Goal Is To Determine How To Bring Down The Small Aircraft That Might Pose A Threat

The Secret Service has been conducting flights with a variety of UAVs between 0100 and 0400 around Washington, D.C. in an effort to devise some kind of defense against the small aircraft.

The test are being conducted over various parts of Washington. The tests come after a quadcopter got away from an operator early in the morning in January and wound up crashing on the White House lawn.

The Secret Service tests are being conducted to determine how such small aircraft can be quickly detected and brought down. They are looking at ways to either hack the aircraft's guidance system and take control or jam the signal coming from the controller to make it crash, according to a report from the Associated Press.

The Secret Service has not said how many or what types of aircraft are being tested, or over what parts of the city. They say that part of the concern stems from the fact that some consumer-model UAVs are powerful enough to carry small quantities of explosives.

The FAA confirmed that they have authorized the Secret Service to conduct the tests, even though Washington is not one of the agency's approved testing sites.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.secretservice.gov