So manufacturer says MTOW is 90kg, which likely means they barely got it in the air once at freezing temperatures on a very long tarmac strip. Max speed of 170 km/h would indicate that it's happy cruising at around 120-150 km/h. The place they found it in a barn is 170km away from the Morrocan coast around El Hoceima, so about two hours of flight including take-off and climb. Compared to a specified 7hr max flight time, they'd have to fill it up to about one third, so 9 liters of fuel, or 7kg.
An empty weight of 25kg and 7kg of fuel gives us rougly 32kg of empty take-off mass, and you then could load it up with not-quite 50kg of payload. Significant, but a far cry from the 150kg that was reported.
I spend about 1/3rd of the year each year in Spain and an "interesting" development related to drug trades is happening here: basically lots of people realized cannabis plants were flowering as well, if not better, in Spain than in Morocco.
The EU / Spanish polices also got apparently much better at intercepting cannabis dealers trying to pass from Morocco to Spain (hence maybe these new drones attempts).
So now there are both individuals and gangs (including gagns from Morocco and from eastern europe) growing a huge lot of weed in Spain. As in: it's becoming very big business.
Individuals have the right, legally, to grow up to two cannabis plants (I think two plants for one adult in the household is the rule and you can legally by flowering and auto-flowering cannabis seeds in shops). But quite some individuals are, illegally, growing much more than two plants as a way to meet months' ends.
Technically this delivery drone is impressive but dealers from Morocco have much bigger problems than trying to stuff ganja into drones without getting intercepted: growing cannabis plant and making hashish and ganja directly in Spain, at cheaper prices.
That is a pretty advanced design. It's hybrid gas/electric and the manufacturing looks excellent as well. I was expecting something patched together along the lines of the semi-submersibles that we have previously been shown.
On another note, I really don't see that thing carrying 150kg (330lbs) of useful payload. That would be an aerodynamic marvel for forward flight, and there is just no way those 4 electric motors can support vertical flight with a 150kg payload.
I am just an r/c hobbyist and would love to know if I am off on the payload somehow.
I wonder what the radar cross section on this thing is? It's going to be at least comparable to that of a small light aircraft – which are easily detected by primary radar. I think flying this across the med with no flight plan, no transponder, and no legitimate paperwork would be a very good opportunity to get it filmed extensively in-air for free by a friendly European airforce. Quite possibly including an explosive and quick landing, too!
The dry weight of the [steel/aluminium] engine for a Cessna 172R (117kg) is about four times the dry weight of the entire recommended setup for a Mugin-5 Pro, and the airframe of this UAV is carbon fiber. Some of its steel/aluminium fittings/fixtures that need to handle high stresses look like they would be difficult to replace with low-radar-cs materials, and there is a fair amount of avionics dotted around plus the four VTOL motors, but it's a really paltry amount of radar-reflective material compared to the average light aircraft, and I'm sure you could mitigate that somewhat with radar-absorbent materials/structures.
The idea of relying on fighter jets/attack helicopters/SAM systems shooting these things down sounds like an entirely asymmetric and unsustainable state of affairs.
The article mentions it does show up on radar. But it also depends on the altitude it's flying at.
The friendly European airforce must have been sleeping because the article never mentions any attempted investigations or interceptions by the same. I imagine just like the US in 9-11, they'd be caught with their pants down if terrorists actually tried to use a fleet of these things.
Three things. First, the distance between a likely launch site in Morocco and a national park in Spain is less than ten miles. Second, the rated top speed of the thing is over a mile a minute. Third, you're talking about the Spanish Air Force, in southern Spain, in peacetime, not the Israeli Air Force or something.
I imagine it's always going to be police doing police work that catch these guys, as happened in this case, and not jet fighters.
Am I completely off-base in thinking almost everything about a submersible drone is a better idea? No radar signature, much bigger haulage, can idle in location for much longer when needed, and presumably supports somewhat surreptitious unloading at sea if needed?
The Straits of Gibraltar has a strong net inflow current, which might make drone submersibles a bit prone to getting lost.
Also, the prior art for smuggling across the straits were fast launches which would bump upon to beaches and be quickly disgorged. This means that the Guardia Civil take a lot of interest in what happens along the coast.
Also, let it be said that the coast up East from Gibraltar is very much not as empty as it is from Algeciras Westwards, with a lot of development on the Costa del Sol. Makes it hard to have slower than launches/ribs submarines do their thing.
From a documentary I watched something like this is one of the preferred techniques for the Colombian cartels now. It's called the torpedo technique.
They design torpedo style units that get towed behind a fishing boat or such. At a desired location they detach it, and it just loiters below the surface. At some pre-arranged time it pops up to the surface and activates a radio beacon, so that a pickup ship can snag it.
It's less complicated than building an autonomous AUV, and far less likely to be spotted by arial surveillance than a narcosub. Lower capacity but still very lucrative I imagine. And very nearly risk free.
These narco-submersibles have a much higher entry cost, apparently. And you'd probably need something a few meters long, just to house the motor necessary to fight the currents.
The drone was apparently off the shelves. And the police didn't say if they ever actually got it into the air at all.
The sea is flat and you can see a long way. Radar can see a long way. These people could choose a landing spot in a hilly area with few people and many roads, where few people could see the drone land and they could unload, drive off and mingle with traffic after only a few minutes' driving.
Maybe the drone could even finish charging unattended and take off to fly back to Morocco.
It is extremely likely that the Spanish Navy or Intelligence Agency has an whole array of underwater listening devices, due to the Strait of Gibraltar.
So if you're coming from Morocco with a homemade sub (probably woefully unoptimized for being quiet), I'm gonna assume that those listening will pick up your signature.
The main downsides will be that it has much more drag to fight against and also if you're actually underwater you can't just use GPS like you can in the air making navigation much harder.
"The drug gang was flying the drone using an electronic system that relayed the exact takeoff and landing points, and used waypoints – i.e. places during the flight where it had to change course. It could also be flown using remote control." - Does that mean it was likely using GPS to follow a particular route?
This is a really good example of technology being used by criminals to circumvent law enforcement while putting the public at risk. While I personally think drug laws need to be updated, the more interesting discussion here is about creating technologies that can cause serious harm to the public and making them cheap and easy enough to be used by anyone with a small amount of financial backing and a strong insentive.
Is that really the interesting discussion here? It seems like the same ground journalists tread all the time when they want to waste a bunch of time opining on nothing. What's the alternative? Waste money on purpose? Make shittier user interfaces?
But article makes no sense. They write about the drone used for smuggling cocaine because it is the most lucrative thing, but they found only a few dozen kg of marijuana and hashish each where it was stored?
The police could intercept 90% of the drugs and the price of the remaining 10% would go so high that the smugglers would keep making billions.
The police has a thankless never ending job until society's attitude changes.
The picture is rather deceptive, making the drone look huge compared to the men standing behind it. When you play the video you'll see it's not that big.
Every time someone mentions flying cars, I wonder what they have in mind that a helicopter isn’t the answer to.
I remember helicopters for sale in Farnborough Air Show, probably 30 years ago now, the cheapest there cost about £100k. I assume inflation has quadrupled that, but I don’t follow that market and the stuff on eBay I am unqualified to gauge the quality of.
I’m surprised that this doesn’t happen more often. With drone technologies advancing so fast, it was truly inevitable. The next step is just to use the right coat to become invisible to radars and you’re GTG. Unless that’s already happening and they are just getting away with that and we simply don’t know.
I'm 99% that sort of paint is very very "government secrets" by the US and doesn't get out much.
Now could someone make a drone shaped like an f-117 and make it invisible to civilian radar? probably. That sort of engineering is easy with todays technology.
Can carry up to 150 kilos. Article doesn’t mention street value. I’ve no idea. If it’s cocaine, is that millions of dollars? This is Morocco though, so more likely hashish, which would be worth considerably less. How much though? Just trying to visualise cost of drone vs reward ratio.
I don't know how much of that would be profit, but seems quite likely there's an excellent cost vs reward ratio - potentially even so high that these drones could be used almost disposably if they are intercepted less frequently than boats.
I think cartels started shipping cocaine to Morocco, and from there they smuggle it to Europe. It's much easier than to send it directly to the EU considering how porous the Gibraltar straight/maritime routes across the Mediterranean are and that there are tons of very well established routes and networks already used to smuggling tens of tons of hashish/weed.
[+] [-] votingprawn|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hengheng|4 years ago|reply
An empty weight of 25kg and 7kg of fuel gives us rougly 32kg of empty take-off mass, and you then could load it up with not-quite 50kg of payload. Significant, but a far cry from the 150kg that was reported.
[+] [-] scoot|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrisseaton|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SMAAART|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] TacticalCoder|4 years ago|reply
The EU / Spanish polices also got apparently much better at intercepting cannabis dealers trying to pass from Morocco to Spain (hence maybe these new drones attempts).
So now there are both individuals and gangs (including gagns from Morocco and from eastern europe) growing a huge lot of weed in Spain. As in: it's becoming very big business.
Individuals have the right, legally, to grow up to two cannabis plants (I think two plants for one adult in the household is the rule and you can legally by flowering and auto-flowering cannabis seeds in shops). But quite some individuals are, illegally, growing much more than two plants as a way to meet months' ends.
Technically this delivery drone is impressive but dealers from Morocco have much bigger problems than trying to stuff ganja into drones without getting intercepted: growing cannabis plant and making hashish and ganja directly in Spain, at cheaper prices.
[+] [-] consumer451|4 years ago|reply
On another note, I really don't see that thing carrying 150kg (330lbs) of useful payload. That would be an aerodynamic marvel for forward flight, and there is just no way those 4 electric motors can support vertical flight with a 150kg payload.
I am just an r/c hobbyist and would love to know if I am off on the payload somehow.
[+] [-] blutack|4 years ago|reply
Payload is "25kg" and that's probably optimistic.
[+] [-] azalemeth|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brippalcharrid|4 years ago|reply
The idea of relying on fighter jets/attack helicopters/SAM systems shooting these things down sounds like an entirely asymmetric and unsustainable state of affairs.
[+] [-] ErikVandeWater|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] radicaldreamer|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eloff|4 years ago|reply
The friendly European airforce must have been sleeping because the article never mentions any attempted investigations or interceptions by the same. I imagine just like the US in 9-11, they'd be caught with their pants down if terrorists actually tried to use a fleet of these things.
[+] [-] justin66|4 years ago|reply
I imagine it's always going to be police doing police work that catch these guys, as happened in this case, and not jet fighters.
[+] [-] peteretep|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] detritus|4 years ago|reply
Also, the prior art for smuggling across the straits were fast launches which would bump upon to beaches and be quickly disgorged. This means that the Guardia Civil take a lot of interest in what happens along the coast.
Also, let it be said that the coast up East from Gibraltar is very much not as empty as it is from Algeciras Westwards, with a lot of development on the Costa del Sol. Makes it hard to have slower than launches/ribs submarines do their thing.
[+] [-] jasonwatkinspdx|4 years ago|reply
They design torpedo style units that get towed behind a fishing boat or such. At a desired location they detach it, and it just loiters below the surface. At some pre-arranged time it pops up to the surface and activates a radio beacon, so that a pickup ship can snag it.
It's less complicated than building an autonomous AUV, and far less likely to be spotted by arial surveillance than a narcosub. Lower capacity but still very lucrative I imagine. And very nearly risk free.
[+] [-] bayesian_horse|4 years ago|reply
The drone was apparently off the shelves. And the police didn't say if they ever actually got it into the air at all.
[+] [-] Jabbles|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] squarefoot|4 years ago|reply
https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/11/26/inenglish/15747...
https://news.sky.com/story/homemade-narco-sub-captured-by-sp...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hisutton/2020/08/31/completely-...
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dramatic-video-shows-co...
[+] [-] RealityVoid|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Arnt|4 years ago|reply
Maybe the drone could even finish charging unattended and take off to fly back to Morocco.
[+] [-] TrackerFF|4 years ago|reply
So if you're coming from Morocco with a homemade sub (probably woefully unoptimized for being quiet), I'm gonna assume that those listening will pick up your signature.
[+] [-] rtkwe|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Y-Bopinator|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] blantonl|4 years ago|reply
Imagine coupling a Web app with a swarm of drones that can drop product on your back porch in a matter of minutes.
You can bet it's coming for illegal products.
[+] [-] anfractuosity|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lovemenot|4 years ago|reply
Yeah. A bit ambiguous. I guess the mention of cocaine was to improve the profile of the bust.
[+] [-] barcoder|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 27e733836x|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lovemenot|4 years ago|reply
Too bad. Better luck next time.
[+] [-] LargoLasskhyfv|4 years ago|reply
But article makes no sense. They write about the drone used for smuggling cocaine because it is the most lucrative thing, but they found only a few dozen kg of marijuana and hashish each where it was stored?
[+] [-] MomoXenosaga|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] outworlder|4 years ago|reply
Fly lower to save fuel? How does that make sense?
[+] [-] Luc|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gibba999|4 years ago|reply
I'd like a flying car!
[+] [-] ben_w|4 years ago|reply
I remember helicopters for sale in Farnborough Air Show, probably 30 years ago now, the cheapest there cost about £100k. I assume inflation has quadrupled that, but I don’t follow that market and the stuff on eBay I am unqualified to gauge the quality of.
[+] [-] ceejayoz|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bayesian_horse|4 years ago|reply
Vertical takeoff and landing may be overkill for that use case. They could probably get away with Ardupilot and just crash the drone...
Fortunately, most people who are able to build such a drone (I think many drone-hobbyists could) are smart enough not to go into drug smuggling.
[+] [-] 404mm|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] virtue3|4 years ago|reply
Now could someone make a drone shaped like an f-117 and make it invisible to civilian radar? probably. That sort of engineering is easy with todays technology.
[+] [-] pixxel|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d1sxeyes|4 years ago|reply
https://www.statista.com/chart/18527/cocaine-retail-steet-pr... shows 67 USD per gram, which means that if you've got 150kg of cocaine on board, the street value is just over ten million USD.
I don't know how much of that would be profit, but seems quite likely there's an excellent cost vs reward ratio - potentially even so high that these drones could be used almost disposably if they are intercepted less frequently than boats.
[+] [-] blutack|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mardifoufs|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BaRRaKID|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ape4|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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