Members of the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 133rd Security Forces Squadron learned to fly and operate the Skydio X2D, a quadcopter equipped with 4K cameras, night vision, a thermal sensor, and artificial intelligence that keeps the drone aloft so that operators can focus on gathering ...
Through a new effort called the Replicator Initiative, the Department of Defense is seeking to rapidly expand its capacity through relatively inexpensive autonomous systems. And the DOD wants those systems fast—in the “volume and velocity required to deter aggression or win if we’re forced to ...
Air Forces Central is standing up a new organization of “super empowered Airmen” who will have the freedom to experiment with cutting-edge technology in the “quite literal sandbox that we have in the Middle East,” said AFCENT commander Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich. One of ...
U.S. Air Force F-15E and F-16 aircraft on June 27 struck three facilities on the Syria-Iraq border, where the Pentagon said Iranian-backed militias were building and storing the small drone weapons used to attack U.S. and partner bases in recent months. The strikes hit buildings ...
The proliferation of small unmanned aerial systems, usually commercially available drones that can be outfitted to drop weapons, is the most “persistent and dangerous” threat to troops in the Middle East in decades. “These small- and medium-sized UAS proliferating across the [area of operations] present ...