The National Reconaissance Office sent up a satellite on September 8, 2001 and three days later it operated nicely while helping to facilitate the “wargames” that the military was engaged in on 9/11 and all the while we get reports from the U.K.’s online Space News Feed from their weekly edition on the 16th that satellite communications were down all over the planet. I guess the NRO’s new baby was somehow immune, OR IT HELPED TO CAUSE IT!
Trivia question: WHO was it that was conducting the war games and where was it happening? Did you say USSPACECOM, otherwise known as NORAD? So close!
Who said USSTRATCOM?!? That’s right it happened out of Offut Air Force Base! NORAD wasn’t involved except for the complicit silence of a few senior officers. It was stood DOWN, remember?
Trivia question: WHO was at Offut AFB that base with a small handful of CEO’s from the World Trade Center? That’s right! It was Warren Buffet.
WHO did Mitre Corporation (specializing in real time battle command and unmanned aerial vehicles - remote piloting) used to brag having as an investor? Warren Buffet.
Source and more info: indymedia
The latest tests have been completed on a U.S. system of low-flying unmanned aerial vehicles that scout out enemy positions in an urban battle.
The HURT system is designed to provide unit commanders with the real-time video help they need and currently don’t have access to in the heat of battle, Northrop Grumman said in a news release Tuesday.
“In a dynamic urban warfare environment where ’see-decide-and-act’ timelines are extremely short, it’s important to get information quickly to combat forces on the ground so they’re better prepared to act upon it,” said Northrop Vice President Tom Williams. “We’re one step closer to bringing HURT’s capabilities to the warfighter with this successful demonstration.”
HURT (heterogeneous urban RSTA [reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition] team) was most recently put through its paces with U.S. Marines going through urban-combat training at the Twentynine Palms base in the California desert.
Source and more info: upi
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection service in Washington announced it will resume unmanned aerial vehicle flights along the Mexican border.
Washington Technology reported Oct. 17 that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection expects to have a Predator B UAV patrolling the U.S.-Mexican border from next month.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection suspended its UAV after the April 24 crash of the first Predator B in Arizona. A subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the ground pilot controlling the UAV probably caused the crash.
Source and more info: upi
Galileo Avionica, the Italian unit of SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems and part of the Finmeccanica group, is demonstrating its leadership in the UAV systems and targets to the American market at the annual AUSA meeting (Association of the United States Army) held in Washington, DC.
The Mirach 100/5 system designed and developed by Galileo Avionica, represents the state of the art in the field of Aerial Target Drones and can be used for normal training in anti-aircraft missile firing by naval and ground units or for the evaluation and qualification of missiles under development. Mirach 100/5 effectively simulates a missile or a fighter aircraft carrying out “g” weave manoeuvres by using infrared countermeasures and simulating high thermal augmentation.
As for missile qualification, Mirach 100/5 is able to measure with extreme precision, by means of a special sensor aboard, the trajectory and attitude of a missile and transmit the data to the ground control station in real time. The Mirach 100/5 system has been further enhanced with the addition of a mini-UAV secondary aerial target drone named Locusta. Designed and developed by Galileo Avionica, Locusta received last June from the German Defence Ministry (BWB) a qualification certificate as an Anti Radiation Missile Simulator (ARMS) for the Tactical Firings of the German Aeronautics with Patriot Arm System. The qualification programme concluded by performing a real mission where the Locusta has been intercepted by a Patriot Missile, while the Mirach 100/5 completed its mission and was successfully recovered.
Source and more info: shephard
They are 9 students and have won a national competition
(WAPA) - A team of Iranian university students managed to realized a project for a Uav (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), a remote controlled plane. The 9 students of the Mechanics College of Isfahan University have won the first prize in an inner competition among 20 Iranian universities with many research teams involved. The drone plane is called “Aria” and can fly at the speed of 120 kilometers per hour at about 7500 feet of altitude, performing research missions and collecting data, but it could also be used to rescue the survivors of natural disasters and to detect oil and gas deposits and for the weather forecast. (Avionews)
Source and more info: avionews
U.S. Customs and Border Protection expects to have a Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle flying along the U.S.-Mexico border again in November, officials announced in a new report.
It will mark the return to flight of the agency’s unmanned aircraft systems program following the April 24 crash of the first Predator B vehicle in the Arizona desert. A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board cited error by the ground pilot navigating the UAV as the probable cause.
The Predator drones fly surveillance missions along the border to support patrol activities. From Oct. 2, 2005, to April 24, 2006, the Predator B flew 959 hours, and contributed to 2,309 arrests.
The second Predator B was delivered to the border control agency, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, in September. This month, the agency is conducting what it described in the report as extensive testing and evaluation of the new aircraft.
For fiscal 2006, the President’s Emergency Supplemental added $45 million for the Predator B program. The fiscal 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations bill offers an additional $20 million, with four Predator Bs to be deployed in all.
Source and more info: washingtontechnology
The spokesmen of the Indonesian Armed Forces denied the accusations made by the Jakarta Parliament about possible irregularities on the procedures to purchase UAV planes (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), remote controlled planes, from Israel. The Commandant Marshal Djoko Suyanto assured the procedures followed to purchase the drones followed the rules. Indonesia is a big supporter of the Palestinian fight for independence and has no diplomatic relationships with Israel. (Avionews)
Source and more info: avionews
Flying at night at an altitude of 1,500 ft (450 m), the S-100 regularly detected points of interest at ranges of over 3,000 m (3,300 yards), using the thermal imager on the installed IAI/Tamam POP200 stabilized EO/IR gimbal system.
The S-100 was controlled by Schiebel operators, flying preprogrammed paths that could be interrupted at any time to survey specific points of interest or known hot spots used by human traffickers.
The payload itself was operated by the same police officers that normally operate similar payloads aboard the BM.Is manned helicopters. The payload operator communicated with both Austrian and Slovakian police and military teams in the field to investigate any suspicious activity detected from the S-100. Video was recorded onboard and at the control station, as well as being forwarded via network to a nearby command post.
The two-week demonstration is the first known integration of a UAV system in live border patrol operations along the European Union (Schengen area) border. The successful tests bode well for future UAV employments along the border, which is set to expand in 2007.
All flights were staged from the top of Braunsberg nearby the town of Hainburg, a 346 meter (1,100 ft) tall mountain overlooking the Danube River and the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. Two standard missions were programmed, one 50 km (31 mi) to the north, along the March River, and one 20 km (12 mi) to the south along the border to the town of Kittsee. The flight paths, programmed under the supervision of AustroControl, the Austrian aviation authority, avoided flight over built-up areas, as well as the nature preserve along the March river.
Source and more info: skycontrol
The US-based Dragonfly Pictures Inc company has used one of its prototype DP-5X vertical take-off and landing UAVs to demonstrate airborne live firing of a Metal Storm GE40 40mm grenade launching gun system.
Multiple live fire demonstrations were carried out on behalf of the US Defence Advanced Research 27-28 September at the US Air National Guard Warren Grove bombing range in New Jersey.
Metal Storm says in a statement released 6 October that the flight demonstrations included “firing from the hover position at various altitudes as well as forward flight ‘strafing’ runs…
“Initial tests were conducted from the DP-5X UAV in strap-down mode as well as untethered hover sighting shots. Hover shots from various altitudes were followed by a concluding forward speed flight with shots that targeted a vehicle on the firing range”.
Metal Storm senior vice president for US operations Peter Faulkner has told Flight Unmanned that the DP-5X UAV used in the demonstration was one of the aircraft built for the US Defence Advanced Projects Agency as its contender for the US Army’s Future Combat System Class III UAV requirement.
Dragonfly and Metal Storm previously demonstrated ground-based firing of a twin 40mm gun system aboard a Dragonfly DP-4X aircraft with rotors turning in May 2004. For that demonstration the Metal Storm guns were mounted on either side of the helicopter fuselage.
Source and more info: flightglobal
Two unmanned combat air vehicles designed and built by The Boeing Co. through partnerships are heading to new homes at two prominent aviation museums for permanent display, Boeing said Monday.
The two X-45A aircrafts were designed and built by Boeing in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force.
One aircraft is going to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and the other to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
The X-45A at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force will be displayed in the museum’s Cold War Gallery near the revolutionary B-2 Stealth Bomber.
Engineering work is scheduled to begin soon at the Smithsonian to display the X-45A, which is to be suspended in midair.
Dave Koopersmith, X-45 vice president and program manager for Boeing Advanced Systems, said in a statement, “The X-45A made history and laid the groundwork for future unmanned combat aircraft with its 64 mishap-free flights. We take great pride that they will be displayed for the world to see at these museums.”
Source and more info: bizjournals
