Richmond Siranjeevi
RSAF event at Jurong East.
I spoke to a SLTC from TAB ATC while I was there, had a really good conversation with him, too bad he didn't allow me to record because he said he don't do interviews.
I obviously told him this is a controlled environment on what they demonstrated and he said yes the technologies are all in its infant stage.
I then brought up how does the RSAF know if someone is flying at 4.99km away from an airbase and he said well at most they can only educate the public on safety via their events and give out flyers.
I shared with him my idea, he said its great but he said the difficult part is the bridging between CAAS and MINDEF. They are slowly doing R&D but more anti-drone it seems. He too understands that the permit approval takes a long time but he mentioned that CAAS is flooded with applications it seems.
Onto the drone catcher and the jammer, well from the video you can see that the drone catcher failed 3 times sadly, the jammer however was not LIVE so I didn't know how it works.
I went to what seemed to be a area closed off to public but I managed to get a glimpse of the company and its from DSO National Laboratories (likely to be under DSTA) they did not allow me to fly my drone for them to test their system and they were also not able to disclose how the technology works.
Based on some of the feedback I got from the Whatsapp group is that it hijacks 2.4/5Ghz and GPS, I am not well verse in this area but I did pose a question to the same SLTC about FPV drones and its capabilities, turns out he said yes of course in real world these new technologies may not be sufficient to deter errant drone users, no doubt there are much more sophisticated drones out there that cannot be detected or even intercepted by what they currently have.
In all it seems like at least 2 people within the RSAF like the idea of developing an app that allows users to know if flying has ended in camps so that NFZ stays temporary instead of 24/7 although they do have emergency flights that usually takes 10-15 minutes to go airborne.
They did like the idea of signing in with a SingPass portal to keep the information accounted for but they need to find a way to allow ATCs to push a button or also login to know where each pilots are and if all of them have landed when there is emergency.
Both of them said they will bring this idea across without making any promises since drones are still relatively "new" and gaining popularity among Singaporeans. In the meantime he said, try to stay out of NFZ as much as possible for the safety of all people.
Moving forward PLAB will be moving out and there will be more space to fly, just that its a decade away.
To end this off. Always fly first, later then ask.
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