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A clip from the episode of NOVA entitled "Rise of the Drones." The full episode can be viewed here: http://video.pbs.org/video/2326108547

The Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) program is developing a real-time, high-resolution, wide-area video surveillance system that provides the warfighter a minimum of 65 VGA video windows across the field of view. Each video window is electronically steerable independent of the others, and can either provide continuous imagery of a fixed area on the ground or be designated to automatically keep a specified target (dismount or vehicle) in the window.

For many, the word “drone” summons images of innocent civilians killed in wars conducted from thousands of miles away and raises concerns about invasions of privacy. For others, a drone is simply a next-generation military weapon that saves both lives and money. And for still others, drones are a fascinating backyard hobby for adults and children alike. But no matter what you think about them, drones are here to stay. The Air Force predicts that within a decade nearly 30 percent of its attack and fighter planes will be drones. It’s not just the military that sees their potential, either....

Meet a new breed of flying robots, from tiny swarming vehicles to giant unmanned planes. Airing January 23, 2013 at 9 pm on PBS. Drones. These unmanned flying robots–some as large as jumbo jets, others as small as birds–do things straight out of science fiction. Much of what it takes to get these robotic airplanes to fly, sense, and kill has remained secret. But now, with rare access to drone engineers and those who fly them for the U.S. military, NOVA reveals the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful as we see how a remotely-piloted drone strike looks and...

Orlando Florida Patrolled By Surveillance Drones As Early As This Summer Robert JohnsonJan. 13, 2013, 8:18 AMOctatron shows the camera aboard the SkySeer drone used for surveillance and reconnaissance for law enforcement When Congress passed a bill last February allowing unmanned drones to fly American skies it became only a matter of time before UAVs patrolled U.S. cities for local law enforcement. While most drones in the U.S. are flown along the Mexican border, the Orange County Sheriff's Office wants to put them over metro Orlando within the next few months. The Greater Orlando metropolitan area is home to more...

Less than a month ago, rumors that celebrity news and gossip website TMZ was interested in obtaining a paparazzi drone prompted privacy concerns and public debate about the appropriate personal and commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles. Now, a new online video poses a more troubling question: What if civilian drones are equipped to shoot more than just pictures? Titled “Citizen Drone Warfare” and posted to YouTube last week by an anonymous man calling himself “Milo Danger,” the video shows a hobbyist drone equipped with a custom-mounted paintball pistol flying over a grassy field and peppering human-shaped shooting-range targets with...

Western defense experts surprised to see 25+ new Chinese drones on display at Air Show China 2010...WJ600 jet-powered drone: And just what does that say for our military intelligence, anyway... must have been sleeping: ________________________________________________________ China is ramping up production of unmanned aerial vehicles in an apparent bid to catch up with the U.S. and Israel in developing technology that is considered the future of military aviation. Western defense officials and experts were surprised to see more than 25 different Chinese models of the unmanned aircraft, known as UAVs, on display at this week's Zhuhai air show in this southern...

<p>The 8-foot-long, sausage-shaped Silver Fox drone has a propeller in the front, and detachable wings and tail fins -- all of which fold neatly into a converted golf club bag. It isn't the only tactical UAV slated for testing during the second Gulf War.</p>

The U.S. Air Force drone, on a classified spy mission over the Indian Ocean, was destined for disaster from the start. An inexperienced military contractor in shorts and a T-shirt, flying by remote control from a trailer at Seychelles International Airport, committed blunder after blunder in six minutes on April 4. He sent the unarmed MQ-9 Reaper drone off without permission from the control tower. A minute later, he yanked the wrong lever at his console, killing the engine without realizing why. As he tried to make an emergency landing, he forgot to put down the wheels. The $8.9 million...

This great talk, given yesterday (2/29/12) at TED, is now live. I was here and the crowd was wowed. Check out the lovely math on simplifying the 12-dimensional math to 4 dimensions at around the 5:00 mark,

Just heard from Fox news 15 minutes ago that second drone above Bengazi came OUTSIDE Libya --it came from SIGONELLA, Sicily...! It was UNARMED and replaced the first drone that egressed owing to low fuel. For unmanned drone observation of an ongoing battle against an American target is it a requirement that cross-border ingress authorization come from **POTUS**..? Because THIS might have required that. Does anyone know? I'm asking because if that is so, then what is possible is that gayMuzzie permitted drone observation but required that it be UNARMED...! If you have one spun up and fueled then putting...

What Obama Could've Done in Libya October 24, 2012 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Laurie in Pittsburgh as we continue. Welcome to the program. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi. CALLER: Rush, I'm very honored to speak with you. Longtime listener. You truly changed my life. I was born a liberal. (laughs) I'm in central Pennsylvania and basically saw the light and I've since been conservative. I appreciate what I learn from you. I look forward to hearing your take on things. And I'd like for you, if you could today, to help to educate me. Here's my...

They began as tools in military combat. Now aerial drones are being considered by Bay Area law enforcement agencies as a cost-cutting way to replace helicopters, and use technology to fight crime and save lives. Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern first tested one of these Unmanned Aerial Systems or UAS about a year ago. Now he’s looking into possibly bringing a drone here. His office would be the first in California to do it. Armed with live-video-feeding capabilities and different features, like infrared devices, these drones can cost in the ballpark of 50- to 100-thousand dollars or more. There are...

..... All of Israel’s “peace-in-our-time” plans (including Bibi’s Jordan Valley Plan) are entirely based on variants of the 1967 Allon Plan which, like the Maginot Line defense, are based on yesterday’s technology and yesterday’s wars. IThe plan was named after famous Israeli general Yigal Allon. However, with the Israeli interception of the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) over the Negev, there is a new highly lethal and precise terrorist military weapon which could strike from a “demilitarized” Palestinian "West Bank" State with pin-point accuracy into the heart of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: Killer Terrorist UAVs. Firstly, most people think that under...

Iran’s Air Defense Base Commander has announced it has built an new unmanned long-range drone (UAV) that can carry a bomb. Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili broke the news one week after Iranian-financed Hizbullah launched a drone that entered Israeli air space before it was blown up by a missile from an F-16 jet. Esmaili did not state whether the new drone, dubbed Hazem, can reach Israel. He “noted that the drone will be used in targeting and identification operations, and for carrying cargo whenever needed,” the government’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported. The Iranian commander added that Hazem is not...

Former Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora accused Hizbullah, Sunday, of trying to entangle Lebanon into a military confrontation with Israel. Responding to the recent launching of an unmanned aerial vehicle by the Shi'ite terror group over the Jewish state, the Future Movement Member of Parliament said Hizbullah has no right to declare war and the words of Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah endanger the security of the people...

The IDF suspects that the small UAV intercepted Saturday morning by IAF jets over the northern Sinai was launched by Iranian proxy militia Hizbullah. The drone may have been searching for targets for Iranian attacks. The defense establishment has been looking at the fragments of the UAV, which fell in the area of southern Mount Hevron. According to reports, Israel initially suspected that it was launched from Sinai, but by Saturday evening, military sources said the military investigation showed the UAV had flown southward along Israel's Mediterranean coast before turning east over Gaza and heading into Israeli airspace. It is...

A moral question It doubtlessly is a damning report that the researchers of the American universities have delivered on America’s drone adventurism. It succinctly brings out what a horrendous toll it has been exacting on innocent civilian lives and keeping the whole lot of populace in the targeted areas in constant dread of drones and their fatal assaults. The psychological impact on the people is just terrible, it underlines. But will this report have any impact on the American strategists at all? Not even an outside chance. Over these times, the civil society worldwide is up in protest against...

NEW YORK: A 40-member American peace delegation is leaving for Pakistan next week to protest drone strikes and promote peaceful relations between US and Pakistan, it was announced on Friday. The delegation, organised by the activist group CODEPINK, a group of women peace activists, will meet with the families of drone victims, lawyers, academics, Pakistani politicians and US officials. On October 7, they will march to South Waziristan in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to protest US drone strikes that have killed more than 2,500 people, including civilians, CODEPINK said. “President Obama’s counter-terrorism chief John Brennan insists that US...

Intelligence sources in Cairo told Egyptian media that an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) fired at a terrorist in Sinai Sunday and killed him. According to the reports, the terrorist was hit by a missile that was fired at him as he rode a motorcycle in the Bedouin area south of the village of Al-Kasia, about 15 kilometers from the Israeli-Egyptian border. Witnesses said the explosion left a crater two meters wide and 50 centimeters deep.