The U.S. State Department is flying unarmed drones over Iraq to protect the 16,000 U.S. diplomats and other Americans working in the U.S.’s largest embassy. Washington and Baghdad debated for years, off and on, whether or not …
Drones
Disappearing Into Thin Air
Thursday’s budget details contained several sky-high decisions worth noting:
— New unmanned aircraft aren’t necessarily cheaper and/or better than old – and Battleland means very old – manned aircraft. (Interesting how the military seems to be able to go back to the future with reconnaissance aircraft, but not fighters or …
It Flies — And Dies!
The balloon’s gone up in the war of leaks over planned Pentagon budget cuts. Here’s a pair of items that seem to reach differing conclusions about one of the Air Force’s key spy drone programs.
First-Name Basis Only: The U.S. Chair Force
The Air Force has its first two Global Hawk drone pilots groomed from the ground up to fly drones, without ever having flown “real” airplanes first. It’s a new career field for the Air Force, and these guys are the first …
Chart Attack
The number of drones is skyrocketing in the U.S. military, yet they account for less than a dime of every dollar spent on military aircraft, according to these two charts in a new Congressional Research Service report. Kind of makes a taxpayer wonder if the $380 billion the nation is investing in the fledgling manned F-35 fighter …
How America Painted Itself Into A Corner on North Korean Succession
Great Washington Post piece on China’s intense desire for stability on Korean peninsula, thus the clear backing of the “Great Successor” Kim Jong Eun. Wrap-up paragraph says it all:
The notion of a democratized Korean Peninsula
…
Iran Drone Drama Collapses into China-NoKo Christmas Comedy
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgzqLyYAvMs&feature=player_embedded]
The wild and crazy guys over at Next Media Animation are poking fun at pretty much everything associated with the fumble of the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone into Iranian hands last week. They suggest it might end up in Chinese hands, and under North Korea’s …
Grim News: Reaper Down
A week after the U.S. lost a drone over the Afghan-Iran frontier, the Air Force announced Tuesday morning that one of its MQ-9 Reaper drones crashed at the Seychelles International Airport earlier in the day. “The MQ-9 was not …
“With respect to the drone inside of Iran, I'm not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified. As has already been indicated, we have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond.”
Iran’s Got Our Drone: Distraction or Disaster?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vorWHmk38yE]
Let’s say you’re outside walking around when you’re hit in the head by an iPhone that falls from the sky. Just how lucky are you? Pretty darn lucky, especially if you were trying to bring it down. But now that you’ve got it, how much can you learn from it? …
About That AWOL Drone…
At least some Pentagon officials believe the Iranians have snared the RQ-170 Sentinel drone that evaporated into thin air a week ago. It apparently disappeared over eastern Iran while sniffing around Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, …
Iran: We Shot Down That Missing U.S. Drone
The Iranian government declared on Dec. 4 that it had downed a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone over the eastern part of the country. U.S. officials quickly disputed the claim but acknowledged that one of their drones had been flying …
The Human Drone
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4arnATc04U]
Who needs unmanned aerial vehicles when you’ve got Yves Rossy at the helm of a manned aerial vehicle in a Swiss air show?