• Border agency testing UAV along U.S. northern border

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has adopted a new addition to help the agency watch over the northern border in upstate New York: a Predator B UAV

  • Israeli Air Force practices UAV shoot-down technique

    During the summer 2006 war, an Israeli Air Force’s F-16 shot down an Iranian-made Ababil UAV operated by Hezbollah; Hamas is trying to smuggle Iranian UAVs into the Gaza Strip, and Iran itself is developing more sophisticated UAVs — leading the IAF to practice UAV shoot-down techniques

  • Iran tests radar-evading UAV

    Commander of the Iranian air force says the service has successfully tested a home-grown, radar-evading UAV; the UAV is intended for both surveillance and bombing missions

  • Israel will not sell the most advanced UAVs to Russia

    Following the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Russia decided it needed more and better UAVs; two Russian companies failed to deliver them, so Russia bought 12 of them from Israel; Israel says it did not sell Russia the most advanced UAVs

  • USAF looks for more discriminating UAVs

    The increased use of UAVs in Pakistan has also increased the number of civilians being killed in attacks on insurgents; one of the main reasons is the fact that the least powerful munition they fire is Hellfire missiles, which are intended to puncture the tough armor of tanks; USAF plans to build smaller, even microscopic drones with smaller weapons that can hunt in swarms and engage targets in the close quarters of urban battlefields

  • Russia buys 12 spy drones from Israel

    The August 2008 war against Georgia convinced the Russian military that it needed more battlefield intelligence; after Russian defense companies failed to provide the military with the right gear, Russia turned to Israel

  • Western companies help Iranian government to monitor citizens

    Nokia Siemens provides the Iranian government with technology to monitor, control, and read local telephone calls; the product allows authorities to monitor any communications across a network, including voice calls, text messaging, instant messages, and Web traffic

  • U.K. government to give up on massive Internet snoop scheme

    The Home Office admits that its IMP (Interception Modernization Program) — the cost of which was to be £2 billion over ten years — cannot be realized because the technology does not yet exist

  • Large defense contractors on a buying spree of smaller UAV manufacturers

    UAV expenditures will double within a decade from $4.4 billion annually to $8.7 billion, with more than $62 billion spent over the next ten years

  • Company in the spotlight: Distillery Software

    Aussie company produces software designed to distill knowledge and intelligence from raw information by linking disparate information elements

  • FLIR acquires Salvador Imaging

    Acquisition will allow FLIR to expand into markets related to its core infrared business

  • Inflatable tower would bring people to the edge of space

    Scientists describe a 15-kilometer inflatable tower made up of 100 modules, each one 150 meters tall and 230 meters in diameter, built from inflatable tubes 2 meters across; when pressurized, the tower would weigh 800,000 tons — twice the weight of the world’s largest supertanker

  • NYCLU sues DHS over mid-Manhattan surveillance scheme

    DHS wants to build a $92 million surveillance system in Lower Manhattan; civil liberties organizations sues DHS over plans to expand plan to mid-Manhattan

  • IDF to use serpent surveillance robot

    Israeli researchers developed a 2-meter long serpent-like robot which mimics the movements and appearance of real snakes, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks, and buildings, while at the same time sending images and sound back to a soldier who controls the device through a laptop computer

  • UAV operation now a career path in U.S. Air Force

    The USAF has 127 Predator and 31 Reaper UAVs in service, along with some 400 pilots to run them; these operators can put about 36 UAVs into the air at any given time; the USAF wants to be able to do more, so it has instituted a policy which will see 10 percent of recent graduates from pilot schools will spend three years operating UAVs, before going on to flying manned aircraft