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MCALESTER, Okla., - The Oklahoma Department of Corrections said an aerial drone found crashed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary contained drugs, hacksaw blades and a cellphone. The department said staff at the McAlester prison discovered the unmanned aerial vehicle upside down on the prison grounds about 9 a.m. Monday and the corrections officers determined it apparently hit the razor wire surrounding the facility and lost control. A package connected to the UAV with fishing line contained a pair of 12-inch hacksaw blades, a cellphone, a cellphone battery, a hands-free device, two packages of Newport Cigarettes, two packages of Black &...

Why We Need Swarms Of Autonomous Drones by ClaudiaR 12/10/2015 Most drones fly high above the terrain, connected to their human operators, alone, one by one for now. The main beneficiary of this semi-unmanned technology has been the army so far. Fly alone, identify the target, controlled from the center the get the green light to launch the missile. The autonomous drone of the future are independent and no longer alone, instead, fly and swim in groups. Just like locusts, we’ll have swarms of drones, communicating to each other and surrounding environment, like a mobile network of connected robots. Passed...

DroneDefender Is An Anti-Drone Death Ray That Can Shoot UAVs Out Of The Sky With Radio Waves By Quinten Plummer, Tech Times | October 15, 6:44 AM The impunity of drone operators may have run its course, as a science and technology firm has just unveiled means to reign in rogue UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles). This drone ray gun accosts drones without having to use kinetic force. Not only have drones flown ahead and out of reach of proper legislation, the UAVs have also skirted around just about every technology except for firearms. And even then, those firearms have to...

Russian fighter jets shadowed U.S. predator drones on at least three separate occasions high above Syria since the start of Russia’s air campaign last week, according to two U.S. officials briefed on this latest intelligence from the region. Meanwhile, U.S. Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters a U.S. aircraft flying over Syria had to be rerouted to avoid a Russian fighter jet at least once. “We have taken action to maintain safe separation,” Davis said, adding that the U.S. aircraft "changed path a little bit." He did not disclose which type of U.S. aircraft was involved.

OKLAHOMA CITY — An infamous fundraiser that involves shooting pigeons has taken down another flying object. A drone that was being used to film Senator Inhofe’s pigeon fundraiser was grounded Saturday. The annual fundraiser earns money for the senator as guests shoot at tame, banded pigeons as they’re thrown into the air. Showing Animals Respect and Kindness is an animal rights group that secretly filmed the fundraiser for Senator Jim Inhofe last year. This year, the group said they tried to use a drone to record the event Friday night in Greer County, but they reported the drone was shot...

 Drones can now legally fight criminals in the United States with non-lethal weapons thanks to a recently amended bill in North Dakota. The law’s author, Representative Rick Becker, originally wanted to require police to secure a warrant for drone surveillance.But, then local law enforcement managed to sneak in the right to equip drones with tasers or rubber bullets by amending the original prohibition against lethal and non-lethal force to just limiting lethal weapons. Becker worries that this new franken-bill will have dramatic unintended consequences.“I think it’s important to maintain the humanity in making decisions to deploy weapons against another individual,” he...

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — A Benedictine monk who works at a private Rhode Island school has discovered that finding solitude is no easy feat, even 175 feet in the air. Brother Joseph Byron was recently relaxing atop the Portsmouth Abbey School’s wind turbine — as he often does — when a drone zoomed in. Video taken by the drone, owned by a Californian on vacation, shows Byron sprawled across the turbine’s flat surface, with views of Narragansett Bay in the background. The footage was posted online this week.

Feds approve paper airplane drone flights By Keith Laing - 08/27/15 05:40 PM EDT The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the use of a paper airplane that is a drone. The agency issued the approval for flights of a drone that is described as a "smartphone-controlled paper airplane." In doing so, it waived requirements for FAA approval of drone flights that are operated outside of restricted airspace and below 200 feet. The agency said the flights were approved for "aerial photography and videography" purposes. The makers of the paper airplane drone, Connecticut-based Tailor Toys PowerUp, tout the paper airplane...

The No. 2 figure in ISIS, Haji Mutazz, is believed to have been killed in an August 18 drone strike near Mosul, Iraq, several U.S. officials told CNN. The U.S. intelligence community is in the final stages of confirming the man who died was Mutazz, a top deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi, the officials said. The U.S. believes Mutazz was prominently involved in directing ISIS' financial operations. The reported death of Mutazz, who also goes by several other names, is a bit of a mystery. Several news organizations, including CNN, reported his death at the end of last...

The two emails on Hillary Rodham Clinton's private server that an auditor deemed "top secret" include a discussion of a news article detailing a US drone operation and a separate conversation that could point back to highly classified material in an improper manner or merely reflect information collected independently, US officials who have reviewed the correspondence told The Associated Press. The sourcing of the information could have significant political implications as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, agreed this week to turn over to the FBI the private server she used as secretary...

MELBOURNE, An Australian videographer shooting footage with an aerial drone recorded the moment the device was knocked out of the sky by a "punch" from an eagle. The video, uploaded to YouTube by Melbourne Aerial Video, features the drone shooting aerial footage in a wooded area when a wedge-tailed eagle quickly appears and knocks the drone out of the sky. The drone crashes to the ground while the camera remains functional, shooting dizzying footage of the plummet before resting on a tranquil scene of leaves on the ground. The video's description said the bird of prey was "fine" after using...

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An unmanned military space plane has achieved a major longevity milestone, zipping around Earth for 500 days on a clandestine mission for the United States government. The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane launched on its third and latest mission on Dec. 11, 2012. As of today (April 24), the vehicle has been aloft for 500 days — far longer than its officially stated maximum orbital lifetime of 270 days. "Clearly, and understandably, the Air Force initially set the expected parameters [of the X-37B] conservatively, not really knowing what it could do until it was tested — which is what...

MANSFIELD, Ohio — A drone dropped a package of drugs into a prison yard while inmates were outside, sparking a fight, prison officials said. The package was dropped July 29 at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, about 65 miles southwest of Cleveland. It contained almost a quarter of an ounce of heroin, over 2 ounces of marijuana and more than 5 ounces of tobacco, JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, told the Mansfield News Journal (http://ohne.ws/1IDHjVN ). Smith said there have been other instances of drones breaching security and the agency is taking steps to increase...

A father has been arrested after shooting down an $1,800 drone that was reportedly hovering over his two sunbathing daughters. William H. Merideth, 47, from Kentucky was charged with first-degree criminal mischief and first-degree wanton endangerment. The owner of the drone claims he was only trying to take pictures of a friend's house when Merideth shot at the device, sending it crashing into a field near his yard last weekend. Sunday afternoon, the kids – my girls – were out on the back deck, and the neighbors were out in their yard," Merideth told WDRD. 'And they come in and...

A father shot was arrested after shooting down an $1,800 drone that was hovering over his sunbathing daughter. William H. Merideth, 47, from Kentucky was charged with first degree criminal mischief and first-degree wanton endangerment. The owner of the drone claims he was only trying to take pictures of a friend's house, when Merideth shot at the device, sending it crashing into a field near his yard last weekend.

Merideth allegedly told the police that a drone was hovering over his house, where his teen daughter (he has two) was sunbathing. So he pulled out his gun and gave it a merry death. Merideth was arrested for wanton endangerment and criminal mischief. There is, apparently, a local ordinance that says you can't shoot a gun off in the city, but the police charged him under a Kentucky Revised Statute.

Sweat the small stuff. That’s the unofficial motto for this year’s edition of the military exercise Black Dart, a two-week test of tactics and technologies to combat hostile drones that begins Monday on the Point Mugu range at Naval Base Ventura County in California. The military categorizes Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) by size and capability, from Group 5 drones that weigh more than 1,320 pounds and can fly above 18,000 feet like the Reaper, down to Group 1, mini- and micro-drones less than 20 pounds that fly lower than 1,200 feet. Previous Black Darts have covered threats to troops overseas...

Freelance camera operator Harrisen Howes lost a small camera drone two months ago after his roommate “drunkenly” crashed it onto a neighbors roof high overhead. After recently purchasing a larger, camera-equipped drone, Howes decided to try and rescue his old drone with his new one using some rope and hooks fashioned from coat hangers.

A recreational drone temporarily halted air drops Sunday in an area of southwest San Bernardino County where firefighters were battling a brush fire, officials said. The Mill 2 Fire broke out about 2:30 p.m. and burned 35 acres within 90 minutes near the intersection of Highway 38 and Bryant Street (map), east of Mentone and North of Yucaipa, according to the U.S. Forest Service. No injuries were immediately reported. Homes in Yucaipa and a Southern California Edison plant in Highland were threatened, said Carol Underhill, a spokeswoman for the agency. Four residences were evacuated on the west end of Yucaipa...