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War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs
NY Times ^ | 6/19/11 | Chang W. Lee

Posted on 06/20/2011 3:33:25 AM PDT by LibWhacker

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds.

The base’s indoor flight lab is called the “microaviary,” and for good reason. The drones in development here are designed to replicate the flight mechanics of moths, hawks and other inhabitants of the natural world. “We’re looking at how you hide in plain sight,” said Greg Parker, an aerospace engineer, as he held up a prototype of a mechanical hawk that in the future might carry out espionage or kill.

Half a world away in Afghanistan, Marines marvel at one of the new blimplike spy balloons that float from a tether 15,000 feet above one of the bloodiest outposts of the war, Sangin in Helmand Province. The balloon, called an aerostat, can transmit live video — from as far as 20 miles away — of insurgents planting homemade bombs. “It’s been a game-changer for me,” Capt. Nickoli Johnson said in Sangin this spring. “I want a bunch more put in.”

From blimps to bugs, an explosion in aerial drones is transforming the way America fights and thinks about its wars. Predator drones, the Cessna-sized workhorses that have dominated unmanned flight since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, are by now a brand name, known and feared around the world. But far less widely known are the sheer size, variety and audaciousness of a rapidly expanding drone universe, along with the dilemmas that come with it.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; bugs; drones; dronesmicro; evolve; microdrone; pakistan; tiny; waronterror
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1 posted on 06/20/2011 3:33:30 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

2 posted on 06/20/2011 3:38:37 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: LibWhacker

Powder..patch..ball FIRE!

Well now... looks like we are going to need some insecticide developed that will repel the buggers...


3 posted on 06/20/2011 3:39:02 AM PDT by BallandPowder
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To: BallandPowder

So now if when we see a cockroach in our house, think twice about the possibility of the government spying on us ( psychotic thinking alert)


4 posted on 06/20/2011 3:45:45 AM PDT by shadeaud (" If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten." -- George Carlin)
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To: SkyPilot

..that fly has his eye set on the other fly right above his left....????...oh wait. ..or maybe it’s the odor of BS that has drawn the pest close to the source.


5 posted on 06/20/2011 3:46:05 AM PDT by Doogle ((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: LibWhacker
War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs

With nano technology, perhaps size on the molecular level.

6 posted on 06/20/2011 3:46:24 AM PDT by He Rides A White Horse ((unite))
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To: LibWhacker

Clouds of microdrones will engage with clouds of enemy microdrones.

7 posted on 06/20/2011 3:54:46 AM PDT by corkoman (Steadfast and Loyal)
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To: shadeaud
Should you really be walking around the house like that?


8 posted on 06/20/2011 4:01:28 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks LibWhacker.


9 posted on 06/20/2011 4:08:03 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: SkyPilot

Obama vs. fly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORZ00OyKp0I


10 posted on 06/20/2011 4:10:42 AM PDT by Fresh Wind ('People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook.' Richard M. Nixon)
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To: LibWhacker

The potential for domestic political spying is high,you just know that some of these will be used by the DNC when they get a chance.


11 posted on 06/20/2011 4:20:33 AM PDT by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: SkyPilot

“The bees know....

“What do they know? We don’t know.

“All we know is that... the bees know.

Anyway, the more drones, the fewer terrorists.


12 posted on 06/20/2011 4:22:43 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("Deport Muslims. Nuke Mecca. Death to Islam. Freedom for mankind.")
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To: LibWhacker

13 posted on 06/20/2011 4:28:15 AM PDT by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: LibWhacker

If the press is already reporting on these things and showing them off, you can bet they’ve been in use by the military for a couple of years. Look at the Randy Weaver stand-off situation with regards to remote control armed robots. The MSM didn’t start openly reporting on them until years after Ruby Ridge.


14 posted on 06/20/2011 4:32:57 AM PDT by angryoldfatman
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To: LibWhacker

ping


15 posted on 06/20/2011 5:38:33 AM PDT by hans56
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To: SkyPilot

Re; photo of Obongo with fly on his lip- this is NOT photoshopped.
What do you make of a person undisturbed by a fly sitting on his mouth???
This is surreal.


16 posted on 06/20/2011 5:42:45 AM PDT by patriot08 (TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
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To: patriot08
"What do you make of a person undisturbed by a fly sitting on his mouth???"

Spent time growing up in Kenya . . .

17 posted on 06/20/2011 6:12:46 AM PDT by haywoodwebb (The "Manchurian Candidate" Will Fall!! - - You Betcha!)
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To: LibWhacker

New Drones bump for later......


18 posted on 06/20/2011 7:50:32 AM PDT by indthkr
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To: shadeaud
"So now if when we see a cockroach in our house, think twice about the possibility of the government spying on us ( psychotic thinking alert)"

That was an X-Files Episode...

War of the Copraphages

19 posted on 06/20/2011 7:54:59 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: tet68

Ha!

5th Element movie came to mind first too


20 posted on 06/20/2011 8:36:32 AM PDT by Para-Ord.45
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