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Illinois Law Grounds PETA Drones Meant to Harass Hunters

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Illinois passed a new state law that set back the efforts of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), making the use of drones to interfere with hunters and fishermen prohibited.

The law was created in response to PETA’s plan to employ drones called “air angels” to monitor outdoors enthusiasts engaged in hunting and fishing nationwide. Of course, the motivation for many outdoorsman is to get away from technology and be in harmony with nature.

But PETA has another plan for lovers of the wilderness. They want to spy on hunters as self appointed green police trying to trap them in violations. Surprisingly, these “hobbyists” are able to take home their personal drone for only $324.99.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Navy’s Amazing Ocean-Powered Underwater Drone

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Photo Credit: NATO

Photo Credit: NATO

While you were out shopping Sunday for those last-minute holiday gifts, the Navy pushed ahead with its own vision of an underwater sugar plum: a fleet of “long endurance, transoceanic gliders harvesting all energy from the ocean thermocline.”

And you thought Jules Verne died in 1905.

Fact is, the Navy has been seeking—pretty much under the surface—a way to do underwater what the Air Force has been doing in the sky: prowl stealthily for long periods of time, and gather the kind of data that could turn the tide in war.

The Navy’s goal is to send an underwater drone, which it calls a “glider,” on a roller-coaster-like path for up to five years. A fleet of them could swarm an enemy coastline, helping the Navy hunt down minefields and target enemy submarines.

Unlike their airborne cousins, Navy gliders are not powered by aviation fuel. Instead, they draw energy from the ocean’s thermocline, a pair of layers of warm water near the surface and chillier water below.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rep. McCaul: ‘Drones Alone Are Not Going to Kill an Ideology’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: CNSNews.com/Penny Starr

Photo Credit: CNSNews.com/Penny Starr

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Candy Crowley, said that while drones are good for going after high value targets, “drones alone are not going to kill an ideology.”

“I think drones are a good tool to go after high value targets. I think good intelligence, special forces. I don’t think occupying countries is really the way to go. I do think that the smart ways to do it, but the problem is drones alone are not going to kill an ideology,” McCaul said.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezoz said his company has been working on a secret project to use drones to deliver products to customers in 30 minutes. Amazon “Prime Air” will be available to customers in four to five years, he told CBS’ Charlie Rose.

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China Tests First Stealth Combat Drone

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Photo Credit: AFP/Mark RalstonChina has tested its first stealth combat drone, state media said Friday, citing online photos of an aircraft resembling a shrunken US B2 bomber and hailing the advance toward Western-level technology.

The test flight of the “Sharp Sword” unmanned aircraft is another step in China’s years-long military build-up, with its defence spending now the second highest in the world and growing by double-digit percentages each year.

It comes weeks after Tokyo said a drone had flown near East China Sea islands claimed by both it and Beijing, ratcheting tensions between the rivals up another notch.

“The successful flight shows the nation has again narrowed the air-power disparity between itself and Western nations,” the China Daily newspaper said, adding the flight made China the “fourth power… capable of putting a stealth drone into the sky”.

Images posted online showed a sleek grey delta-wing aircraft apparently powered by a jet engine and resembling an American combat drone.

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CIA Drone Strikes Could Encourage Use by Hostile States, Lawyer Warns

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Photo Credit: Mike Theiler/EPAHuman rights lawyers have warned that alleged illegal drone attacks by the US in Pakistan and Yemen risk encouraging their use by other states in the region.

Andrea Prasow, a counter-terrorism lawyer with Human Rights Watch, said a new report with Amnesty International into evidence of strikes against civilians showed breaches of international conventions that could be exploited by hostile countries using similar technology.

“The failure to abide by international law sets a dangerous precedent for other countries,” Prasow told reporters at the launch of the report.

On Monday, Iranian media reported that authorities in Tehran had reverse-engineered a captured US drone and made a series of copies.

Naureen Shah of Amnesty echoed the growing concern in legal circles that indiscriminate US strikes will make it harder to restrain such countries in future.

Read more from this story HERE.

Predator Drones ‘Useless’ in Most Wars, Top Air Force General Says

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Photo Credit: FP

Photo Credit: FP

The drones that have proved so useful at hunting al Qaeda are “useless” in nearly every other battlefield scenario, says a top Air Force general. So, for the first time, the Air Force is proposing culling the fleet of little, propeller-driven MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones in favor of stealthier, faster aircraft.

This is because the slow, low-flying drones that killed terrorists in the last decade’s wars have little chance of surviving against an enemy armed with even basic air defenses. Faced with declining defense budgets, Air Force officials want to retire many of the low-tech drones.

“Predators and Reapers are useless in a contested environment,” said Gen. Mike Hostage, chief of the air service’s Air Combat Command, during the Air Force Association’s annual conference outside of Washington.

“Today … I couldn’t put [a Predator or Reaper] into the Strait of Hormuz without having to put airplanes there to protect it,” said the four-star general. This week, the Air Force’s chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh, revealed that an F-22 — the planet’s most sophisticated stealth fighter — intercepted Iranian F-4 Phantom jets that were closing in on a U.S. Predator drone over the strait last March. In November 2012, Iranian Su-25 ground attack jets fired on, and missed, an American Predator over the strait.

In 2011, the Pentagon ordered the Air Force to have enough MQ-1s and MQ-9s to fly up to 65 combat air patrols (CAPs) around the world by this year. Each CAP consists of up to four drones. Even as the service worked to make this happen, it questioned the order, saying there was no official requirement stating the military’s need for what many in the air service believe are little more than flying lawn mowers.

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China Builds Fast to Trigger Drone Race with America

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Photo Credit: The Sunday Times

Photo Credit: The Sunday Times

CHINA has sent a military drone on what is thought to be the first mission of its kind in a significant show of the country’s determination to match America and Japan in the technology of warfare.

Japanese F-15 jet fighters scrambled from a base in Okinawa last Monday to intercept the unmanned aerial vehicle, which turned back towards the Chinese coast.

Although the drone flew in international airspace, officials in Tokyo said it had entered Japan’s air defence identification zone. Last year Japan scrambled its fighters more than 300 times to intercept Chinese military aircraft.

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Drone Hunters Line Up for Colorado Town’s ‘license’ Ahead of Vote – $100 Bounty for Fed’s Drones

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picture - Drone Hunding CO townThe tiny Colorado plains town of Deer Trail has yet to vote on a proposal that would create drone-hunting licenses and bounties, but that hasn’t stopped the man behind the initiative from selling 100 of his own licenses online.

The Denver Post reports that Phillip Steel, a traveling structural inspector who spearheaded the drone-hunting initiative, is selling the $25 novelty licenses to anyone who applies on his website, droneshooters.com.

Deer Trail, population 500, on Oct. 8 will vote on whether to issue permits to hunt drones. The proposal calls for a $100 bounty reward for shooters who bring in debris from an unmanned aircraft “known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government.”

Steel, who insists the initiative is a symbolic stand against government surveillance, said he’s given part of the income he’s received from selling the fake licenses to the town.

“These are not big drones you see on TV that look like airplanes. These are little 55-pound things that can come right down into your land,” Steel told The Associated Press.

Steel got the idea after seeing news reports about the National Security Agency’s domestic spying efforts. “Do we really want to become a surveillance society? That’s what I find really repugnant,” Steel said.

Read more from this story HERE.

FAA OKs Drones Over Alaska Oil Area

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drones_The FAA has cleared the way for unmanned aircraft, or drones, to fly for the Alaskan oil industry.

The Petroleum News reports approval for two remote-controlled aircraft to fly over the Arctic Ocean is an aviation milestone.

ConocoPhillips requested permission for the drone flights. But the company says it’s not quite ready to put them to use.

Read more from this story HERE.

Renegade Drone Crashes Into Groom’s Head Before Wedding (+video)

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wedding_droneIt’s hard enough to orchestrate a glitch-free wedding–and now, it appears brides and grooms may have to worry about camera drones plowing into their domes prior to the big day, too.

A photographer at a wedding recently attached a camera to a quadcopter in order to capture some video of a bride and groom being lovey-dovey in a field before their wedding. But his DIY drone ended up hitting the groom in the head. The photog, YouTube user WeddingMan123, wrote of the 47-second video showing the incident:

“This was shot using a DJI phantom and a gopro camera. This was two days before the wedding at their bridal shoot.”

Read more from this story HERE.