The US military has ordered the development of tiny microdrones, whose shape and flapping wing movements will replicate insect flight. The super-small craft will provide incredible stealth in information gathering, and surveillance missions intended to really bug enemies.
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There are drone catchers and then there is Tular – a patented device that can launch and recover drones from any moving vehicle autonomously. And it can do that at speeds of over 65 mph, even during windy conditions! Ready for a deeper look? Let’s go…
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A United States Air Force target training drone surprised beachgoers last week when it washed up on a Florida beach. The aerial target drone is a part of the US Air Force’s weapons system evaluation program and was quickly picked up by the Air Force after being alerted to it.
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The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) has announced VOLY Defense Solutions (VDS), a subsidiary of Volansi as its Skyborg drone program’s official vendor. The new contract is worth a massive $400 million and will produce specific parts for the program.
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The Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, has worked with Easy Aerial to deploy its first autonomous security drone system. The autonomous system will allow the base to get eyes in the sky within seconds to provide better surveillance and situational awareness.
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Earlier this week, a photo was posted to Instagram of what appears to be the secretive Grumman RQ-180 stealth drone flying above California, according to Aviation Week. The stealth drone has never officially been photographed or documented before, but is said to be heavily used by the US Air Force.
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American Marines are training to guide Air Force bombers with drones in preparation for a possible war in the Pacific Ocean. The American troops trained in northern Australia at various military test ranges to simulate islands hundreds of miles apart.
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Back in April of 2019, a U.S. Reaper drone went down over Nevada due to a loose washer short-circuiting the control equipment. The loose washer caused a string of random commands to be sent to the drone resulting in it crashing down to the ground.
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Last month, the U.S. Air Force began a new set of tests to see if the MQ-9 Reaper drone can safely fly with eight Hellfire missiles, doubling the total number carried by the drone. The first in a series of tests took place at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.
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DARPA‘s Gremlin program has just completed its second round of testing in late July, cementing them in the future of military combat. The second round of testing focused on risk-reducing flights in preparation for tests later on in the year.
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Want to learn how to fly FPV drones from the comfort of your own home? You can now do so with the U.S. Air Force flight school in partnership with the Drone Racing League. The flight school is hosted by 2018 DRL Allianz World Champion Paul “Nurk” Nurkkala.
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The US Air Force has awarded Asylon a $1 million contract as a part of the AFWERX Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) to modernize its current drone system.
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DroneShield has been awarded a US Air Force contract to deploy several of its DroneSentry counter-drone systems at the Grand Forks Air Force airbase in North Dakota. The drone tech will be used to detect and deal with incoming rogue drones that might cause damage to the base of the personal in it.
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AeroDefense will be working with the US Air Force to develop a ruggedized and rapid drone detection system that can be mounted on vehicles. AeroDefense is the first company to receive a Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act award which allows it to be used without legal authorization.
At the end of last year, DARPA’s Gremlin program completed the first test flight of its X-61A fixed-wing aerial vehicle, in the skies above Utah. The test was to demonstrate the feasibility of recovering ‘low-cost’ UAVs safely, reliably, and affordably.
The New York Times Magazine featured a lengthy but excellent article about the ‘wounds’ that drone pilots suffer when they engage remotely in overseas wars. For instance, behind computer screens at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, drone pilots fly missions with unmanned aircraft such as the MQ-9 Reaper in far away places like Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen. Some people have thought that these ‘joystick pilots’ would escape the gravity of war but, we are now learning that they are suffering ‘moral injuries’ from their actions similarly to soldiers when they return home from battlefields.
MIT’s AeroAstro labs is working on a special rocket drone that can fly up to Mach 0.8 (614 mph) and it is called the Firefly. The zeppelin-shaped mini-rocket is designed to be launched from a fighter jet to collect data or distract enemy weapons systems.
The Firefly is designed in response to a challenge presented by the U.S. Air Force. The assignment was as follows: develop an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) no more than 2.5 inches wide and 17 inches long that can be launched mid-air from a fighter jet and that can fly at Mach 0.8 for 2 to 5 minutes. MIT had been successful in the past designing the Peredix swarming drones so they were up for the challenge.
