Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System (MDARS) at the Nevada Test Site

Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System (MDARS) are the robotic guards at the Nevada Test Site. I am told but have not seen proof that they run them in Rachel and around Groom Lake.

This ATS thread has some video of the system:
MDARS on ATS
Unfortunately it wandered into some irrelevant stuff. (yeah, shocking news)

The current issue of the NTS newsletter covers MDARS.
Nevada Test Site "Sitelines" newsletter with MDARS information
General Dynamics MDARS
MDARS1
MDARS2
MDARS3
MDARS4

Funny, being that they literally just passed this law, which will go into effect early next year... And of all places, Nevada.. Quite the coincidence, eh?

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Doing a bit of research, the radar on the MDARS is K band. It should be detectable from consumer radar detectors. This sounds dumb at first, but frequencies need to be coordinated. That is, to prevent systems from interfering, systems need to stick to the band plan. Since the DoD has to work in the presence of police radar already, they can assign MDARS the same K band frequency slot and not worry about interference. K band can be used for RCS too.

In addition, the MDARS uses 1710-1850MHz and 2390-2700MHz. There are two white antennas that look identical to L-Com (formerly Hyperlink Technologies) 2.4G WIFI antenna. None of the stock L-Com WIFI antennas of that shape are white. Rather they are gray.

hyperlink 2.6GHz antenna
hyperlink 2.4GHz antenna

Looking at the photos, I've figured out counter measures against the MDARS.

They have a big red STOP BUTTON on all four corners of the vehicles!! LOL

So, if you could get one of those quad copters to land on the MDARS, suction cup to it, and then depress the red button, that thing will shut down!!

I should be getting paid for these ideas.

I suspect you are correct. However it is possible the buttons are to kill the RF energy for servicing.

Originally posted by Cryptonomicon
Looking at the photos, I've figured out counter measures against the MDARS.

They have a big red STOP BUTTON on all four corners of the vehicles!! LOL

So, if you could get one of those quad copters to land on the MDARS, suction cup to it, and then depress the red button, that thing will shut down!!

I should be getting paid for these ideas.

Bahaha nice. No, actually the big red STOP BUTTON'S are for when they randomly, though seldom, go completely out of control and on a rampage

I wonder how they operate if a few well-placed paintballs disrupt the optics. Course if you're that close and a good shot, you could just hit the STOP BUTTON.

Most drones have a remote kill "switch". Not a switch in the literal sense, but a method that bypasses much of the control system hardware to stop or destroy the device. If you read the DoD range control documents, these systems are discussed, of course without too much specific detail. They use federal/military UHF radio bands. It takes more than just a carrier wave to set off the destruct/stop, but they try to keep it simple for reliability. EG&G did artillery "electronic fuses" that I suspect are similar to the remote destruction schemes. They would detect for the presence of tones with the right frequency and twist, similar to DTMF.

There is a classic fubar at Edwards where the destruct signal was sent to a Global Hawk by accident, causing a crash. UAVs have procedures to deal with LOS (loss of signal), but if your system is truly autonomous, well it is a brave new world.

Has anyone sent these guys a memo saying the SR-71 program was canceled?

Just sayin'... wouldn't it be funny if Area 51 were SO compartmentalized that the security folks never realized there wasn't anything going on out there anymore?

reply to post by FosterVS


MDARS rules:

1 - Cardio
2 - Double Tap
3 - Beware of Bathrooms