TREASON: Deception-slavery-surveillance-4th amend. & the National Recon. Office

[Satyagraha]

The Eye of the Dragon for Homeland Security
http://www.gnn.tv/threads/9898/The_Eye_of_the_Dragon_for_Homeland_Security

DRONES ‘TO FLY OVER CITIES
Post Modified: 11/13/05 23:14:59


While on a dismounted patrol along a rocky dirt path, soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, stayed alert of their surroundings as they made their way to the Military Operations in Urban Terrain site here.
When it was time to enter the site, the platoon-sized element stopped in the wood line and came up with a plan of action.

Minutes later, a micro air vehicle operator called and provided information on enemy locations.

As soon as the troops had a good location of the enemy, they maneuvered on to the site grounds. When the enemy spotted the troops, a firefight ensued.

The troops remained alert and moved tactically into nearby buildings. They cleared every room until they reached the rooftops, where they began to return fire.

Using its two onboard cameras, the micro air vehicle system assisted the troops in figuring out where the enemy was located.

“I think this training is good for us because it’s new equipment that a lot of people haven’t gotten the opportunity to train with yet,” said Pvt. Gregory Goodrich, a cavalry scout with 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment.

“It isn’t just training on the micro air vehicle equipment, it also helps us train more on our tactical and basic Soldiering skills,” said Goodrich, who was one of the system operators during the training.

The micro air vehicle technology was designed to gather and transmit information to soldiers on the battlefield.

According to the Website, spacewar.com, each system is comprised of two air vehicles, a dismounted control device and associated ground support equipment that is carried by selected platforms and dismounted soldiers.

The micro air vehicles use autono-mous flight and navigation with vertical take-off and landing and recovery capabilities.

Two cameras are mounted on each vehicle; one looks ahead of soldiers, the other looks down at the ground. The vehicles also carry chemical sensors.

“The micro air vehicles are the future,” said 1st Lt. Mario A. Quevedo, a platoon leader with 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment. “These young soldiers that are out here training with it will see it again, and they will already know how to use it.”

For the past month, 40 soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, have been training with the new, high-tech surveillance vehicles.

“This training is very beneficial to these soldiers because when we go down range in the future, this equipment will go with us,” Quevedo continued. “The micro air vehicles are here to stay

[Satyagraha]

     

DARPA Micro Air Vehicle Passes Key Milestone
Towards Future Combat System Class I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
10/18/2005

St. Louis – The Future Combat Systems (FCS) program has passed a significant milestone in its progress toward selecting a Class I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system. The announcement was made by Boeing and partner Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the Lead Systems Integrator team for the U.S. Army’s FCS program.

The Micro Air Vehicle (MAV), developed by Honeywell under a two-phased Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency advanced concept technology development contract, has achieved a technology readiness level 6. The readiness level is based on recent successes during government acceptance tests and pre-experimentation flights. The level 6 designation is consistent with FCS requirements to begin transitioning the technology to the FCS program.

“The Micro Air Vehicle has flown more than 200 successful flights, including flying in a representative urban environment,” said Mark Franzblau, director, FCS Unmanned Aerial Vehicle system development. “We are confident it will continue to meet or exceed the goals of DARPA’s contract and eventually transition to FCS as the preferred Class I UAV platform.”

The Micro Air Vehicle contract provides critical development in two key technology areas essential to meeting FCS Class I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle requirements: a ducted fan design providing hover and stare capability coupled with a small heavy fuels engine. The FCS program will continue to work with DARPA and Honeywell to transition the heavy fuel engine technology as it matures through the remainder of the DARPA contract.

[Satyagraha]

     

MICRO WARFARE
Small, smart and deadly, micro air vehicles swarm onto the battlefield.

Ron Fearing has the future of warfare at the tip of his finger. It isn’t pressing on the trigger of a laser death ray or button of a doomsday device. It’s holding a stubby-winged mechanical bug. “Flies are one of the most stable and maneuverable of all flying animals,” says the University of California at Berkeley biologist. “They are the jet fighters of the animal world.” The Pentagon shares this opinion and wants to turn these Bizzaro World duplicates of houseflies into real jet fighters. The Berkeley team is one of about a dozen groups of engineers and biologists who are exploring the final frontier of flight: micro air vehicles (MAVs). By merging the aerodynamics of insects with GPS navigation and molecular electronics, they hope to initially create an arsenal of tiny reconnaissance tools. When perfected, Fearing’s stainless steel and Mylar robot flies will be able to flap their way into the most secret places on Earth—the bunkers where Saddam Hussein plans his genocidal campaigns, and where Chinese spymasters plot their raids on America’s nuclear weapons laboratories.

[Satyagraha]

Flying into the Future

Miniature flying machines could help with warfare, agriculture and more.

IS IT A BIRD? A PLANE? In the case of micro air vehicles — tiny, self-piloted flying machines — it’s a little of both with some insect and robot characteristics thrown in. photo by Stanley Leary

While not quite able to leap over a building in a single bound, microflyers (as they are called at the Georgia Institute of Technology) will have some fairly astounding characteristics. Georgia Tech engineers envision that these six-inch machines will be able to fly to a target and feed back or retrieve information in a variety of forms, including visual, chemical and biologic.

Adding to their complexity, microflyers will be able to accomplish their tasks by themselves: they won’t rely on humans to provide remote control.

“Microflyers need to be nimble, fearless, safe and survivable in order to be successful,” says Dr. Samuel Blankenship, a principal research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and coordinator of the Georgia Tech Focused Research Program for Microflyers. “The range of applications for a self-piloted, multi-mode tiny machine is truly great.”

[Satyagraha]

United States Department of Defense
News Release
On the web
Media contact: +1 (703) 697-5131
Public contact or +1 (703) 428-0711
No. 676-97 (703)697-3189(media) IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 12, 1997 (703)697-5737(public/industry)

————————————————————————————————————————

DARPA SELECTS MICRO AIR VEHICLE CONTRACTOR

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected for negotiation six proposals to develop flight-enabling micro air vehicle technologies as part of the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) program. A total of approximately $12 million has been allocated by DARPA for the flight-enabling technologies effort over the next three years. Award of funds is subject to negotiation.

The selected proposals, which range in size from approximately $650,000 to $3,000,000, are listed below. Final amounts will be determined during negotiations.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. – “Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Based Micro-Gas Turbine Engines for Micro-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)”
D-STAR Engineering, Shelton, Conn. – “Low-Observable, Safe-Operation, Fuel Efficient, Light Weight Propulsion and Power System for Advanced Micro Air Vehicles”
Technology in Blacksburg Inc., Blacksburg, Va. – “Thermoelectric-Based Advanced Micro-Air Vehicle (MAV)”
SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif. – “Flapping-Wing Propulsion Using Electrostrictive Polymer Artificial Muscle Actuators”
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. – “An Elasto-Dynamic Ornithoptic Flying Robotic Insect”
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. – “Micro Bat”
Under the flight-enabling technologies effort, performers will develop some of the underlying technologies that will be needed for the most advanced micro air vehicle systems of the future. These technologies include: advanced aerodynamics, flight stability and control; lightweight propulsion and power generation; low-power, light-weight navigation, communications and on-board processing systems; advanced structures; and unique sensor payload technologies. Research to develop these technologies will complement the development of micro air vehicle systems, and will enable future development of advanced micro air vehicles that will be defined later in the DARPA program.

Micro air vehicles are airborne vehicles that are no larger than six inches in either length, width or height and perform a useful military mission at an affordable cost. DARPA envisions individual soldiers at the platoon, company or brigade level using such vehicles for reconnaissance and surveillance, battle damage assessment, targeting, emplacing sensors, communications relays, or for sensing chemical, nuclear or biological substances. The vehicles will have to be able to conduct real-time imaging, have ranges of up to 10 kilometers and speeds of up to 30 miles per hour for missions that are 20 minutes to two hours long.

James McMichael, DARPA’s program manager for the micro air vehicle program, explained: “These systems are at least 10 times smaller than any current flying system. They will be uniquely suited to the challenges of small unit operations and operations in urban terrain. For the first time, they will give individual soldiers and Marines an asset that they own and control and that can provide real-time situational awareness and reconnaissance information.”

Four small businesses have been selected by DARPA to receive contracts under Phase II of the Small Business Innovation Research program to continue research and development in support of the Micro Air Vehicle effort. IGR Inc., Beechwood, Ohio, will complete the development and demonstration of a very lightweight Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, tailored to the electrical power requirements of MAVs. M-DOT Inc., Phoenix, Ariz., will continue to develop a very small (1.4-pound thrust) gas turbine engine. AeroVironment Inc., Simi Valley, Calif., will continue its development and flight demonstration of an electric-powered, fixed-wing, reconnaissance micro air vehicle. Aerodyne Corp., Billerica, Mass., will continue its development of a hover vehicle that will also explore the capabilities of the mini-scale engine being developed by M-DOT. Each company will receive a 24-month contract worth approximately $750,000 (subject to final negotiations).

DARPA also plans to select several efforts for micro air vehicle system development and demonstration. These additional selections, to be announced at a later date, will be to companies to actually design and demonstrate a six-inch micro air vehicle system



Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Flies That May Help Them Understand of Overeating in Humans

Yale University researchers say their study that used lasers to create remote-controlled fruit flies could lead to a better understanding of overeating and violence in humans.

Using the lasers to stimulate specific brain cells, researchers say they were able to make the flies jump, walk, flap their wings and fly.

Even headless flies took flight when researchers stimulated the correct neurons, according to the study, published in the April 7 issue of the journal Cell.

Scientists say the study could ultimately help identify the cells associated with psychiatric disorders, overeating and aggressiveness.

Biologists have long known that an electrical stimulus can trigger muscle response, but this approach used focused beams of light to stimulate neurons that would have been impossible to study using electrodes.

Gero Miesenbock, associate professor of cell biology at Yale, said if the process could be duplicated on mice, researchers might be able to better understand the cellular activity that leads to certain behavior.

“Ultimately, that could be important to understanding human psychiatric disorders,” Miesenbock said. “That’s really futuristic stuff.”

[Satyagraha]

Note: All of these articles are sourced from this link:
http://www.gnn.tv/threads/9898/The_Eye_of_the_Dragon_for_Homeland_Security

WORLD’S SMALLEST ROBOT FLIES

The firm behind a tiny flying robot says it could be used for security work, disaster rescue and space exploration.

Seiko Epson has designed the insect-sized craft as a more advanced successor to its flying micro-robot, reports Japan Today.

The new version of the world’s smallest robot flies autonomously according to a flight-route program sent by Bluetooth wireless from a computer.

The robot has two tiny ultrasonic motors that drive two propellers in opposite directions for lift.

Epson said the model, which is 136mm wide, 85mm tall and weighs 8.6 grams without the battery, will be on display at the Tokyo International Forum from August 27 to 30.

[Satyagraha]

Dragon Warrior



Dragon Warrior is a joint effort between NRL and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) to develop a HMMWV-transportable, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle for USMC missions. With its fully autonomous flight operation and differential GPS navigation, the Dragon Warrior will perform Reconnaissance Surveillance Target Acquisition (RSTA) and Communications Relay missions. The first full-scale prototype flight tests were scheduled beginning summer 2002 with mission demonstrations beginning in 2003.



The overall body length will be 112 inches with a rotor diameter of 108 inches. With a gross weight of 250 lb and a payload capacity of 25 – 35 lb, Dragon Warrior will have an estimated endurance of 3 – 5 hours and a dash speed of 100 kt. Dragon Warrior is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAV designed for urban reconnaissance. The system will have a link range of 50 nautical miles and an endurance of three hours. The entire airframe and ground station is transportable within a single Humvee and trailer. The Marine Corps expects to spend $22 million developing the Dragon Warrior through fiscal year 2003 and to field the system in fiscal year 2005.

In September 1999 the Marine Corps awarded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation a $5.46 million contract to build two prototype VTOL UAVs (vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicles) known as Cypher II and dubbed Dragon Warrior by the Corps. The Cypher II is a high-speed, donut-shaped UAV that incorporates shrouded rotor technology that encloses the rotor system. This contract contains options, which, if exercised, will bring the cumulative value of this contract to $9,222,659. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn. (87%) and West Palm Beach, Fla. (13%), and was expected to be completed by March 2001. This contract was competitively procured with 19 proposals solicited and five offers received. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., is the contracting activity.

A 50 percent scale prototype version of the Marine Corps’ larger Dragon Warrior UAV performed three tethered test flights in November 2002. First flight of the UAV had been delayed by problems with one of the two engines being developed for it.


GoldenEye-100 UAV Successfully Completes Initial Flight Test Program

 
The Golden Eye 100 during an early hover test
Manassas VA – Apr 08, 2004

Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation has successfully completed its initial flight test program for the company’s GoldenEye-100 unmanned aerial vehicle. Flight testing began in September 2003 and all of the GoldenEye-100’s flights, including the first flight last fall, have been in fully autonomous control modes.
The initial flight test program validated the GoldenEye-100’s vertical takeoff and landing capability, thrust vectoring, long-duct acoustic suppression, torsionally disconnected wings, stability and control, hovering flight, waypoint navigation, operation in civil airspace, and ability to carry payloads.



In addition, the GoldenEye-100 successfully completed a radiation detection and measurement demonstration carrying a client payload that clearly demonstrated the utility of the GoldenEye-100 for these kinds of operations.

Originally developed under DARPA’s Clandestine UAV (CUAV) program, GoldenEye-100 is designed to carry a 22-pound payload, has a gross takeoff weight of 150 pounds, and is a vertical takeoff and landing UAV specifically tailored for low-cost, clandestine reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition missions.

“The focus of the initial flight test program was to demonstrate the GoldenEye-100’s maneuvering stability and performance in the low speed regime of the flight envelope. The system has passed with flying colors,” said Carl Schaefer, program manager for local area surveillance, Aurora Flight Sciences.

“The lessons learned over the past nine months from the GoldenEye-100’s initial flight test program are being rolled into the GoldenEye-50,” he added.

Aurora Flight Sciences is a supplier of unmanned air vehicle designs, components, metal and composite structures, and flight services for government, industry, and academic institutions. The company operates facilities in West Virginia, Northern Virginia, and California. Aurora specializes in high-altitude and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL).

[luckee1]

Let me know when you are pulled away and I will resume where you leave off. (I am out of message, exceeded 4) 

[Satyagraha]

The Revolutionary Boeing Dragonfly Canard Rotor/Wing Aircraft Begins Flight Testing

CHICAGO, Dec. 4, 2003 – Nearly 100 years after the dawn of powered flight, a new generation of high-speed, unmanned air vehicle successfully began flight testing today. The Boeing Company’s [NYSE: BA] Canard Rotor/Wing (CRW) concept demonstrator completed its first hover flight at the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Yuma, Ariz.

During the flight test, the CRW advanced technology demonstrator – known as the X-50A Dragonfly – flew for about 80 seconds at 8:10 a.m. MST. It lifted off vertically from the launch site to an altitude of 12 feet above the ground, hovered and then vertically landed, commencing the flight test program.




Exdrone Dragon Drone

The Exdrone system is a low-cost reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle designed to support regiment and brigade size commands. It is a delta platform flying wing air vehicle that is 5 feet long and has a wingspan of 8 feet, powered by a small one-cylinder, two-cycle, air-cooled engine with a two-blade propeller. The flight control system consists of a UHF uplink receiver connected to a Global Positioning System (GPS) based autopilot. The autopilot is a 16-bit microprocessor controlled system which provides up to 5-pre-programmable waypoints. The air vehicle is gyro stabilized and capable of programmed autonomous flight. It uses microwave energy to downlink information to the ground control stations.

When tasked, the Exdrone launches from a secure area behind the Forward Line of Own Troops (FLOT). It has a launch weight of 89 pounds and a 25 pound payload capacity. It is launched by a pneumatic rail. Once airborne, the launch pilot flies the air vehicle to the cruise altitude. The vehicle service ceiling is 10,000 feet, however, the mission altitude is usually between 3,000 – 4,000 feet above ground level. It has three modes of operation: Manual flight, manual override autopilot, or full autonomous.

The Exdrone began as a research and development effort to build a low-cost expendable drone capable of carrying a VHF communications jammer. The aircraft have since been modified with several different payloads to provide reconnaissance. One of the payloads is the Pulinex TM-7i down-looking color TV camera. It is a commercial-off-the-shelf color camera that provides 570 lines of resolution and a six power zoom lens. This particular camera has a national imagery interpretability rating scale (NIRS) of 4 at 3,000-4,000 feet above ground level. Other payloads available include an Image Intensifier, and Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) cameras.

Experimentation and testing continue for additional payloads. These payloads include a communication jammer, communications relay, deception decoys, mine detection capabilities, and an airborne nuclear, biological and chemical detection suite. Most of these payloads are commercial-off-the-shelf or government-off-the-shelf technologies.

An Exdrone unit consists of ten air vehicles, two ground control stations, a pneumatic launcher, associated ground support equipment, and crew of six people. The system is small enough to be transported over land in two High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV), or flown into the theater of operations by one C-130 cargo aircraft. The 101st Airborne and 1st Cavalry Divisions currently operate the system.

Once the vehicle is launched and reaches cruise altitude, the launch pilot activates the autopilot which takes control and proceeds to the mission target area. The aircraft has a top speed of 100 miles per hour and a mission endurance of about two-and-a-half hours. The vehicle is controlled by the launch team if the operating area is within line-of-sight of the ground control station (usually about 50 kilometers). To extend operational range, a forward control team equipped with a Ground Control System can be positioned closer to the objective and extend the range. The Exdrone can loiter for about two hours. After reaching the target area the autopilot is programmed to loiter, fly a fixed track of way points, conduct point reconnaissance with the forward control pilot directing the flight, or conduct point reconnaissance with the launch pilot in control.

When the mission is complete the autopilot guides the aircraft to a predetermined recovery point where it is recovered by parachute. If more coverage time is needed, another vehicle is launched and sent to the objective before returning the first aircraft. The Ground Control System can control two aircraft simultaneously.
Under joint development by Boeing and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the CRW is a revolutionary aircraft that combines the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft with the flexibility of rotary-wing flight. This is because the CRW’s rotor is designed not only to spin during vertical takeoffs and landings but also to stop turning during flight and convert to a fixed wing for high-speed cruise.

“Today’s successful hover flight was an exciting first step toward meeting the goal of this flight test program,” said Gary Gallagher, CRW Systems senior manager for the Boeing Phantom Works advanced research and development unit. “The ultimate objective is demonstrating the Dragonfly’s ability to convert from rotary-wing to fixed-wing and back to rotary-wing flight.”

About a dozen flight tests are scheduled for the X-50A Dragonfly. Under the remote control of a pilot in the ground station cockpit, the vehicle will gradually perform more extensive hover flights, then forward moving rotary-wing flights, and finally a conversion to a fixed-wing flight and back again to a rotary-wing landing. Two such conversion flights are planned.

The X-50A Dragonfly vehicle is 17.7 feet long and 6.5 feet high and weighs 1,460 pounds. In addition to its 12-foot-diameter rotor/wing, it also has an 8.9-foot-span canard and an 8.1-foot-span horizontal tail. It is propelled by a conventional turbofan engine combined with The Boeing Company’s unique reaction drive rotor system.


     

U.S. Customs & Border Protection Makes History With Launch Of Predator B UAV

San Diego (SPX) Oct 03, 2005 General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft and high resolution surveillance and radar imaging systems, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today unveiled the CBP’s first procurement unmanned aircraft system (UAS), a Predator B UAS, at Sierra Vista Muni\Libby Army Airfield in Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. “Today marks the beginning of new chapter in using unmanned aircraft systems to secure our nation’s borders as Predator B offers the CBP a superior over land reconnaissance solution,” said Thomas J. Cassidy, Jr., president, Aircraft Systems Group, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

“The ability to meet CBP’s aggressive delivery schedule of 30 days from contract award was no doubt key to realizing today’s historical moment.”

The Predator B system, which will provide long-endurance surveillance and communications relay in support of the CBP’s Arizona Control Initiative (ABCI), will be operated and maintained by GA-ASI personnel in close cooperation with CBP Border Patrol agents who will assist in the command and control of the UAS from a Ground Control Station (GCS) located at Ft. Huachuca.

[Satyagraha]

     


“X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle *
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/71689_ucav24.shtml

Friday, May 24, 2002

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — A prototype of the first robotic plane designed specifically for combat missions flew to 7,500 feet and reached a top speed of 224 mph during its successful maiden flight, officials said yesterday.



During Wednesday’s flight, the sleek, tailless Boeing Co. X-45 flew autonomously on a programmed course, with a ground-based controller commanding it only to change its airspeed.

“It performed just as expected,” said Rich Alldredge, Boeing’s X-45 program manager.

Boeing’s Phantom Works in St. Louis built the plane for the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force. The military sees such aircraft taking part in its most dangerous missions, usually in initial attacks to suppress enemy air defenses.



The craft flew for 14 minutes, completing a wide oval above Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert before landing on a dry lake bed.

The plane, with 34-foot wingspan, is the first drone designed specifically to carry weapons into combat, a role the Air Force sees the eventual larger production versions being capable of by 2008. Other robotic planes, including a spy drone called the Predator currently being used in Afghanistan, have been modified to carry weapons.

At least five of the propeller-powered Predators — built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems — have crashed since the United States began its campaign in Afghanistan in October, but Glenn Buchan, a senior defense analyst with the Rand Corp., said that robotic planes have not flown long enough to assess their performance. The Predator, he said, was hustled into combat while still under development.

Air Force Col. Michael Leahy said the X-45 would “hunt in packs,” carrying up to 3,000 pounds of guided bombs to drop on enemy radar and surface-to-air missile batteries.

Officials hope to fly a swarm of the planes by late 2003.


     

X-47A Pegasus Robotic Air Combat Vehicle
CHINA LAKE, Calif., Feb. 23, 2003 — Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE:NOC) Integrated Systems sector achieved a significant milestone in autonomously controlled flight today with the successful first flight of its Pegasus experimental unmanned air vehicle (UAV). The flight took place at NAVAIR Weapons Division, China Lake, Calif.
A photo accompanying this release is available at

Northrop Grumman designed and built the Pegasus X-47A with its own funds to demonstrate low-cost, rapid prototyping; robust unmanned vehicle management; and tailless aerodynamic qualities suitable for autonomous launch and recovery flight operations from an aircraft carrier. Lessons learned from the development and testing of Pegasus will be used in support of the company’s naval unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV-N) program for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Navy.

Today’s flight began at 7:56 a.m. PST and lasted 12 minutes. Specific test objectives included low-speed handling qualities, air vehicle performance, navigation performance and collection of landing dispersion data. All test objectives were met.

Most significantly, the X-47A successfully landed near a predesignated touchdown point to simulate the tailhook arrestment point on a carrier flight deck. This landing data, coupled with subsequent flight touchdown points, will demonstrate the X-47A system’s landing accuracy potential. The shipboard-relative global positioning satellite system was used as the primary navigation source for increased landing precision.

Built largely with composite materials and powered by a Pratt & Whitney JT15D-5C engine providing 3,200 pounds of thrust, Pegasus measures 27.9 feet long with a nearly equal wingspan of 27.8 feet. The X-47A incorporates advanced autonomous flight control laws to account for directional control of its tailless design.

“The Pegasus program represents our commitment to significantly reduce the risk for our DARPA and Navy customers on the UCAV-N program,” said Gary W. Ervin, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems sector vice president for Air Combat Systems. “Regular unmanned flight operations aboard a flight deck at sea have never been attempted, and Pegasus addressed some of those key concerns today.

“In addition, today’s event leverages Northrop Grumman’s experience with thousands of hours of autonomous flight by unmanned systems such as Global Hawk and Fire Scout,” Ervin said. “Our approach to design from a ‘system’ perspective is reflected in our success with a full range of UAVs, and Pegasus is a logical progression in repeatable performance with a complex aerodynamic shape. This success also points to the potential for joint use of the Pegasus design to meet Air Force requirements in the government’s emerging Joint UCAV program.”

The goal of the joint DARPA/Navy UCAV-N program is to demonstrate the technical feasibility for an unmanned system to effectively and affordably conduct sea-based surveillance, strike and suppression of enemy air defenses missions within the emerging global command and control architecture. The Pegasus program will play a significant role in supporting this effort.


     

Hunter Deployed For US Border Patrol Missions

From now until the end of January, foreigners who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally into Arizona will have to contend with more than just rugged terrain, desert heat and rattlesnakes. Now, they’ll also have to be on the lookout for two U.S. Army RQ-5 Hunter UAVs equipped with electro optical infrared sensors began making reconnaissance flights along the Arizona border area 90 miles southeast of Tucson.
The Northrop Grumman-developed RQ-5 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is being used by the Department of Homeland Security to help monitor illegal border traffic as part of the new Arizona Border Control.




DRAGONFLY It’s intended to float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

And now the Carnard Rotor/Wing, or CRW, demonstrator – the revolutionary concept that combines the capabilities of a helicopter with those of a fixed-wing jet aircraft – joins a rich heritage of experimental champions that have fostered tremendous advances in aerospace.

The CRW, being developed by Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has been assigned an official designation of X-50A.

The aircraft combines the vertical takeoff/landing capabilities of a rotorcraft with the high-subsonic cruise speed and agility of a fixed-wing airplane. As its name implies, its versatility is achieved by having a specially designed rotor for vertical takeoffs and landings that can be stopped in flight to serve as a fixed wing for jet cruise. Under an agreement with DARPA, Boeing Phantom Works has built and will flight-test two pilotless demonstrators to assess and validate the advanced rotorcraft concept.

Follow-on CRW versions could evolve into larger, piloted vehicles capable of conducting specialized missions, including reconnaissance, armed escort, urban operations, tactical air support, communications/data relay and resupply. With such flexibility, operations could originate from small-deck ships or forward bases.

“We’re proud to add the X-50A designation to the CRW and our long history of experimental vehicle development at Boeing,” said George Muellner, president of Boeing Phantom Works, which originally conceived the CRW and produced two prototype demonstrators. “The X-50A is another example of the kind of innovative, affordable solution that we provide to meet the future needs of our customers.”

Steve Bass, X-50 program manager, said the concept is moving closer to reality and that rigorous testing is already under way.

“At our Phantom Works facility in Mesa, Ariz., Ship No. 1 is currently undergoing testing in the hover pit, and Ship No. 2 is nearly completed,” said Bass. “This momentum places us on track for a first flight of the X-50A later this year.”

Also known as “Dragonfly,” the unmanned X-50A CRW has a length of 17.7 feet and is 6.5 feet high. The rotor blades have a diameter of 12 feet. Powered by a conventional turbofan engine, the X- 50A will utilize diverter valves to direct thrust to the rotor blade tips (for helicopter mode), or aft to the jet nozzle (for fixed wing mode). Dual bleed thrust will be used during transition.

By directing thrust through the rotor tips, the CRW concept eliminates the need for a heavy and complex mechanical drive train, transmission and anti-torque system. The CRW will be much lighter and simpler than traditional rotorcraft and will therefore be much cheaper to operate and support.

[Satyagraha]

     

Firebee

The Firebee has several designations, for example, BQM-34S is Air Force, MQM-34D is Army, and there are several versions under the model 147 designation. Both China and Iran have this UAV in their inventory. The wings are mid-mounted, swept-back, and untapered with angular tips. The engine is a bulging jet on the belly with an oval intake and round exhaust. The fuselage is round and tapered front and rear with a pointed nose and tail cone and a belly fin. The tail flats are high-mounted, swept-back, and untapered, with a swept-back and tapered fin.




DarkStar

The Tier III Minus UAV, known by the nickname DarkStar, was one of two high altitude endurance UAVs being developed for the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO) by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) joint UAV program office. The Department of Defense canceled the Dark Star UAV program in February 1999 due to budget cuts. Given a trade-off between stealth and range, the Air Force chose the range of Global Hawk over Darkstar’s stealth.

The Tier III Minus program is the first project to be executed under the “Section 845 Authority” granted to ARPA for prototype weapons development projects. This authority has paved the way for unprecedented government-industry collaboration by removing the burden of specialized Defense procurement regulations and statutes. The Tier Three Dark Star came with a one page specification that simply specified best altitude, endurance, and signature for a $10M (94$) unit cost for units 11-20.

At a planned $10 million a copy (FY94 dollars), the DarkStar UAV was intended to provide affordable, near real time, continuous, all weather, wide area surveillance in support of tactical commanders. The result would be timely information that the tactical commander can immediately exploit for accurate situational awareness and to perform precision strikes and other high priority intelligence and reconnaissance tasks.

The DarkStar system is a high-altitude, endurance unmanned air vehicle optimized for reconnaissance in highly defended areas. Physically, it is a little over half the span and a third the length of the Global Hawk aircraft. The Common Ground Segment, being developed by Raytheon/E-Systems, combines mission planning, command and control, communications and imagery quality control for both systems into a transportable system housed in two ruggedized shelters. Optimized for low observables, DarkStar’s operational goal is to be highly survivable while penetrating high threat environments. Complementing the Tier III Minus is the Tier II Plus, which will be optimized for long range and endurance in a low-to-moderate threat environment. Both vehicles will be capable of fully autonomous take-off, flight and recovery; be capable of dynamic retasking while in flight.

[luckee1]

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s … Robofalcon!  image missing
Its mission: to protect unsuspecting airplanes from unsuspecting birds.

Robofalcon can look like almost any bird of prey imaginable (above, it appears as a huge Peregrine falcon) and is currently being tested for use at several airports.
There’s a deadly turf war in the sky, and it’s birds against jets. No joke: Seven years ago, 24 people died when an Air Force surveillance jet crashed in Alaska after geese flew into the engines. Though not usually fatal to humans, such collisions result in an average of $500 million of damage each year. Most occur during takeoff or landing, so airports have experimented with a variety of techniques to shoo birds away: everything from shotguns to fireworks to recorded avian distress calls. But Wilfred Emonts believes he’s got the right mixture of nature and high-tech: Robofalcon. Emonts, a renowned breeder and trainer of falcons, was hired two decades ago to keep birds away from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. His falcons would circle the airport, scaring off everything else with feathers. But they didn’t chase the other birds long or far enough to keep them frightened. “If a lion ran for 20 feet or so and then gave up every time it chased you, you’d stop being afraid of it too,” he says. The inspiration for Robofalcon arrived a few years ago as

Emonts stared at a toy ornithopter (a contraption that flies by flapping its wings). He enlisted Sean Kinkade to design an ornithopter that would “work just like a real falcon” but could be controlled by humans. His company, Intercept Technologies, is now offering Robofalcon in various sizes and species: from Peregrine Falcon (for scaring small birds such as starlings) to Golden Eagle (for larger birds such as turkey vultures).

Robofalcon gets almost all of its lift and thrust from its flapping wings, while the tail acts as both elevator and rudder. It can brave 25-mph winds and, best of all, uses a mechanism adapted from radio-controlled boats to lock its wings and soar.

Emonts is now marketing Robofalcon to airports, landfills, and golf courses. But he still wants to make it more realistic. “Maybe in the future,” he says, “it will be able to perch on a building.”

Things To Come

Stealth, lasers, satellite-based guidance, and endurance airframes transformed the Air Force during the last two decades, and advances in propulsion, directed energy, robotics, and information technology will transform the service again over the next 20 years.

(Snip….........)


4 years ago
neverknwo    

UNMANNED But UNARMED image missing



High Altitude Airship

The Lockheed Martin High Altitude Airship, an unmanned lighter-than-air vehicle, will operate above the jet stream in a quasi-geostationary position to deliver persistent stationkeeping as a telecommunications relay, a weather observer, or a surveillance platform.

This updated concept of a proven technology takes lighter-than-air vehicles into a realm that gives users capabilities on par with satellites at a fraction of the cost. In position, an airship would survey a 700-mile diameter area and millions of cubic miles of airspace.

Many of the vital technologies have matured to a point that they are ready for system integration. High-strength fabrics to minimize hull weight, thin-film solar arrays for regenerative power supply, and lightweight propulsion units are key technologies ready to make a high-flying airship a reality. The combination of photovoltaic and advanced energy storage systems delivers the necessary power to perform the airship functions.


U.S. routinely using attack drones to protect convoys

The U.S. military has turned unmanned aerial strike operations in Iraq into a routine.

U.S. military officials said the Air Force has honed the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to target and kill snipers and insurgency bombers in efforts to ambush U.S. military convoys and combat patrols.

“The use of UAVs has been critical in monitoring convoy routes for IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and their operators,” an official said. “But with strike UAVs we will be able to hit them immediately. It’s quite a deterrent.”
Most of the UAV strike operations have involved the Predator, Middle East Newsline reported. The Predator was first deployed as a strike platform in the war in Afghanistan in 2001, but by 2004 became a key element in the U.S.-led counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq. “We used a lot of the Hellfire [anti-tank] missile capability off of our Predator UAVs to take out individual small targets like snipers and the like that were found by the ground forces,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper said. “It’s not a thing where I get a daily report on the weird episode of firing Hellfire off a Predator, no. It’s routine.”

[On Monday, Operation Steel Curtain moved into its second phase along the Iraqi-Syrian border. Officials said U.S. and Iraqi troops entered Ubaydi, about 20 kilometers from the Syrian border, as part of an effort to halt the influx of Sunni insurgents from Syria.]

Over the last year, the Predator — manufactured by General Atomics and meant to be the leading UAV in the U.S. military— has been enhanced for counter-insurgency strike operations. The UAV has been equipped with laser target designators to guide bombs to their targets.

(Snip…....................)

[luckee1]

Pinhole Camera is the ‘Eye of the Dragon’ for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
A research fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia has developed a field-widened pinhole camera for the guidance and stabilization of miniature unmanned aerial vehicles with wingspans of tens of centimeters.

———————————————————————————————————————— A compact pinhole camera for the guidance and stabilization of miniature unmanned aerial vehicles has a field of view of approximately 165°. It produces data that indicate translational and rotational motion in three dimensions in low-light conditions. Courtesy of Christel-Loic Tisse, University of Sydney.

===========================


Drudge on Drones – Doh!

Dis-Info Alert

“HONEYWELL is developing a micro flying spy drone — that would be used for civilian law enforcement!” the “Drudge Report shouts“:http://www.drudgereport.com/flashmav.htm.

Which is true. In a way.

The company is, indeed, developing a small, hovering robot carrying video cameras and other sensors,” as Drudge explains, and Defense Tech has detailed in the past. And Honeywell officials have talked about unmanned vehicles being “a huge growth area… not only for the military, but for the department of homeland defense and other agencies.”

But, near as I can tell, there’s been nothing more than loose talk about the Pentagon-funded machines moving into police work.

Oh, another thing: Drudge says that “the vehicle [is] nicknamed ‘Dragon Eye.’”

Which is wrong.

The Dragon Eye is a Marine Corps drone — one that’s spent the last two years in combat zones, not it research labs, like the Honeywell machine.

Both are meant for short-range recon, true. But the model airplane-esque Dragon Eyelooks nothing like the cylindrical Honeywell bot (above). And it uses propellers to fly, not ducted fans.

Yeah, it’s a small point. But telling.

[luckee1]

     

Field Report on Raven, Shadow UAVs From the 101st

RQ-7 Shadow UAV
(click to expand)eDefense Online notes that when the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Air Assault Division deployed to Iraq in late October 2005, it contained more unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) assets than any combat brigade in US Army history, with RQ-7 Shadow 200 platoons in all four brigades and RQ-11 Raven mini-UAVs in every company.

RQ-11 Raven
(click to view full)DID has covered both AAI’s RQ-7 Shadow and AeroVironment’s RQ-11 Raven UAVs in past articles; the eDefense Online article adds useful details that illustrate the process of forming and training these teams, and offer detailed tactical assessments of the systems from a front-line perspective. Highly recommended; some interesting points raised in the eDefense article included


Boeing Selects Software for J-UCAS X-45C

X-45C UCASCOTS Journal reports that Boeing has selected the Aonix PERC Java J2SE-based, real-time embedded Virtual Machine (VM) for the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems’ (J-UCAS) X-45C program.

The multi-billion dollar J-UCAS program is a joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), U.S. Air Force and Navy effort to create UAVs deployable from land bases or aircraft carriers, with stealth characteristics and a range and weapons load that approaches current manned fighters. Both Boeing (X-45C) and Northrop-Grumman (X-47B Pegasus) are submitting and testing designs, but all J-UCAS platforms will employ a Common Operating System (COS) integrating the system components. As DARPA notes:




“FCS Rolls on, Boeing Receives Another $219M“:

The Boeing Co. in St. Louis, MO received a $219.2M increment as part of a $17.35 billion cost-plus-fixed-fee/ cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the Future Combat System development and demonstration phase. Being and SAIC are the lead system integrators for this program, which means they receive instructions from the military re: the capabilities they want, then manage the requirements, development, RFPs and contracts etc. to achieve those goals.

Military reviews are interspersed throughout the process, and indeed the FCS recently passed a “System of Systems” Functional Review that lasted five days and included almost 40 briefings at 24 different sites across the country. Still, the program has definitely had its ups and downs. Readers may wish to view:

(Snip….........)

[luckee1]

Dick Tracy Tech for UAVs- The V-RAMBO

Israeli enlightenment
from a higher powerTadiran Spectralink Ltd. of Cholon, Israel, who make the communications systems for the battle-proven Pioneer UAV, have developed a new way for the soldier in the field to receive UAV pictures and data: the wrist-mounted Video Receiver And Monitor for Battlefield Operations (V-RAMBO), also known as a Personal Video Receiver. The system is a miniaturized version of the TVL-II system in Israeli attack helicopters and tanks. The 3-inch color video display attaches to the soldier’s wrist via an adjustable velcro strap, and the video receiver unit can be mounted on the soldier’s vest. Like the TVL-II, V-RAMBO broadcasts real-time video from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) directly to the wrists of individual Israeli Army infantry soldiers on the ground. TVL-II has been credited with helping to reduce the time it takes to identify and strike a target from minutes to seconds, an important consideration in urban environments and situations involving the targeting of terrorist leaders.

DefenseReview.com: V-RAMBO ‘Wrist Video’ System Puts Real-Time Video Right on Soldiers’ Wrists


Dragonfly UAV Now Equipped With Metal Storm Technology

Metal Storm, the Australian company probably best known for its ‘million rounds a minute’ electronic-fired gun technology, has announced its plans to conduct live-round demonstrations of a 40mm version of its cannon integrated into the unmanned helicopter UAV, the Dragonfly DP4x. The Vertical Take-Off and Landing Dragonfly, developed by a second company, Dragonfly Pictures Inc. (DPI), weights around 140 pounds—light enough to be carried by a couple of in-field operators, if needed. Along with the fully-electronic ballistic system from Metal Storm, the Dragonfly can carry imaging, communication, and environmental sensors useful in gathering remote intelligence. No word yet if the Dragonfly will also have cockpit space for the 12-inch or more modern 3.75-inch G.I. Joes

[luckee1]

Multipurpose Security and Surveillance Mission Platform

The Multipurpose Security and Surveillance Mission Platform (MSSMP), started in FY’92 as the Air-Mobile Ground Security and Surveillance System (AMGSSS), http://www.nosc.mil/robots/air/amgsss/amgsss.html  is designed to provide a rapidly deployable, extended-range surveillance capability for a variety of operations and missions, including: fire control, force protection, tactical security, support to counterdrug and border patrol operations, signal/communications relays, detection and assessment of barriers (i.e., mine fields, tank traps), remote assessment of suspected contaminated areas (i.e., chemical, biological, and nuclear), and even resupply of small quantities of critical items. The MSSMP system consists of three air-mobile remote sensing packages and a base station.

[luckee1]

Bush promises drones for border security

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) – President George W. Bush promised the use of unmanned flying drones on Tuesday to help patrol the porous U.S.-Mexican border as Democrats charged he had not done enough to provide border security.

Wrapping up a two-day swing to promote his plans to overhaul U.S. immigration laws, Bush rode in a black sport utility vehicle along a bumpy dirt road on the American bank of the Rio Grande.

On one side he could see over the dry riverbed to Ciudad Juarez and on the other El Paso’s skyline. His motorcade traveled along an electrified chain link fence with tactical lighting and topped with barbed-wire skirts.

Along the route, he saw armed Border Patrol guards in green uniforms in vehicles or on horseback. More than 1,300 of them police “the line” as they call the 266 miles of border in the El Paso sector.

(Snip…...........)


R106433
4 years ago
neverknwo    

VIPER TEAMS JOIN HOMELAND SECURITY

“Visible Intermodal Protection and Response“ teams

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. air marshals, who usually provide security on jetliners, will join law enforcement agents on other forms of mass transit beginning this week in a test of a new surveillance program, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Citing internal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) documents, the newspaper reported the “Visible Intermodal Protection and Response” teams — or “viper” teams — would fan out at facilities across the United States through the New Year’s holiday.

Air marshals will remain on flights but the viper program will expand their role beyond the aircraft, the newspaper said, citing a TSA official.

“TSA is going to extend its outreach into other modes of transportation,” said David Adams, spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, told the newspaper.

“We think this is a very good approach to test our tools and quickly deploy resources in the event of a situation or a threat,” Adams said.

Federal officials said there was no new intelligence indicating that terrorists were targeting mass transit, the newspaper said.

A viper team will consist of two air marshals, one TSA bomb-sniffing canine team, one or two transportation security inspectors, one local law enforcement officer, and one other TSA employee, the Post reported.

http://media.vidilife.com/video/2005/11/29/105720/157050.asx
DARPA Unmanned Bomber Flight Video

It’s Unlike Any Aircraft You’ve Ever Seen

SEATTLE – Boeing is working on the future of warfare. Today, the company is showing to the media its prototype unmanned aircraft: X-45C.

Boeing’s Sean Griffin says the X-45C doesn’t look like any aircraft you’ve ever seen – unless you saw the movie “Stealth” starring Jamie Foxx.

“It’s unlike any aircraft you’ve ever seen,” says Griffin. “It’s more than 40 feet long, more than 30 feet wide, it looks like a big flying wedge with an air scoop on top of it.”

The X-45 is going to change the way wars are waged.

“It can hold about a ton of bombs and deliver them autonomously,” says Griffin.

And it’s providing employment locally. About 200 Puget Sound employees are involved in its advanced technology research and development. But you might find it surprising to know that there is lots of this kind of work going on around here.

“This is just one of more than a dozen very high tech defense and space programs that we have about 9,000 working on in Puget Sound,” says Griffin. “This is a big high tech center, not only for the Boeing Company but for the industry in general.”

SKYNET (link does not work)
Data and Video Dissemination
Federal agencies must ensure that information, whether in the form of video, web-based, or streaming media, reaches the right audience at the right time. Often this information is of a special nature, be it government databases, large satellite video images, or files of a highly sensitive or secure classification. SkyStream has comprehensive solutions for real-time broadcast information delivery over both traditional and overlay networks.

An example of this is an intelligence agency, which has a number of incoming live video feeds from a variety of sources. These could include:

Real-time satellite surveillance video and mapping images
Live intelligence briefings
Television broadcasts from around the world

http://www.dragonflypictures.com/



Dragonfly Pictures, Inc. (DPI) has developed revolutionary designs for unmanned vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) air vehicles.

These aircraft provide a cost-effective alternative to manned air vehicles for many of YOUR commercial, civil, or military aerial imaging, payload delivery, and airborne sensor applications.
The DPI vehicle systems can tackle aerial tasks requiring smaller, more flexible, and manueverable platforms and can eliminate the personnnel risks associated with hazardous manned vehicle applications.

Contact us today to discuss your unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) application and to discover why DPI should be YOUR choice for unmanned VTOL platforms

New super-gun to be tested in Feb
By PAMELA HESS
UPI Pentagon Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) — Next month a new high-explosive munition will be fired in Singapore and then tested again by the U.S. Army, heralding what may be a sea change in weaponry: a gun that can fire 240,000 rounds per minute.

[luckee1]

Coming Soon To A Police Department Near You  http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=797c89da-36c6-49d9-abd0-faabbd5a6141


Is Big Brother Coming To Gaston County, NC?
With all the furor surrounding the government’s recent deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles along the US-Mexico border (and the resulting TFRs intended to ensure the UAVS don’t accidentally slam into a wayward Cessna) it’s no surprise one local constabulary’s plan to deploy a UAV over its town has given a few people some pause.

The Gaston County Police Department will probably be getting some phone calls soon regarding its purchase of a CyberBug, a small, hand-launched, hang-glider-like UAV (right) the department intends to deploy soon on a variety of missions.

From a cost/benefit perspective, it makes sense for Gaston County to employ the UAV. At $30,000 a pop — including support equipment — a new CyberBug is far less expensive than a used helicopter or fixed-wing manned aircraft. It also only takes a single “pilot” to fly a CyberBug, and the craft runs on electricity, not avgas.

At issue is where the UAV will be operating — in airspace regulated by the FAA, and used by pilots who are used to sharing the skies with other pilots… and their eyes.

“The main issue with UAVs whether they’re military or civilian is they must operate in a way that is safe for pilots operating in the area,” said the AOPA’s Chris Dancy. “The UAVs must be able to sense and avoid. Until they can, we don’t believe they can be safely integrated into the overall airspace system.”

The move by a civilian entity to employ UAVs has also caught the wary eye of groups focused on privacy issues.

The idea of UAVs “makes me a little bit edgy,” said Dr. Susan Roberts, professor of political science at Davidson University. “We want our freedom of privacy, and of person. It’s getting of more and more concern that we need to give up things for some kind of security issue, and we’re not sure what that is.”

For its part, Gaston County says isn’t planning on using its UAV for anything but roles carried out by helicopters in larger communities.

“The applications we have in mind for the CyberBug include a long list of missions,” said Assistant Chief Jeff Isenhour in a Cyber Defense — makers of the CyberBug — press release. “Just to name a few, we would use the CyberBug for routine surveillance, lost persons, tactical operations, open area drug eradication, and overhead crime scene photography.”

Representatives with Cyber Defense maintain the ability to give real-time information and provide video and patrol coverage over a much wider area than previously available (before the CyberBug, Gaston County had no aerial capabilities) will provide much more comprehensive levels of protection to both the citizens and law enforcement of Gaston County.

For pilots, however, the greatest issue is one of safety: how well will their aircraft share the skies with an object roughly the size of a large bird, but with no “eyes” of its own?

“As a pilot, I have concerns,” said one pilot. “What kind of notification are pilots going to have when this vehicle is going to be flying, and at what altitude?”

“It’s hard enough to see a full-size aircraft,” he added.

[luckee1]

Flying China saucer  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/01/china_flying_saucer/
By Chris Williams
Published Wednesday 1st March 2006 14:57 GMT

A Beijing scientist has developed the country’s first flying saucer, Chinese news agency Xinhau reports. The solar-powered nuisance will be ready to take to skies within two years.

UK IT recruitment specialists – Jobsite
Professor Yan Lei of Peking University described his creation: “Unlike conventional aerocraft, which rely on high-speed movement for lifting force and the fuel-powered engine for dynamics, the newly-developed model employs propellers activated by machinery without bearings.”

Lovely. The team hopes the tent-esque unmanned craft will be able to take on tasks previously monopolised by high cost communications satellites.

Its “noiseless flight” in the stratosphere will undoubtedly interest the shadier echelons of authority in Beijing. ®

PILOTS ACT TO KEEP UAV’S OUT OF PUBLIC AIRSPACE http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2006/060215uav.html


AOPA has prompted the FAA to keep an unregulated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operation out of navigable airspace above one North Carolina community.

“Safety is paramount, and current airspace users must be assured that a reasonable level of safety can be maintained,” said Melissa Rudinger, AOPA vice president of regulatory affairs. “The prospect of small UAVs flitting around in the same airspace we use is frightening. We know what kind of damage a 5-pound bird can do to a GA aircraft. Imagine what would happen if you hit a 14-pound UAV?”
=================================


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4946452.stm
For example, a dragonfly has 30,000 of the structures in each eye

Bees eyes are made of thousands of lenses
An artificial insect eye that could be used in ultra-thin cameras has been developed by scientists in the US.


The dimpled eye contains over 8,500 hexagonal lenses packed into an area the size of a pinhead.

The dome-shaped structure, described in the journal Science, is similar to a bee’s eye.

The researchers, from the University of California, Berkeley, say the work may also shed light on how insects developed such complex visual systems.

“Even though insects start with just a single cell, they grow and create this beautiful optical system by themselves,” said Professor Luke Lee, one of the authors on the paper.

“I wanted to understand how nature can create layer upon layer of perfectly ordered structures without expensive fabrication technology,” he said.

As a result, the team of bioengineers came up with a relatively cheap and easy method for creating the artificial eyes that may in part mimic natural processes.

Image mosaic

Insect eyes, known as compound eyes, usually consist of hundreds of tiny lens-capped optical units, known as ommatidia.

Individual ommatidia guide light through a lens and cone into a channel, known as a rhabdom, which contains light-sensitive cells. These are connected to optical, nerve cells to produce the image.

THE STRUCTURES COMPARED

As light passes through the micro lens of the artificial ommatidia, it is focused on a point where photo-chemical changes in the resin automatically generate the cone and the wave-guide

The ommatidia are crammed side by side into bulges that create a wide field of view for the insect.

As each unit is orientated in a slightly different direction, the honeycombed eye creates a mosaic image which, although low in resolution, is excellent at detecting movement.

The team created the artificial eye by first creating a tiny, reusable mould with 8,700 indentations.

The pock-marked hemisphere was then filled with an epoxy resin that reacts when exposed to ultraviolet light to create a harder material with different chemical properties.

After being baked at a low temperature to set the material it can be extracted from the mould.

The result is a pin head sized dome with 8,700 raised humps arranged in a honeycomb pattern across its surface.

Each raised hump acts like a lens, focusing any light into the material below.

Perfect alignment

Over time the concentrated light reacts with the resin to form a cone that guides the light deeper into the structure.

As the light continues to burn a path through the resin it creates a tiny channel, called a wave-guide, which is similar to the rhabdom in an insect’s eye.

The reaction of the polymer with the light changes the optical properties of the material meaning that all light that enters the wave-guide is channelled along its length.
The artificial eye mimics structures found in nature

Enlarge Image

The result is a tiny resin dome, covered in lenses and pierced by perfectly aligned wave-guides that channel light through the centre of the dome.

As the channels are created as a direct result of light falling on the lens, the researchers believe they could gain insights into the order in which these structures originally formed in insect’s eyes.

“To me it makes more sense to have a lens first,” said Professor Lee. “I don’t think that you formed the visual nervous system first and then it fanned out.”

At the moment, the artificial eye is not connected to any kind of imaging device.

‘Wonderful images’

However, it could be attached to an image sensor, similar to those used in a digital camera, to complete the setup.

This would allow the eye to be used in tiny, omni-directional surveillance devices, ultra thin cameras or for high-speed motion sensors.

America’s military research group, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), is interested in the eye and funded some of the research.

Professor Lee also thinks it may have medical applications such as imaging the gut.

“You would swallow this tiny system that also has wireless communication capability,” he told the BBC News website.

“So while you are getting these wonderful images inside the body they can be transmitted back outside.”

Even further down the line, Professor Lee believes that the work could help develop artificial retinas for the blind.

“This is our future goal” he said.

[luckee1]

Pentagon developing supersonic shape-shifting assassin
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/06/23/supersonic.bomber/index.html
(no image available)
For years, the U.S. military has wanted a plane that could loiter just outside enemy territory for more than a dozen hours and, on command, hurtle toward a target faster than the speed of sound. And then level it.

But aircraft that excel at subsonic flight are inefficient at Mach speeds, and vice versa. The answer is Switchblade, an unmanned, shape-changing plane concept under development by Northrop Grumman.

When completed (target date: 2020), it will cruise with its 200-foot-long wing perpendicular to its engines like a normal airplane. But just before the craft breaks the sound barrier, its single wing will swivel around 60 degrees (hence the name) so that one end points forward and the other back.

This oblique configuration redistributes the shock waves that pile up in front of a plane at Mach speeds and cause drag. When the Switchblade returns to subsonic speeds, the wing will rotate back to perpendicular.

Smart plan. Now for the hard part: designing the thing. DARPA, the Pentagon’s way-out research arm, has coughed up $10.3 million to Northrop Grumman to produce a detailed blueprint by November 2007. A flying test vehicle is due about four years later.

The initial concept calls for a single wing with engines situated in a pod underneath, along with munitions and surveillance equipment. This setup will enable the wing to pivot while the engines remain pointed in the direction the craft is traveling.

This is not the first attempt at an oblique-wing aircraft. SpaceShipOne creator Burt Rutan designed a switch-wing plane with NASA in 1979. But the slanted wings made the craft hard to fly — when the pilot pulled the nose up, the plane would roll to one side.

The Switchblade, however, is a good candidate to be an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The artificial intelligence used to control UAVs can handle the tricky flight dynamics, and a computer pilot doesn’t need to eat, rest, or go to the bathroom — useful for those 15-plus-hour missions.

If all goes well, DARPA says, a 40-foot-wingspan demonstration model could be ready by 2010, and a full-size Switchblade should be all set for a brawl by 2020.
===============================
Disaster averted/ UAV fires at IDF, IAF halts fire
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291989822&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


The IAF revealed on Tuesday that it had prevented a severe disaster on the previous day when it had halted the fire that a UAV was shooting at Israeli troops.

A senior Air Force officer said that the UAV opened fire on ground troops operating in Bint Jbeil after receiving the coordinates from the Golani Brigade. The fire was stopped when the IAF realized the mistake.

No one was wounded in the incident.

[luckee1]

http://english.pravda.ru/science/tech/84052-1/     

Next generation of flying micro-robots to be made of cellophane

Professor Jaehwan Kim and his colleagues at the Creative Research Center of Inha University in Korea have discovered that cellophane was a “smart material” which could be used for making flying robots provided that the material is exposed to an electric field. Russian scientists were quick to respond to the reports from Korea – they conducted a similar research into cellophane.
“The discovery rests on specific piezoelectric properties of cellophane,” says Prof. Yuri Yevdokomov at V. A. Engelgardt Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Cellophane or ‘electroactive paper’ (EAPap) is coated with a thin film of gold on either side. Then the ‘plus’ electric voltage is applied on the one side of the EAPap, and the ‘minus’ voltage is applied on the other side. As a result, the material bends to the “positive” direction. It will symmetrically bend to the opposite direction if you switch the polarity. You can make it flap like a tiny wing if polarity is switched at a fairly quick pace. The amount of gold required for making the device is very small so the polyethylene miracle won’t cost like some article of jewelry,” adds Prof. Yevdokimov.

Scientists estimate that no batteries or wires are required for the device because the electric energy consumption is extremely low. A special microchip antenna can be integrated into EAPap. Electricity that moves it would be converted from the radio waves beamed to the antenna.

“The mechanism of such ultra-lightweight multifunctional applications is very resistant to the effects of environment, it can withstand well the chemical and mechanical impact,” says Prof. Yevdokimov. “Perhaps the above ‘birdlike style’ of movements will soon make full-blown competitors of these micro-insect robots in terms of miniature aircraft and other handy electro-mechanical applications for security monitoring. I’d say the devices could do a fine job for the traffic police,” adds he.

“As for the foreseeable future, we envisage the development of certain molecular structures capable of moving independently along the tissues of the human body in order to detect the presence and concentration of biological substances,” says Prof. Yevdokimov. “We believe the bioanalitic systems have quite excellent prospects for the use in the field of biochemical analysis and clinical diagnostics,” says he.

The Institute of Medical and Biological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences recently tested a similar molecular machine. The nanorobots comprised three components: the carrier molecules, the molecules to detect the cancer cells, and the luminescent solid molecules. The latter would point out the cancer cells once the compounds were inserted into the body to accumulate in the vicinity of a tumor. It is clear that the method can be used for delivering medicine to the right destination.

Researchers of the above institution are currently working on the development of a new material with extremely high cohesion, which will enable humans or robots to move about the slanting or vertical surfaces or even upside down.

“The research hinges on a natural phenomenon discovered about a year ago. The researchers found the reasons why the geckos – the small-sized tropical lizards which spent a considerable amount of time in space during several missions on board the International Space Station – were capable of easily clinging to steep surfaces,” says Professor Boris Pavlov, section chief of the Institute of Medical and Biological Studies, in an interview to Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

“The remarkable cohesion displayed by the lizards has nothing to do with special gluing matter excreted by their paws. The toes of a paw are covered with millions of microscopic hairs.

The hairs do the trick. Each hair is twice as big in an average human hair in thickness, and has about a thousand small pads on its end. Those pads are so small, so they can attach to the surface on the molecular level,” says Prof. Pavlov. A prototype can hold a weight of several kilos when clung to the ceiling. The researchers aim to develop a robotic climber for conducting research in open space.

Meanwhile, Japanese scientists built a unique robot capable of recognizing people by their facial features. The robot can also understand the meaning of about 10,000 words. It is designed mostly as a household assistant. The android is dubbed Wakamaru, it is one meter tall. The machine will be marketed as a mechanical nurse and home secretary. The designers claim the robot can look after the household while the occupants of a house are away at work or on vacation. The robot is reported to be able to warn the occupants of any illegal entry, look after the children or bedridden patients, perform secretarial duties without fail, and even use the e-mail.

The robot is a lightweight machine, it weights 30 kilos. Wakamaru is expected to retail at $14,300 a piece.

Izvestia Nauki

Translated by Guerman Grachev
Pravda.Ru

[luckee1]

DRAGON WARRIOR 369 TASK FORCE/ FC of the NEW WORLD ORDER 2

Notice the Mention of Cobra named as Unmaned Vehicles. Remember Cobra from G.I Joe?
The Rise of the Dragon?

Project Blue Beam?

The Future Combat Systems – FCS – is the core of the Army’s efforts to ensure that the Army will move, shoot, kill and communicate better than ever before and better than any opponent it will face in the 21st century – any time, under any circumstances, anywhere that the Nation needs us.
FCS is about the 21st Century Soldier. Lessons learned in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terrorism have shown that a joint, combined arms, network centric force has the ability to both rapidly defeat an enemy in battle and act as a key element in follow-on peacekeeping efforts. The Army is using these lessons to fundamentally transform into a faster, more agile force with superior situational awareness and power projection capability. The core of the FCS-equipped UA – is a highly integrated net-centric structure of 18 manned and unmanned (MUM), air and ground maneuver, maneuver support, and sustainment systems, bound together by a distributed network and supporting the soldier, (18+1+1 systems) acting as a unified combat force in the Joint environment. The network uses a Battle Command architecture that integrates networked communications, network operations, sensors, battle command system, training, and MUM recon-surveillance capabilities to enable situational understanding and operations at a level of synchronization not achievable in current network centric operations. ...
======================================

“USAF gives “Reaper” name to MQ-9 UAV“:http://www.shephard.co.uk/UVOnline/Default.aspx?Action=-187126550&ID=b9066771-4d7a-49f1-9232-456169248751
UVonline
14 Sep 2006

(WASHINGTON) — The Air Force Chief of Staff announced “Reaper” has been chosen as the name for the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle.

The Air Force is the Department of Defense’s executive agent for designating and naming military aerospace vehicles.

In the case of the Reaper, Gen. T. Michael Moseley made the final decision after an extensive nomination and review process, coordinated with the other Services.

“The name Reaper is one of the suggestions that came from our Airmen in the field. It’s fitting as it captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system,” Moseley said.

The MQ-9 Reaper is the Air Force’s first hunter-killer UAV. It’s larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator and is designed to go after time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision, and destroy or disable those targets with 500-lb. bombs and Hellfire Missiles.

“The Reaper represents a significant evolution in UAV technology and employment. We’ve moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roles before Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper,” he said.

Moseley stressed that the key advantage is not keeping manned aircraft and pilots out of harm’s way, but the persistence UAVs can inherently provide. The Reaper can stay airborne for up to 14 hours fully loaded.

A 900 hp turbo-prop engine, compared to the 119 hp Predator engine, powers the aircraft. It has a 64-foot wingspan and carries more than 15 times the ordnance of the Predator, flying almost three times the Predator’s cruise speed.

The Air Force has seven MQ-9 Reapers in its inventory, with a full-rate production decision expected in 2009.

The Air Force is the global leader in UAV innovation, Moseley said.

[luckee1]

     
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/cat_drones.html
Eagle Eyes for Drones & Missiles

In recent years, increasing numbers of military-backed researchers have been borrowing from nature, effectively leveraging millions of years of evolutionary progress. Until we have machines that are as smart, agile and flexible as animals we will have plenty to learn – and robots will increasingly come to resemble living things.

[INSERT] PLEASE SEE THIS SITE AS THERE TONS MORE INFO AND UPDATED ARTICLES, I WILL TRY TO GET THIS BUT I WANT TO STAY ON THOSE OLD POSTINGS FIRST [END INSERT]
================================
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=061015093636.r5gmx8lm&show_article=1


Police want spy planes to fight anti-social behaviour

A police force is considering using unmanned aerial surveillance drones to fly over troubled local council housing estates to help tackle anti-social behaviour in respective areas.
The police force for Merseyside, in western England, has formed a new Anti-Social Behaviour Task Force which will have a budget of one million pounds (1.85 million dollars, 1.5 million euros), and a staff of 137, drawn from both the local police and fire services, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

“It’s a cheap way of doing aerial surveillance, it’s a cheap way of doing intelligence and evidence gathering. Put over an anti-social behaviour hotspot, it is quite a significant percentage cheaper than the force helicopter,” said Superintendent John Myles, the joint-head of the task force.

“There may be some hurdles. The Civil Aviation Authority may say that it is a no-no, but I don’t think it is at the moment,” he said.

The newspaper reported that police forces in the United States have used similar drones, which cost about 16,000 pounds each, and circle areas at a height of 250 feet (76 metres), flying at about 30 miles (50 kilometres) per hour.

[luckee1]

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/cat_drones.html

Predators? You ain't seen nothin' yet

Not that many years ago if you wanted to hear a lecture on how wars will be fought by remotely controlled or increasingly autonomous machines you'd probably have to go to a sci-fi convention and sit next to someone with paste-on Vulcan ears.

Not anymore.

Peter Singer, author of "Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century," presented the futuristic scenario in a very matter of fact way at the Air Force Association this month in Maryland. And he made it clear that it's not all that far into the future.

If technology continues to develop in the same timeframe it has historically -- with the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits about doubling every two years -- then the world of 2034 will be one in which a today's computer and weapons systems will a billion times the power they have now. The generally accepted view of technological growth is called Moore's Law, named for Intel co-founder Gordon Moore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc43YIA7edI&feature=player_embedded
"If you gave your spouse a Valentine's card or birthday card that played music or sounds when you opened it up, that card had more computer power than the entire Air Force had in 1960," Singer said. "So what happens, projecting forward [25 years] ... then our computers, our unmanned systems, will be a billion times more powerful than today.

"I don't mean 'billion' in that amorphous way people talk about it -- but literally," he said. "Take the power of that device or that computer, of that Predator, and multiply it by 1 with nine zeros behind it."

By that measurement, he said, today's unmanned vehicles are the equivalent of the Wright Brothers' plane or the Model T.

-- Bryant Jordan
===============
The Drone in a Bag

The boys from DoD Buzz are all over the Air Force Association's 2009 annual conference outside DC for the next few days and I thought I'd preview one of the videos they shot.

Bryant Jordan shot a quick floor video of Aurora Flight Sciences' Scate, or what we like to call the "drone in a bag."

It looks like a pliable, foldable mini-drone that is perfect for urban reconnaissance and small unit employment.

I'm sure Bryant will have a post on this at DoD Buzz, but for now, I thought I'd post the video for your enjoyment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk2grnWRlX4&feature=player_embedded
Be sure to keep a close eye on DoD Buzz for more technology innovations and policy pronouncements at this year's AFA.

-- Christian

Inside a Predator Strike (Cyberdyne Beware!)

We posted a pretty interesting video over at DoD Buzz yesterday that I wanted to bring to your attention.

It's fairly detailed look at a Predator/Reaper strike simulated by what looks like company officials, though I'd bet this is what a CIA strike might look like.

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/cat_drones.html

The video is both fascinating and at the same time disturbing.

For one, it's amazing the control and detailed view available to the "pilot" and "sensor." It just blows me away that two people can control several drones from an air conditioned trailer 2,000 miles away -- or 100 miles away. The ability for the operators to distinguish targets, coordinate with controllers in theater and speak with spotters on the ground is just surreal and a real testament to America's technical capabilities and adaptation.

Of course, the video is also creepy in the almost clinical way in which the pilot and sensor deliver their lethal blow. Calm, collected -- and totally detached from any impact of what they've done. It's one thing to launch doomsday out of a Minuteman missile tube -- talk about detachment! ...it's another to launch a missile at a pickup truck you've never seen with your own eyes and have no real sense of the impact of that death on your daily life. A pilot returning to an air base safer because there's one less SVBID on the road has more of a sense of his strike's impact than the contractor in the trailer at Langley.

This is clearly the way aerial warfare is going -- I get it. But it's going to raise many ethical dilemmas along the way.

-- Christian

[luckee1]

According to that web site, there are 53 pages and all this was on the 1st page.  The next page link is not working.  If anyone knows how to get the rest of these postings by neverknwo R96125, let me know.  TIA

[trailhound]

PUNCH YOU IN THE EYE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UfNjl7Qqt4&feature=related

[trailhound]

Nano air vehicle
by ARTiFactor on Jul. 25th, 2006
in Scientific Enterprise
 

DARPA wants Lockheed to design a surveillance drone shaped like a mapleseed. The remote-controlled nano air vehicles (or NAVs, for short) would be dropped from hovercraft, whirl around a battlefield snapping pictures or delivering various payloads. Once the NAV delivers its payload, it would return to the warfighter for collection and refurbishment.
Besides controlling lift and pitch, the wing will also house telemetry, communications, navigation, imaging sensors, and battery power. The NAV will be about 1.5 inches long and have a maximum takeoff weight of about 0.35 ounces. A chemical rocket enclosed in its one-bladed wing will power a sensor payload module more than 1,100 yards. Delivered from a hover and weighing up to 0.07 ounces, the module will be interchangeable based on mission requirements.

    According to James Marsh, director of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL), "The challenges are both exciting and daunting, because some of the technologies vital to our success have yet to be discovered. We know going in that we need some of the best minds in manufacturing technology and in the development and integration of highly sophisticated, software- driven control technologies and mission systems." From Lockheed press release via Yahoo Finance