December 02, 2004
Texas to get unmanned aerial vehicle squadron
'The Air Force today announced it's placing a squadron of Predator unmanned aerial vehicles with the Texas Air National Guard. Putting the drones in Texas is an effort by the Air Force to modernize active duty forces, while winnowing the size of the military.
Where the squadron can be located has not been announced, but the Texas Air National Guard has units in San Antonio, Fort Worth and Houston.
The Air Force is testing whether to move some activities now performed by active duty personnel to the Guard and Reserve.'
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December 01, 2004
DARPA kicks off UAV prototype project
'The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded $8.7 million to three vendors to build prototype unmanned aircraft for the Army’s Future Force unit.
Honeywell International Inc.’s defense and space electronics systems unit of Albuquerque, N.M., received $3.9 million; BAE Systems Aircraft Controls Inc. of Los Angeles, $2.5 million; and Aurora Flight Sciences Inc. of Manassas, Va., $2.3 million.
Over the next six months, the contractors will develop prototypes for the Organic Air Vehicle-II program. During Phase I, the contractors will present preliminary designs. DARPA will choose the best two to continue into Phase II, which is expected to last nine months.'
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November 30, 2004
Marines Aided by Robotic Airplane in Iraq
'A robotic airplane called ScanEagle has done more than 1,000 hours of intelligence and reconnaissance work for the Marines in Iraq, its developers said.
It was developed and built by the St. Louis-based defense unit of Boeing Co. and the Washington-based Insitu Group.
Boeing officials said they could not comment on specific ScanEagle missions, but spoke generally of its use.
It travels above insurgent positions and sends real-time video images to Marines on the ground. The unmanned device can relay facial expressions on enemy soldiers, and can transmit in such detail that it shows steam rising from their coffee.'
Read more at ABC News: Marines Aided by Robotic Airplane in Iraq:
November 25, 2004
US UAV crashes in Afghanistan
'A U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday, the military said. The UAV crashed over eastern Paktya province and mechanical problems are believed to be the cause, the Combined Military Command announced. It was not brought down by hostile fire, the announcement said, Coalition forces recovered all parts of the UAV, and it will be destroyed in place.' Source - Interest!ALERT: Quality ContentNovember 24, 2004
Global Hawk moves north
'Unmanned plane to stay at Beale The Air Force's first production RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance plane has arrived at its new home at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California. Designated AF-3, the unmanned aerial vehicle arrived after a flight from Edwards Air Force Base. Northrop Grumman's Palmdale plant assembles Global Hawks for the U.S. Air Force. Beale's 9th Reconnaissance Wing had been operating pre-production Global Hawks in Iraq and Afghanistan while testing continued at Edwards. "For quite some time, our pilots and sensor operators have been operating the system in theater from half a world away," said Col. Larry Wells, commander of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base. The plane's arrival at Beale symbolizes the Global Hawk's transition from a development program to an operational system, said Carl O. Johnson, Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk vice president and integrated product team leader.' Read more at Global Hawk Moves NorthNovember 20, 2004
Hizbullah reveals new details of its new Iran-designed UAV Yahoo! Groups : osint Messages : Message 45556 of 45564
'Hizbullah reveals new details of its new Iran-designed UAV
Hizbullah has provided additional information about its new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Hizbullah Secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah said the Mirsad-1 UAV has a payload of up to 50 kilograms. Nasrallah told a rally in Baalbek on Nov. 12 that the Mirsad-1 could also carry explosives for strikes deep into Israel. Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon first reported the development.
The Mirsad-1 was designed and manufactured by the Iranian Aircraft and Space Industrial Organization, part of the Defense Ministry. The organization first produced the Pehbad UAV in 1987 and later such variants as the Ababil, which is manufactured from fiberglass.
Other Iranian UAVs designed in the 1990s included the Mohajer, which came in four models. The most advanced is the Mohajer-4, designed to avoid radar detection. This is the version used by Hizbullah.
Sources said Mirsad-1 is identical to the Mohajer-4 UAV. It contains three digital cameras that relay images to a ground station via an electronic data relay unit.'
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November 18, 2004
Security Sources Deny Israeli UAV's in Ivory Coast
'Israeli security sources on Wednesday denied a report by France's TF1 television station that accused Israeli mercenaries of operating spy drones in the war-torn Ivory Coast, but confirmed that a private Israeli company had supplied unmanned aerial vehicles to Ivorian forces.
Ivorian forces have attacked French troops in the African country this month. According to the sources, Israel stopped supplying UAVs to the Ivory Coast after unrest erupted. But Jerusalem sources had no immediate comment on a report in the French newspaper Le Monde that 46 Israelis had run an intelligence-gathering center for the Ivorian military.'
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Remote control could save soldiers' lives
'Unmanned aerial vehicles and other so-called "stand-off" weapons, whether currently used or in secret testing, belong to a developing high-tech arsenal that the U.S. military says will help minimize casualties as it battles insurgents.
Most of the systems are slated for continued, if not intensified, use as Iraqi forces train to take over the bulk of combat operations from the Americans — though when that might happen remains uncertain.'
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Multiple Mars UAV Proposals Likely in Next Scout Competition
'Several competing unmanned aerial vehicle missions are likely to be proposed for flight on Mars in NASA's next Scout competition, according to Andy Gonzales, program manager for NASA Ames Research Center's MATADOR project.
Set to begin in roughly a year, the next Mars Scout competition will select one or more missions for launch to Mars in 2011. If upcoming flight-tests of MATADOR (Mars Advanced Technology Airplane for Deployment, Operations, and Recovery) are successful, the team may propose a mission, according to Gonzales. "We're hopeful that the [Mars] airplane's time has finally come," he told The DAILY.
Another Scout contender is likely to be NASA Langley Research Center's Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) team, which made the finals in the 2007 Mars Scout competition but lost out to the Phoenix lander. "We anticipate two to three, maybe as many as four, airplane concepts" in the running, Gonzales said.
Mars UAV proposals have been at a disadvantage when competing with orbiters, rovers, or landers because of their comparatively short mission duration (DAILY, Dec. 23, 2002). MATADOR is trying to compensate for this by developing a UAV that could survive its landing on Mars and continue to relay data or perform other measurements on the surface.'
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New Vehicles Will Make Own Decisions Based on Commands
'The next war could be fought partly by unmanned aircraft that respond to spoken commands in plain English and then figure out on their own how to get the job done, even dodging enemy aircraft as they carry out their assignments.
This isn't just robotics, in which someone has to be on hand to issue commands to an unmanned vehicle all along the way. This is autonomy at its best, with vehicles that can make decisions similar to the way a human pilot figures out how to accomplish a task and then carries it out.'
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