The government plans by the end of this year to introduce systems at some airports for preventing uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) from entering the nation’s no-fly zones, the Civil Aeronautics Administration said on Tuesday.
At the agency’s headquarters in Taipei on Tuesday, 15 companies demonstrated how their technology can detect intruding drones and disrupt their operations, or destroy them.
The first step of the government’s countermeasures against illegal UAV activity is to have a zone-defense mechanism, Agency Air Operation and Management Unit Director Chu Kuan-wen (朱冠文) said.
Staff at airport terminals, the Aviation Police Bureau, local police departments and national security agencies are joining to counter the entry of drones into restricted areas, Chu said.
Interagency cooperation is necessary as there is about 400km2 of restricted or banned airspace and it is impossible to rely solely on airport staff and the Aviation Police Bureau to monitor such a big area, she said.
The second step of the government’s countermeasures is to employ an advanced system to detect and thwart drones from entering the no-fly zones, Chu said.
On detecting a drone, the system would activate some type of interference, causing the drone to leave the zone before it could disrupt airport operations, she said.
Taiwan saw its highest number of drone intrusions in 2016, she added.
Although there is so far no timeline or budget set for acquiring a system, the agency said that Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) would be the first to have a system.
The Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法) has new regulations on drone use, which are to take effect on March 31 next year, Flight Standards Division Director Clark Lin (林俊良) said.
The regulations also allow the administration of examinations for drone operators, which are to start in the middle of next month, along with drone inspections, Lin said.
Central government agencies would have priority in taking the operator examinations and having their drones inspected, Lin added.
The agency estimates that about 2,500 drone operators would sit the examinations, including operators from police and fire departments, as well as the Environmental Protection Administration, he said.
Under the act, UAV operators face fines of NT$300,000 to NT$1.5 million (US$9,628 to US$48,139) if found to have flown a drone within a certain distance from the outer boundary of an airport or airfield in a manner that could be considered hazardous to aviation safety.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
A British man was arrested for attempting to smuggle 14.37kg of marijuana into Taiwan through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei Customs said late yesterday. The man, who arrived from Bangkok at 9pm on Friday, was asked by customs officers to open his luggage during a random inspection, Taipei Customs said in a news release. The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed, refused to open his suitcase and tried to flee the restricted area. He was eventually subdued by three customs officials and an Aviation Police Bureau officer. A later search of his checked luggage uncovered 14.37kg of marijuana buds. The case was handed over
RSS