Rather than try to keep up with drone-related news myself, I’ve decided to turn it over to sUAS News, a more reliable aggregate. CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE.
A decade ago, the United States had a virtual monopoly on drones.
Not anymore. According to data compiled by the New America Foundation, more than 70 countries now own some type of drone, though just a small number of those nations possess armed drone aircraft.
The explosion in drone technology promises to change the way nations conduct war and threatens to begin a new arms race as governments scramble to counterbalance their adversaries.
This report is the result of nine months of research by the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School (Stanford Clinic) and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law (NYU Clinic). Professor James Cavallaro and Clinical Lecturer Stephan Sonnenberg led the Stanford Clinic team; Professor Sarah Knuckey led the NYU Clinic team. Adelina Acuña, Mohammad M. Ali, Anjali Deshmukh, Jennifer Gibson, Jennifer Ingram, Dimitri Phillips, Wendy Salkin, and Omar Shakir were the student research team at Stanford; Christopher Holland was the student researcher from NYU. Supervisors Cavallaro, Sonnenberg, and Knuckey, as well as student researchers Acuña, Ali, Deshmukh, Gibson, Salkin, and Shakir participated in the fact-finding investigations to Pakistan.
A new study found that because of the many unintended civilian casualties, U.S. drone attacks against terrorist targets in Pakistan have been an effective recruiting tool for extremists, but have not been effective in killing terrorist leaders.
For the U.S., is the damage the attacks in Pakistan and Yemen have caused Al Qaeda worth the cost?
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) generally depend on their wings to get around. Just like their earth-bound cousins, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), usually depend on wheels. But researchers in Drexel University’s College of Engineering plan to change that by figuring out how to add dexterous hands and arms to the craft.
A U.S. appeals court responded skeptically on Thursday to Obama administration assertions the government can withhold documents about a program that uses aerial drones for targeted killings overseas.
A suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union is part of a broad legal strategy, also playing out in federal court in New York, to learn more about the drone program that the government says targets al Qaeda militants.
The program is shrouded in secrecy, even as officials up to President Barack Obama acknowledge it exists.
What remains in dispute is whether the government has confirmed the involvement of the CIA in the program, and if so, whether the CIA must turn over documents to the ACLU.
The global market for drones is booming. But what does the coming arms race mean for US national security interests — and the future of warfare? GlobalPost correspondents report from critical locations around the world, from Israel to Iran to Yemen to Brazil — where unmanned aerial vehicles are radically transforming combat and surveillance.
the booming business of building and flying drones — the common name of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) — may be particularly vital in Alaska, where there are plenty of jobs either too dangerous or too messy for normal manned aircraft.
So the timing may be perfect for this week’s meeting, beginning Sept. 25, of the Alaska UAS Interest Group in Anchorage. A series of workshops, panel discussions and presentations will tackle the goals for drones in Alaska, according to a press release from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A new US Congress report on the proliferation of drones has confirmed a huge rise in the number of countries that now have military unmanned aerial systems. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published an unclassified version of its February 2012 report on the proliferation of UAVs. The report examines both the proliferation of UAVs, commonly known as drones, and examines US and multilateral controls on the export of drone technology.
The use of drones in Pakistan normally brings to mind images of U.S. spy planes attacking tribal areas. But drones now are being used to capture a different kind of picture in the country – showing some of the world’s highest mountains being scaled by world-class climbers through some of Earth’s thinnest air.
Drones, or remote-controlled aircraft, have long been the domain of the American military and are used extensively in Pakistan’s tribal areas near the Afghanistan border to spy on and target militants. Recently, however, civilians have increasingly turned to drones to shoot ground-breaking footage of adventure sports.
Wright State University has been chosen by the National Science Foundation to head a three-year research project to develop smart air vehicles that can repair themselves in flight.
The university, in collaboration with Purdue University in Indiana, Portland State University in Oregon and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, will begin in October to build and damage small flyers in a laboratory to see how they adapt in distress.
The U.S. Army is working with academic institutions to obtain independent research to advance unmanned aerial vehicle technology and usage.
Middle Tennessee State University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Army’s Project Manager for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Three others — Mississippi State University, Alabama A&M University and Auburn University — are in the process of becoming involved, the Army said.
Drone strikes ordered by the Obama administration have killed more than a dozen al-Qaida leaders around the world, in places ranging from Afghanistan to Somalia. In speeches and public appearances, U.S. officials say those attacks are legal and essential to protect the nation’s security.
But when civil liberties groups asked for more information about targeted killing, the CIA told them it’s a secret.
You’ve probably heard about “drones” being used in the war in Afghanistan - unmanned aircraft that can fly into places un-noticed, either for surveillance, or to even shoot missiles.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) just posted an excellent report, Nonproliferation: Agencies Could Improve Information Sharing and End-Use Monitoring on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, which I cannot recommend highly enough. A declassified version of a report provided to Congress in February, the publication assesses global trends in developing and using drones, and U.S. efforts to prevent the spread of certain drone technologies—for U.S. exports and through bilateral and multilateral diplomacy.
