Tag: drones

Radars Deployed To Mexico Border To Detect Cartel Drones

The U.S. Army is contributing ground-based radars to help spot and track drones as part of the continued build-up of U.S. military support along the U.S.-Mexican border. Drug cartels in Mexico have been steadily increasing their use of weaponized uncrewed aerial systems, as well as unarmed types for surveillance and smuggling. There are also growing concerns about the threats drones pose to the U.S. homeland, especially military bases and other critical infrastructure.

The Department of Defense released pictures earlier today showing members of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum in New York State, training with the AN/TPQ-53 and AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radars in Arizona. The 10th Mountain is one of a number of units from across the U.S. military that has sent personnel and material to support the enhanced border security mission that kicked off after President Donald Trump took office in January.

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Iran using drones and apps to enforce women’s dress code

Iran is using drones and intrusive digital technology to crush dissent, especially among women who refuse to obey the Islamic republic’s strict dress code, the United Nations has said.

Investigators say Iranian security officials are using a strategy of “state-sponsored vigilantism” to encourage people to use specialist phone apps to report women for alleged dress code violations in private vehicles such as taxis and ambulances.

Their new report also highlights the increasing use of drones and security cameras to monitor hijab compliance in Tehran and in southern Iran.

For women who defy the laws, or protest against them, the consequences are severe – arrest, beating, and even rape in custody.

The findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran come after it determined last year that the country’s theocracy was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

Witnesses said the 22-year-old Kurd was badly beaten by the morality police during her arrest, but authorities denied she was mistreated and blamed “sudden heart failure” for her death. Her killing sparked a massive wave of protests that continues today, despite threats of violent arrest and imprisonment.

“Two-and-a-half years after the protests began in September 2022, women and girls in Iran continue to face systematic discrimination, in law and in practice, that permeates all aspects of their lives, particularly with respect to the enforcement of the mandatory hijab,” the report said.

“The state is increasingly reliant on state-sponsored vigilantism in an apparent effort to enlist businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance, portraying it as a civic responsibility.”

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Police Departments Launching Drone Programs Across The United States

 Police across the U.S. are putting eyes in the sky, as the adoption of drones for law enforcement emerges as a trend. Forces deploying drones – also called Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – for surveillance and public safety have promised not to use the flying robots for discriminatory policing.

So far the notion of facial recognition drones remains speculative. But the number of police departments adding drones to their technology arsenal – happening in parallel with a surge in AI-assisted fraud and the development of powerful facial recognition algorithms – makes the prospect of mobile biometric surveillance a plausible possibility.

Rules governing police drone deployments differ across jurisdictions

A host of recent reports shows just how many U.S. police forces use drones. A release from police in New Orleans describes a recent incident in which the use of drones for officer support led to the arrests of two 16-year-olds. The release cites a rule allowing the use of UAS to search for suspects using thermography.

Police in Washington, D.C. also launched a drone program in June. A notice on their website specifies that drones are used only in searches for missing persons, major traffic crash reconstruction, crowd management for large gatherings, and “situational and tactical purposes (such as a barricade).” It also lists things drones cannot be used for: namely, to record a particular person or group based solely on race, skin color, gender, personal appearance, and other identifiable traits.

West Hollywood is launching a one-year pilot program to deploy UAVs within a three mile radius of the city. WeHo Online reports that the drones will operate at altitudes of 300 to 400 feet, and integrate with the city’s new real-time watch center. Drone footage is retained for 30 days, “subject to policy updates and community feedback.” The force says it will not be used for surveillance, but rather as support for first responders to 911 calls.

In San Francisco, a March vote passed Proposition E, which lets law enforcement deploy surveillance cameras and drones. In this case, facial recognition is allowed; Prop E states that “drones and public surveillance cameras installed under these rules could include facial recognition technology and would not require Board approval.”

In Minnesota, an annual report released by the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) says police are buying and launching more drones than ever before. A post on the website for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group, reports that “Minnesotan law enforcement flew their drones without a warrant 4,326 times in 2023, racking up a state-wide expense of over $1 million. The data show that more was spent on drones last year than in the previous two years combined.”

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What happens if the robot army is defeated?

Many of the national security establishment’s leading voices say America’s military needs to rapidly modernize by embracing the digital future through adopting Artificial Intelligence, network-centric warfare, and uncrewed weapons.

Some even claim that such technology has already fundamentally changed the nature of war. The Pentagon’s technologists and the leaders of the tech industry envision a future of an AI-enabled military force wielding swarms of autonomous weapons on land, at sea, and in the skies.

However, before the United States fully mortgages its security to software code and integrated circuits, several questions must be addressed. Assuming the military does one day build a force with an uncrewed front rank, what happens if the robot army is defeated? Will the nation’s leaders surrender at that point, or do they then send in the humans?

The next major question is, what weapons will the humans wield? It is difficult to imagine the services will maintain parallel fleets of digital and analog weapons. Judging by current trends, Pentagon leaders are much more likely to invest the bulk of their procurement budgets in purchasing autonomous or “optionally manned” systems like the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle.

Those promoting such a future appear ignorant of a very simple truth: war is a human endeavor. Wars are fought to serve human ends. The weapons used are only the means to achieve those ends.

The humans on both sides of a conflict will seek every advantage possible to secure a victory. When a weapon system is connected to the network, the means to remotely defeat it is already built into the design. The humans on the other side would be foolish not to unleash their cyber warriors to find any way to penetrate the network to disrupt cyber-physical systems.

The United States may find that the future military force may not even cross the line of departure because it has been remotely disabled in a digital Pearl Harbor-style attack.

Technology certainly has its place in the military. Uncrewed aerial vehicles fill many of the roles traditionally performed by pilots flying expensive aircraft to take just one example. In certain circumstances, troops on the front lines should have the ability to employ technology directly.

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Mysterious Naval Vessel Spotted In Washington State Is A New DARPA Drone Ship

Aslender, partially covered naval ship that recently emerged in Washington state is the Defiant, a new medium-sized uncrewed surface vessel (USV) designed from the keel up to operate without any humans ever onboard. Developed under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program, Defiant could be an important stepping stone for the U.S. Navy’s ambitions to add larger and more capable USVs to its fleets.

DARPA confirmed to TWZ that construction of the Defiant, also known by the hull code USX-1, was completed earlier this month. As noted, the first indications that the vessel had been launched came from residents in Washington state who spotted it being pushed by a tug through the Saratoga Passage in Puget Sound north of Seattle. This area of the Sound is also just a few miles from the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island. User @IntelWalrus on X was first to bring this to our attention.

The 180-foot-long, 240-metric ton Defiant is now set to “undergo extensive in-water testing, both dockside and at sea” and “is scheduled to depart for a multi-month at sea demonstration in spring 2025,” according to DARPA. It is unclear where exactly the vessel is currently docked. Serco Inc. is the primary contractor for the USV, which it has been developing since 2020. The company has told TWZ in the past that the core Defiant USV without any add-on mission systems has an approximately $25 million price tag.

The U.S. military has historically categorized uncrewed vessels like Defiant with lengths under 200 feet and displacements under 500 tons, but that are larger than ones with speedboat and jetski-type designs, as medium USVs (MUSV). Large USVs (LUSV) have been defined as ones up to 300 feet long and that displace up to 2,000 tons.

A picture of Defiant in the Puget Sound, as well as additional images DARPA has now released, show much of the vessel literally still under wraps. However, the overall hullform, along with the mast at the center sporting various commercial navigation radars and other antennas, is in line with models and computer-generated renders of the design shown in the past. An additional smaller mast with more radars and other antennas is also present on the bow.

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Drone incursions target ‘Plant 42,’ said to be the birthplace to top secret tech

 In August 2024, alarming drone encounters were documented for seven nights above a highly secretive desert facility, according to new reports.

While mysterious drone incursions have made headlines in recent months, documents are now coming to light highlighting disturbing incidents around restricted airspace, including a desert facility known as “Plant 42,” said to be the birthplace of top-secret technology.

The facility, located in Palmdale, CA, is an aerospace brain trust with distinct ties to Area 51 in Nevada. Most notably, it uses JANET, the nickname of the hush-hush airline that shuttles workers from Las Vegas to Area 51 or to Area 52 near Tonopah. Plant 42 is described as a Mojave Desert enclave of brilliant engineers and aerospace brainiacs working on projects for  NASA, the US Air Force, and the CIA.

Plant 42 is the birthplace of many amazing machines, including the soon-to-be-unveiled B-21 Raider and the next generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). All the big names are present at Plant 42. From Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works to Northrop Grumman to McDonnell Douglas, the cutting-edge technologies deemed vital to national security come through the facility.

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China To Develop Robot Dog Drones With Thermobaric Weapons For ‘Comprehensive Destruction’

New technologies such as drones have remade the battlefield as has been show in the Ukrainian conflict with deadly effect.

However, a new terrifying dawn is coming to warfare – the robots.

Recent People’s Liberation Army (PLA) urban warfare drills suggest that unmanned platforms armed solely with light weapons may struggle to root out enemies shielded in buildings or underground bunkers, wrote the South China Morning Post.

To achieve “comprehensive annihilation”, Chinese military scientists now propose equipping ground robots with thermobaric warheads – weapons of mass destruction second only to nuclear arms in lethality.

This marks China’s first official disclosure of plans to deploy the controversial munitions on unmanned systems.

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NORAD commander says hundreds of drone incursions were detected at US military installations

The Pentagon needs more technology and expanded authorities to deal with large numbers of incursions over U.S. military installations by small unmanned aerial systems, the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command told lawmakers.

NORAD and Northcom chief Gen. Gregory Guillot revealed more details Thursday about widespread, recent incidents that highlight the drone problem.

“The primary threat I see for them in the way they’ve been operating is detection and perhaps surveillance of sensitive capabilities on our installations,” he said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “There were 350 detections reported last year on military installations, and that was 350 over a total of 100 different installations of all types and levels of security.”

High-profile incidents that were reported last year include UAS sightings at multiple bases in New Jersey amid a broader slew of public reports of mysterious drone activity in that part of the country. At the time, a senior defense official said the Pentagon was “frustrated” by these types of events.

Complicated regulatory structure and limitations on UAS countermeasures stemming from concerns about flight safety and privacy have created “significant vulnerabilities that have been exploited by known and unknown actors,” Guillot told lawmakers in written testimony for Thursday’s hearing.

Not all commanders have the authority to use weapons to defend their bases from these types of drone incursions. Only about half are considered “covered installations,” he told lawmakers.

Section 130i under Title 10 of U.S. Code pertains to protection of “certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft.”

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Some drones over US bases may have been conducting surveillance: NORTHCOM general

A senior U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) official told members of the Senate that some of the 350 drones that flew over military installations and sensitive areas last year may have been conducting surveillance.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, who is commander of NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), was questioned about the drones during a Senate Armed Services Committee Budget hearing on Thursday.

Drones were spotted flying all over the country last year, though most notably in New Jersey. They were also flying over military installations, including Joint Base Langley, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked Guillot about the threat the unmanned aircraft pose to military operations, facilities and personnel.

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High-Explosive Drone Pierces Shell Of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant At Very Moment Trump Pushes Ukraine Toward Peace

On Friday just prior to high-level meetings among Western security officials and Ukrainian leadership commencing in Munich, including US Vice President J.D. Vance and Zelensky, there was a dangerous incident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine’s Kyiv oblast.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky accused Russia of launching a drone equipped with a high-explosive warhead at the historic, defunct power plant, site of the April 1986 nuclear disaster and meltdown. The drone reportedly hit the protective containment shell of the Chernobyl plant.

Zelensky’s office released footage showing an impact to the giant concrete and steel shield protecting the remains of the nuclear reactor. BBC writes that “The shield is designed to prevent further radioactive material leaking out over the next century. It measures 275m (900ft) wide and 108m (354ft) tall and cost $1.6bn (£1.3bn) to construct.”

And WaPo details further of the looming potential dangers:

In 2019, construction was completed on the New Safe Confinement — a $1.7 billion arch-shaped steel structure, which would contain the destroyed reactor. The site still contained some “200 tons of highly radioactive material,” according to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which helped finance the project.

Thus the situation is deeply alarming given the potential for a new radiation leak at the site which could impact the region, or even Europe. An IAEA team on the ground said it heard an explosion at around 01:50 local time coming from the New Safe Confinement (NSC) shelter. Photos showed flames at the top of the huge structure.

The UN agency is on high alert, but issued a statement saying the drone strike did not breach the plant’s inner containment shell. The IAEA also did not attribute blame, not identifying who sent the drone.

The Kremlin strongly rejected that it was behind the incident:

“There is no talk about strikes on nuclear infrastructure, nuclear energy facilities, any such claim isn’t true, our military doesn’t do that,” Peskov told reporters in a call.

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