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Germany 'may buy weaponised drones from Israel' (AFP) – 13 hours ago BERLIN — Germany is in talks with Israel to buy weaponised drones for its military that are seen as more technologically advanced than US ones, the weekly Der Spiegel reported. The news magazine's Monday edition said the German defence ministry had already held two meetings with Israeli military officials, in November 2012 and February 2013, on the proposed purchase. The chief of Germany's air force, Lieutenant General Karl Muellner, was said to have recently gone to Israel to attend a presentation of Israel's Heron TP drone, Der Spiegel...

I am wearing a silver hoodie that stops just below the nipples. Or, if you prefer, a baggy crop-top with a hood. The piece – this is fashion, so it has to be a "piece" – is one of a kind, a prototype. It has wide square shoulders and an overzealous zip that does up right to the tip of my nose. It does not, it's fair to say, make its wearer look especially cool. But that's not really what this hoodie is about. It has been designed to hide me from the thermal imaging systems of unmanned aerial surveillance...

Tuesday was a banner day for Gulf Coast industry as the U.S. Navy announced it awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $71.6 million contract to produce the next generation of Fire Scout unmanned helicopters, assembled in Moss Point. In addition, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Lockheed Martin Corp. will invest $3 million and create 166 new jobs to build tanks for liquefied natural gas at the Michoud Assembly plant in New Orleans, where the space shuttle tanks were built. The initial 88-foot-long tanks will be used to fuel ships and transport fuel. And at Chevron's 2013 Security Analyst Meeting on...

Quadrocopters turn into pixels at the voestalpine Klangwolke and form 3D-Modells in the sky. As a world-premiere, the Ars Electronica Futurelab has managed to fly a formation outdoor with so many quadrocopters, painting some moments of magic into the nightsky of Linz.

The U.S. Air Force is developing tiny unmanned drones that will fly in swarms, hover like bees, crawl like spiders and even sneak up on unsuspecting targets and execute them with lethal precision. The Air Vehicles Directorate, a research arm of the Air Force, has released a computer-animated video outlining the the future capabilities of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). The project promises to revolutionize war by down-sizing the combatants.

A US senator has said an estimated 4,700 people, including some civilians, have been killed in the contentious bombing raids of America's secretive drone war. It was the first time a politician or any government representative had referred to a total number of fatalities in the drone strikes, which have been condemned by rights groups as extrajudicial assassinations.

A drone strike in the eastern Yemeni province of Shabwa last month killed the top religious cleric for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a source close to the group said on Tuesday. "A drone strike had targeted Sheikh Adel al-Abab's vehicle but he escaped and fled to a mountainous region where a raid by another drone killed him immediately," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Abab had graduated from the Dawa Islamic studies center, in Sana'a and had served as the top religious cleric for AQAP. American drone strikes against Al-Qaeda terrorists are frequent in Yemen, home...

Isn't it neat living in a faceless, futuristic police state?  East Germany would have KILLED for just one of these things! The primary suspect in this case would be the Oakland-area Alameda County Sheriff's Department, who recently released a statement re. the department's (rapidly) evolving policy (-here-) regarding aerial drones, which they refer to in army-speak as an sUAS, or 'small Unmanned Aircraft System'...  Seems they're already rather-broadly approved within Alameda County for the following missions: Post-incident crime scene preservation and documentationExplosive ordinance disposal missionsResponse to hazardous materials spillsSearch and Rescue missionsPublic safety and life preservation missions to include barricaded suspects, hostage situations, active...

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...