UAV

Photo courtesy Chicago Automaidan via Міжнародний Альянс Братської Допомоги Facebook page.

U.S. organization sends drones to Ukrainian military

By Oriana Pawlyk on February 19, 2015 Technology, UAV

Medical supplies, outdoor gear, camo, sleeping bags and now — drones. These items have reached the battlefields in the east as new images on social media show Ukrainian soldiers holding the unmanned aircraft. While the drones are far from military grade and are more akin to ones hobbyists could easily purchase in the United States, they can fly hundreds of feet in the air and beam back video to tablets and smartphones on the ground. But unlike military grade equipment, these commercial drones will likely be subject to jamming from adversaries. And that’s why the organization managing these supplies —…

Drone pilots take center stage in ‘Good Kill’

By Oriana Pawlyk on January 7, 2015 Air Force, UAV

The Air Force has had cameos in the films like ‘Godzilla,’ ‘Iron Man,’ and an episode or two of ‘Homeland.’ But in ‘Good Kill,’ audiences can zero-in on the drone pilot realm where war becomes an arbitrary arena. Not before long, U.S. Air Force pilot-turned-drone operator Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke) questions if his ground-based cockpit missions (as one drone pilot calls it “warheads on foreheads”) are too much to handle. Hawke’s character — logging 3,000 hours in F-16s, six tours and 200 combat sorties — at some point decides that returning to the front lines would be better than his…

Rest in peace, manned aircraft

By David Larter on August 16, 2011 Air Force, UAV, Uncategorized

It’s been a good 97-year run but it’s time to dismantle the the fighter fleet and start pumping money into Predators and Global Hawks. This according to Michael O’Hanlon, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. It’s game over. In an fascinating article previewing the inevitable downturn in the defense industry as the government cuts spending, AP’s Jonathan Fahey writes an obituary for the gangbusters military spending spree we’ve been on since 9/11. In it, O’Hanlon says the industry is just waiting for the hammer to drop on Joint Strike Fighter and all future manned aircraft. During wartime, when dollars…

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