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A Drone for US of A & Drones for All

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Russian Stealth Attack UAV "Okhotnik" Drops Bombs from Internal Bay. Will Turkish drones help Ukraine reclaim territory? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East. Dec 11, 2020 Following the recent Azeri success against the Armenian forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Ukrainian news media is abuzz with speculation that the Ukrainian army may be planning to reclaim the country’s eastern Donbass region controlled by Russia-backed separatists, using the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones believed to have been a game changer in the Azeri-Armenian war.

Will Turkish drones help Ukraine reclaim territory? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Observers are asking whether Ukraine could repeat the Karabakh example to win back territories it lost to Russia and the separatists in 2014 and further escalate the conflict over the Black Sea Basin. Some reports went so far as to say that Ukraine might be planning to use these drones to surveil Russian-annexed Crimea and Kerch Strait linking Black Sea and Sea of Azov. During his visit to Turkey on Dec. 2, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba Dmytro made no attempt to conceal Kyiv's expectations of Ankara.

Kalashnikov's kamikaze drone is built to explode on impact. This Is Russia’s First Autonomous Strike Drone. What We Know About the U.S. Navy's Drone Fleet of the Future. The first wireless flying robotic insect takes off powered by laser beams. When a Hobby Drone Becomes a Military Sniper. Another approach could be to use a recoilless weapon, like a rocket launcher.

When a Hobby Drone Becomes a Military Sniper

Rather than large-caliber cannon, helicopters are armed with rocket pods, which can throw a lot of explosive rapidly. Ukraine's Drone Army Was Born In a Crucible of Conflict. Seeing the Ukrainians need for drones, in July 2016 the U.S. did include some in a military assistance program, supplying 72 RQ-11 Raven drones worth about $12 million.

Ukraine's Drone Army Was Born In a Crucible of Conflict

Although proving capable in Iraq and Afghanistan, they quickly became a horrible vulnerability in the field. Russians are much more adept at 'radio-electronic warfare', and Russian-backed rebels had little trouble countering them. Now surviving Ravens are gathering dust in storage. 'The Assassination Complex': Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald Probe Secret U.S. Drone Wars. A suface-to-air missile is fired during a live military drill overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at an undisclosed location, March 20, 2013.

'The Assassination Complex': Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald Probe Secret U.S. Drone Wars

As the Obama administration prepares to release for the first time the number of people it believes it has killed in drone strikes in countries that lie outside of conventional war zones, we look at a new book out today that paints a very different picture of the U.S. drone program. The coming age of assassin kamikaze drones. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a… kamikaze drone!

The coming age of assassin kamikaze drones

In 2008, the air force research laboratory set out to create a machine that could kill two birds with one drone. The kamikaze drone would be programmed to identify and kill a person, self-destructing on impact. Although these killing machines sound like creatures of fiction, the age of the kamikaze drone is quickly coming upon us.(1) The project that set out to create the kamikaze drone was dubbed “Anubis,” which is fittingly named after the dog-headed Egyptian god of death. That’s right: Anubis is programmed to determine who should live and who should die.

Kamikaze drones sidestep problems of larger drones. Drone war report, January – June 2015: controversial ‘signature strikes’ hit Yemen and Pakistan. President Barack Obama publicly acknowledged a specific drone strike in Pakistan, an unprecedented step.

Drone war report, January – June 2015: controversial ‘signature strikes’ hit Yemen and Pakistan

He apologized for killing American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto, two al Qaeda hostages, in a signature strike in Pakistan (Photo: White House) i. Untitled. President Barack Obama stood behind the podium and apologized for inadvertently killing two Western hostages - including one American - during a drone strike in Pakistan.

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Obama said, “one of the things that sets America apart from many other nations, one of the things that makes us exceptional, is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes.” In his 2015 state of the union address, Obama described America as “exceptional.” When he spoke to the United Nations General Assembly in 2013, he said, “Some may disagree, but I believe that America is exceptional.”

American exceptionalism reflects the belief that Americans are somehow better than everyone else.   Manhunters, Inc.    :    Information Clearing House - ICH. How the Predator and Extra-Judicial Execution Became Washington’s Calling Cards By Grégoire Chamayou [The following is slightly adapted from chapters two and three of Grégoire Chamayou’s new book, A Theory of the Drone, with special thanks to his publisher, the New Press.]

  Manhunters, Inc.    :    Information Clearing House - ICH

April 08, 2015 "ICH" - "Tom Dispatch" - Initially, the English word “drone” meant both an insect and a sound. It was not until the outbreak of World War II that it began to take on another meaning. At that time, American artillery apprentices used the expression “target drones” to designate the small remotely controlled planes at which they aimed in training. How drones are controlled - Washington Post. When drones fall from the sky. The Air Force acknowledged that Predators crash more frequently than regular military aircraft, but officials said the drone’s safety record has improved markedly.

When drones fall from the sky

During its first dozen years of existence, the Predator crashed at an extraordinarily high rate — for every 100,000 hours flown, it was involved in 13.7 Class A accidents. Since 2009, as the Air Force has become more experienced at flying drones, the mishap rate for Predators has fallen to 4.79 Class A accidents for every 100,000 flight hours. Army crash rates. How crashing drones are exposing secrets about U.S. war operations. The Syrian News Agency SANA and Alikhbaria TV channel reported that a “hostile” drone was intercepted in northern Latakia, a regime-held city.

How crashing drones are exposing secrets about U.S. war operations

This video is said to show some of the drone wreckage. U.S. officials have confirmed that the Predator drone crashed and believe it may have been shot down, but have not made a final determination. (YouTube/الوكالة العربية السورية للأنباء) Obama’s Drone War. At the Pearl Continental Hotel, in Peshawar, a concrete tower enveloped by flowering gardens, the management has adopted security precautions that have become common in Pakistan’s upscale hospitality industry: razor wire, vehicle barricades, and police crouching in bunkers, fingering machine guns.

In June, on a hot weekday morning, Noor Behram arrived at the gate carrying a white plastic shopping bag full of photographs. He had a four-inch black beard and wore a blue shalwar kameez and a flat Chitrali hat. He met me in the lobby. We sat down, and Behram spilled his photos onto a table. The loneliness of the long-distance drone pilot. By Aaron Sankin on February 1st, 2015 Bruce Black had been preparing for this moment for most of his life. Growing up, he always wanted to be a pilot. Navy Helicopter Drone Completes First Round of Testing. Imagine trying to land a remote-controlled helicopter on top of a motorboat that's speeding across a lake. Now imagine that the helicopter is life size, the motorboat is a warship and the lake is the Atlantic Ocean. Navy pilots recently had to contend with just such a scenario as they tested the U.S. military's newest drone, the MQ-8C Fire Scout. From a computer-filled control station aboard the USS Jason Dunham, the pilots successfully completed 32 takeoffs and landings with the new drone helicopter.

The Navy conducted the tests, which ended yesterday (Dec. 23), to assess the drone's capabilities in different wind conditions, and to see how well it could land on a ship moving at varying speeds, according to Navy officials. A "Precise" U.S. Drone War? Report Says 28 Unidentified Victims Killed for Every 1 Target. A new report finds U.S. drone strikes kill 28 unidentified people for every intended target. While the Obama administration has claimed its drone strikes are precise, the group Reprieve found that strikes targeting 41 people in Yemen and Pakistan have killed more than 1,000 other, unnamed people. In its attempts to kill al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri alone, the CIA killed 76 children and 29 adults; al-Zawahiri remains alive. CIA drone strikes resume in Pakistan after five-month pause.

Two drone strikes have hit North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal northwest, reportedly killing 16 people and ending the longest pause in drone strikes of Obama’s presidency. Prior to these attacks there had not been a drone strike in Pakistan since Christmas Day. The Pakistani government had requested that the US stop carrying out strikes to allow peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) to take place, sources close to the negotiations told the Bureau in February.

But terrorist attacks and retaliatory air strikes by the Pakistani military continued throughout the peace talks, killing hundreds including civilians. Any hope of the talks continuing ended on Sunday when the TTP launched an audacious ‘joint operation‘ attacking Karachi airport, with members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group with a strong presence in North Waziristan. Unmasked: Area 51's Biggest, Stealthiest Spy Drone Yet. "These Drones Attack Us and the Whole World is Silent": New Film Exposes Secret U.S. War. A Drone Warrior’s Torment: Ex-Air Force Pilot Brandon Bryant on His Trauma from Remote Killing. More Than 80 U.S. Public Entities Requested Drone Authorizations In 2012. US to Drone Victims: Shut Up. Rafiq ur Rehman would be entitled to a lawyer if he were a murderer. But when a CIA drone kills your mother and wounds you and your two young children, you don’t warrant the same rights as criminals.

Rehman was scheduled to testify before Congress on October 1. Fresh Evidence of CIA Drone Strikes on Rescuers. Reaper Drone Found Not Guilty In Death Of American Teenager. ARLINGTON, VA — A U.S. federal jury has found an MQ-9 Reaper drone not guilty of second degree murder and manslaughter in the aerial bombing death of a young American teenager, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in October 2011. Dronestagram: Artist James Bridle Captures Aerial Snapshots Of Drone Strike Locations (PHOTOS) Social media has long been a tool for web-savvy artists, but there's something about James Bridle's ability to turn an Instagram snapshot into a powerful political statement that makes his artwork truly unique.

His cleverly named project, Dronestagram, has been making the internet rounds since late 2012, using familiar blogging platforms like Instagram and Tumblr to showcase a series of drone strike locations from above. Taken from Google Earth images, the photographs reveal the familiar geography of satellite mapping technology but are meant to mimic the sight a drone might have prior to and after launching an attack. (Scroll down for rest of article.) Loading Slideshow October 21, 2012: An evening strike on a car killed ‘at least four’ alleged al Qaeda members in Maarib province, several miles outside Maarib city, sources reported. Presented in varying shades of green and brown, the photos become pieces of internet art when Bridle uniformly displays them on his social accounts. The Drone Ranger: Obama’s Dirty Wars. U.S. Admits To Killing Americans In Drone Strikes.

Obama Aims To Limit Civilian Casualties With Switch To Taser Drones. The Game of Drones. By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR. Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names. Future drones: Micro Air Vehicles — unobtrusive, pervasive, and lethal. Www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/130124_SRCTBenEmmersonQCStatement.pdf. Navy Unveils First Squadron Of Drones. CORONADO, Calif. — The Navy on Thursday inaugurated its first squadron with both manned and unmanned aircraft amid debate over the military's burgeoning use of drones in warfare. Military officials launched the effort by reactivating the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 35, known as the "Magicians," which served for 19 years before being deactivated in 1992.

The new squadron "points to the future of naval aviation," Vice Admiral David H. Buss, commander of naval air forces, told the crowd attending the ceremony at Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado, near San Diego. Transcript: Covering the Frontlines of the Drone War. Obama’s drone war kills ‘others,’ not just al Qaida leaders. WASHINGTON — Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior leaders of al Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified “other” militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, classified U.S. intelligence reports show.

The administration has said that strikes by the CIA’s missile-firing Predator and Reaper drones are authorized only against “specific senior operational leaders of al Qaida and associated forces” involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks who are plotting “imminent” violent attacks on Americans. “It has to be a threat that is serious and not speculative,” President Barack Obama said in a Sept. 6, 2012, interview with CNN. Predator Drone Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize. Origins of C.I.A.’s Not-So-Secret Drone War in Pakistan. Hearts, Minds and Dollars: Condolence Payments in the Drone Strike Age. Fashion Statement: Designer Creates Line of Drone-Proof Garments to Protect Privacy.

‘You’re My Best Friend,’ Says Obama To Drone That Appears Outside Bedroom Window Every Night. How Does the U.S. Mark Unidentified Men in Pakistan and Yemen as Drone Targets? Heroic Predator Drone Is First Recipient of Distinguished Warfare Medal. The Drone War Doctrine We Still Know Nothing About. Like a Swarm of Lethal Bugs: The Most Terrifying Drone Video Yet - Conor Friedersdorf. ‘Drones for America!’ At Least We're Not Measles: Rationalizing Drone Attacks Hits New Low. Droning on about drones. Handheld Black Hornet Nano drones issued to U.K. soldiers. JSoc: Obama’s secret assassins. Designing A City Impenetrable To Drones. Secrecy News.

Drones are fool's gold: they prolong wars we can't win. U.S. Drone In Philippines Came From Guam Drill, Says Embassy. The Kantian Case Against Drone Warfare. American Drones Ignite New Arms Race From Gaza To Iran To China. Have U.S. Drones Become a ‘Counterinsurgency Air Force’ for Our Allies? Remote U.S. base at core of secret operations. The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret. Is the U.S. drone program good or bad policy? The Targeted-Killing Czar's Powerful Case Against the Drone War - Conor Friedersdorf. Obama’s African base for drone warfare. Deadlier drones are coming. Going Mad With Drones. Living (and Dying) Under Drones.

A picture of war: the CIA’s drone strikes in Pakistan. What's Not Wrong With Drones? - By Rosa Brooks. Drones Over the Americas. Covert War on Terror. Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes. Is It the Drones or the Killings We Oppose?