• Unmanned vehicles pilot shortage top priority for USAF

    It has taken some time, but Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has succeeded in pushing the U.S. Air Force toward an accelerated adoption of unmanned air systems; now the USAF needs hundreds of ground controllers to control them

  • USPS to deploy IPv6-capable video surveillance

    The U.S. Postal Services wants to increase security inside the more than 40,000 post offices around the country; it will install IPv6-capable CCTV systems — complying with the federal government encouragment of agnecies to migrate to IPv6

  • U.S. military to be offered flying hover bike

    An innovative Virginia company says its flying — or hovering — bike may be suitable for military missions; the machine offers vertical takeoff, range, and largely hands-off autopiloting

  • Push for nation-wide car tracking system in U.S.

    Two companies quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients; goal is to create a nation-wide car tracking system in the United States by using existing and newly installed red light cameras and speed cameras

  • Three companies compete for a long-endurance UAV concept

    DARPA’s quest for a long-endurance surveillance UAV — “long endurance” means staying in the air for five years — is not yet a reality, but it is no longer regarded as a pipe dream

  • Small robotic drones to join Air Force's arsenal

    Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, will add surveillance capabilities to the military and law enforcements; scientists have studied the flight of fruit flies, the crawling of insects, and the perching of birds as they look for ideas for smaller and more effective surveillance machines, and MAVs are one result of these studies

  • Using quantum physics to make better detectors

    MIT researcher shows how entanglement, a peculiar property of quantum physics, may be harnessed for surveillance systems which are as much as a million times more efficient than existing systems

  • Studying Osama bin Laden's audio tapes

    University of California, Davis researcher is studying more than 1,500 audiotapes seized in Afghanistan in 2001; the tapes are recording of conversations from the late 1960s through 2000 among bin Laden and more than 200 of his associates

  • France delays Big Brother database

    The French government, in an effort to fight crime and juvenile delinquency, launched a police database aimed at gathering information on suspects as young as thirteen; civil libertarian groups protested the scope of the information to be gathered, and the government, for now, has relented

  • Russian army adopts new reconnaissance drones

    The Russian army has ordered a large number of Tipchak UAV systems from Vega Radio Engineering Corp.; the UAVs will serve in intelligence gathering, but company president says: “Our next project is the development of an attack drone based on the current design”

  • U.S. gets a C grade in WMD report

    A blue ribbon panel of former high security official says terrorism threat remains real, and that the U.S. government’s efforts to counter WMD threats leave much to be desired

  • Rethinking strategy for finding bin Laden

    The effort to bring Osama bin Laden to justice has so far failed; there are many reasons for that: Half-hearted efforts by the Pakistani authorities; failure to win the hearts and minds of tribal leaders in Pakistan’s Northwest Territories; limits Pakistan imposed on direct U.S. action inside Pakistan; the invasion of Iraq, which consumed vast resources which otherwise would have been invested in the effort against al-Qaeda; and more; U.S., Pakistan, are now rethinking the strategy

  • Canada replaces Sperwer UAV with Heron, Skylark

    The Canadian military has spent more than a quarter billion dollars on the French-built Sperwer UAV over the past five years; the military has concluded that the Israeli-built Heron and Skylark would provide Canadian troops in Afghanistan with better protection

  • Forecast: AeroVironment Warms Up

    AeroVironment reports its first quarterly earnings numbers for fiscal 2009 today; the tiny UAV company has proven its competitiveness over bigger hitters in its, well, airspace

  • U.S. start-up develops uncloneable RFID chips

    Silicon Valley start-up says it has developed RFID chips which cannot be cloned; the company uses technology called Physically Unclonable Functions (PUF) which was developed by researchers at MIT