By Paul Joseph Watson | PrisonPlanet.com

The Department of Homeland Security has announced in a solicitation to drone manufacturers that it will begin testing “Robotic Aircraft For Public Safety” at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, indicating that small spy drones will be used to keep tabs on Americans in the near future.

As Infowars reported back in July, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano told a House Committee on Homeland Security that the federal agency was “looking at drones that could be utilized to give us situational awareness in a large public safety [matter] or disaster.”

This represented an about-face of sorts for the agency, which had previously been reticent about the idea of using surveillance drones to spy on the public.

However, a recent solicitation posted on the FedBizOpps website confirms that the DHS is launching its Robotic Aircraft for Public Safety (RAPS) project and is asking small unmanned aerial systems (SUAS) vendors to take part.

The drones are set to be used for applications such as “law enforcement operations, search and rescue, and fire and hazardous material spill response” and will fly for 30 minutes to two hours at a time, weighing around 25 pounds so they can be launched by hand.

“DHS’ second thoughts on drones may not be so surprising,” reports Wired News. “In recent years, DHS has gotten interested in vastly expanding its surveillance capabilities, exploring cameras reminiscent of military ones that can spy on four square miles at once.”

[...]


Read the full article at: prisonplanet.com