Defense Systems

What can UAV analysts learn from 'Jersey Shore'?

The Air Force might soon be adopting practices used by reality television producers to efficiently manage the large volume of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data gathered from unmanned aircraft sensors and cameras.

Defense Systems

Compact military VSATs have big impact

Military VSATs offer benefits that are fueling solid growth, but users must make tradeoffs, experts say.

Defense Systems

UAVs cornerstone of DOD's 30-year aviation plan

The Defense Department intends to increase its armed and long-range surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles by at least 45 percent over the next decade.

Defense Systems

Lawmakers ask FCC to reconsider on LightSquared

A quartet of lawmakers has asked Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to find a viable solution that will allow prospective wireless provider LightSquared to launch its planned 4G network.

Defense Systems

Navy sensor would hunt for pirate ships

The Navy is developing a sensor system for unmanned aircraft that would be able to distinguish a pirate vessel from other craft.

Defense Systems

China's navy to develop UAVs to hunt submarines

China's People's Liberation Army Navy has begun deploying unmanned aerial vehicles aboard its ships. They may eventually hunt submarines.

Defense Systems

Enhanced sensor systems to help Army shed light in the darkness

The Army has named five winners of $1.8 billion in contract awards for its Warrior Enabling Broad Sensor program.

Defense Systems

Army awards unattended ground sensor contract

The Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a five-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract to furnish Scorpion I and II unattended ground sensor systems for force protection and intelligence gathering purposes.

Defense Systems

Will the Air Force ever catch up with its UAV data backlog?

It may be years before the Air Force has the human resources and tools in place to keep up with the enormous amounts of data gathered from its fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles and the sophisticated sensors that they employ on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, says Air Force Secretary Michael Donley.

Defense Systems

LightSquared might opt for voluntary bankruptcy, Falcone says

Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone said in an April 4 interview that he is giving serious consideration to filing a voluntary bankruptcy for LightSquared.

Defense Systems

Looking for a sharper image with sensors for unmanned platforms

The military's shift to high-definition sensors requires many changes.

Defense Systems

Raven tactical UAV to get sensor boost

Aerovironment's Raven RQ-11B unmanned aerial vehicle will get a new miniature, gimbaled sensor payload that will give warfighters better situational awareness via higher visual fidelity and continuous observation of an item of interest.

Defense Systems

Blue Devil Block 2 airship has friends in high places

A pair of influential U.S. senators are upset about Air Force plans to cut the 370-foot-long Blue Devil Block 2 airship program and have informed the Defense Department that they believe it would be "a significant failure to stop work and not deploy" the platform to Afghanistan.

Defense Systems

Poseidon P-8A delivered to Navy, ready for BAMS integration

Naval Air Station Jacksonville celebrated the arrival of the first new, network-enabled P-8A Poseidon multi-mission aircraft in late March.

Defense Systems

Global Hawk has staunch defender in Congress

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a member of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, says he will recommend continuing funding for the Global Hawk Block 30 unmanned aircraft, which the Air Force plans to put into storage as a key part of a comprehensive budget-cutting effort.

Defense Systems

Big data poses big challenge for military intelligence

As sensors continue to generate enormous volumes of data, DOD planners are struggling with techniques to ensure such data remains useful to warfighters.

Defense Systems

Who will get to fly Navy UAVs?

The Navy has decided that unmanned aerial vehicles weighing more than 55 pounds will be operated as adjuncts to manned aircraft systems.

Defense Systems

Pakistan rejected offer by US to scale back UAV attacks

U.S. officials offered key concessions to Pakistan's intelligence chief in January regarding the use of unmanned aerial vehicles against al-Qaeda in the southwest Asian nation in an effort to regain the trust of Pakistani officials, but the offers were rejected.

Defense Systems

Watch out, China, US spy drones headed your way

The Australian government is considering allowing the United States to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles to a coral atoll in the Indian Ocean where they might conduct surveillance missions of that ocean and also the South China Sea.

Defense Systems

Robotics juggernaut seen as unstoppable

The use and proliferation of robotic systems by the U.S. military will likely continue unabated because they offer far more advantages than disadvantages.