone to a customer in Whangaparaoa, just north of Auckland.
This was one of the world's first commercial food deliveries by drone, a clear example of the potential. The event made headlines worldwide. For the record, the pizzas were peri-peri chicken and chicken and cranberry.
Flirtey devoured another slice of the action and global attention soon after when it delivered medical supplies in Nevada.
Commercial drone deliveries never truly took off, perhaps for the best. We don't need buzzing drones crowding our skies and assaulting our ears.
Fortunately, rules stand in the way of widespread use in such circumstances.
Many fail to realise how circumscribed their legal use is in New Zealand. Operators are "pilots" of "unmanned aircraft".
Drones are banned near airports, generally over private property or people without permission, and in national parks. The regulations are extensive and complex.
They have flown a long way from their beginnings as toys — even conveying that rescue bike in the middle of a war zone.
civis@
