Articles tagged "uavs"

We tour the southern California drone zone, a booming and buzzing tech sprawl borne of what historically has been a hotbed for aerospace R&D.

No, not that "drone porn":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L8yldV53ic. I'm talking about those gorgeously sweeping aerial videos coming out of the "hobbyist":http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/7/16/watch-this-sweeping-aerial-drone-footage-of-detroit--2

You're sitting in an air-conditioned trailer somewhere in Nevada, one hand clutching a joystick, the other tapping out commands on a keyboard. You're a US Air Force (or CIA) Predator drone pilot. You're about two hours into a 12-hour spy- and kill-sh…

A whole new breed of printed drones – robo zeppelins – could soon be scuttling above in lazy, long-endurance circles.

Here's a warm blanket for you to nestle into this weekend. The Washington Post has been running an investigative report on the U.S. military's shadow wars throughout the Horn of Africa. These special operations have become the preserve of hulking, so…

CIA Director David Petraeus has requested the White House approve a proposal to expand the agency’s fleet of drones, which has stood at around 30-35 in recent years, by as many as 10 aircraft.

In a place that's become synonymous with all the moral, ethical, legal, and political quandaries posed by the robo-lords of the new "bugsplat" warfare, the thought of insect-like drones buzzing over northern Pakistan may not immediately take on celeb…

They are overhead, far way, buzzing in the distance, doing their thing. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are "cruising over Benghazi":http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/14/us-protests-libya-airport-idUSBRE88D0PJ20120914 in the wake of attack on th…

It may not crack whips and fight Nazis, at least not yet. But it still sounds pretty badass: An interdisciplinary research team out of Vanderbilt University is using a semi-autonomous SUAVe - their very own micro Indiana Drone (sorry) - to map the ru…

Every month, over 40,000 applications are made with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. About half that number of actual patents are granted monthly—usually after several years of review and refinement. (Legit patent applications are published 18 m…

The Department of Homeland Security is high off the prospect of using aerial spy drones to nab high-seas drug smugglers. DHS, which already operates nine unmanned Predator drones along the northern and southwestern borderlands, says it "plans to expa…

It's "never been a good look":http://motherboard.vice.com/2011/9/19/the-bad-omen-of-america-s-falling-drone-syndrome when American drones plummet, for reasons known or unknown, into remote, tribally held areas across the Middle East, or over the U.S…

Most talk around the Federal Aviation Administration throttling to fully integrate unmanned aerial vehicles into U.S. airspace by 2015 has taken to breathless alarmism. I won’t even begin to except myself, here – "the accidental highs and lows":http:…

The U.S., of course, is not officially at war with Pakistan. But if anything, the CIA's Predators and Reapers, despite "getting the boot":http://motherboard.vice.com/2011/12/12/you-don-t-have-to-go-home-but-you-can-t-drone-here-u-s-evicted-from-secre…

General Atomics isn’t publicly traded on Wall Street, so obtaining any specific information regarding its balances is a daunting task. I almost feel bad for the Public Relations Manager handling my request for comment. I assume she delivers these hol…

William Anders was a Catholic before he was shot into space. After seeing the earth from the Apollo 8 and snapping what has become the definitive photograph of our world, Anders returned home a changed man. The specific beliefs and precepts of his fa…

There. I said it. True, what we actually know about the U.S.’s overseas drone operations couldn’t hold a candle to what we know is purposely being kept in the dark. There’s no arguing that. Remember that the American program to use unmanned a…

Where Marilyn was discovered.

This is going to hurt to write, but I’ll go ahead and do it, anyway. At this point, in an age where "nearly one in three":http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/drone-report/ American warplanes is a robot, all that’s left to slam the brakes on a run…

An expanding American drone fleet has been carrying out reconnaissance and combat missions for years, and is now steadily being outfitted to haul massive amounts of precious cargo to the remote, volatile frontlines of Middle Eastern battlefields. Cal…