Iran concluded a major, three-day military exercise Friday intended to review the readiness of its armed forces. The drills, called "Great Prophet," also field-tested new military technology, including the Iranian-made Karrar tank and the Hamasseh drone, Middle East Monitor reported. The Iranian air force, elite units and local forces were involved in the exercise. The drills covered four provinces in Iran's southeast region near the border with Pakistan. The exercises came amid growing tensions in the area over the protracted civil war in Syria and the threat posed by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.

Yemeni government troops newly-trained by a Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels routed al-Qaida militants on Friday from a city in the country's south, military officials said. Houta, the capital of Lahj province, is now firmly under government control, the officials said. The coalition-trained troops, which are loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government, were based in the southern Al-Anad base from where they launched the fight to retake the provincial capital, they added. The officials said the militants fled on Friday from Houta to nearby towns and farmland. The assault came at a time the coalition helicopters and U.S. drones have waged series of airstrikes targeting al-Qaida hideouts and strongholds across Yemen's southern region.

The simple machines are explosives with triggers, set in the ground primed and ready for someone to set them off. For humans, war does, and the landmines that once marked the front line between warring factions can change instead to deadly artifacts, a lethal trap for anyone who wanders unknowingly into danger. Getting rid of landmines is a humanitarian concern. To solve it, scientists from the University of Bristol are enlisting the help of drones. One of the major dangers with landmines is that, while they're waiting in the ground to blow up, the vegetation around them isn't, and after a few seasons, plants can grow over the bombs, hiding them from human eyes. But there are other ways to detect them, says John Day of Bristol's School of Physics: Living plants have a very distinctive reflection in the near infrared spectrum, just beyond human vision, which makes it possible to tell how healthy they are.

Outcome expected on October 21, 2045.

No one knows for certain what will happen if an errant drone crashes into a passenger jet. Who wants to find out for sure? Better to keep drones and planes well out of each other's way. One important step is for Congress to pass the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that's working its way through the Senate this month. Among many other things, the bill adopts some of the strictest regulations for commercial and hobby drones yet. It's way past time to start getting a handle on these flying robots.

With rotors and radios, we are witnessing the birth of a new sport. Aerial acrobatics, sharp turns and staggering climbs that NASCAR can only imagine, all done on the cheap with toys and remote controls, from woods to warehouses to special courses in Dubai. Welcome to the new age of drone racing, as it moves from backyards to broadcasts. Today, ESPN announced it will livestream the U.S. National Drone Racing Championships, a 3-day drone racing event held on New York City's Governor's Island in early August. And then, in October, ESPN will cover the 2016 World Drone Racing Championships at Kualoa Ranch, Hawaii. The drones are flown by pilots wearing goggles and watching through first person vision cameras.

The US military apparently never tires of thinking up capability gaps, and that means we may soon see fleets of small drones dropping out of bombers, then later being yanked out of the sky by cargo planes. Cartoonish as it may sound--as is the case with so many deadly-serious but still far-out military concepts--it makes a lot of sense. And Darpa, the Pentagon's weapon of choice for making crazy things happen, just chose four companies to push the idea forward. Called Gremlins (because you weren't already freaked out) the project calls for a new type of reusable unmanned aerial vehicle that can be air-launched on intelligence-gathering missions from cargo airplanes, bombers, or other military aircraft over "denied" (i.e., hostile) airspace. Once their missions are complete, up to three hours later, the drones will fly back to retrieval area where a C-130 cargo airplane will collect them.

ESPN is already taking advantage of the growing interest in eSports, and the network is hopping on the drone trend, too. Today, the International Drone Racing Association (IDRA) announced a "multi-year" deal with ESPN for coverage of its competitive UAV events. The network's first broadcast of drone racing and its first-person views will be August's US National Drone Racing Championships from Governor's Island in New York City. Live coverage of the event will stream on the WatchESPN app, so you'll need a cable subscription to follow along on a mobile device or streaming gadget. If you can't tune in then, there will be a one-hour special that recaps the action as well.

The impending western Sydney Zoo plans to use drones, robots, augmented reality, and whatever innovative technology that an upcoming hackathon at Western Sydney University will dream up. The hackathon is expected to attract more than academics and scientists, but also start-ups, business and industry professionals, and engineers. The partnership between the new zoo and the university could disrupt any current norm of what a zoo experience entails. Using Levi Stadium, the home of the 49ers, deep in the heart of Silicon Valley as the high-tech model, Don Wright, the manager of the university's Launch Pad program, believes that a visit to the new zoo should be "one of the most technologically advanced wildlife experiences in the world." First, they are considering the overall user experience from the moment visitors arrive at the zoo. "There is lots of focus on reducing queues, getting food to people faster, and using real-time data through the whole facility to deliver a better experience."

The fledgling sport of drone racing is about to fly onto more screens. In drone racing, competitors maneuver small flying drones around a course and wear goggles that show the drone's perspective of the track. At home, viewers will see a version of that perspective. The 2016 National Drone Racing Championships, held in New York City in August, and the 2016 World Drone Racing Championships, set for Kualoa Ranch, Hawaii, in October, will be streamed live on ESPN3, the network's online streaming service. Imagine careening through the forest chasing Stormtroopers on speeder bikes as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia did in a famous scene from "Star Wars," flying around trees and ducking under branches.