.jpg)
June 22, 2014
Written by Craig Whitlock Shortly after the day’s final bell rang (click here) and hundreds of youngsters ran outside Lickdale Elementary School with their book bags and lunchboxes, a military drone fell from the sky.
The 375-pound Shadow reconnaissance drone skimmed the treetops as it hurtled toward the school in Jonestown, Pa. It barely missed the building, then cartwheeled through the butterfly garden and past the playground. The aircraft kept rolling like a tumbleweed and collided with a passing car on Fisher Avenue. People called 911. The rescue squad arrived in a hurry. Luckily, no one was hurt.
The April 3 near-disaster was the latest known mishap involving a military drone in the United States. Most U.S. military drone accidents have occurred abroad, but at least 49 large drones have crashed during test or training flights near domestic bases since 2001, according to a yearlong Washington Post investigation....
The drone bases are in every state of the USA except for a few. The crashes are clustered to some extent. Most occur near the southern border. Those in Florida are drug cartel related. The Nevada crashes resulted in training missions. At least these occurred in mostly uninhabited land. The cost of a crash is still significant. The drone may or may not have been repaired to fly again.
...Michael P. Huerta, the FAA’s administrator, said the agency would integrate drones into the national airspace in stages and only after a careful review of each step....
These are just the crashes within the borders of the lower 48. There are other examples of crashes in foreign venues, (ie: Iran). The US Drone Program should be audited for it's costs and effectiveness. Effectiveness would be something the Joint Chiefs can address. The Drone Program is also high stress with a challenge to keep pilots in the ranks.
January 22, 2013
On Tuesday, (click here) in what appears to be a surprise announcement, the Department of Defense confirmed that it has awarded Northrop Grumman a $37.3 million "modification" to an existing logistics and engineering support contract for the Hunter Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS, or more commonly, UAV for "unmanned aerial vehicle").
The Hunter UAS currently in use by the U.S. was originally based on a UAV developed by Israel Aircraft Industries. According to Northrop, the RQ-5A Hunter was the first unmanned aerial vehicle deployed by the U.S. Army, in 1996. It has since been upgraded to the MQ-5B configuration and weaponized by being equipped with laser-guided bombs, which were also developed by Northrop....
