UAVs / Satellites / Blimps

Boeing's takes X-45C out of storage, renames it Phantom Ray
The proposed 2010 U.S. defense budget is historic at least in one respect: for the first time, the U.S. Air Force will be buying more unmanned flying systems than manned ones; Boeing takes its X-45C unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) out of storage and renames it Phantom Ray; it will be completed and readied for flight by the end of 2010, and will be suitable for missions including ISR, SEAD, electronic attack, hunter/killer, and autonomous aerial refueling
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Dutch police uses unmanned mini-helicopter to sniff out cannabis
Police in the noerthwest region of the Netherlands asked their engineers to design an unmanned helicopter to hover over the region and sniff out traces of weed smell in the air samples it collects; new methods does not require a warrant to enter buildings
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Northrop Grumman acquires KillerBee UAV line from Swift
The KillerBees are blended wing-body UAVs offered in sizes ranging from 6.5 feet to 33.2 feet in wingspan; NG changes name from KillerBee to Bat
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DARPA awards Lockheed $399.9 million for blimp
Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, receives nearly $400 million from the Pentagon to develop a blimp-carrying radar; the radar would be about 6,000 square meters (7,176 square yards) in size
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Drug cartels now use ultralight aircraft to smuggle drug into U.S.
The drug cartels south of the U.S. border have a new weapon in their arsenal: Ultralight aircraft; these ultralights can carry up to 300 pounds of narcotics
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RAID surveillance system deployed along border
Aerostats differ from blimps in that blimps are powered, while aerostats are anchored to the ground through a cranked tether that also supplies electrical power
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Aerostats used along India-Pakistan border and in other hotspots
Unpowered blimps have been used for two decades now; the one aerostat Kuwait owned alerted its leadership to the Iraqi tanks rolling toward the border in 1990; India, Pakistan buy them to bolster their border security
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General Atomics shows latest entry in Predator UAV series
With a 41-foot long fuselage and 66-foot wingspan, the Predator C Avenger is capable of flying at over 400 KTAS and can operate up to 60,000 feet
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U.S. tests large flying wing-type UAV in Afghanistan
Hazy photographs emerged of a large flying-wing UAV — or, rather, UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) —on a runway in a military base in Afghanistan; the shape and assumed capabilities indicate growing role of unmanned system in attack missions
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Russia places orders for more than 50 Israeli UAVs
As was the case with the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, Russia has been slow to warm up to UAVs; the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war changed minds in Russia
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U.S. to provide radar surveillance to Cameroonian coasts
The United States will provide Cameroon with sophisticated radar gear to monitor the country’s coastal water; the United States is concerned not only about the safety of Cameroonian coasts but also about that of the entire Gulf of Guinea, plagued by sea-hijackings
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UAV relies on alternative energy for silent performance
U.S. Navy researchers merge two separate efforts — UAV technology and fuel cell systems — to develop UAV with stealthy characteristics: small size, reduced noise, low heat signature, and zero emissions
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Global UAV sales boom, but South Africa's UAV sector flounders
South Africa was among the world’s leaders in designing and manufacturing UAVs; UAVs are the most dynamic segment growth sector in the global aerospace industry; South Africa could have benefited from the growing interest in UAVs, lack of investment in R&D and in finished products may cause South Africa to abdicate the UAV lead it once held
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Military reliance on UAVs grows; safety, shortness of pilots an issue
The U.S. military has 167 UAVs in its arsenal in 2001; it now has 5,500; the growing demand for UAVs for both surveillance and operational missions creates safety problems and exposes shortness of trained controllers
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Canada's next UAVs will carry bombs
The UAVs Canadian forces are using in Afghanistan will soon do more than surveillance duty; Canada has leased Heron UAVs from Israel for the purpose of using them in offensive operations
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