JINAN -- China's security forces are to use unmanned drones to patrol the skies over the Olympic sailing venue of Qingdao City, in the country's first known use of the spy craft.
Spanish sailors return to port after training. Thirty-four teams are now in Qingdao for 15 days to familiarize themselves with the course for the Olympic sailing competition in August. [China Daily] |
The unmanned scout made its debut at a drill on Wednesday in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province. It will watch for suspicious activities and transmit photos and videos back to command stations.
During the drill, two armed police personnel remotely piloted the meter-long reconnaissance aircraft by a third-floor window in a building more than 50 meters away, and watched activities inside the room on a screen at their ground station.
At a cost of almost 1 million yuan (147,000 US dollars) each, the low-altitude, low-noise aircraft can reconnoiter several square kilometers and stay in the air for an hour, said Dai Sujin, head of the armed police forces of Shandong.
But he did not reveal the source of the technologies or the total number of the weapons dispatched during the Games, citing operational security.
Qingdao will receive 464 athletes from 65 countries for 11 sailing events. It is also the only host city beside Beijing to hold opening and closing ceremonies.
Besides the unmanned drones, another 35 kinds of anti-terrorist weapons were on show in mock hijackings and bomb attacks.
"They are expected to be used by the security forces during the Beijing Olympics," Dai said.
The armed police forces also spent more than 15 million yuan (2.2 million US dollars) purchasing 32 kinds of equipment to counter aircraft hijackings. But the weapons were not on show to the media or public.
Explosive disposal robots that can lift explosives of up to 16 kilograms were displayed. They work by remote control and move explosives to blast spots with retractable arms or destroy the explosives directly with high-pressure water guns.
