posted March 30, 2006 11:22 AM              

Unmanned aerial vehicles have soared the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq for years, spotting enemy encampments, protecting military bases, and even launching missile attacks against suspected terrorists.

Now UAVs may be landing in the United States.

A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday heard testimony from police agencies that envision using UAVs for everything from border security to domestic surveillance high above American cities. Private companies also hope to use UAVs for tasks such as aerial photography and pipeline monitoring.

"We need additional technology to supplement manned aircraft surveillance and current ground assets to ensure more effective monitoring of United States territory," Michael Kostelnik, assistant commissioner at Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection Bureau, told the House Transportation subcommittee.

Kostelnik was talking about patrolling U.S. borders and ports from altitudes around 12,000 feet, an automated operation that's currently underway in Arizona. But that's only the beginning of the potential of surveillance from the sky.

In a scene that could have been inspired by the movie "Minority Report," one North Carolina county is using a UAV equipped with low-light and infrared cameras to keep watch on its citizens. The aircraft has been dispatched to monitor gatherings of motorcycle riders at the Gaston County fairgrounds from just a few hundred feet in the air--close enough to identify faces--and many more uses, such as the aerial detection of marijuana fields, are planned.

That raises not just privacy concerns, but also safety concerns because of the possibility of collisions with commercial and general aviation aircraft.

"They're a legitimate user of the airspace and they need to play by the same rules as everyone else," Melissa Rudinger, vice president of regulatory affairs at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said in a telephone interview.

Pilots undergo extensive training on collision detection and avoidance. Planes that fly at night are required to have certain types of lights, for instance. Operating an aircraft near busy airports (in government parlance, "Class B" airports) requires a transponder that broadcasts its altitude. And during all flights that take place in poor weather or higher than 18,000 feet above sea level, the pilot must be in radio contact with controllers.

No such anti-collision rules apply to UAVs. Rudinger is concerned that UAVs--either remote-controlled or autonomous drones--will pose a safety threat to pilots and their passengers. She's not that worried about larger UAVs operated by the military that have sophisticated radar systems, but about smaller ones that have limited equipment and potentially inexperienced ground controllers.

"The FAA needs to define what is a UAV," Rudinger said. "And they need to regulate it just like they do any other aircraft, and integrate it into the system. The problem is the technology has advanced, and there are no regulations that talk about how to certify these aircraft, how to certify the operator, and how to operate in the national airspace system."

For its part, the FAA says it's created a UAV "program office" to come up with new rules of the sky. Preliminary standards for "sense and avoid" UAV avionics are expected in three to four years.

"Currently there is no recognized technology solution that could make these aircraft capable of meeting regulatory requirements for 'see and avoid,' and 'command and control,'" said Nick Sabatini, associate FAA administrator for aviation safety. "Further, some unmanned aircraft will likely never receive unrestricted access to (U.S. airspace) due to the limited amount of avionics it can carry because of weight, such as transponders, that can be installed in a vehicle itself weighing just a few ounces."

Complicating the question of how to deal with UAVs is the fact that there are so many different varieties of them. Some are essentially large model aircraft and weigh only a few ounces or pounds, while some military models are the size of a Boeing 737. Most are designed to sip fuel slowly, so they have long flight times and low airspeeds--meaning that they could be flying at the same altitude as a jet aircraft but at half the speed.

Egging on Congress and the FAA are manufacturers of UAVs, who see a lucrative market in domestic surveillance and aerial photography.

"It is quite easy to envision a future in which (UAVs), unaffected by pilot fatigue, provide 24-7 border and port surveillance to protect against terrorist intrusion," said Mike Heintz on behalf of the UNITE Alliance which represents Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. "Other examples are limited only by our imagination."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Remember the tenets of the Party now...

“War is Peace” Freedom is Slavery” and “Ignorance is Strength.”

Everybody ready for their RFID implant?

posted April 06, 2006 09:05 PM            

My guy flies these unmanned aircrafts (or UAV's) here at Fort Huachuca and in Baumholder, Germany

Unmanned war: Demand surges seven-fold for drones in battlefield

By Lolita C. Baldor
Monday, April 3, 2006 2:09 AM MDT

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Piloted remotely from a Nevada air base half a world away or by soldiers on the scene, unmanned aircraft have become so indispensable in Iraq and in the war on terror that by next year the U.S. could be spending nearly seven times more on the vehicles than it did before the 9/11 attacks.

The aircraft were heavily used after last month’s bombing of a mosque in Samarra, Iraq, highlighting how prevalent they have become for a military thirsty for vehicles that can drop bombs or hover over targets without risking pilots’ lives.

When Iraq erupted in ethnic violence after the Feb. 22 attack on the sacred mosque, the planes — known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs — lingered over trouble spots so officials could use the crafts’ video cameras to see where crowds were gathering and whether they were armed or violent.

Underscoring their importance, spending on the planes is expected to total at least $12 billion over the next five years. The spike in annual spending — from $300 million in 2001 when terrorists attacked America to perhaps $2 billion next year — will pay for at least 132 UAVs, including a new version for the Navy, beefed up models for the Army and a major effort to solve technical problems.

“The services are demanding them — they can’t get enough Predators in Iraq,” said Dan Goure, defense analyst at the Lexington Institute. “Now the revolution has come. And it’s going to be explosive over the next few years.”

Meeting the growing demands for UAVs from commanders in Iraq has come at a price, since many of the aircraft were sent to the warfront before communications problems were ironed out.

“We didn’t want to say, ‘Let’s deny someone their ability to be combat effective because we’re waiting for some perfect technology,’ ” said Army Col. John Burke, director of unmanned systems integration.

At least 700 unmanned aerial vehicles of all shapes and sizes are being used in Iraq, with dozens often jostling for room in the crowded airspace 24 hours a day. The Army controls about 600 of them, mostly the smaller Ravens that soldiers can carry in backpacks and fling into the air for surveillance.

So far there has been one reported collision of a small UAV and a helicopter in Iraq, according to Air Force Maj. Gen. Norman Seip, assistant deputy chief of staff for air operations. He said no one was injured.

At least five times in December, the larger unmanned Air Force Predators flown remotely by airmen sitting at consoles in a Nevada Air Force base bombed insurgent strongholds in western Anbar province.

“The demand for a lot of these UAVs, especially the smaller ones, has gone through the roof,” said Bruce Nelson, deputy director of the Air Force’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programs.

Goure predicted spending in 2007 could reach $2.5 billion, though some of it will be hidden because it is classified or buried in other high-tech programs. The government buys many different unmanned systems for the military services, and the intelligence community also buys its own.

The Army’s Raven weighs less than 5 pounds, can be carried in a backpack, and can be flung into the air to locate roadside bombs or beam back live pictures of targets.

Some of the smaller models cost as little as $25,000 apiece.

Fort Huachuca is the home of the Army’s main unmanned aerial systems — formerly known as unmanned aerial vehicles.

Because of the use of the pilotless planes in the war on terrorism in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the Intelligence Center on the post has seen an increase, or throughput in Army jargon, of students who are being trained to operate and maintain the Shadow, which are larger than the infantry-borne Ravens.

“As more Shadow systems are distributed through the Army, there is a grater need for soldiers with those skills,” said Tanja Linton, a spokeswoman for Fort Huachuca.

Not only have Shadows been “incredibly successful” in Iraq, but so has another system on which soldiers are trained, the Hunter, she said.

In a few years another system is supposed to enter the Army inventory, Linton said.

The Warrior, a larger unmanned aircraft, will be the next step for providing important intelligence, she added.

The Air Force’s deadly Predators, which can launch missiles, are 27 feet long and are flown remotely by airmen sitting far away in the United States.

And the larger Global Hawk surveillance aircraft, which can cost more than $80 million each, can reach an altitude of 65,000 feet and send back high-resolution imagery.

The Army and Air Force, said Burke, are trying to develop a video system that would let troops in several locations control the same aircraft.

New York-based L-3 Communications is one of the prime contractors developing the equipment.

In the past four years the Army has gone from owning a handful of UAV systems — each of which include a console that controls several aircraft — to more than 300.

The Navy has been spending comparatively little on unmanned vehicles. But it is preparing to buy a new helicopter-like UAV called the Fire Scout that can take off and land vertically on ships.

The technology has changed greatly since the first remote-controlled drones were used to train anti-aircraft gunners during World War II. During the Vietnam War, the Air Force used jet-powered drones carrying cameras to spy on North Vietnam and China.

The newer models gained widespread use for the first time in the Kosovo war in 1999.

President Bush’s proposed budget for 2007 would buy:

Six Air Force Global Hawks

26 Air Force Predators, built by California-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems

Four Navy Fire Scouts, built by Northrop Grumman Corp

20 small UAVs for the Army, including the Ravens.

Over the next five years, the Pentagon plans to buy at least 219 Predators for the Air Force and special operations forces and 35 Global Hawks.