“Yet the RDC doesn’t actually prevent attacks; you respond to them, just like what happened the other day at the Dolphin Mall. Were you involved in that?”
“Can’t say, Ms. Collins, that’s classified, but as I was saying, the terrorists would strike at anything, as long as it was big enough and could get the most headlines. You couldn’t negotiate with them, and no money was asked for in most cases. They simply wanted to kill, and kill they did. Before the Center was established to counter these attacks, there were nine thousand — I repeat—nine thousand Americans killed in one year alone. That’s three times the number of people killed on 9/11, and more than died in the Iraq, Afghan, and Syrian wars combined. Because of our efforts here — and by others around the world — that number is down to just over five thousand in the latest twelve months, and that’s world-wide.”
“So let’s talk about that, Mr. Smith.” Her smile was back. “With such a proliferation of attacks taking place, something had to be done. How exactly does the Center defend against such attacks?”
“As you pointed out, we can do very little to prevent attacks, that responsibility lies with other agencies within the government. The Center comes into play once an event is underway. Just about every major building, monument, sports venue and mall now have their own defensive drone fleet. In addition to this, in communities across the nation — and soon to be around the world — the RDC has bunkers set up with fleets of the most-advanced ground and air units, all remotely-controlled from here. The moment we get notification that an event is underway our teams go into action and activate the closest rapid response units or civilian drones.”
“Even the privately-owned security drones?”
“That’s right. Quite honestly, we have the best remote pilots in the world, and our civilian counterparts acknowledge this. They’re more-than-willing to let us take the lead during an attack. We can deploy within seconds of the call with state-of-the-art weaponry and equipment. We do our best to limit the damage caused by the attacks.”
“And just how big is the Center?”
Xander knew his job was to provide just enough information to give the population a feeling of security. He had been through this before, and most of the information was available online. But still the reporter insisted on asking.
“I can’t be specific, but we are much larger than the military foreign drone program ever was.”
“Because of the need?”
“Mainly because of the scope of our operations. We cover the entire United States and our territories, with literally hundreds of rapid-response bunkers ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Also, the devices within these bunkers have to be maintained and tested constantly to assure their readiness when called upon. And then we need operators — pilots. In the past we’ve had as many as ten simultaneous events taking place. That requires trained pilots and sensor-operators to cover all the shifts and be ready to react when needed.”
“And all out of here?”
“We are the main center, yet rest assured, as it is with most government functions, there are backups to the backups.”
“As I mentioned before,” the reporter continued, “drones have been around for a long time, but now they’ve been regulated so much that everyone assumes that a drone in the air is up to no good. There have been protests by hobbyists and others against these restrictions. What do you say to these people?”
“Hey, I was one of them for a long time. I got my first drone when I was eight. Then I began to build them. At that time there were so many kits available — in fact you could buy a drone for less than twenty dollars back then.”
“But they weren’t the sophisticated UAVs we have today.”
“Some were. Depending on how much you could spend, there were units capable of being converted into killers quite easily.”
“But there were — are — safety features in them.”
Xander’s smile was more of a smirk. “Like everything else, regulations are designed to keep law-abiding citizens from violating the rules. Criminals don’t care about laws — that’s why they’re criminals. Sure, there are safeguards programmed into the flight controllers, but like any computer program, there are ways around them.”
“The killboxes?”
“Exactly. If someone has the money and the access, they can acquire a killbox, and in less than a minute all safeguards are voided. But even more, the internals within the killbox allow for standardized reprogramming that can make even a mid-range drone into a killer.”
“Please explain.”
Xander hesitated. He knew all this information was available in the clear, but he was an official spokesperson for the government, so he couldn’t make the situation appear too bleak. His job was to comfort the public, not make them even more paranoid than they already were.
Tiffany sensed his trepidation. “My report will be screened through your security people, Mr. Smith. I’d just like to know… for background.”
“Please use discretion, Tiffany. After what happened in Miami, we don’t want to do anything more to dampen the spirit of the holiday season.”
“I understand. Please continue.”
Xander nodded. “As you know, drones are controlled through radio frequencies, and in the early days it was possible to jam these signals without too much difficulty, even though it was illegal for civilians to do so.”
“Why was that?”
“Because drones operate on the same frequencies as Wi-Fi, cellphones, and even 9-1-1 calls, so if a person were to build an illegal jamming device they could disrupt the entire grid, if even in the case of civil emergencies, the government would take such drastic measures. But then technology changed, and the killboxes have allowed a whole array of additional operations to be programmed into the flight controllers which are prohibited in most civilian drones, including the use of the misnamed random frequency generators.”
“Misnamed?”
“That’s right, because there’s really nothing random about these units. An RFG is a matching set of pre-determined radio frequencies unique to a particular pair of drone and controller that are constantly changing. This makes it impossible to jam the drones unless you overload every known frequency.”
“So there’s no way to stop them?”
“Short of shooting them out of the air, not many. A few years ago they tried using focused electromagnetic pulses, but that only works outside and on unshielded commercial drones, not combat-rated UAVs. Some facilities have used drone nets, either shot from guns or dropped from the ceiling.”
“I saw where one of these nets actually caused more harm than good.”
“That’s right. Malls began using them right at the outset of the crisis, but a net is just as good at capturing innocent shoppers as it is at knocking a drone out of the air. Now modern combat drones can cut through the netting, and have a ready-made killing field of trapped civilians nearby when they do. Or they can simply detonate an onboard bomb, killing every person within range who couldn’t get away.”
“Aren’t killboxes used mainly in the automatic drones?”
“Autonomous drones, Tiffany. RFG and advanced satellite disruption is something we’re always working on, but that only applies to controlled units, what we call RPA’s or remotely-piloted aircraft. These days, a vast majority of attacks are carried out using autonomous drones which are programmed with a predetermined route and then sent off to accomplish their missions without outside influence. There’s no signal to jam, and since this class of drone is cheaper to purchase and operate, they’re the weapon of choice for terrorists. Killboxes also allow for the installation of sophisticated sense-and-avoid equipment, which enables a unit to scan its surroundings and avoid obstacles. These auto-units are able to effectively operate within buildings and far beyond the range of any pilot-controlled drone.”