UAV Sniper

The Army is testing an autonomous helicopter capable of acting as a sniper. Not much information about the stability package for the weapon, but it must be impressive. Not sure how a helicopter is going to achieve the stealth required of a sniper? After the much publicized messes the Predators have made with their much less precise weapons, this is a good step forward.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/army-tests-new/

Insects for chemical and biological detection

Controlling small UAVs has turned out to be so difficult (even understanding the way insects fly was/is really hard) that DARPA is again looking to outfitting insects instead of building vehicles.

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-06/insect-wifi-network-tracks-down-wmds

I think it was in the movie Get Smart that Max smashed an expensive prototype something like this into pieces.

Nuclear armed UAVs?

Two interesting UAV articles posted on the same day. One talks about the possibility of nuclear armed UAVs, the other notes that the USAF will train more UAV pilots than real pilots for the first time this year. This is partly in response to Gates insisting that the Air Force goes to more automation in their UAVs in response to higher crash rates than the Army had for their UAVs.

Together, these two articles show just how quickly the U.S. military is moving to UAVs. The F-22 and Stealth Bombers and Fighters might be the last major manned military aircraft. End of an era.

http://eideard.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/air-force-intends-to-rely-on-unmanned-aircraft-rather-than-pilots/

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2009/06/4040349

Solar powered robots?

The reigning North American Solar Challenge car made it from Texas to Canada in 50 hours. This is with a driver, adding weight and imposing constraints on the overall shape. Without those constraints, it would seem reasonable to think that a solar powered robot vehicle could move pretty effectively, reliably and quickly over long distances. I don't recall seeing any solar powered robotic vehicles (except on Mars), I wonder why.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/06/0-to-60-in-full-sunlight-revving-up-for-world-solar-challenge.ars

Spy Chips Guiding CIA Drone Strikes

Story in Wired about the possibility that the U.S. military is getting locals to plant RF chips on or near militants which are used to guide UAVs in onto their targets.

One of the interesting things to me was that apparently the militants had worked out a while ago that this was going on and were doing their best to stop it. That seems to indicate a pretty high level of technical sophistication.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/06/spy-chips-guiding-cia-drone-strikes-locals-say/