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Russia must start development of a long-range bomber aircraft, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting on defense orders. "We have to develop work on the new PAK-DA long-range bomber aircraft for Long-Range Aviation. I know how expensive and complex this is. We have talked about this many times with ministers, and with the head of the General Staff. The task is not easy from a scientific-technical standpoint, but we need to start work," Putin said.

Proposed US Military buildup under a conservative U.S. Administration circa 2012-2024 CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE The following plan is based on a major US economic turnaround based on sound Free Market principles geared to US interests, energy independendece, a balanced budget, stabilization of Social Security & Medicare & eliminating unessary and wasteful entitlements & entire federal agencies. It is also based,under a conservative leadership in Washington, on adopting lower corporate and individual income taxes so the revenue to the treasury expands and increases significantly which will fuel the buildup necessary to remain technologically superior by two generations...

A US Army drone strike in March killed a German citizen who had joined the jihad in Pakistan. His death has the potential to reignite the debate over the legitimacy of air strikes by unmanned drones and may increase diplomatic tensions with the US. Diplomatic Powder KegOn the morning of March 9, 29-year-old Samir H. was in a large pickup truck in southern Waziristan when a remote-controlled US Army drone, several kilometers high, took aim at the vehicle. Reports indicate that at least one of the three rockets launched by the drone hit the target and destroyed the pickup truck...

FORT HUACHUCA — This morning 16 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion 13th Aviation Regiment on Fort Huachuca, began their ear-long deployment to Afghanistan. The soldiers who fly and maintain the Army’s Gray Eagle. The unmanned aerial systems is a critical component of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance needed in the country. The battalion, is part of the 1st Aviation Brigade, which has its headquarters at the Fort Rucker, Ala., Army Aviation Center of Excellence. The soldiers department around 5:30 a.m. today, after a short ceremony, at which family members and others attended. See Thursday’s Herald/Review for more details.

The Chinese Navy Is Betting Big On Its New Submarine Hunting Drones Tackling the long-time nuisance of American submarines off its coastal waters China is deploying drones to its Navy ships. While not a new development on its own, there are reports of increased drone deployment to the PLA's ships, and a heightened attack against U.S. drone contractors. UPI reports Chinese hackers have ramped up their barrage of infected emails to glean as much information about the Pentagon's UAV strategy and development as they can. It's no secret that the Chinese military is in the habit of copying foreign hardware,...

Chinese Navy Employs UAV Assets By James C. Bussert, SIGNAL Magazine April 2012 The Middle Kingdom learns from the example—and the hardware—of other nations. China’s navy has begun using unmanned aerial vehicles as part of its blue-water operations. At least one type has been photographed by foreign reconnaissance aircraft, and other variants have been reported. Not only has China been displaying an assortment of models at air shows, it also is incorporating advanced U.S. unmanned vehicle technology into current and future systems. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) since it built copies of U.S....

Britain's Royal Air Force considering purchase of Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle U.K. looking at the Eitan system, also known as the Heron TP - the largest and most sophisticated drone Israel makes. LONDON - Britain's Royal Air Force has been considering the purchase of unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel. The Eitan, also known as the Heron TP, is the largest and most sophisticated drone Israel makes. It is assembled by Israel Aerospace Industries and began operational service in the Israel Air Force two years ago, in a new squadron at the Tel Nof airbase. The Eitan's wingspan is as wide...

Even on military flights, regular manned aircraft need to stop regularly so the crew can rest, bathe and unwind. But an unmanned drone can keep flying until it runs low on fuel, so the U.S. military drew up plans for nuclear powered drones that could stay airborne for months at a time. The catch 22 is that while a manned aircraft can stay airborne for extended periods using mid-air refueling, this requires a skilled team on the plane making true long tern endurance impossible. Working in collaboration with Sandia National Labs, Northrup Grumman drew up plans for a drone powered...

Pakistan recently demanded, again, that the United States halt the use of CIA UAVs to attack Islamic terrorists in the Pakistani tribal territories along the Afghan border. Pakistan, however, offered a compromise this time. If the Americans would tell Pakistan where U.S. intelligence had located terrorists, Pakistan would send one of its F-16s and use a smart bomb to do the deed. The U.S. turned this down for several reasons, the main one being that the Pakistanis would "miss" (or simply not be able to find) terrorists who were working for the Pakistani Army. The Pakistanis could also sell protection...

There have been a number of articles lately about the U.S. developing a new unmanned aerial vehicle in secret. Dave Majumdar, at Air Force Times, recently had an article about how the U.S. Air Force’s decision to postpone development of a next generation unmanned combat aircraft suggests that service might be developing something else in the “black world.” The article quoted USAF intelligence chief Lt.-Gen. Larry James who said that there is no immediate need for a next generation replacement for the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. And the Predator-C Avenger UAV the USAF is buying will be used only as...

Jordi Munoz had no training. Scant schooling. Little money. He also had a video-game console and nothing else to do. So he built his own drone. A Mexican native, Mr. Munoz married an American citizen and moved to Riverside,Calif., in 2007. While waiting for his green card, the 21-year-old was marooned in his apartment, unable to work, attend school or obtain a driver’s license. On the other hand, he had an Internet connection. A Nintendo Wii. A radio-controlled toy helicopter his mother had given him to help kill time. Tinkering with the Wii’s control wand and a $60 gyroscope he...

DARPA is unveiling a portable laser weapons system, HELLADS, which seems like something out of a sci-fi movie. The new laser application, created by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems with a custom power system from Saft Batteries, will help change the way the American military fights future wars. Current military laser systems are bulky contraptions which are mainly the size of a passenger jet, while the proposed DARPA weapon can fit on the back of a flatbed truck. The 150-kilowatt, solid state laser weapon is strong enough to take down drones or other aerial targets; a prototype is expected to be...

Iran and Middle East-based extremist groups are stepping up their activities in South America, aiming to make friends and score cash, a senior U.S. military official says. Tehran intends to build military drones in Washington's backyard for the Venezuelan military led by Hugo Chavez, U.S. Southern Command chief Gen. Douglas Fraser told reporters Wednesday during a breakfast meeting in Washington "I would put it in the Scan Eagle class of UAV," Fraser said. "It's not up into the Predator class." The Southern Command chief was referring to two U.S.-made drone aircraft used by the American military. The Scan Eagle is...

In-flight electrical failure caused a Northrop Grumman EQ-4 to crash in Afghanistan on 20 August, says a newly-released accident investigation report. The aircraft crashed approximately 195km (120 miles) northwest of Kandahar. Specificlly, an electrical connector to an unidentified line replacement unit partially separated. This caused electrical damage inside the LRU, which cut power to the actuators that controlled ailerons and spoilers. Within 1min of the power failure, the aircraft lost control after hitting minor turbulence. "The Board President also found, by a preponderance of the evidence, that LRU installation methods were a contributing factor in the mishap," continues the report....

Last year the U.S. Air Force decided to extend the life of its U-2 fleet and cut back on the use of large UAVs for strategic reconnaissance. One of the many upgrades U-2s will now receive will be better cockpit pressurization. Currently, pilots operate in a cockpit pressurized to conditions found at 9,600 meters (30,000 feet). This puts more strain on the pilot's body. That, and the fact that they breathe pure oxygen while up there, means they tend to be completely exhausted after returning from a long mission. So pressuring the cockpit to the level of a lower altitude...

China usually holds its military hand very close to the vest--that, or things “mysteriously” leak that it doesn’t (does) want the world to know about--so we’re left to wonder why the People’s Republic has decided to publish this in the journal Advanced Materials Research. Nonetheless, it’s pretty interesting. Chinese navy researchers have plans for a new submarine hunting scheme that uses ship-launched UAVs running genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms narrow down a range of possibilities to an optimal solution much the way evolution does (at least in a simplified sense)--by weeding out the weaker offspring and mating the best with the...

Things could get a lot busier for the Navy's fleet of Fire Scout drones with the service's decision to drop plans for a new, medium-range unmanned aircraft. The larger C model version of the MQ-8 Fire Scout might fill some of the requirements left unfilled by the Navy's decision to cancel the Medium-Range Maritime Unmanned Aerial System program earlier this year. The Navy stands to save $200 million in fiscal 2013 and $1.3 billion over the next five years as a result of the MRMUAS cancellation, Naval Air Systems Command spokeswoman Jamie Cosgrove said in an email. The MRMUAS was...

Even though Global Hawk is built in his district, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon told me today that he would not personally push to save the Block 30s from oblivion. "I will not be involved in trying to force something just because it's best for my district," McKeon said today during the interview on C-Span's Newsmakers show. The Air Force killed the Global Hawk Block 30 purchase in the 2013 defense budget, arguing that the venerable U-2 reconnaissance plane does a better job for less. That cut is estimated to save the Pentagon $2.5 billion. The chairman...

Buried in a long list of Pentagon budget proposals for the next five years is the Air Force’s recommendation to retire a fleet of 18 brand-new Global Hawk Block 30 unmanned surveillance aircraft. Four of them haven’t even been delivered yet, and are already destined for the boneyard. Air Force leaders have defended their decision, contending that the $67 million apiece Global Hawk has become too pricey, and that the Cold War era U-2 spy aircraft can still do the job. Further, they insist that axing the Block 30 version of the Global Hawk hardly means the end of the...

The draft of the federal budget for 2013 pulls back the throttle on the rival Global Hawk program. An Air Force general says the U-2, a design that dates to the 1950s, is "the stronger system." Score one for old-school aircraft against the upstart drones. Perhaps it's just a brief respite from the seemingly inevitable winds of change propelling unmanned aircraft ever higher in the Pentagon's airpower depth charts, but the venerable U-2 spy plane has won a key vote of confidence over the unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk. That victory came not in a head-to-head aerial dogfight, but in a...