American Reaper Drones Debut over Philippine Land and Sea During Balikatan Exercise

American Reaper Drones Debut over Philippine Land and Sea During Balikatan Exercise

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by Seth Robson, published on Stars and Stripes, April 24, 2023

SUBIC BAY, Philippines — The U.S. military has, for the first time, deployed some of its most lethal unmanned aircraft to the Philippines, where they’re participating in large-scale military drills this month.

A pair of MQ-9 Reapers – the same type of plane that carried out numerous strikes in combat zones over the past 16 years – are flying intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions during the annual Balikatan exercise. This year’s drills involve 17,000 U.S. and Philippine troops.   Continue reading “American Reaper Drones Debut over Philippine Land and Sea During Balikatan Exercise”

Downing US Drones Saves Thousands of Lives

Downing US Drones Saves Thousands of Lives

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by Drago Bosnic, published on InfoBRICS, March 16, 2023

This event illustrates what I have long seen as some critical issues with the use of large weaponizable, intelligence seeking drones.  Stealth warriors, they fly below the radar, so to speak.  Targets may see them, but they cannot ascertain whether or not they are armed.  Regardless, the surveillance they do provides information to weapons somewhere, regardless of whether those weapons are actually on the drone.   They cross boundaries without raising red flags.  These drones play diverse roles in war, but in no case are they innocent like, say, the Chinese weather balloon the US recently shot down off the our east coast.  [jb]
 Continue reading “Downing US Drones Saves Thousands of Lives”

The Reaper UAV Is Getting Its Own Drone Swarm

The Reaper UAV Is Getting Its Own Drone Swarm

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In 2009 I observed a graduate project where they were teaching small drones to operate as a swarm.  The were using little boxes on wheels, as the main focus of the project was to get the swarm to operate coordinate so they would act as one under many circumstances.  They had a long way to go.  Now we see this, and I would guess the kind of project I saw did not lead to major success. In this concept, they would use the Reaper as the leader, human intervention to support other appearances of social activity.  AI never seems to be all it’s cracked up to be.  [jb]

by Patrick Tucker, published on Defense One, March 6, 2023

The venerable Reaper UAV could become a mothership for a single-operator drone swarm, the head of Air Force Special Operations Command said recently. Continue reading “The Reaper UAV Is Getting Its Own Drone Swarm”

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