• Pentagon says U.S. fixed drones hacked by Iraqi insurgents

    Iraqi insurgents, using a $25.95 off-the-shelf commercial application, were able to intercept communication between U.S. surveillance UAVs and the UAVs’ command center; the hacking was discovered when the U.S. military found files of intercepted drone video feeds on laptops of captured militants; U.S. soldiers discovered “days and days and hours and hours of proof,” one U.S. officer said; the same hacking technique is known to have been employed in Afghanistan; the U.S. government has known about the UAV communication flaw since the 1990s, but assumed its adversaries would not be able to take advantage of it.

  • IDF aims for quieter, sturdier UAVs

    The IDF has issues an RFP for a stealthy UAV; the quiet UAV will be attached to battalions in the theater to provide surveillance on a tactical, pinpointed level; also, in an effort to increase its intelligence-gathering capabilities, the IAF will in the coming months establish a new squadron of Heron TP UAVs, called the Eitan, manufactured by IAI

  • Russia wants more Israeli spy UAVs

    Russia tried, but failed, to develop its own fleet of advanced UAVs; it has purchased a dozen UAVs from Israel already, and now wants Israel to sell it the most advanced UAVs in Israel’s arsenal; the Russian publicly say that they will reverse-engineer the technology, and Israel is going along because this the price the Russians demanded for not supplying Iran with advanced S-300 air defense systems

  • CBP readies maritime UAV

    To increase the long-range reconnaissance capabilities over water, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection take deliver of a maritime variant of the Predator B UAV; the Predator B UAV has already proven its value to homeland security over the U.S. land borders and the Great Lakes region

  • U.S. Air Force offers more details on stealth UAV

    After much speculation and many rumors, the USFA reveals that it has been using a new-design UAV — deep, fat centerbody blended into the outer wings – for surveillance missions in Afghanistan; observers note that with its low-observable design, the aircraft could be useful for flying the borders of Iran and peering into China, India, and Pakistan for useful data about missile tests and telemetry, as well as gathering signals and multi-spectral intelligence

  • U.S. will not arm drones flying reconnaissance missions over Gulf of Aden -- yet

    The governments of the United States and the Seychelles agreed to use Mahé regional airport as a base for U.S. UAVs flying over the Gulf of Aden in an effort to gather intelligence on Somali pirates; the U.S. says it is not currently considering arming the UAVs

  • More demos set for nine-lived Fire Scout

    A Northrop Grumman UAV — the MQ-8B Fire Scout — refuses to die; it was part of the now-canceled Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, but the system stubbornly hangs on

  • TSA funds CCTV installment in Rhode Island

    TSA announces $3.2 million for airport surveillance at T. F. Green Airport

  • Simlat contracted for UAV training and evaluation

    With the growing reliance on UAVs there is a growing need for evaluating the performance of these systems’ operators, and for training personnel to get the most out of them; Israel-based Simlat has a solution

  • Surveillance airship for Afghanistan

    A hybrid airship — it is heavier than air, 80 percent of its lift coming from buoyancy and 20 percent from aerodynamics — will be deployed to Afghanistan; it is 250ft long, and designed to loiter at 20,000ft for up to 21 days carrying a 2,500lb ISR payload

  • Fuel cells for UAVs

    Massachusetts company awarded a contract to increase the power density of its existing fuel cell while also increasing the power output of the overall system

  • Army heli-UAV hops to avoid obstacle trouble

    The U.S. Army funds development of a hopping rotochute — a UAV designed to travel deep into obstacle-ridden spaces such as caves and rubble-laden buildings to video what it finds

  • UAV defies controllers' commands and is destroyed by U.S. jet

    UAV operators lose control over a rogue Predator-B UAV — a large five-ton turboprop powered machine able to carry up to fourteen Hellfire missiles — and U.S. jets destroy it before it could leave Afghan air space

  • Locata Corporation: Location hot spots -- beyond GPS

    A conversation with Locata CEO Nunzio Gambale; “It has been an adventure and we have already come a long way. I hope to live long enough to see positioning technology implemented in a place like New York City to be able to locate the position of someone in an emergency down to a couple of feet. That’s my dream”

  • Pakistan to build own UAV

    Under a program launched this month, Pakistan’s domestic version of the drone or unmanned aerial vehicle to be called Falco will be made in collaboration with Selex Galileo of Italy at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra in Punjab province