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‘Ukrainian’ drone downed above Moldova’s breakaway region A drone has been shot down over Transdniestr, Moldova’s breakaway region, the region’s security service has reported on its website. On March 23, the pilotless aircraft was photographing and videoing the republic. Transdniestr special services recovered the video record from the drone, the statement says. According to preliminary information, the unmanned aircraft was launched from Ukraine’s soil by a group of people allegedly linked to Ukraine’s security service, the Interior Ministry’s General Staff or supporters of ultra-nationalist movement Right Sector for an intelligence-gathering operation. Currently, Transdniestr’s security service is working on the identification...

Hong Kong Jeff Bezos at Amazon hasn't done it. Nor has Fred Smith at FedEx FDX +0.21% or Scott Davis at UPS. No American CEO has persuaded Washington to relax its chokehold on commercial drone use in the United States. But this month a 29-year-old Austrian entrepreneur living here in Asia broke Washington's drone monopoly, winning a court case that may clear the way for drones to deliver packages to your doorstep. Overseas and at home, the U.S. government has pioneered the use of drones for military, intelligence and law-enforcement purposes. But while other countries have applied drones—usually smaller, simpler,...

Bamako - A notorious Islamist militia leader known as "Red Beard" has been killed in French missile strikes in north-eastern Mali, a senior Malian army officer told AFP. Omar Ould Hamaha was a commander of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), armed groups which occupied northern Mali for almost ten months in 2012. "Omar Ould Hamaha, the terrorist of Malian nationality, is one of ten terrorists killed last week by French planes," the officer said late on Thursday. Hamaha's death was confirmed by a regional security source who said...

A United States surveillance drone has been intercepted above the Ukranian region of Crimea, a Russian state arms and technology group said Friday. "The drone was flying at about 4,000 metres (12,000 feet) and was virtually invisible from the ground. It was possible to break the link with US operators with complex radio-electronic" technology, said Rostec in a statement. The drone fell "almost intact into the hands of self-defence forces" added Rostec, which said it had manufactured the equipment used to down the aircraft, but did not specify who was operating it.

A man has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs into a prison using a drone, Australian police say. The drone was "hovering in the vicinity of a prison" in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon, police said in a statement. The drone appeared to have "four engines" and was carrying "a small quantity of drugs", police added. Australia's parliament recently held a roundtable on drones and privacy. During the roundtable, Brad Mason, secretary of the Australian Certified UAV Operators Association, said there was "a lot of illegal and unauthorised use of UAVs. "We understand that the regulator is doing its...

A Texas firm has revealed a personal security drone with a stun gun capable of unleashing 80,000 volts. The firm showed off the drone in a series of shocking demonstrations bringing a volunteer to the ground. It says the drone uses a smart app to track intruders, and once it had received the go ahead from a human operator, it fires taser darts and unleashes 80,000 volts. full headline:The app controlled smart security drone with a STUN GUN built in to zap intruders with an 80,000 volt dart

WASHINGTON – A federal judge has dismissed the Federal Aviation Administration's only fine against a commercial drone user on the grounds that the small drone was no different than a model aircraft, a decision that appears to undermine the agency's power to keep a burgeoning civilian drone industry out of the skies. Patrick Geraghty, a National Transportation Safety Board administrative law judge, said in his order dismissing the $10,000 fine that the FAA has no regulations governing model aircraft flights or for classifying model aircraft as an unmanned aircraft. FAA officials said they were reviewing the decision and had no...

You're gonna want to steer clear of this CUPID. The Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone, or "stun copter," can deliver 80,000 volts of pure projectile terror directly into the skin of an ill-intentioned hoodlum. This is serious business for Chaotic Moon, the folks behind SharkPunch and the Pizza Hut touch table. The Austin-based design studio created the flying machine as a tech demo, but CUPID could be quickly brought to production whenever a personal security or law enforcement client sees fit. This prototype unit is based on a Tarot Hexacopter, originally designed to carry a digital SLR for video and...

North Korea has deployed an indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle capable of attacking ground targets based on stolen U.S. target drones, the Pentagon revealed in a report to Congress. Images of the North Korean drone in flight were shown as part of a March 2013 military drill, the Pentagon report said. “The drone appeared to be a North Korean copy of a Raytheon MQM-107 Streaker target drone,” the report said. “North Korean press coverage of the event described the UAV as being capable of precision strikes by crashing into the target.”

Israeli startup Urban Aeronautics is testing a flying ambulance drone they hope to release before 2020, Business Insider reports. The vehicle, which is called the AirMule, would be used to perform rescues in places like dense urban environments, where helicopter maneuvering is difficult. The AirMule is directed and controlled remotely and it can fly unpiloted with up to 880 pounds of cargo. Its primary purpose is to assist with rescues during military operations: A much quieter, remotely-piloted aircraft like this would be a game changer for military personnel. Medical evacuations for wounded troops have greatly improved since the introduction of...

<p>HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut lawmakers will hold a public hearing on a bill that would impose lengthy prison sentences on people who commit crimes with drones.</p> <p>The legislation would make it a felony carrying up to 20 years in prison for committing a crime using an unmanned aircraft equipped with a deadly weapon, and up to 10 years in prison for other crimes with a drone.</p>

According to Darpa “ARES is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) flight module designed to operate as an unmanned platform capable of transporting a variety of payloads. The ARES VTOL flight module is designed to have its own power system, fuel, digital flight controls and remote command-and-control interfaces. Twin tilting ducted fans will provide efficient hovering and landing capabilities in a compact configuration, with rapid conversion to high-speed cruise flight.” ARES is the transformer-like, UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) capable to move between an airport, a warship, or an improvised landing zone and the battlefield, and perform a wide variety of...

"The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to FOX CT News Thursday they are investigating the use of a drone at a Hartford fatal crash scene Saturday. Questions about officer safety and public privacy are emerging now after the drone was spotted above a fatal car crash on Main Street. FOX CT was the only media organization to obtain the official Hartford Police Department incident report Thursday, detailing the chain of events. According to the report, officers spotted a drone flying over the scene of the crash, in which the bodies were still in the car."

A Predator drone designed to catch terrorists in Afghanistan was used to track a recalcitrant North Dakota rancher and his sons accused of cattle thieving and monitor them to see when they were unarmed and alert the police in a case believed to be the first where an American citizen was arrested with the aid of a drone. On Jan. 14, 2014, Rodney Brossart was acquitted of stealing cattle and criminal mischief, but convicted of terrorizing police (a conviction he is appealing) and sentenced to three years in prison with all but six months suspended. This all stems from an...

Although the footage was shot in August 2013, today BAE Systems released it for the first time. “Taranis“, the technological demonstrator of UK’s stealthy unmanned combat vehicle made its first flight on Aug. 10, 2013. Where the maiden sortie took place remains a secret. The aircraft flew at the old British Nuclear test range at Woomera, Australia. The only thing we know is that the “superdrone” flew under the command of BAE Systems’ test pilot Bob Fraser and “made a perfect take off, rotation, ‘climb out’ and landing.” Since then, a number of other test flights have taken place in...

The Lakemaid micro brewery started delivering beer to ice fishers using drones, at least until the FAA coldly shut their operation down. The FAA is currently reviewing their policies. According to the beer company’s president, Jack Supple, “They think it’s a great idea, though they’re telling me to stop.”

It’s a dilemma that comes with the territory if you’re an ice-fisher, when you run out of beer it’s going to be a long time before you can go grab a six-pack. Until now… Meet the Lakemaid Beer Drone. Wisconsin-based Lakemaid Beers - whose tagline is "Great Fishermen need Great Beer" - was inspired by Amazon’s announcement that it was planning on using ...

The aerostats — that is the term for lighter-than-air craft that are tethered to the ground — are to be set aloft on Army-owned land about 45 miles northeast of Washington, near Aberdeen Proving Ground, for a three-year test slated to start in October. From a vantage of 10,000 feet, they will cast a vast radar net from Raleigh, N.C., to Boston and out to Lake Erie, with the goal of detecting cruise missiles or enemy aircraft so they could be intercepted before reaching the capital. Defense contractor Raytheon last year touted an exercise in which it outfitted the aerostats...

If the Rev. Jeremiah Wright believes — as he’s claimed in the past — that he and President Barack Obama will be buddies again when he’s out of office, the firebrand preacher didn’t do himself any favors Wednesday. Speaking at a breakfast co-hosted by the Chicago Teachers Union to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Wright said that while the civil rights leader proclaimed “I have a dream,” Obama says, “I have a drone.” Wright, Obama’s former pastor, called for King’s “revolution of values” and a rejection of the “three-headed demon” of “racism, militarism and capitalism” — the foundations of...

(Reuters) - An unmanned aircraft used by U.N. peacekeepers in Democratic Republic of Congo crashed on Wednesday near the eastern town of Goma, sources at the airport and interior ministry said. ... A source at Goma's airport confirmed the incident. A spokesman for the U.N. mission was not available for comment. The Falco drones used by the U.N. force are manufactured by Selex ES, a unit of Italian defence group Finmeccanica. The firm was not immediately available for comment.