Free Republic

China has revealed an ambitious plan to transform its military operations through the integration of more advanced unmanned systems, a strategic shift toward drone-led special operations in war scenarios including a potential conflict with the US over Taiwan. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported this month that China’s military plans to replace humans with machines in special operations overseas to mitigate the high risks of such missions. Scientists are working with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to develop unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capable of flying vast distances, diving deep underwater and lying in wait for long periods, the SCMP...

(CNN)--A US contractor was killed on Thursday in Syria after a suspected Iranian-affiliated drone struck a facility housing US personnel in northeastern Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement Thursday. Five US service members and additional US contractor were wounded in the strike. "The intelligence community assess the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to be of Iranian origin," according to the statement. In response, President Joe Biden authorized a precision airstrike...

China has ostensibly waged a long-running campaign to plant and recruit Chinese researchers from the USA’s leading national security research facilities, according to the latest reports. These researchers have then assisted China in making significant strides in military technology, whether hypersonic missiles, submarines, or drones, reported NBC News, citing a private intelligence report. The report highlighted the government of the PRC’s attempts to nurture its young and talented scientists at US national laboratories and lure the brightest minds back to the country to boost its military projects. The government of China has allegedly made a concerted effort to send Chinese...

Transcript Excerpt #1: Things have changed. Now people are looking at [something real]. Are they a threat militarily, what kinds of sensors do we have, what kind of metrics do we have? We now have frame by frame an analysis of these objects. These objects travel between mach 5 and mach 20 . That's 20 times the speed of sound. These objects can zigzag and we can measure the g-force inside this object. The g-forces are several hundred times the force of gravity...in other words any living person's bones would be crushed by these objects so they're probably drones of...

During an interview with Good Morning Britain, Peake, who spent more than six months on the International Space Station, was asked about the videos, which The Pentagon declassified recently. While Peake didn’t have a solid answer, he shared some theories he had heard with the audience. “I don’t think it’s a development of any state nation or non-state organization at all. I think it’s quite remarkable when you see the video footage. It does seem extraordinary as to what these machines are capable of.” One video shows a small object speeding past a military pilot, while another shows triangles glowing...

Mexican drug cartels have conducted more than 9,000 drone flights into U.S. airspace in the last year to surveil American law enforcement and security operations in the southern border region, a senior Homeland Security official told Judicial Watch this week. The drones are observing federal, state, county, and city agencies near the Mexican border, including the U.S. Border Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas National Guard, county sheriffs and local police. The Border Patrol, which operates under Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has captured about a dozen of the drones, and accessed the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ (UAVs) guidance and...

In a conflict that is shaping up to be one of the most intense and rapidly developing of our time, drones have come to play an increasingly important role, and could well end up being one of the pivotal factors in its eventual conclusion. Thus, the delivery of at least 16 additional Bayraktar TB2 UCAVs, on top of the 18 already in Ukraine's pre-war inventory, constitutes perhaps one of the most significant instances of support to Ukraine's plight yet. [1] Now evidence has emerged that Turkey's drone contributions have not remained limited to the TB2, with new combat footage of...

Assuming that both UAPs and their shocking behaviors are real (it’s still possible mundane explanations might emerge), there are two possibilities regarding the science underlying the phenomena: The objects either represent exciting extensions of known science (such as directed energy physics) or exploit features of exotic unknown science (such as faster-than-light travel through gravitational worm holes). And the first branch of known science I'll discuss is psychology...because part of our difficulty understanding UAP's might have more to do with our own biases and expectations, than with the phenomena themselves....But what if UAP's are unlike anything we might build, possessing no...

New Delhi -- India is set to finalise a long-conceived proposal to procure 30 multi-mission armed Predator drones from the US for the three services at an estimated cost of over USD 3 billion (around Rs 22,000 crore), official sources said on Tuesday. The proposal to acquire the MQ-9B long-endurance drones, armed with air-to-ground missiles, is likely to be cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in the next few weeks following which it will be placed before the PM-led Cabinet Committee on Security, they said. The sources said various key aspects of the procurement including the cost component and...

on’t worry if you hear an explosion,” our Armenian guide tells us as we creep along the bombed-out streets of Martuni. “By the time you hear it, it has already missed you. You should only really worry if you hear the hum of a drone. Which you will,” he adds with a dry grin. This small town is less than two miles from the front line of a bloody battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the long-disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh—an area about the size of Delaware that’s entirely within Azerbaijan and largely inhabited by ethnic Armenians. The conflict dates back...

Video showing an unidentified flying object splashing down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego two years ago appears to have been corroborated by military radar which shows as many as 14 UFOs swarming a Navy combat ship while traveling at speeds of more than 160mph. Earlier this month, investigative filmmaker Jeremy Corbell released footage showing what appeared to be a spherical object floating in the air above the ocean as it was observed by US Navy sailors aboard the USS Omaha in July 2019. Corbell on Thursday released another video of the same incident, only this...

The disturbing series of events during the summer of 2019 resulted in an investigation that made its way to the highest echelons of the Navy. In July of 2019, a truly bizarre series of events unfolded around California’s Channel Islands. Over a number of days, groups of unidentified aircraft, which the U.S. Navy simply refers to as ‘drones’ or 'UAVs,' pursued that service's vessels, prompting a high-level investigation.

Reports are emerging describing a potential near miss with an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) while the C-32A that President Trump was flying on was making its final approach into Andrews Air Force base on Sunday evening. POTUS was returning from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster New Jersey when the reported near miss took place. AFP's Sebastian Smith reported on the incident shortly after disembarking the highly modified 757-200, stating: "@realDonaldTrump just landed at Andrews on AF1. Shortly before, while descending, we flew right over a small object, remarkably close to the president’s plane. Resembled a drone though I’m no...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, November 27, 2019 Department of Justice Announces Update to Policy on Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems The Justice Department announced today the publication of its updated Policy on the Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.  In light of advancements in unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technology, and lessons learned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s limited use of UAS, the Policy enables the Department of Justice’s law enforcement components to safely and responsibly employ UAS technology within a framework designed to provide accountability and protect privacy and civil liberties.“UAS technology...

Raytheon Co. Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded $16,289,702 for one prototype Phaser high power microwave system. This agreement provides for field assessment for 12 months of in-field operation by Air Force personnel against unmanned aerial systems threats.

The no-fly zone for drones around airports is to be extended following the disruption at Gatwick in December, the government says. From 13 March it will be illegal to fly a drone within three miles of an airport, rather than the current 0.6-mile (1km) exclusion zone. The government also said it wants police to have new stop and search powers to tackle drone misuse. The government said the new stop and search powers would apply to people suspected of using drones maliciously nears airports. The powers, to be included in the government's new Drones Bill, would also allow police to...

The Navy is bulking up its fleet of autonomous robot vessels with the purchase of a cadre of four of Boeing's extremely large and incredibly grandiose unmanned Orca submarines. On Feb. 13, the Navy awarded Boeing a $43 million contract to produce four of the 51-foot Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs) that are capable of traveling some 6,500 nautical miles unaided, the US Naval Institute reported. According to USNI, the Navy could potentially deploy the Orcas from existing vessels to conduct "mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, electronic warfare and strike missions." But as Popular Mechanics points out,...

Bum Camps are expanding and some people don't like it. Some of those DontLikers own personal drones and are using their piloting skills to document the worsening situation. It seems that the laissez-faire approach by the authorities has put some of the locals in a mood for a little pay-back. Funny twitter vid clip series at link shows what unfolds when annoyed tweakers channel their special "Meth Magic" to locate and then chase the drone controllers..! How strange that the most civilized culture now has a subfaction much like the least-civilized culture (pic below related)

Bernard Hudson is the former director of counterterrorism at the CIA and is a nonresident fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. A failed assassination attempt against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday was mounted with explosive-armed drones, according to news reports. Nine days earlier, and on the other side of the world, terrorists claimed to have sent an armed drone to attack the international airport in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. No one was killed in either case, and the circumstances of both remain murky. But a new and dangerous era in non-state-sponsored terrorism clearly has...

The Venezuelan government made more arrests Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on President Nicolás Maduro, as the crisis-plagued South American nation braced for a possibility of wider crackdown on dissent. Interior Minister Néstor Luis Reverol said six “terrorists” were detained Sunday, a day after the government said drones carrying explosives targeted Maduro in the midst of a nationally televised address. Reverol said there were two drones, which he identified as DJI M600s. Neither, he said, reached its intended target area before detonating. Two separate videos, posted on Twitter, showed drones at the scene; one crashed into a...