Category: Drones

The Dutch military has tested the system during the recent year and decided to purchase it and use the systems immediately, mainly for C-UAS purposes, Smart Shooter said in a statement. The Netherlands will acquire the Smash AD system, building on previous orders from Smart Shooter. Sharone Aloni, the vice president of research and development at the company, said the system is part of the wider family of Smart Shooter solutions, with some additional enhancements made for counter-drone capabilities. Smart Shooter did not provide a contract value, and the Dutch government did not respond to an inquiry by Defense News by press time.

Source: https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2022/02/24/dutch-military-buys-smart-shooters-counter-drone-system/

Drones may become a common sight in cycling this year. Although the gadgets are increasingly being used for filming at athletic events, they are still underutilized in cycling. Drones in road racing have been viewed as a technique to improve safety by lowering the number of motorcycles and cars involved in a race. It’s also thought to be a technique to cut down on the carbon impact of events. The use of drones for recording has been permitted for widespread usage as of March 1, according to UCI CEO Peter Van Den Abeele, who spoke to Belgian station Sporza. He went on to say that drones were previously permitted but that their usage in Gavere was only prohibited since the organizer had not filed a written request. Karine Bozzacchi, the head of sustainable development at ASO, the organization that organizes the Tour de France, does not feel it would be a smart swap for shooting road events. 

Source: https://www.velonews.com/news/road/report-uci-approves-drones-for-general-deployment-from-march-1/ 

A small experimental aircraft dubbed Ingenuity rose off the Martian dirt and into history on April 19, 2021. Dragonfly, a rotorcraft on the scale of a compact vehicle, is set to take the next stage in the mid-2030s. It will arrive on Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, to start humankind’s first expedition there. The nightmarishly hot planet Venus, with its high temperature, humidity, and corrosive environment, poses the greatest difficulty — and maybe the biggest chance – for extraterrestrial flight. Teddy Tzanetos, a robotics technologist in the Aerial Mobility Group and the project manager for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, is already designing the next generation of Martian helicopters. 

Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220207-the-drones-that-will-fly-in-alien-skies 

On the 8th of January, an airstrike on a facility for displaced families in Dedebit, Tigray, murdered more than 50 people and injured over a hundred more. In mid-December 2021, a series of airstrikes in Alamata, southern Tigray, killed 28 people in a market area. Armed drones have been used in some of the strikes, and there is rising concern over the number of civilians killed. The government, which has been fighting rebels for more than a year, claims it has the right to deploy whatever weapons it wants. Legesse Tulu, a spokeswoman for Ethiopia’s government, declined to comment on the aforementioned instances. Ethiopia is currently not subject to an arms embargo, and the sale of armed drones is a murky area in terms of international law and treaties. 

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/60045176 

The Federal Aviation Administration stated on Jan. 26 that Temporary Flight Restrictions, or TFR, will be in force on Super Bowl Sunday from 2:30 to 8:30 p.m. The TFR will not affect pre scheduled commercial flights, as well as urgent, medical, community security, or combat planes at Los Angeles International Airport. In addition, the whole TFR region will be a “no drone zone.” Anyone caught flying a drone in the restricted zone might face penalties and criminal charges. From February 6 to 14, a reservation system for aircraft parking will be in force at most local airports, including LAX. 

Source: https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/01/26/small-planes-drones-a-no-no-around-sofi-stadium-during-super-bowl/