Free Republic

Cutting-edge killer drones will not be flying over the world’s oceans any time soon. The Defense Department’s budget proposal for 2017, released on Feb. 9, terminates an on-again, off-again program dating back to the late 1990s that aimed to develop a bomb-hauling robotic jet capable of launching from and landing on the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers. The decision to cancel the so-called Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike is reflected in the Defense Department’s 2017 budget proposal, released on Feb. 9. The proposal shows a combined $818 million in funding for the UCLASS killer drone program in 2015 and...

The Pentagon is funding research to develop a microchip that not only promises brain-like artificial intelligence, it is small enough to fit inside a wide range of mobile devices. Known as 'Eyeriss', the palm-sized processor has a staggering 168 cores and is based on 'neural networks' that are modelled on the human brain. By comparison, processing chips used in a wide variety of smartphones typically have quad cores. This technology could make its way onto the battlefield in the form of drones or robots that could conduct their own learning in real-time, without the need for human analysis. ... Researchers...

No matter how many regulations are put in place, drones are cheap enough now that frequent misuse is becoming the norm. There's no good way of dealing with a dangerous drone: you can jam its radios to force it to autoland, or maybe try using an even bigger drone to capture it inside a giant net. In either of these cases, however, you run the risk of having the drone go completely out of control, which is even more dangerous. Or, you can be like the Dutch National Police, and train eagles to take down drones for you.

Automaton Robotics Aerial Robots Dutch Police Training Eagles to Take Down Drones By Evan Ackerman Posted 1 Feb 2016 | 9:17 GMT No matter how many regulations the FAA puts in place, drones are cheap enough now that frequent misuse is becoming the norm. There's no good way of dealing with a dangerous drone: you can jam its radios to force it to autoland, or maybe try using an even bigger drone to capture it inside a giant net. In either of these cases, however, you run the risk of having the drone go completely out of control, which is...

Driving the increase was a mysterious surge in mishaps involving the Air Force's newest and most advanced "hunter-killer" drone, the Reaper, which has become the Pentagon's favored weapon for conducting surveillance and airstrikes against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups. The Reaper has been bedeviled by a rash of sudden electrical failures that have caused the 21/2-ton drone to lose power and drop from the sky, according to accident-investigation documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Investigators have traced the problem to a faulty starter-generator, but have been unable to pinpoint why it goes haywire or devise...

Go to WAPO

The Washington Post has an interesting interview this week with William Merideth, the Kentucky businessman who famously took a shotgun and introduced a terminal malfunction to a camera equipped drone hovering over his property last year. The case, while providing some amusement to the public initially, has raised vexing questions about property rights, privacy, and the limits of the government (under the auspices of the Federal Aviation Administration) to control the airspace over your property. It’s been mostly settled law for quite some time that property owners control the mineral rights and other resources under their land, but how much...

A Kentucky man who had his $1,500 hobbyist drone shot out of the sky last year by an agitated neighbor has filed a federal lawsuit in hope of having the courts define the rights of aircraft operators versus property owners with respect to unmanned aerial vehicles. Attorneys for the drone owner, David Boggs, filed a complaint for declaratory judgment and damages in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on Monday, nearly six months after the man’s camera-equipped, remote-controlled aircraft was brought down by a shotgun-wielding neighbor, William Merideth. Police initially cited Mr. Merideth with charges of criminal...

Well 2016 has rolled around and one of the first articles I saw was about George Hotz and his home-brew self driving car. He is claiming that his car is not programmed by rules to drive, but rather was taught to drive by watching him drive. If this is true, then we need to chat. First, every Freeper should read this article in it's entirety. http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-george-hotz-self-driving-car/ Second, we really need to think about what this will mean to us in a future that is coming a lot faster than any of you all might think. What will it mean when...

Drug Cartels Are Hacking US Border Patrol Drones Border patrol drones are vulnerable to GPS spoofing attacks The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency are reporting on incidents where drug traffickers have hacked unmanned air vehicles (UAVs, drones) in order to illegally and secretly cross the US-Mexican border. UAVs have become a common presence in the US military, but they have also spread to other US law enforcement agencies like local police and border patrol. Unlike their military counterparts, which cost millions of dollars, the drones used by other law enforcement...

The FAA finally confirmed this afternoon that model aircraft registrants' names and home addresses will be public. In an email message, the FAA stated: "Until the drone registry system is modified, the FAA will not release names and address. When the drone registry system is modified to permit public searches of registration numbers, names and addresses will be revealed through those searches." I've been trying to get to the bottom of whether names and home addresses of model aircraft or hobby drone owners - including children as young as 13 - will be made available by the FAA to the...

IRBIL, Iraq — The Air Force will allow enlisted personnel to become drone pilots for the first time to help meet demands for increased surveillance over global hot spots, according to a new policy announced Thursday. The decision, which follows months of study, is the latest Air Force effort to overhaul the growing drone program, which has struggled to recruit and retain enough officers to serve as drone pilots. Counterterrorism operations including the battle against Islamic State have created constant demand for aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR. Drone pilots say they are overworked and badly stressed. “This group...

The Federal Aviation Administration, responding to heightened concerns about rogue drone flights near airports, unveiled a pre-Christmas rule on Monday requiring drone hobbyists as young as 13 to register their unmanned aircraft. The new online registry will require current drone owners to register by Feb. 19 while anyone who acquires aircraft after Dec. 21 would need to register before their first outdoor flight. After registering, drone owners will receive an FAA identification number that they must display on aircraft weighing between 0.55 pounds (250 grams) and 55 pounds (25 kgs). The FAA's online registration site, which will be launched next...

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. - Police are searching for two men who broke into a North Miami hobby shop and stole several pricey items.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. Air Force is using civilian defense contractors to fly military drones in combat theaters. The civilian drones pilots are used to fly missions that don't involve actual shooting, regulating their role to keeping an eye on enemy forces.

Even those of us who have worked in Washington for many years and become accustomed to the inner workings of government can still be amazed by what lurks behind the curtain sometimes. Case in point: the Environmental Protection Agency.Most Americans have at least heard of the EPA, even if they have only a dim notion of what the agency actually does. It tends to skate along under the radar, unless something unusual happens, such as the toxic spill that turned the Colorado’s Animas River orange last August. Of course, what really made the spill unusual is that the EPA itself caused it.Otherwise, Americans don’t hear...

Back in July, a Hillview, Kentucky man shot down a drone that was flying over his property. He was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment for destroying the $1,800 unmanned aerial vehicle. Now, a judge has cleared him of all charges. William Meridith, 47, said his right to privacy made it ok to shoot down his neighbor's drone. The owner of the drone said he was simply flying it to get aerial images of another neighbor's house. Meredith told WDRB about the incident: "Sunday afternoon, the kids-my girls-were out on the back deck, and the neighbors were...

...Anne, an Air Force staff sergeant, was—and still is—a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) sensor operator or “sensor.” At Creech, she is assigned to a reconnaissance squadron flying missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. Few weapons in the American arsenal are more relentless than the RPA fleet, often called drones. For more than a decade, the United States has flown RPAs over Afghanistan and Iraq, providing forces on the ground with an eye in the sky to spot terrorists and insurgents, and in most cases the firepower to destroy them. As she rode to work, Anne—or “Sparkle” as she’s known to her...

The FAA announced on Monday that recreational drone operators will be required to register their aircraft. "There can be no accountability if the person breaking the rules can't be identified," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx during a press conference. A task force of more than two dozen people will be responsible for creating guidelines for the national registry by November 20, with the goal of instilling the program before the end of the holiday season, when around 1 million drones are expected to be sold.

The federal government will announce a new plan requiring anyone buying a drone to register the device with the U.S. Department of Transportation, NBC news has learned. The government has been concerned about the rise in close calls between unmanned drones and aircraft flying into and out of some of the nation's biggest airports. The plan is expected to be announced Monday. In July, there was a dangerously close encounter between a drone and a passenger jet with 159 people aboard setting up to land at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.