• Advances in drone technology pose threat to U.S.

    Advances in UAV technology, in combination with innovations in drone airframe and propulsion system design, are now making it possible to build very small, inexpensive drones, and to control them using interfaces as simple as a touch screen, computer mouse, or joystick. These UAVs can be ideal terrorist weapons.

  • The morality of remote-controlled killing

    Israel has been using UAVs in its war against terrorists for a while now, and under President Barack Obama, the United has dramatically increased its use of UAVs in its fight against al Qaeda and its affiliates in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan. This increasing use of UAVs has given rise to moral dilemmas, and debates are underway in the media and academia over the legitimacy and morality of such attacks.

  • Tiny robot can survey hard-to-reach places

    A flying robot the size of a dinner plate can zoom to hard-to-reach places; the tiny propeller-powered robots can be packed away into a suitcase; they have multiple cameras which enable them to see the world around them as they navigate their way through buildings

  • Proliferation of drones raises alarms

    Security analysts fear that with the increasing proliferation of unmanned aerial drone technology, terrorists could eventually begin using them to drop explosives or even biological weapons

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  • U.S. Army to deploy “kamikaze” drones

    The U.S. Army is getting ready to add a “kamikaze drone” to its arsenal; the new drone is designed to hover quietly in the sky before it dive-bombs directly into a human target

  • Texas county police buys drone that can carry weapons

    The police in Montgomery County — and area north of Houston, Texas — is the first local police in the United States to deploy a drone that can carry weapons; the police says it will be used in chases of escaping criminals and tracking drug shipments

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  • DHS receives three drones, lacks pilots and resources to fly them

    Congress has awarded $32 million to DHS to purchase three new aerial surveillance drones, despite the agency never requesting them and lacking a sufficient number of pilots and resources to operate them; with the additional appropriations, Congress did not include funding to train or hire new pilots and crews or to purchase spare parts, placing a financial strain on the agency’s limited resources

  • U.A. Navy sees blimp come-back

    In 1962, after forty-seven years, the U.S. Navy effectively terminated Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) operations; but the blimp is making a come-back, and on 26 October, the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory unveiled the MZ-3A airship; for now, it is the only manned airship in the U.S. Navy’s inventory

  • Teal Group: global UAV market to total $94 billion in the next ten years

    Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been the most dynamic growth sector of the world aerospace industry this decade; a new market study estimates that UAV spending will almost double over the next decade from current worldwide UAV expenditures of $5.9 billion annually to $11.3 billion, totaling just over $94 billion in the next ten years

  • Aussies want license plate-readers connected to drones

    Canberra law enforcement authorities want to begin using UAVs together with license plate readers to track, autonomously, vehicles of interest; the police is considering using speed-detection systems to detect stolen cars or unregistered vehicles — and even integrate them into a broader surface-to-air surveillance network

  • Ogden, Utah police first-in-nation to use surveillance blimp

    A patrol car fitted with all of the police extras cost $40,000; a surveillance blimp will cost well below that — possibly as low as $15,000; after that, it is $100 a week to keep it filled with helium and charge its electric batteries; the police in Ogden, Utah, decides this is a good deal

  • Flying video camera will protect soldiers

    Engineers have developed the U.K.’s first lightweight outdoor flying video camera which can fit in a soldier’s backpack; the UAV is designed to help spot hidden dangers and feed the real-time footage to goggles worn by the operator

  • New first response, military tool: surveillance insects

    Micro air vehicles (MAVs) are tiny, insect-size UAVs used for search-and-rescue operations, surveillance, monitoring of hazardous environments, and detection of explosives; University of Michigan researchers had an idea: rather than build insect-size UAVs, why not use the insects themselves to fly these missions?

  • Enhancing communication of swarming robots

    With the help of computer simulations and prototypes, researchers are striving to enhance the communication in human and multi-robot interactions

  • "Swarm" UAV reconnaissance demonstrated

    Boeing successfully demonstrated autonomous communications and operation of dissimilar unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in flight tests over the rugged terrain of eastern Oregon; swarm technology is similar to how insects communicate and perform tasks as an intelligent group; the UAVs worked together to search the test area through self-generating waypoints and terrain mapping, while simultaneously sending information to teams on the ground