A US $5,000 fee may sound like a steep price to pay for most ordinary deliveries. But it's a price the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory would gladly pay for a disposable glider drone that could deliver 320 kilograms (700 pounds) of supplies to ground troops at remote outposts or in the middle of a warzone. Earlier this month, the Marines awarded a contract to kickstart the second phase of flight testing for such battlefield delivery drones. The recent contract given to the Yates Electrospace Corporation aims for flight tests to refine the design and construction of the company's "Silent Arrow" glider drones that resemble sleek missiles with extendable wings. The ultimate goal of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory's TACtical Air Delivery (TACAD) program is to develop a disposable glider drone that can deliver the 320-kilogram payload to within 45 meters of any given target site on Earth--and for a price that could make military resupply costs at least 10 times cheaper.

A man who flew a drone and dropped anti-media propaganda flyers into the stands of two NFL games was arrested Sunday for flying a drone within five miles of an airport. The man, who was not identified by police, sent his drone over Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara and the Coliseum in Oakland. The man dropped the flyers over Levi's Stadium first during the second quarter of a game between the San Francisco 49er and the Seattle Seahawks. He then headed 30 miles north and dropped pamphlets over a game between the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos, according to police. Both stadiums fall within five miles of an airport, a no-fly zone for drones.

The court said Monday it would not take up the case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled earlier this year that the case had been properly dismissed. The appeals court said taking up the case would require it to second-guess the wisdom of a military action, which it said courts could not review.

The government is planning to create a raft of new police powers as part of a crackdown on the civilian use of drones, the Department for Transport has announced. The new drone bill to be published in 2018 will allow police officers to order drone operators to ground their devices where necessary, alongside a series of new changes that will create a mandatory registry for larger unmanned aerial vehicles, such as those sold by Parrot or DJI. It could also include a ban on drones flying near airports or above 122 metres (400 feet), the government says, and a requirement for drone owners to use apps, rather than simple remote controls, to fly their aircraft, in order to ensure that the rules are always readily accessible and incorporated into the flight plan. The proposed bill will be accompanied by changes to the air navigation order that will introduce safety awareness tests for drone users, and the requirement to register with the government before flying drones that weigh more than 250g. Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg said: "Drones have great potential and we want to do everything possible to harness the benefits of this technology as it develops, but if we are to realise the full potential of this incredibly exciting technology, we have to take steps to stop illegal use of these devices and address safety and privacy concerns. "These new laws strike a balance, to allow the vast majority of drone users to continue flying safely and responsibly, while also paving the way for drone technology to revolutionise businesses and public services." Tim Johnson, policy director at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), said: "The CAA supports the safe development of drones in the UK.

The UK government is planning to introduce fresh rules for drone owners including a new requirement to sit safety tests and potentially no-fly zones. When you undergo the time-consuming and expensive process to gain a car license in the UK, you are expected to pass not only practical tests but sit an exam on the highway code and click your way through tedious hazard perception tests. Now, UK drone owners may be required to undergo a similar process to fly their beloved devices. As reported by the BBC, new legislation undergoing scrutiny by the UK government will require drone hobbyists to sit safety awareness tests to legally fly drones. Should drones be flown without this requirement in place, police will have new powers to confiscate drones which "may have been used in criminal activity," according to the publication, and this potentially could be extended to those flying illegally and without a license.

The fight against malaria has been improving, but there's still lots more work to do. For one thing, anti-larval sprays are both expensive and time-consuming -- you can't always afford to spray an entire area. Thankfully, a mix of technology is making that mosquito battle more practical. Wales' Aberystwyth University and Tanzania's Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme have partnered on an initiative that uses drones to survey malaria hot zones and identify the water-laden areas where malaria-carrying mosquitoes are likely to breed. An off-the-shelf drone (in this case, DJI's Phantom 3) can cover a large rice paddy in 20 minutes, and the data can be processed in the space of an afternoon.

SANAA, Yemen – Yemeni security and tribal officials say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed three alleged al-Qaida fighters in the country's central Bayda province. They say the Sunday strike was the third of its kind in a week in the province, a stronghold for the group. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Yemen fell into chaos following its 2011 Arab Spring uprising that deposed longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh, now allied with Shiite rebels from the north who have occupied much of the country and are fighting his successor. A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the rebels and Saleh's forces since March 2015.

The UK doesn't just want to institute rules governing how you fly your drone -- it wants to give police more power to take drones out of commission. A newly unveiled Drone Bill would give law enforcement the authority to order pilots to not only order operators to ground drones, but to seize drone parts if needed to prove that the machine was used to break the law. If someone's caught flying a drone over a prison, officers could both force the robotic flier down and confiscate it to illustrate what happened. The proposed law would also codify the rules brought up during the summer. You would have to register any drone weighing over 250g (0.55lbs) and take a safety awareness test.

When the US Air Force deployed Gorgon Stare, a drone video system that consists of 368 cameras covering nearly 40 square miles at a time, in 2011, an official declared, "we can see everything." The technology, named after snake-haired mythological creatures whose gazes turn people to stone, can surveil an area for hours at a time, take composite images of 1.8 billion pixels each, and create several terabytes of data every minute. Ted Johnson (@TedDGCI) is a retired commander in the US Navy where he focused on cyber policy and operations. He is the defense and national security research manager at Deloitte's Center for Government Insights. Charles F. Wald, a retired US Air Force general and former deputy commander of US European Command, is co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center's National Security Program.

Anyone buying a drone will soon have to pass a safety test under a new Government crackdown. The blitz announced today will also ban drones from flying near airports, require larger gadgets to be officially registered and tighten up rules on flying them too high. Police will be given new powers to ground drones flown by rogue operators and seize them for evidence. The move comes after The Mail on Sunday highlighted the security threat posed by the gadgets, and after a series of potentially catastrophic near-misses with aircraft. Drones are set to be one of the hottest-selling gifts again this Christmas, but Ministers have raised safety and privacy concerns as their cost comes down and their use becomes more widespread.