Tag: drones

British troops given powers to shoot down drones on sight: Telegraph

British troops will be given new powers to shoot down drones threatening Britain’s military bases, The Telegraph reported on Oct 19, citing an upcoming announcement on Oct 20 from British Defence Minister John Healey.

Mr Healey is expected to unveil his vision on how to protect Britain’s most critical military bases in response to a growing threat posed by Russia, the newspaper said.

Although the new powers will initially apply only for military sites, the British government was “not ruling out working to extend those powers” to other important sites like airports, the Telegraph said, citing a source.

Currently, troops can use specialist counter-drone equipment which can track incoming drones, hijack signals, and divert them, according to The Telegraph.

The new proposal will give soldiers or Ministry of Defence Police a “kinetic option” to shoot them on site, which they can only do now in extreme circumstances, The Telegraph further added.

Mr Healey’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Britain’s Defence Ministry could not immediately be reached.

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Army Secretary: Love the killer drone or be left behind

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s opening remarks at this year’s United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting & Exposition — that drones will “absolutely dominate warfare in the twenty-first century” — set the tone for a conference swarming with them.

Describing them as cheap, yet cutting-edge warfighting tools, Driscoll sold drones as a fundamental shift in how wars will be fought — and thus an essential asset to the Army of the future.

“If small arms defined the twentieth century, drones will define the twenty-first. They are the perfect convergence of artificial intelligence, advanced materials, batteries and propulsion systems, sensor fusion and much more,” Driscoll told attendees. “They will absolutely dominate warfare in the twenty-first century.”

Drones “are reshaping how humans inflict violence on each other at a pace never witnessed in human history. They are cheap, modular, precise, multi-role and scalable, and we will rapidly integrate them into our formations,” he said.

Driscoll’s words were music to industry’ ears at AUSA, where scores of tech-forward companies hungry for collaboration with the DoD promoted their state-of-the-art drones to these ends.

Of course the drones’s lethal capacities were at center stage. Elbit America’s display presented its Skystriker loitering munition as a “one-shot, one-kill system” and as a “high lethality warhead for a variety of targets.” A representative for DraganFly, meanwhile, stressed their drones’ ability to carry explosives. And General Atomics’ flyers depicted one of its models equipped and firing a laser weapon — the “High Energy Laser (HEL) Weapon System.”

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Zelensky Desperately Pitches Drones For Tomahawks At White House

In a somewhat lengthy Q&A with the press, Presidents Trump and Zelensky fielded a variety of questions before starting a closed-door meeting at the White House, with each leader’s full delegations present.

All eyes have been on the potential decision to transfer Tomahawks to Ukraine, but President Trump at every turn dodged the question, and did not offer anything clear on Tomahawks one way or the other. But he did say at one point when asked about concerns over the Pentagon’s own dwindling missile stockpiles that “I have to make sure we’re stocked up as a country.”

That opened up an interesting moment where Zelensky offered “thousands” of Ukrainian drones in exchange for receiving Tomahawks, though Trump appeared cool toward the idea, and noted that the United States already possesses excellent and cutting-edge drone production. 

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Mexican and Colombian Cartels Sending Members to Ukraine To Learn To Operate Attack Drones, Changing Drug War Tactics Forever

It’s a clear and present danger to the US.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is generating bad repercussions for Europe and the outside world, such as an energy crisis, military escalations, and other problematic developments.

To the US, there’s a new, dangerous reality that may be about to bring a whole new level of danger, as the Latin American cartels are sending their operatives to Ukraine to be trained in drone warfare.

These criminals are attending the Kill House Academy, a ‘Top Gun school for the drone-warfare era’, according to the British media, a place that trains some of Kiev regime’s best UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) pilots.

It’s actually easy for a cartel member to blend in with the thousands of new Latin American recruits.

The Telegraph reported:

“Among the more promising recent recruits [at the Kill House Academy] was a pilot with the callsign Aguila 7 (Eagle 7) – a former special forces soldier from Mexico, enlisted with Ukraine’s International Legion. But while he excelled at the course, it seemed he had foes other than Russian soldiers in his sights. Eagle 7 was in fact a foot soldier in Mexico’s feared Los Zetas drug cartel and had been sent there to learn drone skills for use in drug wars back home, according to reports.”

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Ukrainian Drones Spark Massive Blaze At Crimea’s Largest Oil Terminal

Just a day after a major report in the Financial Times said that US intelligence has been helping Ukraine conduct long-range drone strikes on Russian oil facilities since at least July, major oil depot in Crimea caught fire overnight following a Ukrainian drone strike.

This marks the second time in a week that the the Feodosia facility has been struck and gone up in flames. Importantly, it is Crimea’s largest oil storage and transshipment hub, with a capacity of around 250,000 tons.

Russian sources say that air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones targeting a fuel storage facility in the port city. The attack resulted in no casualties, amid a large emergency response to battle the blaze.

NASA’s fire monitoring system detected multiple active fires at the site, according to international reports.

In total Ukrainian forces sent some 40 drones to various areas of Crimea, and dozens more were sent against other targets in Russian territory.

Kiev and its Western backers have a clearly articulated objective to disrupt a key source of revenue funding Moscow’s war effort – which has resulted in some success, given the reports of fuel and gasoline shortages, and rising prices across Russia.

Ukraine’s military leadership has of late boasted that the operation over several months has cut Russia’s oil refining capacity by 21%.

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US Has Been Supporting Long-Range Ukrainian Drone Attacks Inside Russia for Months

The Trump administration has been providing Ukraine with intelligence to carry out long-range drone attacks against Russian energy infrastructure, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing multiple US and Ukrainian officials.

The report said that the US intelligence helps Ukraine “shape route planning, altitude, timing and mission decisions, enabling Ukraine’s long-range, one-way attack drones to evade Russian air defenses.”

A US official told the paper that Ukraine selects the target for the strike, then the US provides information on its vulnerabilities. However, other officials said the US has actually been setting out target priorities for the Ukrainian military, meaning the US is choosing what to strike.

One of the FT’s sources described Ukraine’s drone force as the “instrument” the US is using to achieve the goal of undermining the Russian economy and pushing Russian President Vladimir Putin toward a settlement to end the war. The US has spent billions helping build up Ukraine’s drone program, an effort backed by the CIA.

The report said that the US began supplying Ukraine with the intelligence following a July phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump reportedly asked if Ukraine could hit Moscow if the US provided longer-range weapons. In August and September, Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure significantly escalated.

US-backed attacks on Russian territory always risk a major escalation between Russia and NATO, and the FT report noted that the Biden administration refrained from supporting such strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. President Biden did support Ukrainian strikes on Russian border regions using ATACMS, US-provided missiles that have a range of about 190 miles.

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HUNGARIAN WITCH HUNT: After Ukraine Accused Orbán of Sending Drones Into Its Airspace, Now the European Union Is Investigating an Alleged Hungarian Spy Ring in Brussels

‘Everything is Hungary’s fault’.

There’s a new illness of the mind going around the Globalist corners of the European Union.

You can call it Hungarophobia or Magyarophobia, and it basically means that the conservative central European country is receiving the ‘Russian treatment’, with constant psyops and disinformation against it.

Around 10 days ago, Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky publicly accused Budapest of deploying multiple drones into Ukrainian airspace – a serious accusation never backed with any data, and soon dropped into oblivion.

Now, the Globalist archfoes of the European Union have broken another ‘sensational story’ against Viktor Orbán and his government.

Euronews reported:

“According to reports that sparked the probe, the undercover spy ring allegedly operated under the cover of the Hungarian permanent representation, which at that time was led by Olivér Várhelyi, who is now a European Commissioner.

The European Commission launched a probe on Thursday after several media reports alleged that the Hungarian secret services were trying to recruit EU employees in Brussels as informants.”

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Ukrainian Drones Reach Western Siberia In Furthest Attack Of Entire War

Another day, another Ukrainian long-range drone attack on energy and industrial sites deep inside Russian territory. But overnight, Kiev set a record for distance.

On Monday evening, authorities in Western Siberia’s Tyumen region said they downed three drones near an industrial and oil refinery site in what marks furthest known Ukrainian drone incursion reported inside Russian territory since the start of the war.

Tyumen residents posted videos online showing fire trucks and ambulances rushing toward the Antipinsky oil refinery, among the region’s largest, with a processing capacity of 9 million tons of crude per year.

“A prompt response from emergency services prevented a detonation. There were no casualties, explosions or fires. All enterprises in the area continue to operate normally,” the Tyumen government press service said.

At least two explosions were observed, likely in the air, based on local news sources, along with mobile network disruptions in the area.

Crucially, the region is located roughly 1,240 miles (or 2,000 kilometers) from the Ukrainian border.

But it appears the inbound drones may have been intercepted before hitting any industrial site, as a regional statement said three drones were “detected and neutralized on the premises of an enterprise.”

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Kremlin Denies Drone Incursions – ‘Something Fishy Going On’, Zelenskiy Ramps Up Drone Production

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov today denied Russian involvement in European drone incursions in recent weeks.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned EU leaders against blaming Russia for any drone incursion, saying they should expand their horizons instead, reported Russian state news agency TASS.

He rejected related accusations against Russia as groundless, referring to a recent report about the arrest of a European aircraft enthusiast for testing a drone. “The report said that guy was not even affiliated with Russia at all. While that is just a small unrelated case, well, [they should] expand their horizons,” Peskov concluded.

Europe has been swept with “drone hysteria” in recent days, with closures of the airspace over cities amid unidentified drone incursions. Mass media and politicians tend to link every such incident to Russia or its alleged plans to somehow strike the European Union amid the “drone wall” proposal put forward by Brussels, added TASS.

“There’s no reason to blame Russia for the drones spotted across Europe.

“There’s something strange about this whole story.”

Russia’s former president Medvedev chimed in.

“European cities have been engulfed by an epidemic of UFDs, or Unidentified Flying Drones. 

“UAVs are everywhere: near military bases, airports, fields, and cities. Whose they are remains unclear.

“The main thing is for short-sighted Europeans to feel the danger of war, to tremble and shake like dumb animals driven to slaughter, to soil themselves with fear of their coming end.

“Maybe then they will understand war and tear the heads off freaks like Merz and Macron, who profit from blood.”

Ukrainian President Zelenskiy highlighted the country’s progress in building domestic drone production.

“Our production potential for drones and missiles next year will already be $35 billion.

“We are already producing 40 Bohdan howitzers per month… and 2.4 million mortar and artillery munitions last year.

“We have successfully used Neptunes… soon we will regularly use our own ballistic missiles.

“Already, more than 40% of the weapons used on the front are Ukrainian. By the end of the year, no less than 50% must be our own weapons.

“The time has come to launch the export of our Ukrainian weapons.”

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Report: Netanyahu Ordered Drone Attack on Gaza Aid Flotilla Boats in Tunisia

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly ordered attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla that were carried out in early September while the boats were moored in Tunisia, CBS News reported on Friday.

A total of two boats were hit in two attacks that were conducted on September 8 and September 9. Two US intelligence officials told CBS News that Israel forces fired drones from a submarine that dropped incendiary devices and caused fires.

The report noted that under international law, the use of incendiary devices against civilian populations or civilian targets is prohibited. The attacks targeted the Family, a Portuguese-flagged vessel, and the Alma, a British-flagged vessel. In both cases, the crews were able to extinguish the fire, and the attacks caused no casualties.

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