Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Interesting: Pentagon Review of UAV Mishaps

Unmanned aerial vehicles are so hot right now. With UAVs quickly taking over in importance from manned airplanes in the U.S. military, this new Pentagon study outlines the challenges they pose to mission control. Communications, for one thing, are more critical than for manned planes. They are thus subject to attack or disruption by natural elements.
As Wired reports in this story, another U.S. military drone crashed in Pakistan a few days ago. Various drones have suffered 85 "class A" mishaps - accidents that cost a million dollars or more. As the U.S. ramps up attacks in Pakistan, expect more such mishaps. Thanks to Secrecy News, a publication of the Federation of American Scientists, for info for this post.

TAGS: military