by Capt. Jamie Humphries
438th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

1/19/2012&-&KABUL, Afghanistan (AFNS)&--&Over the last few years, physical fitness has become a focal point for Airmen readiness across the U.S. Air Force. Here, at the Afghan air force compound, nine female AAF members and one American advisor are also making it a point of emphasis in their military training and daily lives.

What began as an idea, quickly turned into reality after the group of female AAF members noticed a lack of programs geared towards women at the base fitness center. After making several inquiries, the group and U.S. Air Force Capt. Vanessa Vanden Bout, a Force Support Squadron advisor belonging to the 439th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron, began collaborating on how to start a regimented fitness program with an emphasis on changing their lives both physically and mentally.

Kicking off in early January, the fitness class was initiated with a focus on learning how to work out properly and safely with an ultimate goal of educating the women about the benefits of a daily workout regimen.&

Now the group, from units around the base, are training three days weekly with an option of attending the specific fitness program geared toward their individual needs.

"Thus far, we have been teaching proper warm up techniques, calisthenics, running and basic weightlifting," said the captain. "Generally, we do a warm up, teach them a few movements and then do some circuit training with them. We start very slowly as many of the girls have never worked out before."

Initially, one of the challenges facing Vanden Bout, a 29-year-old from Vermilion, Ohio, was having adequate access to a location to conduct physical training. Her goal was to find a clean, private area in which the women could conduct the training without fear for their safety or injury.&

Located on the compound, the AAF has a gymnasium complete with a basketball court and a weight room, with regular classes offered during the duty day. After shifting some schedules to accommodate a class, regular meeting times were established and classes began with maximum attendance.

"Communication with the ladies is obviously a huge challenge as I don't' have an interpreter in the room when I'm teaching," explained Vanden Bout. "The ladies prefer to not have a male around when they are participating in physical training, but they are motivated and eager to learn. I know it [physical training] can be a little intimidating to them, as they haven't done most of the stuff I'm teaching before, but they do get excited to try new movements and seem proud of themselves when they tell me they're sore!"

Staying physically fit for the captain is nothing new as she has been playing sports since she was 12 years old, but adapting to new and emerging functionally based fitness programs has resulted in a better outcome with, as she explains "better results" and she hopes to pass that knowledge on to the students.

"I think this training first helps the ladies to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle and to pass a fitness test, which is important to their future careers in the AAF," said Vanden Bout, who is deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. "Second, the training helps to build camaraderie amongst the females on base, hopefully increasing retention and the likelihood that they'll enjoy their time in the military and encourage others to join."

Vanden Bout said she has already see change in the women both physically and emotionally and has also added information to her classes about their daily diets including hydration and minimizing sugar intake. She went on to say the women are motivated and in turn it motivates her to provide them the best training possible.

"I really enjoy doing this program, it is making my muscles feel strong," said AAF member Avezzo Azizi of the regional and cultural affairs office. "It is so kind that the captain is helping out. I feel it is important to do this."

Women are at a crossroads in the Middle East and North Africa. This is widely reflected in the current battles over the adoption of quotas aimed at improving women's chances of being elected into parliaments. Although women's quotas were introduced as early as 1979 in Egypt, there are new efforts underway in the Middle East to implement them. Last year, Tunisia adopted a law requiring that party lists alternate between men and women. In a more restrained manner, Libya recently drafted an election law that gives women only 10 percent of the seats. However, the struggle for quotas has also met with resistance as in Egypt, which abandoned a 2010 quota law altogether that would have ensured the presence of 64 women in the parliament. &

Quotas are not only being adopted in the legislative arena in the Middle East, they are being entertained in government as well. Recently, the Iraqi cabinet approved a quota system that requires women to make up half of all hires in the ministries of health and education and to account for 30 percent of hires at all other ministries.

Although Middle East parties and governments trail other world regions in the adoption of quotas and in female legislative representation more generally, where they have adopted quotas, they are beginning to experience modest rates of success. Middle East countries that have quotas, in effect, have over twice the rates of representation (19 percent) when compared with countries where women are permitted to run for office but do not have quotas (8 percent). In fact, five Middle Eastern countries even have higher rates of female legislative representation than in the United States, where women hold 16.5 percent of Congressional seats (See Table).

Having participated in the movements for political reform in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and elsewhere, many women's rights activists have seized on this moment to demand broader political, economic, and social rights. Conservative and Islamist forces have also been energized by recent developments, as is evident in the recent elections in Egypt, and they are among those forces pushing back against such an agenda promoting women's participation.

While women continue to confront serious challenges to their advancement in the Middle East and North Africa, there are some profound changes underway that are forcing radical transformations in women's status. The percentage of women in universities in the region increased from 9 percent to 27 percent between 1991 and 2009. There are considerably more women than men enrolled in universities in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Iran, Israel, Jordan, and Kuwait. In Egypt, women make up half the university students. It is not surprising, therefore, that women are now demanding a greater role in key political and economic institutions. Women are already visible in a number of public arenas. They make up a quarter of the judges and prosecution staff in the region. Although some of the lowest rates of female labor force participation in the world are found in the Middle East and North Africa (26 percent), the number of women in the public sector is increasing. In the United Arab Emirates, the proportion of women in the public sector increased from 12 percent in 1995 to 66 percent in 2007.

La France prte lever progressivement sanctions conomiques contre Birmanie sous la surveillance d'Aung San Suu Kyi http://t.co/BabB66pB

"For the second time in two weeks, American authorities lost contact with a drone aircraft, this time resulting in a fiery crash in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. ... "

In 2009, The Pentagon established an agreement with the Seychelles government to establish a drone&base within proximity of the country's civilian airport. The base is operated by the US Air Force.&

The Seychelles islands with a population of 85,000 inhabitants are strategically located in the Indian Ocean. They are close to the U.S. combined Navy and Air Force&base in Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago, from which major military operations are conducted.& Diego Garcia is also a major center of the military intelligence establishment.&

The&Seychelles are also directly opposite Somalia and its capital Mogadishu. See Map. below.



According to the Washington Post, the US Air Force operates only "a handful" of MQ-9 Reapers out of its base in the Seychelles. Bear in mind that these are very sophisticated UAV. Officially they are said to be involved in the survellance and prevention of acts of piracy off the East African coastline. In actual fact, they are involved in surveillance activities in support of US military and intelligence operations in East Africa.&

More specifically, the&UAVs are involved in military surveillance in Somalia, where the US is engaged in& "a war of stealth", which is rapidly developing into a theater war following the influx and deployment of allied Kenyan troops.&

Reports confirm that "the base in the Seychelles is part of a constellation of drone bases that the U.S. government has expanded in the region" [officially] to monitor or attack al-Qaeda affiliates," namely as part of a counter-terrorism mandate, "to make the world safer for Africans."&

In recent years, the US Air Force in liaison with the CIA, has established drone bases in Ethiopia and&Djibouti.& These initaitives are ccordinated with Africa Command (AFRICOM):&

"The Air Force has been secretly flying armed Reaper drones on counterterrorism missions from a remote civilian airport in southern Ethiopia as part of a rapidly expanding U.S.-led proxy war against an al-Qaeda affiliate in East Africa, U.S. military officials said.

The Air Force has invested millions of dollars to upgrade an airfield in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, where it has built a small annex to house a fleet of drones that can be equipped with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs. The Reapers began flying missions earlier this year over neighboring Somalia, where the United States and its allies in the region have been&targeting al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group connected to al-Qaeda.

....As a result, the United States has relied on lethal drone attacks, a burgeoning CIA presence in Mogadishu and small-scale missions carried out by U.S. Special Forces. In addition, the United States has increased its funding for and training of African peacekeeping forces in Somalia that fight al-Shabab.

The Washington Post reported last month that the Obama administration is building&a constellation of secret drone bases&in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, including one site in Ethiopia. The location of the Ethiopian base and the fact that it became operational this year, however, have not been previously disclosed. Some bases in the region also have been used to carry out operations against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.

The Air Force confirmed Thursday that drone operations are underway at the Arba Minch airport. Master Sgt. James Fisher, a spokesman for the 17th Air Force, which oversees operations in Africa, said that an unspecified number of Air Force personnel are working at the Ethiopian airfield “to provide operation and technical support for our security assistance programs.”

The Arba Minch airport expansion is still in progress but the Air Force deployed the Reapers there earlier this year, Fisher said. He said the drone flights “will continue as long as the government of Ethiopia welcomes our cooperation on these varied security programs.”

Last month, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry denied the presence of U.S. drones in the country. On Thursday, a spokesman for the Ethiopian embassy in Washington repeated that assertion.

“That’s the government’s position,” said Tesfaye Yilma, the head of public diplomacy for the embassy. “We don’t entertain foreign military bases in Ethiopia.”

But U.S. military personnel and contractors have become increasingly visible in recent months in Arba Minch, a city of about 70,000 people in southern Ethiopia. Arba Minch means “40 springs” in Amharic, the national language.

Travelers who have passed through the Arba Minch airport on the occasional civilian flights that land there said the U.S. military has erected a small compound on the tarmac, next to the terminal.

The compound is about half an acre in size and is surrounded by high fences, security screens and lights on extended poles. The U.S. military personnel and contractors eat at a cafe in the passenger terminal, where they are served American-style food, according to travelers who have been there.

Arba Minch is located about 300 miles south of Addis Ababa and about 600 miles west of the Somali border. Standard models of the Reaper have&a range of about 1,150 miles, according to the Air Force.

The MQ-9 Reaper, known as a “hunter killer,” is manufactured by General Atomics and is an advanced version of the Predator, the most common armed drone in the Air Force’s fleet.

Ethiopia is a longtime U.S. ally in the fight against al-Shabab, the militant group that has fomented instability in war-torn Somalia and launched attacks in Kenya, Uganda and elsewhere in the region.

The Ethiopian military invaded Somalia in 2006 in an attempt to wipe out a related Islamist movement that was taking over the country, but withdrew three years later after it was unable to contain an insurgency.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-drone-base-in-ethiopia-is-operational/2011/10/27/gIQAznKwMM_print.html

According to a report cited by the Washington Post,&the CIA&is also "building a secret airstrip somewhere in the Arabian subcontinent in order to carry out drone missions against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. U.S. officials say the group, based in Yemen, is al-Qaida's most active branch, and is responsible for several attempted attacks on U.S. targets....The&US military is also believed to have used the unmanned drone aircraft to carry out missions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Libya."&

The drones are allegedly used for "humanitarian purposes" as well as part of the "Global War on Terrorism", "to go after" Al Qaeda affiliated paramilitary. Ironically, the evidence amply confirms that in Libya, Syria and Somalia, these Al Qaeda groups are supported covertly by Western intelligence. In Libya and&Syria Al Qaeda constitutes "NATO's foot soldiers" supported&directly&by the Atlantic Alliance.

An independent Baluchistan would create a territorial buffer and provide a transportation corridor for access to Afghanistan

&

M. Chris Mason is a retired diplomat with long service in South Asia and a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defence Studies in Washington.

Map Source:&http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-on-baluchistan.html&(Map added by SASFOR)

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have reached an all-time low. The Khyber Pass is closed to NATO cargo, U.S. personnel were evicted from Shamsi airbase and Pakistani observers have been recalled from joint co-operation centres.

Much more importantly, senior officials in Washington now know that Pakistan has been playing them false since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and understand that Pakistan was sheltering Osama bin Laden a few hundred yards from its version of West Point. The recent shelling of Afghan troops inside Afghanistan by the Pakistani army, and the NATO counterstrike, cleared in error by Pakistan, has further embarrassed the Pakistani military.

It should be obvious by now that Pakistan has no intention of doing what the United States has wanted for the past decade. The combination of wishful thinking, admiration for the emperor’s new clothes and $10-billion in payments to the Pakistani military have accomplished nothing. Admiral Michael Mullen was not wrong when he testified recently that the terrorist Haqqani network is operating as an arm of the Pakistani army. He might have added that the Taliban is the Pakistani army’s expeditionary force in Afghanistan. Pakistan shelters, funds, trains, supplies and advises the Taliban. The simple fact is that Pakistan is the world’s No. 1 state supporter of terrorism.

In Afghanistan, Pakistan will never be happy unless it has a puppet regime in Kabul and can run the country like a colony. Islamabad does not intend to allow the current Afghan constitution to remain in effect, and as soon as NATO pulls out, it will push the Taliban into an all-out civil war in Afghanistan designed to return it to power. All of which has led to a lot of hand-wringing in Washington, accompanied by a revolving-door procession of senior U.S. officials going to Islamabad to read a toothless riot act the Pakistanis can now recite by heart.

The permanent solution to the Pakistan problem is not more of this chest-beating appeasement. The answer lies in 20th-century history. In 1947, when India gained independence, a British Empire in full retreat left behind an unworkable mess on both sides of India – called Pakistan – whose elements had nothing in common except the religion of Islam. In 1971, this postcolonial Frankenstein came a step closer to rectification when Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, became an independent state.

The answer to the current Pakistani train wreck is to continue this natural process by recognizing Baluchistan’s legitimate claim to independence. Baluchistan was an independent nation for more than 1,000 years when Great Britain notionally annexed it in the mid-19th century. The Baluchis were never consulted about becoming a part of Pakistan, and since then, they have been the victims of alternating persecution and neglect by the Pakistani state, abuse which escalated to genocide when it was discovered in the 1970s that most of the region’s natural resources lie underneath their soil. Since then, tens of thousands of Baluchis have been slaughtered by the Pakistani army, which has used napalm and tanks indiscriminately against an unarmed population.

Map of Pakhtoonistan&by :&http://www.khyberwatch.com (Map added by SASFOR)

Changing maps is difficult only because it is initially unimaginable to diplomats and politicians. Although redrawing maps is the definition of failure for the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, it has, in fact, been by such a wide margin the most effective solution to regional violence over the past 50 years that there is really nothing in second place. Among the most obvious recent examples (apart from the former Soviet Union) are North and South Sudan, Kosovo, Eritrea, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, East Timor and Bangladesh.

An independent Baluchistan would, in fact, solve many of the region’s most intractable problems overnight. It would create a territorial buffer between rogue states Iran and Pakistan. It would provide a transportation and pipeline corridor for Afghanistan and Central Asia to the impressive but underutilized new port at Gwadar. It would solve all of NATO’s logistical problems in Afghanistan, allow us to root the Taliban out of the former province and provide greater access to Waziristan, to subdue our enemies there. And it would contain the rogue nuclear state of Pakistan and its A.Q. Khan network of nuclear proliferation-for-profit on three landward sides.

The way to put the Pakistani genie back in the bottle and cork it is to help the Baluchis go the way of the Bangladeshis in achieving their dream of freedom from tyranny, corruption and murder at the hands of the diseased Pakistani military state.

Source: theglobeandmail.com → | ∞ Permalink

From: abc News Signs of a Covert War Between the U.S. and Iran NEWS ANALYSIS by RICHARD CLARKE Dec. 17, 2011 There are unavoidable signs that the U.S. and Ir...

Source: youtube.com → | ∞ Permalink

Pakistan's immediate reaction to the tragic November 26 air attacks on two check posts located barely 400 meters from the Afghan border in Mohmand tribal agency, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, was to declare that the attacks were "unprovoked aggression" and convey impressions to the local media that the&attack was a premeditated assault&by U.S and NATO forces in Afghanistan. This aroused a nationwide furor, further roiling an already tense relationship and leading to&immediate retribution&against American military and political interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Soon after the incident, Pakistani army officials reportedly&changed the rules of engagement&for forward-based units on the country's western border, authorizing them to fire on any such air intrusions without having to seek permission from senior commanders or headquarters, and indicated that air defenses would be beefed up in that sector. But amid the hue and cry within Pakistan,&some also questioned&why Pakistan's large and expensive military forces had not responded with air defenses to protect the posts, especially since the army claimed the supposedly "unprovoked" NATO aircraft attacks had lasted up to 2 hours. Why were Pakistani Air Force (PAF) fighter aircraft&not scrambled and dispatched to the scene? Did the PAF prudently stay out of an army screw-up (if, as U.S. officials insist, Pakistani forces fired first), or did they just not get the word? It would have been an acute irony if Pakistan had sent up its American-built F-16 fighters against American helicopters or slow-flying AC-130 gunships being used against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Source: afpak.foreignpolicy.com → | ∞ Permalink

'_India should send military to Afghanistan post-US withdrawal' - With the gradual withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, time has now come for India to send its military inside _

"It makes sense for the two largest democracies to be military allies. On Afghanistan, India, as you know, as a security establishment, is already fighting over 30 insurgencies or guerilla operations," Senator Mark Kirk said at a discussion forum organised by Washington-based think tank, Foreign Policy Initiative.

"The Indian security establishment well understands this challenge. I think can correctly perceive that moving terror from North or South or general parts of Dafatan into secured bases around Kabul with the fall of the Karzai government would represent a long-term real security threat for India," he said.

"Remember, if you have terror bases operating against India from Pakistan, Pakistan is subjected to pressure from India. If Pakistan could offload that terror training and operations into metropolitan Afghanistan, it makes it much harder for India to pressure for the end of those operations," Kirk said.

A very pertinent comment about this article:

Only an idiot will believe this nonsense from this American clown. By: B S Kumar | 15-Dec-2011Reply | Forward India has better things to do than getting militarily involved in America's wars. Who is the Indian military going to fight in Afghanistan? If the Afghan government asks for India's help that is another matter. But that is between India and Afghanistan and none of the USA's business. India told the USA a long time ago that Pakistan was the hotbed of world terrorism. But those clowns thought Pakistan is an ally. Why should India now get involved to correct that arrogant mistake?

Source: indianexpress.com → | ∞ Permalink

US loses drone in Iran and another crashes in Seychelles - but it's just the tip of the iceberg

These aren't the only two drone crashes. They have been coming to grief across the globe, according to the Drone Wars UK website, and they're not always owned by the Americans.** The website claims 25 large drone crashes have occurred this year alone and more than 90 since 2007. Here are some recent highlights:**__

IRAN, DECEMBER 2011: The Iranian government claims it downed a US RQ-170 Sentinel drone 140 miles from the Afghan border earlier this month. Pictures of the spy plane, apparently undamaged, were broadcast on state TV. It is thought to be the first Sentinel ever lost by the US and the footage showed it next to a banner emblazoned with the words: "The US can't do a damn thing". Barack Obama has asked for the return of the drone. Iran has refused to cooperate.

YEMEN, FEBRUARY 2011: Iran isn't the only one of America's enemies to have got its hands on a US drone this year. In February a USAF Predator went down near the Yemeni town of Loder. The police were called to the scene and they collected the debris, but as they headed to a police station a gang of al-Qaeda gunmen hijacked the convoy and disappeared with the wreckage. The US had been using drones to monitor al-Qaeda activity in the country.

AFGHANISTAN, AUGUST 2011: Drones do not only crash on land, in August a US Shadow aircraft collided with a C-130 cargo plane over Afghanistan. Fortunately no-one was injured but the drone disappeared and the cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing. The crash raised concerns about the use of drones around other aircraft, particularly after a US military official appeared oblivious to the danger of a crash when he told the Wall Street Journal: "We were in complete control up until the collision."

PAKISTAN, JULY 2011: Much of the US drone activity takes place in Pakistan, but that country has drones of its own, and they too crash. In July an unidentified Pakistani navy drone crashed into the Korangi oil refinery in the port city of Karachi, starting a fire. It was reported that the aircraft was downed by a bird strike. The refinery, in a no-fly zone, was being monitored after a terrorist attack earlier in the year that killed 10 people.

TEXAS, DECEMBER 2010: Sometimes drones crash in America. This out-of-control Mexican Orbiter came down in a residential neighbourhood of El Paso in Texas. The drone was believed to be part of a surveillance test, but it was unclear whether the Mexican government had permission to enter US airspace. The US authorities refused to provide details of the incident but, unlike Iran, the US returned the drone to the Mexicans.

Source: theweek.co.uk → | ∞ Permalink

Though robots are currently being used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, Peter Singer says this is just the beginning and much more advanced types are coming. In an extract from his book Wired for War, Singer examines the future of robotic warfare on the ground, in the air and from space.

The robotic systems just rolling out or already in prototype stage are far more capable, intelligent, and autonomous than ones now in Iraq and Afghanistan. They range in size from tiny eight-pound robots to the world’s current biggest robot, a 700-ton robotic dump truck capable of hauling 240 tons of earth at a time, which also served as the model for the character Long Haul in the Transformers series. But even they are just the start. As one robotics executive put it at a demonstration of new military prototypes, “The robots you are seeing here today I like to think of as the Model T. These are not what you are going to see when they are actually deployed in the field. We are seeing the very first stages of this technology.”

The next wave of new robots to be deployed on land will mostly be "new and improved" versions of existing platforms. For example, iRobot’s original Packbot just had a digital camera that sent back views of what the robot was seeing, making it essentially a mobile pair of binoculars. Now, most Packbots perform EOD roles with the ensuing addition of fairly simple effector arms and grippers.

But as new add-ons are developed, the same robot will be able to take on a wider set of battlefield roles. For example, the company has already tested out a Packbot armed with a good-old fashioned shotgun, because it is "so versatile." The robot can now fire a variety of ammunition, including non-lethal rubber bullets, rounds that can blow down a door, and even powerful "elephant killer" bullets.

Another version is called the REDOWL (Robotic Enhanced Detection Outpost with Lasers), which uses lasers and sound detection equipment to find any sniper who dares to shoot at the robot or accompanying troops, and then instantly targets them with an infrared laser beam. '"You'll actually see the sniper before the smoke disappears from the shot," said retired Admiral Joe Dyer, who leads the military programming at iRobot. He adds that in tests, it’s been 94% accurate and is smart enough that '"It can tell the difference between a 9 millimeter pistol and an AK-47 or an M-16."

Foster Miller has similar plans to upgrade its current generation of ground robots. For example, the first version of the armed SWORDS still needs the remote human operator to be situated within a mile or two, which can keep the human in the danger zone. Vice President Robert Quinn describes how the company plans to vastly extend the range of communications to get ground robot operators completely off the battlefield. "It is not an insurmountable problem. It is nothing that money and time can’t solve."

The SWORDS itself is being replaced by a new version named after the Roman god of war. The MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) carries a more powerful machine gun, and 40mm grenade launchers. For non-lethal settings, it packs a green laser "dazzler," tear gas, and a loudspeaker.

As these systems evolve, we will also soon see entirely new unmanned combat vehicles hit the battlefield. One such prototype was the Gladiator. Described as the "world’s first multipurpose combat robot," it came out of partnership between the Marine Corps and Carnegie Mellon University. About the size of a golf-cart, the vehicle is controlled by a soldier wielding a Playstation video game controller, but software plug-ins will allow it to be upgraded to semi-autonomous and then fully autonomous modes. Fully loaded, it costs $400,000 and carries a machine gun with 600 rounds of ammunition, anti-armor rockets, and non-lethal weapons. "It is just fucking nasty," raves Noah Shachtman.

Not all ground robots will take on combat roles. For instance, medics have long been one of the most dangerous jobs on the battlefield. A former Army Special Forces officer explains how this is generating a pull for robotic solutions, "If you can avoid unnecessary situations where you expose them [medics] to fire and you end up with two dead guys, then we have a responsibility to the American people to avoid that."&

An early entry into the "med-bot" field is yet another improved version of the Packbot, known as the Bloodhound. Whenever a soldier is hurt, an alert will go out and the robot will find the wounded soldier on its own. Once there, the robot’s human controller, who might be located anywhere in the world, will check out the soldier via the video link and treat them using the robot’s on-board medical payload, which will include a stethoscope (likely very cold, with no one to breathe on it), liquid bandages, and even automatic syringes to dispense morphine or medicines.

Of course, robots will have a hard time replicating the compassion of a real life medic. As one Special Forces soldier tells, "The last thing I want to see if I’m about to die is a robot coming for me. I want to see a human." On the other hand, that robot may be able to go where humans could not, so their lack of a bedside manner may be viewed as an acceptable tradeoff.&

Wet and wild, robot style

A broad new set of robots are also being introduced for war at sea, where the main differentiation is whether they are designed to operate on the surface, like a boat, or under water, like a submarine.

Robots of the first type, unmanned boats, are called USVs (Unmanned Surface Vessels). They actually have a great deal in common with land robots as they both primarily operate in a 2-dimensional world. Many of the simplest USVs merely entail taking sensors and a remote control unit and plugging them into a boat.&

However, many think the sea is actually a far more difficult environment for robots than land. "Everything's working against you," says Robert Wernli of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego. Waves and currents can pull a boat off course. Visibility is lower, and sometimes communications more difficult. Plus, robots can get seasick; the constant motion and corrosive effects of salt water cause breakdowns much more rapidly than on land.

So far, the prototype USVs tend to be smaller boats rather than large warships. One example is a 36 foot robotic motorboat called the "Spartan Scout," which the Navy has spent some $30 million developing. Guided by a GPS navigation system, the boat can be on its own for up to 48 hours, and speed up to 50 miles per hour. Filled with sensors (including day and night video cameras), Spartan Scout is designed to carry out surveillance, patrol harbors, and inspect any suspicious ships that might be tying to pull another USS Cole type attack by sneaking up on a Navy vessel. If it finds something fishy, the robot boat is also packing a .50 caliber machine gun. Spartan Scout got its first real world use in the Iraq war in 2003, inspecting small civilian boats in the Persian Gulf, without risking sailors’ lives. The boat also mounts a loudspeaker and microphone, so an Arab linguist back on the "mothership" would interrogate suspicious boats that the Spartan Scout had stopped. As one report put it, "The civilian sailors were somewhat taken aback when they were interrogated by this Arab speaking boat that had no one aboard."

The other type of sea-bots are UUVs (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles). These are designed for underwater roles such as searching for mines, the cause of most naval combat losses over the last two decades. Many UUVs are biologically-inspired, like the "Robo-lobster," which operates in the choppy waters close to shore. But others are converted torpedoes, like the Remus, which was used to clear sea-mines in Iraq, or even mini-submarines, which are launched from manned submarines to hunt down the enemy.

The sea will also prove to be a new platform for robots to fly from. The Navy plans to equip many of its ships with the MQ-8 Fire Scout, a sister version of the robotic helicopter used in the US Army’s Future Combat Systems plan. Able to take-off from and land autonomously from any warship with a small deck, the Fire Scout can fly more than six hours. It packs thermal imagers, radar, high-powered video cameras, and a laser designator that can target for the mothership’s weapons, or fire its own rockets. With a range of over 200 miles, the robotic chopper can take the ship captain’s eyes further than ever before, including even inland.

The most novel of the drones at sea may be the Cormorant, DARPA’s design for a submarine-launched flying drone. Operating a plane off a submarine may sound new, but it actually dates back to World War II; indeed, the very first air attack on the mainland U.S. was in 1942, when a submarine-launched Japanese plane bombed Brookings, Oregon. What is new about the Cormorant is not only would it be unmanned, but also able to be both launched and recovered while the submarine stays hidden underwater. Having wings like a sea-gull, the drone would be squeezed into a missile launch tube. Whenever the sub commander wants to scout about or launch a surprise air attack, the drone would be fired from the tubes, float to the surface, and then launch into the air using converted rocket boosters. The drone would then fly back to a rendezvous location on its return. It then lands in the water, sinks back down, and the submarine scoops the robot plane back inside.&

Top (unmanned) guns

As with ground robots, the next wave of robot planes, also known as "unmanned aerial vehicles" or "systems" (UAV or UAS), will be a mix of upgraded current systems, converted manned vehicles, and brand new designs. For example, the Predator drone today does surveillance and also some ground attack missions. New versions are being reconfigured for electronic warfare, submarine hunting, and even air to air combat. Thomas Cassidy, a former Navy fighter pilot (so respected that he even had a cameo in Top Gun) and now CEO of Predator’s manufacturer General Atomics, declares, "I want to see a Predator coming back here with MiG kills painted on its side; and that will happen soon."

The next generation of the Predator is the even more menacing-sounding Reaper, an Air Force drone about four times bigger and nine times more powerful. Among its improvements is a Microsoft Windows software package that has "automatic man-made object detection" and "coherent change detection." Not only can the plane come close to flying itself, but its sensors can recognize and categorize humans and human-made objects. It can even make sense of changes it is watching, such as being able to interpret and retrace footprints or even lawnmower tracks. As of 2009, 28 Reapers were in service, with many deployed to Afghanistan, "standing alert somewhere in case a certain high-priority target pops his head out of his cave." There are also plans for them to patrol above London during the 2012 Olympics.

In turn, just as the Reaper hit the battlefield in 2009, Cassidy’s company turned out a prototype of its successor, called the Avenger. Powered by a jet engine, it can fly twice as fast than the turboprop-powered Reaper, and more than three times as quick as the Predator, while carrying over 3,000 pounds of weapons. It is also specially designed to be stealthy, with radar absorbing materials, a swept wing, and internal bomb bay. Of note, the prototype also came equipped with a tailhook, potentially allowing it to land on aircraft carriers at sea, another indicator that it is being planned for operations not merely against insurgents in the Middle East, but in potential contingencies against a certain large Asian landpower that shall go nameless.

The Avenger is one of the many contenders for the role of a UCAS (Unmanned Combat Aerial Systems). This type of drone is specially designed to replace the ultimate of pilot roles, the fighter jock. Other key UCAS prototypes include the Boeing X-45, which was described by one author as "flat as a pancake, with jagged 34-foot batwings, no tail and a triangular, bulbous nose" that make it look like "a set piece from the television program Battlestar Galactica." X-45 also has a cousin, the Northrop Grumman X-47, which is roughly the same size, but designed to land on aircraft carriers.

These drones were designed to be especially stealthy for the most dangerous roles, such as targeting enemy air defenses. Already, the prototypes have been able to launch precision guided missiles, have two planes flown by one human operator, have the controls "passed off" between different remote human operators 900 miles away from each other, and in one war-game autonomously detected unexpected threats (missiles that "popped-up" seemingly out of nowhere), engaged and destroyed them, and then did battle damage assessment on their own. Follow-ons to the X-45 are now believed to be funded under the Pentagon’s "Black budget," while the X-47 will start its trials of flying off US Navy aircraft carriers in 2011. The program is also credited with inspiring similar unmanned fighter jet prototypes in China, France, Israel, Italy, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

The pattern with unmanned planes in the early 21st century seems to be mirroring what happened with manned planes in the early 20th century. There was initial skepticism and opposition to them in general, followed by using them just for observation and spotter roles. Soon, however, a new line was crossed, and they began to be used for ad-hoc attack roles, often out of the pilots’ frustration at just watching the enemy.&

The stories from World War I were of early observation plane pilots taking grenades and homemade bombs up with them in their biplanes to drop on the enemy and the same happened with the early jury-rigged arming of the Predator in the air and the Marcbots on the ground. Perhaps the most telling parallel story from the Iraq war was when an enlisted soldier flying an unarmed Raven drone spotted an enemy insurgent planting an IED. He tried to show his commanding officer the danger, but the officer couldn’t pick out the image of the insurgent on the view screen. So, the operator kept circling the drone closer and closer to the insurgent. Still, the officer couldn’t see the Iraqi. Finally, the soldier just got frustrated and flew the drone directly into the insurgent’s chest.

Of course, just as World War I pilots couldn’t just watch each other going about their business of bombing their side on the ground, and so started taking pot-shots at each other which very quickly led to fighter planes specially designed for the task, so too is the next step of advancement unmanned drones that are specially designed to take on other robotic planes. In 2006, DARPA budgeted $11 million for the "Peregrine UAV Killer." Like the peregrine falcon that hunts other birds, it is designed to loiter over an area, stealthily gliding about, until it sees an enemy UAV and then quickly dive down and blast it. Drone vs. drone is the step that follows in air warfare.

As new prototypes of unmanned planes hit the battlefield, though, they will begin to look less current planes. For instance, one trend will be for the size extremes to be pushed in two directions. Not having pilots that need to be replaced every 10 hours or so will also allow unmanned planes to become far bigger than any created so far. For example, Boeing is at work on a glider powered by solar energy and liquid hydrogen that could stay aloft for 7 to 10 days. It has a wingspan almost the length of a football field.

We are also seeing the return of blimps to warfare. Raytheon has just received a contract to build 12 unmanned aerostats for the US Army, which carry radars that can detect targets on the ground as far as 300 miles away. In turn, Lockheed Martin has been given $150 million to design and build a robotic "High Altitude Airship," 25 times larger than the Goodyear blimp. Such huge, long-endurance, unmanned blimps open up a whole new range of roles not normally possible for planes. For example, airships could literally be "parked" in the air, as high as 100,000 feet up, for weeks, months, or years, serving as a communications relay, spy satellite, hub for a ballistic missile defense system, floating gas station, or even airstrip for other planes and drones.

At the other end of the scale, a host of robotics are being miniaturized. For instance, US Air Force lab researchers have built a rocket engine that fits on the tip of a pencil. Some believe that micro systems could eventually go down to the nano-scale, that is to the molecular level. While the idea has been bandied about in such fiction as Michael Crichton’s novel Prey, many think it could come to fruition in the coming decades. Boston College researchers have already built a chemically powered nanomotor that is just 78 atoms in size, while those at a university in the Netherlands have made a solar-powered engine just 58 atoms in size.

Tiny engines allow tiny machines. And, tiny machines may mean teeny, tiny robots, or "nanobots." A major advancement in these happened in 2007, when David Leigh, a professor at the University of Edinburgh revealed that he had built a "nanomachine," whose parts consisted of single molecules. When asked to describe to a normal person the significance of his discovery, Leigh said it would be difficult to predict. "It is a bit like when stone-age man made his wheel, asking him to predict the motorway," he said. Leigh would make one venture, however. "…Things that seem like a Harry Potter film now are going to be a reality."&

Astro-bots go to war

If space is to become a new potential zone of conflict, its unique nature demands that unmanned systems play a key, and perhaps near-exclusive, role. Not only do weapons in space need to stay up there a long time, but the major challenge of fighting in space is first getting things into space. It costs roughly $9,100 a pound to launch anything into space with the Space Shuttle. So, if a system is to be manned, the human and each and every pound of water, food, and oxygen tanks to keep them alive is expensive to send. Likewise, manned systems in space are incredibly vulnerable (one bullet or laser hole and there goes all the air).

Instead, the U.S has already started work on a number of unmanned systems for potential use in space. One example is the X-37, an orbital test vehicle about a quarter of the size of the Space Shuttle, which flew its first test flight in 2006. The military’s strong interest in it is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that, while the program was originally run by NASA, its development was then transferred over to DARPA.

Another program is the X-41 Common Aero Vehicle, also known as the Falcon program. Planned for testing in 2010, it is a cross between an intercontinental ballistic missile and the Space Shuttle. It is designed to travel at the border between space and the atmosphere, around 100,000 feet, but, unlike a missile, the Falcon will be able to come back after a mission if it finds no targets. As John Pike of the Global Security organization comments, the aim is to give the U.S. the ability to "to crush someone anywhere in the world on 30 minutes notice, with no need for a nearby airbase."

This weaponization of space, unmanned or not, is certainly controversial. Former U.S. Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, described the plans to investigate the possibility of war in space, then being pushed by Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as "the single dumbest thing I have heard so far from this administration…It would be a disaster for us to put weapons in space of any kind under any circumstances. It only invites other countries to do the same thing." Lt. Col. Bruce Deblois of the U.S. Air Force published a detailed study that concurred with Daschle. The report argued that while being the first to deploy weapons into space might seem advantageous, it would only open up the floodgates for others to the same.

These fears do appear to be playing out. In 2007, after a test of their own anti-satellite missile, senior colonel Dr. Yao Yunzhu of the Chinese Army’s Academy of Military Science, issued a not thinly veiled warning. If the U.S. thought it was going to be "a space superpower, it is not going to be alone…It will have company." This debate will likely rage on for years, if not decades, or at least until the Vulcans arrive to resolve it for us.

But what is interesting is that governments are not the only ones looking at space as a new unmanned battleground. In 2007, the Tamil Tiger group of Sri Lanka became the first, but likely not last, terrorist group to takes its operations into space, hijacking the signal from an Intelsat satellite and using the commercial satellite to beams its own messages back to Earth. And, just as private companies like Blackwater have reentered the conflict game on this planet, we should not be surprised if privatized conflict also rises one day in space, especially with the growth of private space businesses. Examples include Richard Branson’s "Virgin Galactic" space-line plan or Google’s $30 million prize to the first private team able to land a robot on the moon (one of the competitors is actually also the team behind some of the Pentagon’s energy beam weapons programs). Robo-One, a robot competition event held in Japan every year, may provide a taste of what’s to come. The organizers have announced plans for a new division in 2010: robot combat in space. A small satellite, carrying humanoid robots will be blasted into the heavens. "Once safely in orbit, the satellite will release its robotic passengers, who will proceed to fight each other in the vacuum of space." Space, the final frontier, for humankind, and robot war.

Source: brookings.edu → | ∞ Permalink

Computer virus did not target US drone fleet: general October 18, 2011 A US Predator unmanned drone. A computer virus that affected the US military's drone fleet last month was not "specifically" aimed at the unmanned aircraft's network, the head of US Strategic Command said Tuesday. A computer virus that affected the US military's drone fleet last month was not "specifically" aimed at the unmanned aircraft's network, the head of US Strategic Command said Tuesday.

Source: physorg.com → | ∞ Permalink

This Story Page List： 1 2 2011-07-07 (China Military News cited from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/chinese-firms-developing-armed-drones-eyes-pakistan-for-sales/articleshow/9138150.cms"indiatimes.com) -- China has ramped up its research in drone technology and is in the process of building armed, jet-propelled unmanned planes, which it plans to sell to countries like Pakistan. Though much of this work remains secret, the large number of drones at recent exhibitions underlines not only China's determination to catch up in that sector -- by building equivalents to the leading US combat and surveillance models, the Predator and the Global Hawk -- but also that its desire to sell this technology abroad, a media report has said. "No country has ramped up its research in recent years faster than China. It displayed a drone model for the first time at the Zhuhai air show five years ago, but now every major manufacturer for the Chinese military has a research center devoted to drones," the Washington Post daily recently said quoting Chinese analysts. Not only the Chinese are trying to make state of the art armed drones, they are also eyeing the international market. "The United States doesn't export many attack drones, so we're taking advantage of that hole in the market," said Zhang Qiaoliang , a representative of the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, which manufactures many of the most advanced military aircraft for the People's Liberation Army. "The main reason is the amazing demand in the market for drones after 9/11." According to the daily, Pakistan has said it plans to obtain armed drones from China, which has already sold the nation one for surveillance. As per Aviation Industry Corp of China, it has begun offering international customers a combat and surveillance drone comparable to the Predator called the Yilong, or "pterodactyl" in English. Zhang, of the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, said the company anticipates sales in Pakistan, the Middle East and Africa. However, he and others displaying drones at a recent Beijing anti-terrorism convention played down the threat of increasing Chinese drone technology, the daily said.

Source: china-defense-mashup.com → | ∞ Permalink

Unmanned Systems (UAV) Persistent Surveillance

page 1 out of 7

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, formerly known as UAVs) are being integrated in all levels of military operations offering unprecedented intelligence collection capabilities and "battlefield transparency". From small and autonomous Special Forces units, through army battalions, brigades, divisions and corps, to joint services theater operations centers UAS provide a wide range of combat support services. Missions include reconnaissance and intelligence missions categorized by performance classes. These include strategic high altitude long endurance platforms (HALE), medium altitude extended range systems (MALE), Short Range UAVs also called Tactical UAVs (TUAV) and small sized systems (Mini UAVs).

This feature covers the following chapters:

High Flyers

Persistent Platforms

Tactical UAVs

Miniature UAV Systems

Turning raw data into actionable intelligence

Enhanced Vision

Electro Optical Stabilized Payloads

SAR systems

Hunter Killer UAV Applications

Target Geolocation

Computer Mapping Modeling

Automatic Change Detection Applications

UAVs role in Convoy protection and IED patrols

Source: defense-update.com → | ∞ Permalink

Boeing’s newest spy drone, the Phantom Ray, got its first taste of the air Monday while hitching a ride on a 747 designed to ferry the space shuttle. It was a first for the drone, which is a test bed for advanced UAV technologies, but it was also a big day for NASA, which proved it can find new uses for space shuttle technologies after the shuttles retire.

Phantom Ray is a flying delta wing descended from Boeing Phantom Works’s X-45C demonstrator aircraft, and like its predecessor, it will be used to demonstrate the newest technologies available for autonomous aircraft. Just 36 feet long with a 50-foot wingspan, it will be able to carry a light payload around 4,000 pounds. It will cruise at 40,000 feet, reaching speeds of 614 mph — making it one of the fastest drones on record. Its unusual shape also allows it to evade radar.

Source: popsci.com → | ∞ Permalink

And even recognize your intentions

It’s not enough for the U.S. military to be able to monitor you from afar. The U.S. Army wants its drones to know you through and through, reports Danger Room, and it is imbuing them with the ability to recognize you in a crowd and even to know what you are thinking and feeling. Like a best friend that at any moment might vaporize you with a hellfire missile.

Of a handful of contracts just handed out by the Army, two are notable for their unique ISR capabilities. One would arm drones with facial recognition software that can remember faces so targets can’t disappear into crowds. The other sounds far more unsettling: a human behavior engine capable of stacking informant info against intelligence data against other evidence to predict a person’s intent. That’s right: the act of determining whether you are friend or foe could be turned over to the machines.

Source: popsci.com → | ∞ Permalink

COWLEY COUNTY, Kansas - Residents in Cowley County are still talking about a mystery craft, seen being towed down US 77 Monday. Sitting inside Lindly's Appliance Store, Kammi Root is used to seeing large machinery towed down US 77. But what she saw Monday afternoon is something she won't soon forget. “There was this funny sphere that went through on this big trailer and my first thought was, 'That looks like a UFO,’” said Root. A huge 32 foot craft, wrapped in tarp, was as mysterious as the transport company who called Sheriff Don Read for help.

Source: deepbluehorizon.blogspot.com → | ∞ Permalink

A stealthy unmanned aircraft system (commonly known as a drone) developed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works division has secretly joined the US Air Force inventory. RQ-170 Sentinel. The high altitude jet powered vehicle has physical resembles with stealth B-2 bomber. The USAF confirms that the RQ-170 Sentinel is in development, and is expected "to provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward-deployed combat forces", according to a statement released on 4 December.

The RQ-170 is flown by the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron, a unit reactivated by the USAF at the Tonopah Test Range in California on 1 September 2005, according to a service fact sheet.

Source: aerowiki.blogspot.com → | ∞ Permalink

Tehran rejects Washington's request that it return the plane, wants an apology for violation of its air space.__

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Venezuelan television on Tuesday that Iran can control the American unmanned spy plane it downed, according to CNN.

"There are people here who can control this spy plane, surely we can analyze this plane too," CNN quoted Ahmadinejad as telling VTV. "The systems of Iran are as advanced as this system."

Source: jpost.com → | ∞ Permalink

US lawmaker denies Iran's claims that it brought down spy plane; downplays danger of Tehran "reverse-engineering" technology.__

"I will say without hesitation that this is not something that anyone had anything to do with coming down with, other than a technical problem," US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers was quoted as saying by AFP.

Source: jpost.com → | ∞ Permalink

December 9th, 2011 | by Pratap Chatterjee | Published in All Stories, Covert Drone War, Human Rights, Top Stories  |  1 Comment Cameron Munter and his wife arrive in Pakistan – Flickr /US Embassy Pakistan Cameron Munter, the US ambassador to Pakistan, faces a potential lawsuit in Pakistani courts for the killing of Tariq Aziz, aged 16, and Waheed Khan, aged 12, in late October in an alleged drone strike in North Waziristan launched by the Central Intelligence Agency. Aziz had just returned from a gathering of families of drone strike victims in Islamabad to discuss the impact of US drone strikes in their communities, where the Bureau was the last to photograph him before his death. At the meeting, which was organised by Reprieve, a British legal charity, the teenager had volunteered to take a camera back with him to document the impact of drone strikes, little knowing that he would be killed three days after he returned.

Legal challenges

Bureau analysis into drone strikes estimates that they have killed between 2,373 and 2,997 individuals in 309 strikes. At least 175 have been identified as children.

Several legal challenges have been mounted in Pakistan over these strikes, with the help of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights. In November 2010, Karim Khan, a journalist in Waziristan, threatened to sue Jonathan Banks, the CIA head of station in Islamabad, for the killing of his brother and his son, Asif Iqbal and Zaenullah Khan, in the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan on December 31, 2009. Banks fled the country shortly after.

Source: thebureauinvestigates.com → | ∞ Permalink

_ December 14th, 2011 | by David Pegg | Published in Covert Drone War, Drones carousel _

A Predator drone prepares to take to the skies. At the end of the month the US will withdraw its armed forces from Iraq after eight years of combat operations. This will include its armada of combat and surveillance drones – a fleet that has transformed during the occupation. When American forces entered Iraq in 2003, the US military had only 158 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in operation. Today, the US Department of Defense has more than 7,000 at its disposal. And those systems have got vastly more sophisticated.

‘Every one of our brigades has its own drone’

Last month, the Bureau spoke to Major General Jeffrey Buchanan, chief spokesman for the United States Forces in Iraq, about how drones have changed the way the US fights its wars.

Speaking from Baghdad, General Buchanan explained: ‘Technology has evolved over time. What started out as a system that was only available in few numbers and controlled at the highest levels has now made it down. Every one of our brigades has its own RPA [remotely piloted aircraft].’

He denied that ‘lethal fires’ – assassination missions – had defined the US’ use of drones in Iraq, focusing instead on how they had changed reconnaissance.

‘The dominant use in Iraq has not been for providing ground attack or things like that,’ he said. ‘It’s really all been about ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance]. We’ve used RPAs in combination with piloted aircraft, working directly for ground commanders, providing extended surveillance on key communication routes or oil pipelines or borders.

‘You have miles and miles of empty pipeline going across the desert. It’s far more efficient and effective if you maintain surveillance on it through the use of UAVs than if you sustain an assault every 200m.’

Source: thebureauinvestigates.com → | ∞ Permalink

December 14th, 2011 | by Emma Slater | Published in All Stories, Covert Drone War, Top Stories Press TV alleged that 749 Somalis were killed in US drone attacks in November alone. Earlier this month the Bureau published an investigation into how alleged US drone strikes in Somalia were being reported by Iranian broadcaster Press TV.

In 56 reports between July and December this year, the station claimed that at least 1,370 people had been killed by US drone strikes. The state-backed station alleged that, in November alone, 749 Somalis were killed in 28 alleged US drone attacks, and at least 643 people were injured.

Source: thebureauinvestigates.com → | ∞ Permalink

A Bureau investigation has examined every recorded CIA drone strike in Pakistan to reveal credible reports of at least 392 civilian deaths including 175 children. The complete data of all known CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. Pratap Chatterjee joined Jemima Khan at a conference in Pakistan to discuss CIA drone strikes. Between seven and nine people killed in an attack on North Waziristan - the third in as many days December 14th, 2011 by Emma Slater Published in All Stories, Covert Drone War, Top Stories

Source: thebureauinvestigates.com → | ∞ Permalink

Various crises in US-Pakistani relations, including the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis and the killing of Osama bin Laden, may have contributed to a decline in strikes in 2 In 2009 the drone strike campaign escalated on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. During President Bush's time in office there were 52 drone strikes on Pakistan. Raymond Davis' arrest leads to suspension of secret drones campaign in Pakistan. December 2nd, 2011 by Drones Team | 1 CommentPublished in All Stories, Covert Drone War - the Data

Source: thebureauinvestigates.com → | ∞ Permalink

At the most recent Zhuhai air show, the premier event for China’s aviation industry, crowds swarmed around a model of an armed, jet-propelled drone and marveled at the accompanying display of its purported martial prowess.

In a video and map, the thin, sleek drone locates what appears to be a U.S. aircraft carrier group near an island with a striking resemblance to Taiwan and sends targeting information back to shore, triggering a devastating barrage of cruise missiles toward the formation of ships.

Little is known about the actual abilities of the WJ-600 drone or the more than two dozen other Chinese models that were on display at Zhuhai in November.__ But the speed at which they have been developed highlights how U.S. military successes with drones have changed strategic thinking worldwide and spurred a global rush for unmanned aircraft.

Military planners worldwide see drones as relatively cheap weapons and highly effective reconnaissance tools. Hand-launched ones used by ground troops can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars. Near the top of the line, the Predator B, or MQ9-Reaper, manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, costs about $10.5 million. By comparison, a single F-22 fighter jet costs about $150 million.

Source: washingtonpost.com → | ∞ Permalink

Mexicos top diplomat on Thursday defended allowing U.S. drones to fly over Mexican territory to hunt drug traffickers, while acknowledging the government has disagreements and moments of tension...

The Drug Done's:__

Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa said the drone flights do not violate Mexico's sovereignty because they are "controlled" by Mexico and are unarmed.

After the flights were reported Wednesday, Mexico's National Security Council said U.S. unmanned aircraft have been sent over Mexico on surveillance missions when requested by the Mexican government. A U.S. official told The Associated Press that for each mission a Mexican official is present at the U.S. command center where a drone is remotely piloted

Source: sify.com → | ∞ Permalink

Moscow denies report claims that it is giving military aid to Abkhazia, a separatist Black Sea region

A UN report concluded that the Russian air force had shot down an unmanned Georgian spy drone over the breakaway region of Abkhazia.__

But the UN also criticises Tbilisi for violating the terms of a 1994 ceasefire. Georgia has sent at least three spy drones over Abkhazia since March, the report said, despite a ban on surveillance aircraft.

Dramatic video footage from the drone shows a jet fighter swooping into view, before firing a short-range missile. The video then goes blank. The report said the fighter was a MiG-29 or Su-27, types neither of which Abkhazia owns.

The jet then flew off into Russian airspace, the report added. "Absent [of] compelling evidence to the contrary, this leads to the conclusion that the aircraft belonged to the Russian air force," said the report, which was posted on the UN mission in Georgia's website.

Source: guardian.co.uk → | ∞ Permalink

Police in North Dakota have used unarmed Predator B military drones from Grand Forks Air Force Base for surveillance and to help arrest U.S. citizens, raising questions that trouble privacy advocates.

Reporting from Washington— Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said.

Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.

He also called in a Predator B drone.

As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.

Source: latimes.com → | ∞ Permalink

Thank goodness this sort of thing doesn’t happen in the land of the free… oh wait Steve Watson Infowars.com December 12, 2011 Video has emerged of Russian pro Democracy protesters being watched by hovering surveillance drones overhead. 25,000 people gathered in Bolotnaya Square in Moscow Saturday, were stunned to witness the strange hovering object directly above them. Some climbed trees to take pictures and get a closer look at the “UFO”. The craft is clearly some kind of small quadricopter drone similar to the one pictured below:

Source: infowars.com → | ∞ Permalink

Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Friday, February 12, 2010 Illustrating once again that the prison planet being built around us far outstrips anything Aldous Huxley or George Orwell ever imagined, a Wired News report details how police forces worldwide are preparing to unveil drone aircraft that can not only conduct surveillance of protesters, but also zap them into submission with non-lethal weapons. As part of their ongoing mission to “protect and serve” the new world order, cops across the world are getting access to military drones which allow them to “carry out surveillance on everyone from protesters and antisocial motorists to fly-tippers,” reports Wired News.

Source: infowars.com → | ∞ Permalink

QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) – An American surveillance drone crashed in southwestern Pakistan on Thursday near a paramilitary base close to the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said. “It was an American surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle. It crashed on this side of the border,” a security official in the area told AFP. He said the drone had come down — apparently due to a technical fault — some two kilometres inside Pakistani territory in Chaman town in insurgency-hit Baluchistan province, but had caused no damage.

Source: infowars.com → | ∞ Permalink

Internet giant Google has been accused of seriously compromising U.S. national security. On its Maps web page it revealed to the public a restricted airbase ...

Super Secret Drone

Source: youtube.com → | ∞ Permalink

Less than two weeks after the Iranians claimed to have captured a U.S. stealth drone, the U.S. Air Force is quietly sending another one to Afghanistan -- and this one is armed. Only you don't need a stealth drone for a country like Afghanistan with undefended skies. Hmm.

Problem is, you don’t really need those things in Afghanistan. Internal weapons bays, which hide the radar signatures of bombs and missiles, are for stealth: most warplanes don’t have them. And it’s not like the Taliban has been firing radar-guided missiles at NATO aircraft. Besides, there are already dozens of armed drones in Afghanistan. One more isn’t going to make much of a difference.

Which begs the question: Is the 41-foot-long Avenger really meant for Afghanistan? Or is it destined to patrol over Afghanistan’s unruly neighbors, Iran and Pakistan, both of which do have radar-guided missiles? That was a job assigned to the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel before one of those drones crashed in Iran two weeks ago. We’re sure the Air Force has a few more RQ-170s to throw at Iran and Pakistan. After all, the elusive ‘bots have been spotted in Afghanistan, South Korea and Japan. But the Avenger, which debuted just two years ago, is newer and more capable than the Sentinel, which is widely believed to be a product of the early 2000s.

Source: wired.com → | ∞ Permalink