Secret Service conducting drone exercises in U.S. capital region

The Secret Service on Tuesday announced plans for conducting drone exercises in the Washington, D.C., area, but the agency provided few details about the program and declined to answer basic questions about it.

The agency’s brief announcement, just two paragraphs and 76 words long, said exercises will take place “in the coming days and weeks” in “normally flight restricted areas.” It did not specify dates, times or locations for the exercises.

Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole Mainar on Tuesday declined to answer questions about the what types of drones the agency would use and the nature of the tests.

In January, a small drone crashed on White House property after flying at a low altitude above the grounds without setting off alarms. The operator of the robotic aircraft said the incident was an accident.

The episode exposed a security gap that the Secret Service has spent years trying to fix with little success: How to identify and disable unmanned aircraft. Four days before the crash, a panel of experts warned a group of lawmakers examining White House security about the problem, according to a Washington Post report.


Source:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/secret-service-conducting-drone-exercises-in-u-s-capital-region.html?noredirect=1#noredirect

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/02/25/secret-service-conducting-drone-exercises-in-capital-region/