Boeing may have the biggest drone so far. It is an airship, flying cell tower. The Phantom Eye: * wingspans of 150 feet; * gross takeoff weight of 10,000 pounds; * room for up to a 450 pound payload; * two four-cylinder engines each providing about 150 horsepower. It runs on liquid hydrogen, not only making it greener than the rest of the U.S. military's drone fleet, but, Boeing believes, three times more energy-efficient. * Most drones are lucky if they can stay aloft for a day at a stretch. The Phantom Eye aims to stay in the air for up to five days, and about three times higher - at 60,000 feet. Flying cell towers can have two functions: * Surveillance society listen in on everyone's phone calls; * Disaster response, fly over where there was just an earthquake, or severe weather, to provide cell phone tower service, until ground infrastructure has been repaired. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/phantom-eye-2/ i-phone can be a ground station for drone control. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/03/29/device-will-turn-iphone-into- mobile-ground-station-for-drones Add to our acronym list: LaWS = Laser Weapons System The Navy calls it a "directed energy pulse weapon." http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57578536/laser-beams-to-protect-u.s-na vy-from-drones/ http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/08/navy-to-deploy-laser-to-destroy-dro nes-small-boats/ http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/04/08/navy-unveils-drone-killing-la ser-video?s_cid=rss:navy-unveils-drone-killing-laser-video https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-infrared-laser-weapon-shoot-dr ones-disable-ships-navy-article-1.1311093 http://reason.com/24-7/2013/04/08/navy-laser-cannon-able-to-take-down-dron http://news.yahoo.com/navy-frickin-drone-shooting-laser-214924961.html;_ylt= A2KJ2UY.r2NR6wMA097QtDMD http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/04/08/future-is-now-navy-to-deploys-lasers- on-ships-in-2014/ Other nations have done lots of research with lasers as weapons, and I believe the US has done so as far back as Reagan's Star Wars, but apparently it is a first for US Navy ships to have lasers to defend them against drones. I do not believe this will protect the navy from underwater drones. Bad weather can allegedly mess with laser quality, but I believe science has the ability to distort a beam at launch point to compensate for what the weather is about to do. Each "bullet" costs $ 1. Each "gun" costs $ 32 million. To put that $32 million in perspective, consider some alternatives: * $1.5 Trillion = how much USA has so far invested in the War on Drugs, in 40 years, according to link at footnote.[1] * $1 Trillion = how much USA has so far invested in the War on Drugs, with nothing to show for it, in terms of any change in volume of people addicted & consuming the stuff, according to Rep John Conyers (D-Michigan) in a Congress hearing I saw on C-Span. * $400 Billion = estimated size of future civilian drone market.[2] * $24 Billion = DoD Budget request[3] for drones 2010-2015 * $16 Billion (more than) = DoD plans to spend 2008-2013 to improve drone technology & acquire more of them.[4] * $6 Billion = US Navy budget for Drones.[5] * $4 Billion = How much NATO plans to spend on drones over the next 20 years.[6] * $3 Billion = How much the USA spent on unmanned aircraft in 2010.[7] * $3 Billion, or 37% = increase in costs beyond initial estimates, for Pentagon acquisitions.[8] * $1.4 Billion = investments in improvements to US drone base in Djibouti.[9] * $1 Billion (Canadian) = Starting Budget for Canadian Drone fleet.[10] * $200 million = Cost of Navy Drone which crashed June 2012 in Maryland. * $100 million = what the USA would save each year, if the detainees were transferred from Gitmo to Super Max inside USA. * $ 1.5 million from NASA to whoever can first perfect the Jetson's vehicle.[11] * $30,000 to $50,000 is the expected cost of a small drone for use by a police dept, which is about the same as what they expect to pay for a police car.[12] Al Mac = Alister William Macintyre _____ _____ [1] http://reason.com/blog/2012/10/11/forty-years-of-drug-war-failure-in-a-sin?u tm_source=feedburner <http://reason.com/blog/2012/10/11/forty-years-of-drug-war-failure-in-a-sin? utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reason%2FHitandRu n+%28Reason+Online+-+Hit+%26+Run+Blog%29> &utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reason%2FHitandRun+%28Reason+Online+-+ Hit+%26+Run+Blog%29 [2] http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre8ad1hr-us-drones-civilian/ [3] Summary of GAO Drones Military 10-508 t = 2010 March testimony.(21 pages) [4] GAO Drones Military 10-508 t = 2010 March testimony.(21 pages) [5] http://www.janes.com/products/janes/defence-security-report.aspx?ID=10659284 68 [6] http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/case+armed+drones+Canada/7175031/story.h tml [7] See US Drone Industry. [8] Summary of GAO Drones Military 10-508 t = 2010 March testimony.(21 pages) The GAO audited 10 drone acquisition programs. 264% increase in costs was biggest. [9] http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/secret-drone-base/ [10] http://thechronicleherald.ca/thenovascotian/132190-defence-headquarters-sets -its-sights-on-billion-dollar-fleet-of-armed-drones [11] http://www.slashgear.com/nasa-weighing-1-5m-autonomous-drone-challenge-jetso ns-cars-ahoy-18252613/ [12] http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-889T GAO Drones USA 12-889 t = 2012 July testimony on role of DHS. -- Want to unsubscribe? Want to receive a weekly digest instead of daily emails? Change your preferences: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/drone-list or email companys@stanford.edu ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE