With Air Force's Gorgon Drone 'we can see everything' In ancient times, Gorgon was a mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to stone those who beheld them.
In modern times, Gorgon may be one of the military's most valuable new tools. This winter, the Air Force is set to deploy to Afghanistan what it says is a revolutionary airborne surveillance system called Gorgon Stare, which will be able to transmit live video images of physical movement across an entire town. The system, made up of nine video cameras mounted on a remotely piloted aircraft, can transmit live images to soldiers on the ground or to analysts tracking enemy movements. It can send up to 65 different images to different users; by contrast, Air Force drones today shoot video from a single camera over a "soda straw" area the size of a building or two. With the new tool, analysts will no longer have to guess where to point the camera, said Maj. The Air Force is exponentially increasing surveillance across Afghanistan. Gorgon Stare Blinks A Lot; Testers Say Don’t Field Til Fixed. Gorgon Stare, hailed by the Washington Post as an advanced ISR tool par excellence, should not be fielded now because it works less than the half time it should and is deemed by testers to be “not operationally suitable.”
The 53rd Wing of the Air Combat Command at Eglin Air Force Base made the recommendation in an operational utility evaluation. Gorgon Stare is built by the Sierra Nevada Corp working under the aegis of the Air Force’s vaunted Big Safari (645th Aeronautical Systems Group), charged with developing promising weapon systems quickly and getting them into use. It provides imagery from five electro-optical cameras and four infrared cameras in one pod and is supposed to be able to do day and night operations. Reaper Sensors Called “Gorgon Stare” The Air Force plans to install a wide-area airborne surveillance sensor under its MQ-9 Reapers that lets troops look at more of the battlefield from more angles.
Ten of the service’s Reapers will start getting the sensor in spring 2010. The $15 million sensor will film an area with a four-kilometer radius underneath the Reaper during both day and night operations from 12 angles, said Robert Marlin, technical adviser for Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The Army started using a similar wide-area surveillance sensor, the Constant Hawk, in 2006 and the Marine Corps followed suit with an upgrade called Angel Fire in 2007. Those sensors are mounted under manned aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Military Struggles to Harness a Flood of Data. Www.dodbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/53D-Tests-and-Recommendation.pdf. Air Force's 'All-Seeing Eye' Flops Vision Test [Updated] Gorgon Stare,drone based all seeing eye. In a few months, the U.S. Air Force will deploy to Afghanistan what is essentially an all-seeing eye. Predator strike that killed sailor angers father.
Robert Rast is still searching for answers a year after his son was killed in Afghanistan in the first-ever friendly fire incident involving an Air Force Predator drone missile strike.
He wants Pentagon leaders to hold those who were involved accountable and take bigger steps to prevent accidents like the one that killed Benjamin David Rast, a 23-year-old Navy hospitalman from Niles, Mich., and Jeremy D. Smith, a 26-year-old Marine staff sergeant, from Arlington, Texas. Benjamin Rast had "a heart of gold with a John Wayne, patriotic fighting spirit," his father said. 3. Finding the Right Targets. Third of five parts (see one or two) Many argue the most critical payload Reaper carries is sensors for finding targets and collecting information that is made available to operators on the ground.
The current version of the Reaper has a “Multi-Spectral Targeting System” that combines infrared and optical sensors and a laser designator/range finder to employ Hellfire missiles and laser guided bombs. Unaccountable Killing Machines: The True Cost of U.S. Drones - Joshua Foust. Officials often portray the global expansion of deadly drone strikes as an unequivocal success. Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus for drone killing. Other commanders in chief have presided over wars with far higher casualty counts.
But no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation’s security goals. The rapid expansion of the drone program has blurred long-standing boundaries between the CIA and the military. Lethal operations are increasingly assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force. Not Even the White House Knows the Drones' Body Count. An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft takes off from Joint Base Balad, Iraq.
Photo: USAF Government officials claim they’re ultra-precise killing machines that never, ever miss their targets. Outside groups say they’re covered in children’s blood. The fact is no one has a clue exactly how many militants and how many innocents have been slain in the U.S. drone war that spans from Pakistan to Somalia. Obama Administration’s Drone Death Figures Don’t Add Up. (U.S.
Air Force photo by Lance Cheung) Last month, a “senior administration official” said the number of civilians killed in drone strikes in Pakistan under President Obama is in the “single digits.” But last year “U.S. officials” said drones in Pakistan killed about 30 civilians in just a yearlong stretch under Obama. Both claims can’t be true. A centerpiece of President Obama’s national security strategy, drones strikes in Pakistan are credited by the administration with crippling Al Qaeda but criticized by human rights groups and others for being conducted in secret and killing civilians. So we decided to narrow it down to just one issue: have the administration’s own claims been consistent?