Drone operator lands drone on deck of Queen Elizabeth

The operator of a commercial Parrot drone landed unchallenged on the deck of the Queen Elizabeth. According to the operator he was attempting to get pictures of the ship, and got an advisory from the drone software to land, due to wind. Several harbor patrol police waved at the drone as it approached, but no one was on deck.

Later, after posting his story, he was told he was going to upset some people, so went to the shipyard to try to talk to someone from the MoD or ship. After finally getting an armed officer to come talk to him, he was advised he couldn't talk to anyone on the ship because they were at dinner ashore.

ukdefencejournal.org.uk...

I guess he would be more upset if the sodding thing had been shot own, or just stamped on and chucked overboard.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Well it is sad to see this great ship is nothing but a white elephant, that Idiot Cameron stripped our air craft which would otherwise be now stationed aboard her and she would then be a viable weapon system, an air craft carrier without air craft is neither use nor ornament and even if it is converted into a Drone carrier it would still be only half as good.

As it stand's it is now really just a spare part for our allies in case they need to borrow it for there plane's.

Hell of a breach in security though, imagine if that had been loaded with explosives or even a spy device of some kind, useless bloody ship's security.

Wow. I guess those Chinese DF-21's and attack subs are the least of the QE's worries.

a reply to: Orwells Ghost

Yes if it was not so tragic it would actually be hilarious.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
Yes if it was not so tragic it would actually be hilarious.

Considering the ship is in its first testing cruise and probably packed with contractors, I would not worry.

a reply to: paraphi

That is a good point but even so if this had been cold war it would have been under extremely heavy security at least until it had it's full compliment of crew and plane's so I still see it as worse than lax on the navy's part, budget cut's notwithstanding.

a reply to: paraphi

Even at this point they should have had some kind of deck security in place. Even if it was just a rent a cop doing the rounds.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: paraphi

Even at this point they should have had some kind of deck security in place. Even if it was just a rent a cop doing the rounds.

If the main radar system were operational, the RF emissions from a kilowatt transmitter would have fried the drones electronics before it even got 100 meters near.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Don't be fooled. That ship is a monster... A few pounds of TNT would be like water off a ducks back.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

That same few pounds of explosive in contact with, or very close to a radar antenna, or a mast will also cause a not insignificant amount of damage. It won't do much to the ship itself, but it would be a major embarrassment and delay her going into service.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Fair point. I was referring to the deck tbh but your point stands. If there were aircraft aboard, that could also be a very costly and inconvenient incident. Hopefully, they will up their game when it comes to future security measures. Active service or not.