• Russia to buy UAVs from Israel

    Russian officers were impressed with the performance of Israel-made UAVs used by Georgian forces during the August conflict, and decided to sign a contract with Israel to buy the systems

  • Raytheon reaches 300th RAID system

    A Raytheon’s milestone: The Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) system provides surveillance support for use in both war and peacetime; the U.S. army now has three hundred of them

  • UAV-based anti-missile defense appears doomed

    DHS’s Project Chloe envisioned a UAV-based system to defend commercial airlines against shoulder-fired missiles; Northrop Grumman tests show the system to be more complex, and costlier, than originally anticipated

  • New UAV can fly safely close to the ground

    UAVs are useful, but they cannot fly close to the ground because they cannot avoid hazards such as buildings, trees, and power cables; Carnegie Mellon researchers develop a UAV capable of “seeing” — and avoiding — such obstacles

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  • Satellite program canceled; intelligence community uneasy

    Congress has shelved a Pentagon program to buy two commercial imagery satellites; in 2005 the Pentagon pulled the plug on a major component of the Future Imagery Architecture system; U.S. intelligence community fears intelligence gaps will open

  • Briefly noted

    Deadly plague found in Grand Canyon… IG: USDA monitoring system improves IT security… France’s DGA issues multinational contract for lightweight UAV radar tech… Thales completes acquisition of U.K. encryption specialist… N.J. safer, but not safe from terrorists

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  • Briefly noted

    Online “passports” to make Chinese foods safer… Top U.K. prosecutor warns against growing state power… France may buy Reaper UAVs

  • Trials for Watchkeeper UAV

    Israeli UAV Hermes demonstrated; part of the U.K.£800 million project to provide the British Army with UAVs for all-weather, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance use

  • Heron UAV delivered to Canadian forces in Afghanistan

    Israel Aerospace Industries deliver Heron UAV to Canada; delivery is part of part of a $85 million contract

  • New surveillance program will use military satellites to cover U.S.

    President Bush signed bill which allows the National Applications Office (NAO) to begin operating a stringently limited version of a program which would turn military spy satellites on the United States, sharing imagery with other federal, state, and local government agencies

  • SA police to buy mini-UAVs

    South Africa is host to the 2010 Soccer World Cup; in preparation, the SA police is buying mini-UAVs and integrating them into the force; the UAV — Kiwit — is carried in a suitcase, weighs 3.5 kg, and can be assembled by a single person in five minutes

  • U.S. military faces UAV shortage

    UAVs perform more and more intelligence and operation missions for the U.S. military — most recently over the northwest territory of Pakistan; one result of the growing demand for the drones is a drone bottleneck: General Atomics cannot keep up with demand

  • Unmanned vehicles pilot shortage top priority for USAF

    It has taken some time, but Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has succeeded in pushing the U.S. Air Force toward an accelerated adoption of unmanned air systems; now the USAF needs hundreds of ground controllers to control them

  • U.S. military to be offered flying hover bike

    An innovative Virginia company says its flying — or hovering — bike may be suitable for military missions; the machine offers vertical takeoff, range, and largely hands-off autopiloting

  • Small robotic drones to join Air Force's arsenal

    Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, will add surveillance capabilities to the military and law enforcements; scientists have studied the flight of fruit flies, the crawling of insects, and the perching of birds as they look for ideas for smaller and more effective surveillance machines, and MAVs are one result of these studies