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Drone technology offers the potential to change our world... But the technology also has a dark side. It can be used to spy on us, to threaten our critical infrastructure, or to attack crowds and public places. For years, the Department of Homeland Security has worried about the dangers of unmanned aerial systems, and we have sought the legal authority to protect Americans against corrupted aerial devices. Today I have a pressing message for Congress: Time is running out. As secretary of homeland security, I can tell you that threat is outpacing our ability to respond. Without congressional action, the...

Over a career that has taken him to Afghanistan and Iraq, Col. Patrick Duggan has seen the lethal power of drones. Now, as a base commander in the nation’s capital, he is worried that frequent illegal flights buzzing over Washington could pose a threat. In the middle of a federal no-fly zone for drones, in some of the most sensitive and restricted airspace in the United States, technicians working with Duggan recorded nearly 100 drone sightings over two months last summer. And that was just around two Army posts he oversees. Many of the operators were probably oblivious to the...

A series of mysterious attacks against the main Russian military base in Syria, including one conducted by a swarm of armed miniature drones, has exposed Russia’s continued vulnerability in the country despite recent claims of victory by President Vladimir Putin. The attacks have also spurred a flurry of questions over who may be responsible for what amounts to the biggest military challenge yet to Russia’s role in Syria, just when Moscow is seeking to wind its presence down. In the most recent and unusual of the attacks, more than a dozen armed drones descended from an unknown location onto Russia’s...

The University of Virginia says it will not recognize a conservative club because the organization limits its membership to those who affirm conservative principles. In a letter on Friday, lawyers for Young America’s Foundation said the university’s policy is both “unconstitutional” and a violation of Virginia state law. “A pro-choice club may deny leadership positions to pro-life students, and a gun control group may determine that it does not wish to extend membership to NRA members,” Casey Mattox, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, wrote in the letter. “Yet, by the terms of this policy — and its application...

Predator C Avenger Drone (Image: General Atomics) India has plans to buy 100 jet propelled Avenger predator drones from the US costing an estimated $8 billion for the Indian Air Force (IAF). Besides joint projects under the bilateral Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), in her first major engagement with a foreign counterpart, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman talks on September 26 with the US officials will focus on India-US defence cooperation, maritime security, avenger predator drones, counter-terrorism and other major issues of mutual concern, the sources added. Issues related to American defence companies seeking guarantees of retaining control of propriety...

The Pentagon's research and development arm has laid down a challenge for the defense industry: Give us an armed drone that can carry air-to-air missiles and is inexpensive to produce—oh, and also we need to crank out 500 of them every month. If one of the big defense contractors succeeds at this mission, it will revolutionize military manufacturing and aerial warfare as we know it. In a video posted earlier this week on YouTube, Air Force Lt. Col. Jimmy Jones, a program manager with the Strategic Technology Office, challenged industry with the Flying Missile Rail (FMR) concept. DARPA's vision is...

MDA seeks laser-armed HALE UAV for counter-ICBM role Gareth Jennings 14 June 2017 The United States is looking to field a laser-armed unmanned aircraft to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) towards the middle of the next decade, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) disclosed on 13 June. In a solicitation posted on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website, the MDA Advanced Technology Directorate said it requires a high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with the payload capacity needed to carry a high-energy laser system payload to high altitudes for Boost Phase Intercept (BPI) of ICBMs in the 2023 timeframe. "The...

China's construction of military base in the strategic location of Djibouti is just the first of what will likely be an ongoing expansion in friendly foreign ports around the world, says a Pentagon report. IMAGE: The Gwadar port that Pakistan is developing with Chinese help. China is likely to establish additional military bases in Pakistan and other countries with which it has longstanding friendly ties and similar strategic interests, a new Pentagon report said on Wednesday as the world's largest army increasingly flexed its muscles. In its annual report to the Congress on China's military build-up, the United States Department...

The Trump administration is asking Congress to give the federal government sweeping powers to track, hack and destroy any type of drone over domestic soil with a new exception to laws governing surveillance, computer privacy and aircraft protection, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The draft bill’s language would authorize the government to summarily track, seize control of and use force to destroy any unmanned aircraft it determines may pose a security threat to an area designated for special protection. The government would have to respect “privacy, civil rights and civil liberties” when exercising that power,...

Chinese drone maker DJI is offering up to one million yuan (£112,000) for information about drones that disrupted scores of flights at a Chinese airport. On four days this month - 14, 17, 18 and 21 - drones were blamed for stranding thousands of passengers at Chengdu Shuangliu International. Chinese reports said they caused 60 flight interruptions on 21 April alone. The bounty was a sign that the firm was taking the potential impact on its reputation seriously, suggested Prof David Dunn at the University of Birmingham. "Clearly they're concerned about their brand image, given how much they dominate the...

...[snip] The legislature's judiciary committee passed a bill this week that would make Connecticut the first state in the nation to allow the use of weaponized drones by law enforcement. North Dakota legalized police use of armed drones in 2015, but the law limits those weapons to less lethal technologies, such as rubber bullets and tear gas. The Connecticut measure contains no such restrictions.

FORT HUACHUCA - The Shadow RQ-7Bv2 unmanned aircraft which lost connectivity with the ground station here Jan. 31 was found today by a hiker in the mountains west of Evergreen, Colorado. No one was injured, but the aircraft has sustained damage. Soldiers from Fort Carson, Colorado, along with Clear Creek County and Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff Departments are currently assisting with security and recovery efforts. Search efforts were aided by the National Radar Forensics Team at 1st Air Force's Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, which specializes in tracking lost and/or downed aircraft. The team...

Millions of dollars' worth of U.S.-supplied drones that Kiev had hoped would help in its war against Russian-backed separatists have proven ineffective against jamming and hacking, Ukrainian officials say. The 72 Raven RQ-11B Analog mini-drones were so disappointing following their arrival this summer that Natan Chazin, an advisor to Ukraine's military with deep knowledge of the country's drone program, said if it were up to him, he would return them. "From the beginning, it was the wrong decision to use these drones in our (conflict)," Chazin, an advisor to the chief of the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces, told...

A University of Virginia professor has taken a leave of absence from the school after he came under scathing attack over the weekend for likening the Black Lives Matter movement to the Ku Klux Klan. Douglas Muir, who teaches at the school, commented on Facebook that he believed that Black Lives Matter was the 'biggest' racist organization since the KKK. Muir, who lectures at UVA's Engineering School and who also owns a restaurant in the area, was responding to a Facebook post that included a photograph of a recent appearance by BLM co-founder Alicia Garza in Charlottesville, the campus newspaper...

"It came over my airspace, 25 or 30 feet above my trees, and hovered for a second. I blasted it to smithereens."​ A woman in Virginia shot down a drone flying near her property in June of this year. It's at least the third time this has happened in the U.S., with previous incidents in Kentucky and Tennessee. Originally reported in the local Fauquier Times and subsequently covered by Ars Technica, the shooter was Jennifer Youngman, a neighbor to actor and director Robert Duvall. She had been cleaning her shotguns on the porch when two men stopped on a nearby...

According to a press release provided to The Daily Caller, Terence Burke, senior vice president of national news, said that “CNN’s cutting-edge development of technology to enhance the way we tell stories is a part of our DNA. We are proud to continue the tradition with CNN AIR, and to establish a unit that will expand our technological capabilities for newsgathering.” CNN has formed the “first media-related research partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute” and will be in a direct research agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration. According to the press release, in 2015, “CNN was selected by the...

When you first see Israel Aircraft Industries' Harop drone, the "Star Trek" association is unmistakable. Like the Klingon Bird of Prey it resembles, the Harop is small, maneuverable, nearly impossible to detect, relatively inexpensive, and is downright deadly. And when it comes to accomplishing its mission, it even operates on the belief that “today is a great day to die.” The diminutive drone doesn’t carry any munitions; it doesn’t need to, because it is the munition. A 50-pound high explosive charge is part of the Harop itself, and if it finds an enemy radar or another target of opportunity in...

Will the United States start using Israeli suicide drones? It might, after Israeli defense company UVision teamed up with US defense giant Raytheon, to adapt the Israeli-designed Hero-30 remotely-operated loitering munition to US military requirements. Now, both companies are jointly offering it to American infantry forces for use on future battlefields. Yair Dubester, Director of UVision, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the Hero 30, if acquired by the US, would appear in potential future combat zones around the globe. Unlike larger suicide drones, the Hero 30 is designed for individual soldier use. Each soldier can carry up to...

A plane approaching Heathrow Airport is believed to have hit a drone before it landed safely, the Metropolitan Police has said. The British Airways flight from Geneva was hit as it approached the London airport at about 12:50 BST with 132 passengers and five crew on board. After landing, the pilot reported an object - believed to be a drone - had struck the front of the Airbus A320. Police said no arrests have been made. If confirmed, it is believed to be the first incident of its kind in the UK. A British Airways spokesman said: "Our aircraft landed...

After spending the past decade studying ground-nesting wasps a team of researchers from the Australian National University believe that they've unlocked the secret to the insects' uncanny homing abilities -- one they hope can be applied to future UAV development. Modern, autonomous UAVs have to be laden with high resolution cameras, GPS radios and a slew of other high-tech gadgetry in order to know where they are and where they're going. Wasps, on the other hand, only need their compound eyes and a daily refresher flight.