The Army is looking to solve one of the biggest problems regarding drones: flight time. Drones of all shapes and sizes have different flight times; some can fly for minutes while others can fly for weeks. According to the New Scientist [paywall], The United States Army is looking to power their drones via lasers to keep them flying indefinitely.
Military drones are becoming more prevalent in the evolving age of warfare and they come in all shapes and sizes. UAV’s, like the FLIR Black Hornet, look like a toy helicopter while the Reaper MQ-9 can pass as full-sized, manned aircraft. Matrix UAV, a Ukrainian firm, has created the perfect drone of death called “Demon” that carries weaponized payloads capable of taking on various strike missions.
In the near future, one marine could have the ability to send out multiple drones from a single tablet. These aircraft would have the ability to swarm the enemy, jamming their communications and eradicating designated targets. The end goal is to have up to 15 drones in the air, each flying for hours at a time without needing to land.
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Harshwardhan Zala, a 15-year-old boy from the city of Ahmedabad in India, has a passion for saving lives across the globe. Zala has built drones that detect landmines and already has a handful of patents at his young age. The South Korean army has shown interest in his company, Areobotics7 Tech Solutions, and the technology he has invented.
With drones increasingly being adopted by military forces, efforts are being taken to stop them before soldiers on the ground can even see them. Putting a stop to drones is nothing new, we have seen guns capable of taking down UAV’s but the problem is their size, they are big and bulky. A new system called “Pitbull” is a wearable drone jammer that proves to be effective and lightweight.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently added three new U.S. Defense Department facilities to the list of no-drone zones and extended the restricted boundary of a third facility. The additions are the result of a request to enhance unmanned aircraft flight restrictions over military bases in the US.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that an American drone strike killed a top recruiter for Al Qaeda last weekend in south Libya. More attacks on extremists may follow warned a senior military official.
The U.S. government has been concerned about this possibility and in another video, we were warned about swarms of drones being used to attack and now we learn that the first documented attack by a swarm of drones has actually taken place in Syria during the night of January 5. The Russian airbase, Khmeimim as well as a naval facility in the city of Tartus on Syria’s western coast were attacked by 13 drones launched from as far as 35 miles away, according to the Russian defense ministry.
With the use anti-aircraft missiles, the Russians were able to shoot down seven of the thirteen drones. Another six were hacked by a cyberware unit and taken under Russian control. There were no casualties or injuries at the two military bases.
