Explore the Ruins of Chernobyl Via a Drone

DARPA wants industry to build a flying drone "mothership"

Sci-Fi is becoming reality...

Washington (AFP) - It's a Hollywood sci-fi fantasy that has long eluded the Pentagon: a flying "mothership" that launches smaller aircraft.

The Pentagon's research agency put out a request to industry this month to outline how a large cargo plane could release drones to spy on or attack an enemy and then return to the flying aircraft carrier.

The concept conjures up fantastical images from "The Avengers" film and the "StarCraft" video game, with large, lumbering motherships sending out smaller craft -- but there are no cloaking devices involved in this particular project.

At the moment, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is not close to constructing any test planes and is merely exploring the possibility on paper, officials and experts said.

"This is the float-the-idea stage of the concept. It's not the build-me-a-prototype stage. We're not to that yet," said author Peter Singer, who has written extensively about robots and warfare.

In a conceptual drawing from DARPA, a cargo plane resembling a C-130 releases a squadron of drones that look similar to Predator or Reaper aircraft.

Saturday Fun Video: Fireworks filmed with a drone

Video: Matt Rosendale's shoots down a drone in a Campaign Ad

Feel Good Story: al Qaeda intelligence chief droned in Pakistan...

Let's hope this report is accurate...

Via LWJ:

Abu Ubaydah Abdullah al Adam, a senior al Qaeda leader who serves as the intelligence chief for the terror group, is reported to have been killed in a recent US drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The report is unconfirmed, and al Qaeda has not issued an official statement regarding al Adam.

Two jihadists, identified as Al Wathiq Billah and Barod, posted on Twitter on April 20 that al Adam was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which obtained the tweets. Barod “indicated he was killed that day,” according to SITE.

No drone strikes were reported in Pakistan on April 20, but an attack was reported on April 17 in South Waziristan. The last US drone strike reported in North Waziristan took place on April 14 in the Datta Khel area, which is a known haven for al Qaeda’s top leaders. Several senior al Qaeda leaders and military commanders have been killed in drone strikes in the Datta Khel area.

The two jihadists’ claims that al Adam was killed in a drone strike are not official confirmation that he is indeed dead. Al Qaeda has not released an official martyrdom statement announcing his death.

Surveillance Drone shot down: In U.S.

A Surveillance Drone was reportedly shot down Sunday. The strange part was it wasn't in iran or Afghanistan. An animal rights group claims their Mikrokopter drone was shot down in South Carolina Sunday.

A remote-controlled aircraft owned by an animal rights group was reportedly shot down near Broxton Bridge Plantation Sunday near Ehrhardt, S.C.

Steve Hindi, president of SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone to video what he called a live pigeon shoot on Sunday when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately-owned plantation near Ehrhardt tried to stop the aircraft from flying.

"It didn't work; what SHARK was doing was perfectly legal," Hindi said in a news release. "Once they knew nothing was going to stop us, the shooting stopped and the cars lined up to leave."

He said the animal rights group decided to send the drone up anyway.

"Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out," Hindi said in the release. "As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they had shot down our copter."

It has come to this: Iran sending pink toy drone to Obama

Under President Obama, our enemies think it is safe to ridicule us. Can you imagine this under former President Bush or Reagan?

JPost reported:

Iran is sending a US drone it captured in December home - with a small makeover.
Mocking requests to return the drone, a local toy company plans to send a miniature pink model of the RQ-170 Sentinel to US President Barack Obama.

Video: Iran shows off US RQ-170 spy plane

Iran has released a video of the US RQ-170 spy plane drone they claim to have shot down. It doesn't appear damaged. If they like our drone planes, they should love our cruise missiles. We should send some over.

Iran: shot down advanced RQ-170 unmanned US spy plane, exclusive video

Video: Predator Drone Attack

As this year comes to a close, we must not forget there is war going on. Please remember and support our troops.

Predator Attack


H/T Weasel Zippers.