Friday, March 12, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Technology: The Drone Wars
This is a good briefing on where we are at politically and strategically with the use of drones. –Matt
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January 9, 2010
Weapons like the Predator kill far fewer civilians.
The Obama Administration has with good reason taken flak for its approach to terrorism since the Christmas Day near-bombing over Detroit. So permit us to laud an antiterror success in the Commander in Chief’s first year in office.
Though you won’t hear him brag about it, President Obama has embraced and ramped up the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. As tactic and as a technology, drones are one of the main U.S. advantages that have emerged from this long war. (IEDs are one of the enemy’s.) Yet their use isn’t without controversy, and it took nerve for the White House to approve some 50 strikes last year, exceeding the total in the last three years of the Bush Administration.
From Pakistan to Yemen, Islamic terrorists now fear the Predator and its cousin, the better-armed Reaper. So do critics on the left in the academy, media and United Nations; they’re calling drones an unaccountable tool of “targeted assassination” that inflames anti-American passions and kills civilians. At some point, the President may have to defend the drone campaign on military and legal grounds.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Cool Stuff: UAV Or Toy? The iPhone Controlled Parrot AR.Drone
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Technology: $26 Software Is Used to Hack Drones?
I certainly hope they are encrypting all the feeds now. Wow. So all you needed was a SkyGrabber program to access this stuff? Pffft. Never underestimate the enemy, never. –Matt
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December 17, 2009
$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected
By SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE
WASHINGTON — Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.
Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes’ systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber — available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet — to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.
U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights. Still, the intercepts could give America’s enemies battlefield advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and buildings are under U.S. surveillance.