Your Mission: Avoid Detection by Drones

A German security firm has just sold the Chinese police a fleet of new, flying, robotic watchers, according to Flight Global. And if the report is right, I'm betting the German company, SIM Security & Electronic System GmbH, could be in all kinds of trouble.

Quadrotor_uav SIM executive Yves Degroote says he sold about 30 of the quadrotor drones, called "Sky-Eyes," to customers in Belgium, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands, as well as to the Chinese police. The robo-copter is " near identical" to another drone, the Diehl BGT Defence SensoCopter system, Flight Global notes. "Diehl is authorised to pursue the military market while SIM is restricted to commercial sales."

In China, of course, there's an awfully thin line between the "civilian" police and the military. But that's not the only reason SIM Security could face problems. Sales of drones are tightly controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR*, and the Missile Technology Control Regime. Companies usually have to get special clearance to market the things -- even in friendly countries. I'm no expert on these regulations, but I believe sales to countries like China are even more carefully monitored.

Most countries (and I'm assuming that includes Germany) also have a host of local laws about sales of high-tech gear to China. About a year ago, officials at Yamaha in Japan were busted for shipping nine robo-copters to the Beijing regime.