Photo: Is this the first Taliban-made drone, ever? May 19, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Drones.Tags: Afghanistan, drone, Helmand, ISAF, Taliban, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
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Update May 19, 2012 21.18 GMT
The following pictures, courtesy of the Helmand Governor’s Media Center, show what looks like a small drone that was discovered along with poppy, small arms, ammunitions and other materials used to make improvised explosive devices (IED), by the Afghanistan’s National Department of Security in the Nar-e-Seraj district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 19.
Although the size is very small, the remotely controlled plane could be, if not the first, the most recent attempt by the Taliban to build and operate a minidrone for short range reconnaissance purposes (although, based on the images, it’s not clear where the camera is installed).
I haven’t found other images supposedly showing Taliban drones, but I can’t rule out the possibility that some other primitive robots have been either tested or operated by the insurgents in Afghanistan.
As Royal Aeronautical Society’s Tim Robinson suggests, rather than a new type it could be a recovered/modified/refitted/copied NATO one. In particular, the Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk is almost identical to the one confiscated on May 19. If it’s a NATO UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), whether the drone was airworthy and operative has still to be verified.
If you have more details about the drone showed in these pictures or previous types believed to be operated by the Taliban, please leave a comment or send me an email.
Courtesy image HGMC
“Viper Drone”: Boeing QF-16 aerial target for U.S. Air Force makes first flight May 10, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Drones, Military Aviation.Tags: aerial target, Boeing, drone, Lockheed Martin, QF-16, United States Airforce
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The Lockheed Martin F-16 is one of the most famous combat planes in the world. The 4500th example was delivered at the company Fort Worth production facility, in Texas, on Apr. 3.
Since the first Fighting Falcon (nicknamed “Viper” in the fighter pilots community) exited the production line in 1975, the multirole aircraft has been produced in partnership with 5 countries and sold to a grand total of 26 countries. A further 70 F-16s for Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, Oman and Iraq, are currently on order, with the last plane expected to be delivered by 2016.
Flown in the air-to-air, air-to-surface, SEAD roles, the Viper is about to begin a new role: aerial target. Indeed, it will be flown manned or unmanned as targets and decoys within a controlled range for testing against potential adversaries, radars, surface-air missiles etc.
Although the F-16 is a famous Lockheed plane, the contract to develop the QF-16 aerial target was awarded to Boeing.
On May 4, at 03.05 p.m. Eastern time, the first QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Target took off from Boeing facility at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Florida, and climbed to an altitude of 41,000 feet during its 66-minute flight that marked its first manned flight.
The QF-16 “Viper drone” will replace the QF-4 Phantom drone in the same role.
Image credit: Boeing / Flickr
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Photo: RQ-7 Bravo drone launched at night from Kandahar (as it can’t fly much on hot days). April 29, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Drones.Tags: AAI RQ-7 Shadow, Afghanistan, drone, Kandahar, Lockheed C-130 Hercules, UAV, United States Marine Corps, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, US Army
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The following AP photo shows an RQ-7 Bravo UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) being prepared for launch at Forward Operating Base Pasab, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.
It is particularly interesting because it was taken with a long exposure: the headlamps and bodies of a crew from the 508th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army are blurred as they prepare the drone for a night mission.
AP Photo/The Fayetteville Observer, James Robinson
Night flying will be routinely performed during the summer months, not only for tactical purposes, but also because of fuel-leak problems caused by extreme heat: an internal US Marine Corps review of air operations in combat, released in October and available here, raised some questions about the possibility to employ the Shadow for daytime missions.
(U//FOUO) VMU-1 established a “hot weather schedule” during the summer months due to
temperatures that could reach as high as 135 degrees Fahrenheit on the runway. This
extreme heat could cause the Shadow’s wings to swell and vent fuel.
Obviously, April temperatures are not even comparable to the Afghanistan’s intense summer heat that, according to a Marine Corps Time article, forced the service to fly daytime missions with smaller drones.
A Shadow drone collided midair with an Air Force C-130 in Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2011. The robot struck the Hercules’s left wing between the engines: although damaged, the aircraft managed to land safely, whereas the RQ-7 crashed.
Looks like summer is not a lucky season for the drone that the USMC wants to “weaponize” as soon as possible.
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Quadrotor killer drone with machine gun and self-destruct module: a deadly weapon of the future April 24, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Drones.Tags: drone, Machine Gun, Quadrotor, Russia
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First of all let’s have a look at the following increble video.
It shows a mini quadrotor drone carrying a machine gun in order to bring remote-controlled death from above. The prototype drone, performs a short-range reconnaissance, neutralizes some unarmed suspects as well as a group of bad guys playing cards, before entering inside a vehicle initiating a self-destruction sequence to destroy it.
Impressive.
Even if the whole video is fake (at least according to some experts who have “inspected” the footage, and to Russia Today, that has published an article on the subject), the quite famous author who uses his nickname “FPS Russia” to show how to use various kinds of arms, believes that a deadly gun attached to a sort of remote-controlled toy is the low-cost weapon of the future.
Indeed, it will be an extremely dangerous killing device for soldiers. And ill-intentioned willing to shoot someone.
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Middle East Cyber War: Revenge Of The Drones April 23, 2012
Posted by Paolo Passeri in Information Security.Tags: Cyber Attack, Cyber Weapon, Cyberwarfare, drone, Iran, Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, Middle East, National Iranian Oil Company, Reverse engineering, RQ-170, Stuxnet
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In the same hours in which I was publishing my post on Cyber Weapons, news agencies all around the world have begun to release (few) details about a new alleged Cyber Attack targeting the Iranian Oil Ministry, the National Iranian Oil Company and several other state-owned businesses.
The attack has been confirmed by a spokesman of the Iranian Oil Ministry, who also stressed that critical data have not been damaged or lost in the attack. Anyway, as a consequence of the Cyber Attack albeit as a precaution Internet access to several oil refineries has been cut off.
Of course Iran is not new to Cyber Attacks targeting Critical Infrastructures (do you remember Stuxnet and the possible hoax of Duqu Stars?), in any case it is too soon to draw any connection with Stuxnet or any other kind of State-Sponsored Attack, even because, according to the scant information available, only a server providing public information has been harmed.
Probably this malware has nothing to deal with cyber weapons but, just for fun, I cannot help but notice that this alleged Cyber Attack came in the same day in which, among many doubts, Iran has announced to have reverse-engineered the U.S. stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel drone captured by Iran in December 2011.
The revenge of the reverse-engineered drone?
A new Cyber Attack to #Iran Oil Facilities… WTF! The #Stuxnet 2 malware inside the reverse-engineered drone was successful…
—
Paolo Passeri (@paulsparrows) April 23, 2012Obviously it’s ironic, but what if the drone was actually a Trojan horse?
[Read also: Captured U.S. stealthy drone in Iran: the simplest solution solves the mystery]
The mysterious hatch possibly housing a recovery chute. Image courtesy: Dave Krakow
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New videos show Syrian made-in-Iran drone taking off from Hamah airbase, Syria March 25, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Drones, Syria.Tags: Damascus, drone, Hama, Homs, Ilyushin Il-76, Iran, Pahpad, Syria, Syrian Air, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
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Uploaded on Mar. 24, 2012, these videos show the made-in-Iran drone, known as “Pahpad”, taking off and operating from Hamah airbase in the city of Hama, in the west part of Syria, north of Damascus.
Hamah seems to be one of the most active regime’s airbases: a Syrian Air Il-76 offloading some “goods” and several Mig-21 and helos were recently filmed there.
Here’s the video of the departure
The drone flying at low level
Here below some screen dumps which confirm that the drone used by the Syrian regime over Hama, is the same spotted in Homs.
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Boeing’s Phantom Eye revolutionary drone eyes its first flight March 15, 2012
Posted by Richard Clements in Drones.Tags: Boeing, drone, liquid hydrogen, Phantom Eye, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, USAF
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Boeing has recently announced that it has performed some medium speed taxi runs for its latest High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) surveillance drone the Phantom Eye at Edwards AFB on Mar. 10.
A revolutionary design, powered by two liquid Hydrogen fuelled engines pumping out 150 horse power each, which turn 16 foot diameter propellers attached to its huge 150 foot wings. Phantom Eye is designed to operate at an altitude of 65,000 ft for up to 4 days in one mission and has a 450-lb mission payload capacity whilst cruising at a speed of around 200 knots.
Boeing announced the new robot in July 2010 and had initially said that its first test flight would come during early 2011; however, due to technical issues the first flight date has slipped somewhat (and has not been announced yet). Boeing still has a few fast taxi trials to complete before it can start to think about the drone’s first flight, although it was very excited about the data gained from the first run. The Phantom Eye has covered some 4,000 feet at speeds up to 30 knots in this its first powered movement aboard its launch cart system. The latter is a system similar to the one of the WWII Messerschmitt Me163 Komet rocket powered fighter but it is not clear if the new Boeing’s drone uses a deployable skid like the Komet for when it returns to its operating base.
Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com
Image credit: Boeing
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Like this:
Not a drone nor a bird. What’s that “thing” seemingly orbiting over Homs, Syria? March 1, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Bizarre.Tags: Bashar al-Assad, drone, Homs, Syria, Syrian Armed Forces, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
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While seeking for new interesting footage from Syria, to update the yesterday post about the weapons being used by the regime against the opposition in Homs, I stumbled upon this video.
Something seemingly “solid” seems to orbit in the smoke coming from a burning building (an oil pipe according to a comment) at Homs. Most probably it has nothing to do with a drone (too low, it would be operating inside the smoke cloud where visibility is poor, and so on) and it is not even solid.
An optical illusion caused by a strong light? Thermal convection? Anything else that can be scientifically explained?
What’s your opinion?
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Exclusive Infographic: all Cyber Attacks on Military Aviation and Aerospace Industry February 21, 2012
Posted by Paolo Passeri in Information Security.Tags: Boeing 787 Dreamliner, China, Creech Air Force Base, Cyber Attacks Timeline, Cyberwar, Cyberwarfare, drone, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F-35 Lightning II, Hacking, Information Security, Iran, Jaxa, Joint Strike Fighter, JSF, L-3, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, Malware, McAfee, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Northrop Grumman, Pentagon, RQ-170, RSA, SecurID, Sophos, Trend Micro, Virus
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2011 has been an annus horribilis for information security, and aviation has not been an exception to this rule: not only in 2011 the corporate networks of several aviation and aerospace industries have been targeted by digital storms (not a surprise in the so-called hackmageddon) but, above all, last year will be probably remembered for the unwelcome record of two alleged hacking events targeting drones (“alleged” because in the RQ-170 Sentinel downed in Iran episode, several doubts surround the theory according to which GPS hacking could have been the real cause of the crash landing).
But, if Information Security professionals are quite familiar with the idea that military contractors are primary and preferred targets of the current Cyberwar as the following infographic shows, realizing that malware can be used to target a drone is still considered an isolated episode, and even worse, the idea of a malware targeting the multirole Joint Strike Fighter is still something hard to accept.
However, things are about change dramatically. And quickly.
The reason is simple: the latest military and civil airplanes are literally full of electronics, which play a primary role in managing avionics, onboard systems, flight surfaces, communcation equipment and armament.
For instance an F-22 Raptor owns about 1.7 millions od line of codes , an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter about 5.7 millions and a Boeing 787 Dreamliner about 6.5 millions. Everything with some built in code may be exploited, therefore, with plenty of code and much current and future vulnerabilities, one may not rule out a priori that these systems will be targeted with specific tailored or generic malware for Cyberwar, Cybercrime, or even hacktivism purposes.
Unfortunately it looks like the latter hypothesis is closer to reality since too often these systems are managed by standard Windows operating systems, and as a matter of fact a generic malware has proven to be capable to infect the most important U.S. robots flying in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Indian Ocean: Predator and Reaper Drones.
As a consequence, it should not be surprising, nor it is a coincidence, that McAfee, Sophos and Trend Micro, three leading players for Endpoint Security, consider the embedded systems as one of the main security concerns for 2012.
Making networks more secure (and personnel more educated) to prevent the leak of mission critical documents and costly project plans (as happened in at least a couple of circumstances) will not be aviation and aerospace industry’s information security challenge; the real challenge will be to embrace the security-by-design paradigm and make secure and malware-proof products ab initio.
While you wait to see if an endpoint security solution becomes available for an F-35, scroll down the image below and enjoy the list of aviation and aerospace related cyber attacks occurred since the very first hack targeting the F-35 Lightning II in 2009.
Of course aviation and aerospace industries are not the only targets for hackers and cybercriminals. So, if you want to have an idea of how fragile our data are inside the cyberspace, have a look at the timelines of the main Cyber Attacks in 2011 and 2012 (regularly updated) at hackmageddon.com. And follow @pausparrows on Twitter for the latest updates.
RQ-4 Global Hawk in shock cancellation news: old planes better than new? January 27, 2012
Posted by Richard Clements in Drones, Military Aviation.Tags: Airbus, Airbus 380, Aviation, Dragon Lady, drone, Global Hawk, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman, Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, Pentagon, U-2, United States Air Force, US Air Force
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Is new better than old?
It would seem not. Industry insiders have leaked that the Pentagon is to cancel the RQ-4 Global Hawk program not just stopping buying new aircraft but to retire the Air Force active fleet, in favor of keeping the U-2 flying into 2020.
Air force times writer Dave Majumdar wrote: “The Air Force had been planning to buy 42 Block 30 aircraft. According to 2011 budget documents, the cost of each aircraft was around $215 million. It was not immediately clear how many Global Hawks the Air Force has.”
The aircraft is being killed off due to its high cost to buy and to maintain; also the program hasn’t lived up to its early promise. A knowledgeable industry insider confirmed the project cancellation and said “Yes, this is accurate — been a lot of discussion on the possibility of this a long while,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak to the media. “There is a high probability it will come to pass now unless Congress takes a major exception.”
The industry source also said “I don’t think that’s likely in the economic environment of this year’s DoD budget, and there are no real ‘hawks’ in Congress from California,” he said. The aircraft is both built and based in the Golden State.
Majumdar said that Northrop Grumman declined to comment whilst Air Force officials would neither deny nor confirm the reports.
Oddly the US Navy is going to keep its version of the aircraft therefore keeping the option open that it could, if needed, be used by the air force.
Surely, Global Hawk has not enjoyed the best of safety records with three prototypes lost and a failure rate much higher than many manned planes facing lethal threats in combat.
However, the U.S. RQ-4Bs belonging to the 9th Operations Group/Detachment 4th of the U.S. Air Force, based at NAS Sigonella, in Sicily, the base of the NATO AGS (Air Ground Surveillance) Global Hawk program were the first drones to operate in the Libyan airspace where they performed high altitude Battle Damage Assessment sorties.
Anyway, all of this is good news for the U-2, a 50 year old program that has ironed out all its techncal issues many years ago.
Affectionately known as “Dragon Lady”, the U-2 entered service in 1957. Since then, it has undergone many upgrades and has become a relatively cheap viable platform during these harsh economic times. In what would normally be the types twilight years, a breath of fresh air has been breathed over the majestic old ‘Lady’ which will see the type in service for more years to come.
Actually, it has been a bad week for other new or recent aircraft types too.
Another rather embarrasing news (this time for Airbus) is that further cracks have been found in the wings of its much lauded A380 “Superjumbo”, after the famous uncontained engine failure of Nov. 4, 2010. Airbus did tweet “For those following reports on A380 wing rib findings we confirm inspection & repair process underway and aircraft are safe to fly”: a damage limitation message by the company’s PR rather than a reassuring statement.
The apparent win of obsolete technology on newer, supposed to replace it, does pose the usual question: are modern aircraft too complex?
One thing is sure: you can’t compare new planes with older types. Even if there can be programs free from major problems during their whole lifetime and much troubled ones, facing myriad issues since their birth, generally speaking, those that have survived for 3, 4 or 5 decades and are still flying today, were probably properly designed, maintained, fixed and upgraded during their career. So they are today much more reliable than those integrating cutting edge experimental technologies.
Written with The Aviationist’s Editor David Cenciotti
Above image: U.S. Air Force
