A new video reveals some of the ways in which drones might soon be helping Britain’s naval forces. The Royal Marines recently put a number of drone technologies to the test – and for a number of different purposes.
Counter-drone company DroneShield has shared that it successfully demonstrated its technology during the recent U.S. Army Defense in Depth Exercise (DiDEX 20). The company’s DroneSentry, DroneSentry-X, RfPatrol, and DroneGun were all in action, demonstrating their capability.
Researchers with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command center want to speed up VTOL drones when transitioning from vertical flight to horizontal flight. Most drones nowadays slowly transition between the two to prevent a stall from occurring and the drone from falling to the ground.
US Army researchers are looking to solve a problem that will become apparent over the next few years. How to charge a drone swarm safely and efficiently? You surely can’t get someone to plug in each drone.
An infantry unit in the U.S. Army‘s XVIII Airborne Corps will be testing out drone supply drops for the first time in tests that will take place next year. The exact unit receiving the unmanned drops is unknown, likely to keep the soldiers’ and drones’ security intact.
The Pentagon is creating a counter-drone school for all military branches to understand better how to deal with drone threats effectively. The new initiative came when the Pentagon realized a lack of training across joint forces when it comes to neutralizing drone threats as the result of an assessment completed earlier this year.
The U.S. Army has funded a new research study lead by the University of Illinois looking into autonomous drone charging systems for ground-based vehicles. The drones will be able to locate the nearest vehicle with a charging pad and autonomously land on it.
The US Army’s research lab has come up with a new drone sensor that is capable of detecting and avoiding live power lines nearby. Power lines are notorious for being undetected by autonomous drones.
The US Army has successfully deployed a spy drone out of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter while in flight. The demo took place over Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in early March and has just recently been made public.
As a part of the final steps of the United States Army‘s Short Range Reconnaissance drone program, Parrot will be required to take part in an operational assessment of its prototype drone. The drone, if given the go-ahead, will be produced with manufacturing partner NEOTech.
Yates Electrospace Corporation has released its Silent Arrow tactical resupply drone made to carry over 1,600 pounds to soldiers and first responders. The drone folds into itself for easy transport and a minimum set-up time required.
French drone maker, Parrot has been selected by the Department of Defense as one of six companies to help develop a short-range reconnaissance drone for the US Army. The development of small commercial drones for the battlefield is t result of a partnership between the U.S. Army Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Aviation’s Project Manager, Unmanned Aircraft Systems, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence. DJI is not among the other selected companies. The ongoing US-China trade war, which caused price increases for DJI products, and fears of Chinese companies such as Huawei and DJI potentially spying on behalf of the Chinese government have suddenly created new opportunities for American and Western European companies, such as Parrot.
With drones inevitably becoming more common on the battlefield, instructors at Fort Benning, Georgia have started a new school to give soldiers the knowledge on unmanned vehicles. As reported by Matthew Cox from Military.com, students of this new school will learn how to fly drones and how to deal with them in combat.
Different news sources have reported that South Korea is planning to create an army of armed drones to defend itself against a possible attack from its neighbor North Korea. The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, “Next year we will launch a combat unit with unmanned aircraft, which will serve to change the rules of the game in the wars,” citing a South Korean military official who requested anonymity.
As of October 2nd, DJI released a new update and followed through on its recent promise to offer an offline mode. This new feature allows pilots using the CrystalSky monitoring tablets or select Android devices to fly with enhanced privacy during ‘sensitive’ operations. DJI hopes that the launch of the “Local Data Mode” will bring back confidence in its products among certain enterprise and government customers after the U.S. Army decided in August to discontinue the use of DJI drones for its operations because of an “an increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities with DJI products,” according to an internal memo obtained by sUAS News. Apparently, DJI had been working on this release for months but after the announcement of the U.S. Army to stop using DJI drone, DJI had sped up that effort.