Topic: Drone - on February 23, 2012 at 10:29:00 AM CET
Who Wrote the Legislation for Domestic Drone Use? The Drone Industry
From the Majority Report, live M-F 11:30am EST and via daily podcast at http://Majority.FM: Lee Fong at the Republic Report has found some interesting information on domestic drone use...
Majority.FM Drone Industry wrote the legislation governing domestic drone use The List OF 75 US Senators Who Voted To Let 30,000 Drones Shoot Americans In The Streets
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Topic: Drone - on February 23, 2012 at 10:25:00 AM CET
Wie die Bundeswehr 17 Drohnen verlor
Die Bundeswehr will ihre Drohnenflotte massiv ausbauen, doch die Risiken der unbemannten Flugmaschinen sind enorm. 17 deutsche High-Tech-Geräte sind in den vergangenen fünf Jahren zerstört worden - bei Abstürzen, Notlandungen oder Unfällen am Boden.
Die Bundesregierung schwärmt von der "Vielfältigkeit der möglichen Verwendungsmöglichkeiten". Die Rede ist von Drohnen, also unbemannten, mit Kameras ausgestatteten Aufklärungsfliegern. Die Bundeswehr will ihre Drohnenflotte denn auch rasant ausbauen. Doch unproblematisch ist der Umgang mit den High-Tech-Fliegern nicht: In den vergangenen fünf Jahren sind 17 Bundeswehr-Drohnen in Deutschland und Afghanistan zerstört worden. Das geht aus einer Antwort der Bundesregierung auf eine parlamentarische Anfrage der Linksfraktion hervor, die am Mittwoch veröffentlicht wurde.
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Topic: Drone - on February 23, 2012 at 10:22:00 AM CET
US-Heimatschutzministerium will ganze Städte überwachen
Von Drohnen aus soll eine Fläche von vier Quadratkilometern dauerhaft beobachtet und Ziele verfolgt werden können
In Deutschland hat die Bundesregierung bereits die Weichen für die Verwendung von großen, bis zu 1500 kg schweren Drohnen gestellt. Letzte Woche wurde im Bundestag mit den Stimmen von CDU/CSU, FDP und SPD ein Gesetz verabschiedet, nach dem Drohnen normalen Flugzeugen gleichgestellt und so prinzipiell im deutschen Luftraum zugelassen werden können
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Topic: Drone - on February 22, 2012 at 1:02:00 PM CET
Drone journalism, businesses and policing — the pilotless aircraft could soon fill U.S. skies
The U.S. is ramping up its drone campaign in Afghanistan, Pakistan and soon... America.
In January, the FAA proposed new rules for the use of domestic drones, to implemented by 2015. The agency is being pressured to create new rules in part by the Pentagon, who warns that as two wars wind down, the nearly 7,500 robotic aircraft overseas need a place to come home to. But journalists and businesses also say they could make good use of the drones, and policemen have already starting using them.
The number of drones estimated to be in domestic operation by 2020: 30,000, according to the F.A.A.
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Topic: Drone - on February 21, 2012 at 12:14:00 PM CET
Unmanned version of A-10 on way
Aurora Flight Sciences has been selected to work on a U.S. military project for an unmanned version of the A-10 close support aircraft.
Its selection as a team member in the Persistent Close Air Support program of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was made by Raytheon, which is leading the effort.
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Topic: Drone - on February 19, 2012 at 3:08:00 PM CET
Animal rights group says drone shot down
A remote-controlled aircraft owned by an animal rights group was reportedly shot down near Broxton Bridge Plantation Sunday near Ehrhardt, S.C.
Steve Hindi, president of SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone to video what he called a live pigeon shoot on Sunday when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately-owned plantation near Ehrhardt tried to stop the aircraft from flying.
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Topic: Drone - on February 18, 2012 at 11:39:00 AM CET
U.S. drones reportedly monitoring Syria; China wants Syrian sovereignty respected
“A good number” of unmanned U.S. military drones are operating in the skies over Syria, monitoring the President Basir al-Assad’s military’s crackdown against the opposition, U.S. defense officials tell NBC News.
According to the unnamed officials, the drone surveillance is not in preparations for a future military operation in Syria. Rather, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is hoping to use the visual evidence and intercepts of Syrian government and military communications in an effort to “make the case for a widespread international response.”
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Topic: Drone - on February 17, 2012 at 11:31:00 AM CET
Bundestag genehmigt den Einsatz von Drohnen
Nicht nur das Parlament schweigt weitgehend, auch die Medien und die Öffentlichkeit scheinen kein Problem mit einem womöglich massiven Eingriff in die Privatsphäre und der Demonstrationsfreiheit zu haben
Zwar haben die Linken dagegen gestimmt und die Grünen sich nur enthalten, aber nun ist mit den Stimmen von CDU/CSU, FDP und SPD amtlich, dass neben anderen neuen Regelungen, beispielsweise zu den Flughafenentgelten, erstmals auch Drohnen - als neue Kategorie von "Luftfahrtgeräten" - im deutschen Luftraum gleichberechtigt fliegen dürfen: "Ebenfalls als Luftfahrzeuge gelten unbemannte Fluggeräte einschließlich ihrer Kontrollstationen, die nicht zu Zwecken des Sports oder der Freizeitgestaltung betrieben werden (unbemannte Luftfahrtsysteme)", heißt es im Gesetz. Das wird erheblich Folgen haben, beispielsweise für die Privatsphäre oder für politische Proteste. Aber es scheint Parlamentariern und der Öffentlichkeit weitgehend egal zu sein.
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Topic: Drone - on February 13, 2012 at 1:36:00 PM CET
A Brief History of Drones
It was ten years ago this month, on February 4, 2002, that the CIA first used an unmanned Predator drone in a targeted killing. The strike was in Paktia province in Afghanistan, near the city of Khost. The intended target was Osama bin Laden, or at least someone in the CIA had thought so. Donald Rumsfeld later explained, using the passive voice of government: “A decision was made to fire the Hellfire missile. It was fired.” The incident occurred during a brief period when the military, which assisted the CIA’s drone program by providing active service personnel as operators, still acknowledged the program’s existence. Within days of the strike, journalists on the ground were collecting accounts from local Afghans that the dead men were civilians gathering scrap metal. The Pentagon media pool began asking questions, and so the long decade of the drone began.
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Topic: Drone - on February 10, 2012 at 5:31:00 PM CET
Spying on Europe’s farms with satellites and drones
Farmers who claim more EU subsidies than they should, or who break Common Agricultural Policy rules, are now more likely to be caught out by a camera in the sky than an inspector calling with a clipboard. How do they feel about being watched from above?
Imagine a perfect walk in the country, a few years from now - tranquillity, clean air, birdsong in the trees and hedgerows, growing crops swaying in the breeze.
Suddenly a model plane swoops overhead.
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Topic: Drone - on February 9, 2012 at 4:06:00 PM CET
Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress
Homeland Security has deployed drones to support disaster relief operations. Unmanned aircraft also could be useful for fighting fires or finding missing climbers or hikers, he added.
The FAA has issued hundreds of certificates to police and other government agencies, and a handful to research institutions to allow them to fly drones of various kinds over the United States for particular missions.
The agency said it issued 313 certificates in 2011 and 295 of them were still active at the end of the year, but the FAA refuses to disclose which agencies have the certificates and what their purposes are.
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Topic: Drone - on February 4, 2012 at 1:21:00 PM CET
Creepy-Cool Video: Tiny UAVs Flying in Formation
In case you guys haven’t seen this video, it’s awesome. It shows a swarm of tiny quadrotor UAVs flying in numerous formations, performing figure eights with each other and even flying around obstacles. Talk about sense and avoid!
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