UAV Special Operations: In A Secret Desert Base

The United States UAV operations in Djibouti (northeast Africa) will now operate from another airstrip far away from the capital, to prevent the possibility of  issues involving the American UAVs (mainly 1.1 ton Predators and 4.6 ton Reapers), specially bearing in mind these UAVs are sometimes armed with missiles.

U.S. forces in Djibouti were increased after resistance collapsed in Iraq in 2008 and are now the command post for a network of American operations through the region. That includes a UAV facility on the Seychelles Islands (1,500 kilometers to the east) and permission to move troops and aircraft through countries like Kenya and Uganda. 

Pharad Introduces VHF/UHF Antennas for UAV

Pharad has introduced three new UAV antennas based on its exclusive Peel & Stick Appliqué antenna technology.  

These antennas have already been deployed and flown on mini-UAVs and are now generally available as off- the-shelf antenna solutions.

“As UAVs are being utilized more often in both the military and commercial space, we need to develop efficient, cost-effective antenna solutions to help maximize the range, persistence, data rate and lifetime of these vehicles,” said Pharad President Austin Farnham. “This has been our goal since the creation of our first Peel & Stick antenna.  Recently, some of our UAV antenna customers have been looking to incorporate legacy VHF/UHF radios that provide tactical, secure communications in a networked environment.  As demonstrated in actual flight, our latest antennas meet the requirements of our customers and introduce virtually no aerodynamic impairment to the UAV flight performance.”

US Navy Is Switching to Linux for Its UAV Program

The US NAVY has contracted a third-party company to help them switch to Linux for their UAV program. This is just one measure that affects just one small branch of the US Navy, but it seems that the people in charge want to make the entire system compatible and work on the same architecture, which should be the same for all military services as a common basis for buying, developing, and upgrading a wide variety of U.S. military UAV control systems.