Tag: unmanned-drones

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British military has 500 drones

By Sharon Black

Ministry of Defence in talks to increase the amount of UK airspace to fly remotely piloted weapons The British military now has 500 drones and has been looking for ways to increase the amount of UK airspace in which to fly some of them, the Guardian can reveal. The expansion of the fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is in line with the Ministry of Defence’s ambition for a third of the Royal Air Force to consist of remotely piloted aircraft by 2030. But the disclosure will dismay campaigners who have raised ethical and legal concerns over UAVs, which have been used extensively in Afghanistan, and by the CIA to target Taliban and al-Qaida leaders across the border in Pakistan

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Anti-drone protestors march against UK flight-control centre

By Sharon Black

Organisations protest the navigation from RAF Waddington of unmanned Reaper aircraft in Afghanistan Police have closed sections of the A15 and other roads in Lincolnshire as anti-war protestors gathered on Saturday outside an RAF base today to protest the UK’s use of armed drones in Afghanistan. Members of the Stop The War Coalition, CND, the Drone Campaign Network and War on Want began marching from Lincoln to nearby RAF Waddington at around 12.30pm. The Guardian revealed on Thursday that the RAF had begun remotely operating its Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles deployed to Afghanistan, from the Lincolnshire airbase

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Nearly 450 British military drones lost in Iraq and Afghanistan

By Sharon Black

Ministry of Defence releases figures for crashes, breakdowns and missing vehicles, including loss of half of Hermes 450 fleet Almost 450 drones operated by the British military have crashed, broken down or been lost in action during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last five years, figures reveal. The Ministry of Defence has disclosed for the first time the five Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems used in the conflicts and the number that have perished due to pilot error, technical faults or the undesirability of retrieving them from hostile areas. The figures highlight the military’s increasing reliance on technologies that are regarded as a way of minimising risks to frontline troops.

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The secret history of drones

By Sharon Black

The prototype of the drones now used in Afghanistan was actually conceived in 1916, even if it was a monoplane made of wood and tin The drones now snooping over Afghanistan have a longer history than you might think. In 1916, a military scientist conceived of an “aerial torpedo” designed to be loaded with explosives and steered into the deadly Zeppelins on their bombing raids over southern England. In a lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society on Monday evening Michael Draper, author of Sitting Ducks & Peeping Toms , will lift the wraps off the secret century of unmanned air vehicles, starting with the prototype referred to by the innocuous initials “AT”