In 2016, Insitu won the contract to provide sUASISR services aboard one National Security Cutter, the USCGC STRATTON.
By January 2018, ScanEagle had directly assisted the ship's crews in seizing more than $1.5 billion of cocaine and heroin, contributing to the USCG's record-breaking year for drug busts in 2017.
Insitu is an industry-leading provider of information for superior decision making. With offices in the U.S., U.K., and Australia, the company creates and supports unmanned systems and software technology that deliver end-to-end solutions for collecting, processing and understanding sensor data.
China has unveiled an unmanned fighter jet named "Dark Sword" that could fly at supersonic speeds and prove a 'nightmare' for US defence systems.
Dark Sword represents a very different design philosophy than US unmanned combat plans, and could give China a huge advantage if its military is able to mass-produce the aircraft, as it could rapidly expand its fighter fleet without training new pilots: In words of Justin Bronk, expert at the Royal United Services Institute"If produced in large numbers without having to train pilots, could at the very least soak up missiles from US fighters, and at the very best be an effective fighter by itself.''
Much about Dark Sword remains a mystery, but experts believe it is capable of flying like a fighter jet. This hints China is building the aircraft for use as a combat jet rather than a reconnaissance or precision missile strike vehicle, like the unmanned MQ-1 Predator drone used by US forces.
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.
General Atomics has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force for Block 5kits for the MQ-9 Reaper, just as the U.S. military begins to phase out the MQ-1 PredatorUnmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).
The contract was announced Wednesday 3 by the U.S. Department of Defense, tapping General Atomics for Block 5 kits, in addition to other services worth more than $14.1 million under a cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price undefinitized contract action, which is a modification on a previously awarded contract.
The UAVs are considered one of the primary weapons in U.S. counter terrorism strategy as both the Predator and the Reaper have strike capabilities, usually carrying a payload of AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. The MQ-9 Reaper is a significantly upgraded version of the MQ-1 PredatorUAV, which is primarily used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions (ISR).
The U.S. military has long planned the retirement of the MQ-1 Predator in favor of an all-MQ-9 Reaper fleet. The Air Force explained their reasoning to retire the Predator in February 2017, noting that the more modern MQ-9 Reaper has been better equipped with superior features and operational capabilities. Work on Block 5 kits for the contract will occur in Poway, California, and is expected to be completed by February 2021.
A recent report by Accenture Technologies suggests that by 2035 Artificial Intelligence (AI) might add as much as 1.6 percentage points to China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The researchers at Accenture argue that to yield maximum economic benefits from AI,China needs to use it as an additional factor of production, relying on AI for intelligent automation, labor and capital augmentation and innovation diffusion.
Analysts from other institutions also support such claim: PricewaterhouseCoopers projected that by 2030 global GDP could increase by $15.7 trillion, with almost half of these gains coming from China. PwC estimates that AI will account for a 26 percent GDP boost, or $7 trillion, in China in the next 13 years.
However optimistic these economic projections sound, rapid development of AI in the PRC might also bring about significant challenges to freedom and security, both in China and beyond: Chinese companies are barely constrained by legal issues over data collection and users’ privacy. They can freely use the data of China’s 750 million internet users, match photos and personal IDs and then train facial recognition algorithms and other types of neural networks on large datasets.
Currently the Chinese government not only does not restrict the uses of personal data by domestic tech giants such as Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba, but actively uses their resources to surveil Chinese citizens: Beijing has successfully used advanced facial recognition systems to analyze data from millions of cameras to track down law violators. On the one hand, this might help police to catch criminals faster. But on the other hand, and bearing in mind that China is more rapidly than any other country moving towards becoming a surveillance state where no one can hide from the government, the AI can also be used to censor online environments and identify people who spread “sensitive” information online. Through the use of the AI, any news considered "not good enough" for the government could be censored automatically as it gains steam, and then relaxed after the storm has passed. And there would be almost no trace that it had ever happened. Applying these techniques to the internal affairs, the possibility of implanting an Smart Dictatorship could be enormous.
Regarding military uses of AI, the U.S. is already alarmed about China potentially using AI for that purposes: In February, Elsa B. Kania, an analyst with The Long Term Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute, testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has reportedly begun incorporating AI into unmanned weapon systems, including UAVs and UUVs: “The Chinese defense industry has likewise made significant progress in its research and development of a range of cutting-edge unmanned systems, including those with supersonic, stealth, and swarming capabilities, but appears to face continued challenges in UAV engines, data links, and sensors,” she said. Of course, U.S. still has an advantage in terms of AI development, but China is catching up fast: Given the amount of resources available in China for the AI development, chances are Beijing will be able to fulfill its goal of becoming the industry leader by 2030.
A US warplane shot down a pro-regime UAV in Syria on Thursday 9th after it fired at coalition forces, officials said, marking a new escalation of tensions in the war-torn country’s south. Although the weapon the UAV deployed had hit only dirt, the action was nevertheless “clearly meant” as an attack, as the UAV had fired on coalition forces patrolling outside the zone.
No one was hurt in the incident, which occurred near the coalition’s At-Tanaf garrison close to the Jordanian border, spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon told Pentagon reporters, but the UAV"was armed and still had weapons on it when it was fired upon by US forces from an aircraft,” he said. “Regardless of what kind of drone it was, it fired upon our coalition forces, and therefore showed hostile intent, and it was perceived as a threat,". The UAV was about the same size as a MQ-1 Predator, and it was not immediately clear who owned the aircraft or whether it may have been Iranian.
An official from the South Korean military has dismissed the reporting from KCNA regarding that a South Korean HeronUAV had entered its airspace on four occasions this week, qualifying it as "untrue".
The NK claim is really laughly, bearing in mind that in recent weeks Pyongyang has ratcheted up military tension through a series of ballistic missile tests, which many observers qualify them as an evidence that NK is on course to develop a longer-range missile capable of perform a nuclear hit not only on SK but even the U.S. mainland.
Of course, again NK blamed the South for escalating military tensions, warning of a "merciless retaliatory response." ¿Should SK be worried about that threat? Well, NK month after month is firing missiles, so it is really stupid qualify the alleged violation as "grave", even more bearing in mind that in last 14th May NK has fired-tested a missile which experts think could have a range of 5.000 kilometers.
Last, but not least: If that claim is certain... and both countries are officially in war state... ¿Why NK did not shoot it down?
"Our coverage of the civil UAV market continues to grow with each annual report, mirroring the gradual increase in the civil market itself" said Philip Finnegan, Teal Group's director of corporate analysis and an author of the study. "Our 2014 UAV study calculates the UAV market at 89% military, 11% civil cumulative for the decade, with the numbers shifting to 86% military and 14% civil by the end of the 10-year forecast." he added.
Teal Group analysts, in their 2014 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) integrated market study, estimate that UAV spending will nearly double over the next decade from current worldwide UAV expenditures of $5.7 billion annually to $9.9 billion, totaling just over $77 billion in the next ten years. The new study covers more than 40 U.S., European, South African and Israeli companies, and reveals the fundamental reshaping of the industrial environment as UAV technology proliferates worldwide.
"The Teal Group study predicts that the US will account for 65% of the worldwide RDT&E spending on UAV technology over the next decade, and 53% of the procurement," said Teal Group senior analyst Steve Zaloga, another author of the study. Regarding payloads "The overall UAV electronics market will continue to be the world's fastest-growing aerospace payload market, but not through continued growth of 'the usual suspects' from the past decade," said Dr. David Rockwell, author of the electronics portion. The study also includes a UAV Manufacturers Market Overview that reflects the worldwide UAV market: "Again continuing as one of the prime areas of growth for defense and aerospace companies, the UAV market continues to evolve and become an increasingly global market," said Philip Finnegan.
