In May 2017, Chair of BAE Systems, Sir Roger Carr, blithely insisted at the company’s AGM that Brexit would have no impact whatsoever on the on-going development of the new Anglo-French advanced combat drone. “We will still be working with… Read More ›
In a briefing for selected journalists on its military drone projects, BAE Systems revealed that it is pushing ahead with work on allowing future armed drones to undertake autonomous targeting. While current British rules of engagement mean that a human… Read More ›
After the MoD’s PR push on the use of Reaper drones last month and David Cameron’s announcement last week of further funding for UK-France work on a future combat drone, this week its BAE Systems turn to push drones with… Read More ›
British and French Defence Ministers Phillip Hammond and Jean-Yves Le Drian met in London on Tuesday to discuss progress of the Anglo-French defence treaty signed in 2010. A key element of the treaty was to work jointly on unmanned drones… Read More ›
Some new information has emerged this week about future British drone programmes as BAE Systems held a media briefing at their Warton site to talk about their unmanned projects (our invitation was presumably lost in the post). According to the report by… Read More ›
Just a few days after a senior US counter-terrorism expert warned that US drone strikes were turning Yemen into the “Arabian equivalent of Waziristan”, US drone strikes yesterday aped the tactic of ‘follow up’ strikes used by the US in… Read More ›
At a pre-Paris Air Show briefing this week, BAE Systems and Dassault Aviation could hardly contain their excitement at the prospect of being awarded a contract to develop a new armed drone. The companies say they expect a government decision on the… Read More ›
BAE Systems have announced this morning that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with French aircraft manufacturer, Dassault, to work together on a new armed drone. The new drone will be one of the first products of the… Read More ›
The Washington Post reported this week that vast amount of video footage from drones are overwhelming analysts. According to Marine Corps General James Cartwright, Vice Chair of the Military Joint Chiefs of Staff, the video is “boring intelligence analysts to… Read More ›
Ten British universities have been working with BAE Systems on a new unmanned experimental drone system called Demon. Demon, which uses small air jets to manuever rather than conventual mechanical flaps, has been developed under the £6.2m FLAVIIR programme. Demon, had… Read More ›
Last week, BAE Systems quietly announced that it had won a $50m contract to further develop the ARGUS system in conjunction with U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA ). ARGUS (or Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance) provides real-time, high-resolution, video… Read More ›
Yesterday, as BAE systems unveiled Taranis, their new unmanned combat drone technical demonstrator at their factory in Warton, near Preston we held a small protest vigil at the front gates. According to Defence Minister Gerald Howarth speaking at the event, the combat… Read More ›
BAE’s Mantis drone has returned to the UK following a series of tests at an Australian military test range according to a report in Flight International. “BAE says a production version of Mantis would be able to fly at altitudes up to 50,000ft and deliver… Read More ›
Speaking about armed drones to a group in Essex last night I was asked about the use of drones to spy on people in the UK. I get this question regularly since the Guardian reported in January that a number… Read More ›
