The Additive Manufacturing Revolution

Additive Manufacturing (AM) doesn’t offer anything like that economy of scale. However, it avoids the downside of standard manufacturing: a lack of flexibility. Because each unit is built independently, it can easily be modified to suit unique needs or, more broadly, to accommodate improvements or changing fashion. And setting up the production system in the first place is much simpler, because it involves far fewer stages. That’s why Additive Fabrication has been so valuable for producing one-offs such as prototypes and rare replacement parts.

Additive Fabrication Technology is at a tipping point, about to go mainstream in a big way: Among the numerous companies using Additive Technology to ramp up production are GE (jet engines, medical devices, and home appliance parts), Lockheed Martin and Boeing (aerospace and defense), Aurora Flight Sciences (UAVs), Invisalign (dental devices), Google (consumer electronics), and the Dutch company LUXeXcel (lenses for light-emitting diodes, or LEDs). Regarding UAVs, in Iraq and Afghanistan the U.S. military has been using UAVs from the Aurora Flight Sciences company, which prints the entire body of these UAVs —some with wingspans of 132 feet—in one build.

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UAV Airstrike in Libya

An airstrike carried out on Tuesday 26th in Libya killed "several" fighters from the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, according to a Thursday 28th statement from U.S. Africa Command. It followed a similar UAV attack last week that Trump personally approved, the first in Libya since the one President Barack Obama authorized in January the day before he stepped down from office.

As for whether the command could carry out strikes wherever it chooses in Africa, an official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss current operations says it limits its actions to pre-established agreements with partner countries. In this latest instance, AFRICOM coordinated with the de facto coalition governing Libya known as the Government of National Accord. It has similar arrangements with other partners in Africa, including with Somalia to hunt Islamic State group fighters and with others to combat piracy off the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea.

"These strikes were conducted under the Presidential Policy Guidance," Defense Department spokeswoman Army Maj. Audricia Harris says, referring to a 2014 document the Obama White House released explaining the policies that would govern covert war. "That allows for the use of all available tools of national power to protect the American people from threats posed by groups such as ISIS, al-Qaida and their associated forces."

PSS Technology: ¿Safety or New World Order?

Aside from the privacy concerns associated with persistent aerial surveillance, there are also worries related to transparency: In Baltimore, Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS) technology was flown over the city without elected officials (including the mayor), the state’s attorney, or members of the public being informed first. And in Miami-Dade county, the mayor wasn’t aware of Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) persistent aerial surveillance plans. 

Military equipment has a tendency to make its way from foreign battlefields into the hands of domestic law enforcement. This is a trend that can be useful in investigating crimes, but policies that protect privacy should be in place before snooping airplanes take to the sky, and the public as well as local officials should be informed about the surveillance tools police are using. Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS), the Ohio-based company that made the sensor system deployed in Baltimore, uses technology originally designed for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This kind of technology has prompted privacy concerns in others cities, with Baltimore being perhaps the most notable.

The Face of the Bubbling Armed UAV Industry

The extensive use of UAVs by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan has raised debates over issues like civilian deaths, international law, efficacy of strikes and deterrence.

The Israeli Air Force used a weaponized drone, the Pioneer, in the 1982 war in Lebanon which impressed US for increased UAV procurement and research. Nineteen years after, the 9\11 terrorist attack created a new demand to hunt down terrorists in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Today, the US uses three types of drones built by General Atomics with offensive capabilities: the MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-1C Sky Warrior, and the MQ-9 Reaper. The US military uses them in two broad ways: Reconnaissance and hunter-killer missions.

Drone surveillance and attack capabilities have been effective psychologically as fear keeps also plays a major part. While drone attacks are the most effective weapon against terrorism, its net effects are difficult to judge. The presence of armed drones is a reality of the modern battlefield, but only a limited group of countries has the technological ability to produce them or the military capacity to operate them.

Currently, US and China export armed drones, and Israel is in the vicinity. As Russia, Turkey, South Korea and others join the market, a surge in globally available systems for a fruitful market could lead to a new dangerous era.

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UK outlines extent of Reaper UAV strikes

The UK revealed on 21 March the extent of airstrikes being conducted against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria by Royal Air Force (RAF) General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). (Read more)

US shortfalls exposed by IS

Defense Department Undersecretary Michael Vickers said last week the march of IS “has exposed, along with some of the instability in North Africa, shortfalls that we believe we now have in some capacity areas,” specifically surveillance and reconnaissance drones, according to the report.

Drones like General Atomics' MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper remain key in surveillance efforts in the Middle East. With the IS continuing to hold more than a quarter of Iraq and U.S. efforts to increasing, there will likely be a renewed emphasis on the program and a need for a bigger fleet.

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. 

US tries new aerial tools in Caribbean drug fight

Drug smugglers who race across the Caribbean in speedboats will typically jettison their cargo when spotted by surveillance aircraft, hoping any chance of prosecuting them will vanish with the drugs sinking to the bottom of the sea. (Read more)