Tag Archives: UAV

Air Force Deploys Newest Predator

Purists have for years mocked the Hollywood portrayal of military UAVs.  The 2007 Transformers, for example, featured an afterburning Predator.

The Predator has a propeller, so that’s like having an afterburning Cessna 172.

Now, however, reality has started to catch up with fiction.  The Air Force has reportedly purchased — and deployed, its single Predator C, which has a jet engine in place of the propeller.

It does not appear to be an afterburning engine, but there’s still time yet…

Gary Powers to Receive Silver Star

CIA civilian Gary Powers, infamously shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 in a U-2, will be posthumously awarded a Silver Star by the US Air Force.

The Air Force determined that the U-2 pilot showed “steadfast loyalty” while under harsh interrogation in Soviet prisons… [citing] his “sustained courage” and gallantry despite “cajolery, trickery, insults and threats of death.”

Issues of classification and political strain kept Powers from any Read more

US Marines Pray in Formation at NFL Game

Fresh off accusations the US military forces its young, impressionable troops to pray in formation, an entire formation of US Marines did so in front of nearly 75,000 football fans.

Marines perform their version of ‘Tebowing’ before the Broncos-Jets game on Nov. 17. (AP Photo/Barry Gutierrez)

Actually, they’re Tebowing.  Then again, Tebowing is praying, by definition.  And they’re in uniform.  These Marines must be Read more

Join the Navy. Fly a Blimp.

The Military Times notes the unveiling of a Navy airship at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The MZ-3A is the Navy’s scientific test platform for surveillance cameras, radars and other sensors…[used] “to prove LTA [lighter-than-air] has a place in our military construct,” said Cmdr. Jay Steingold.

The slow, long-endurance vehicles are variations on the blimp/dirigible and could fill a variety of roles.  The Navy isn’t the only one to have such a program:  Read more

US Drones Reportedly Infected by Computer Virus

One of the “advantages” of unmanned aerial vehicles is the removal of the human element from much of the operation.  In theory, its inability to get tired, make mistakes, or act with emotion may make a UAV a “better” system.  In theory.

While the UAV may not be able to get “sick,” it is apparently still vulnerable to computer viruses, as public reports indicate has occurred to both MQ-9s and MQ-1s (which are essentially the same UAV).  To be fair, that was likely a result of the “human element,” but the fact remains that UAVs are not always the panacea some may think they are.

1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 14