The US military may soon have an army of faceless suicide bombers at their disposal, as an American defense contractor has revealed their newest war-fighting drone. AeroVironment unveiled the Red Dragon in a video on their YouTube page, the first in a new line of'one-way attack drones.' This new suicide drone can reach speeds up to 100 mph and can travel nearly 250 miles. The new drone takes just 10 minutes to set up and launch and weighs just 45 pounds. Once the small tripod the Red Dragon takes off from is set up, AeroVironment said soldiers would be able to launch up to five per minute.

International attempts to regulate the use of autonomous weapons, sometimes called "killer robots", are faltering and may be derailed if such weapons are used in Ukraine and seen to be effective. No country is known to have used autonomous weapons yet. Their potential use is controversial because they would select and attack targets without human oversight. Arms control groups are campaigning for the creation of binding international agreements to cover their use, like the ones we have for chemical and biological weapons, before they are deployed. Progress is being stymied by world events, however.

A new business intelligence report released by HTF MI with title "Asia-Pacific Drone Analytics Market Report 2018 Market" has abilities to raise as the most significant market worldwide as it has remained playing a remarkable role in establishing progressive impacts on the universal economy. The Asia-Pacific Drone Analytics Market Report offers energetic visions to conclude and study market size, market hopes, and competitive surroundings. The research is derived through primary and secondary statistics sources and it comprises both qualitative and quantitative detailing. Market Overview of Asia-Pacific Drone Analytics If you are involved in the Asia-Pacific Drone Analytics industry or aim to be, then this study will provide you inclusive point of view. It's vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Applications [Agriculture & Forestry, Construction, Insurance, Mining & Quarrying, Utility, Telecommunication, Oil & Gas, Transportation & Others], Product Types [, Seismic, Acoustic, Magnetic & Infrared] and major players.

What does a company do when its trailblazing and diverse innovations for nearly half a century have redefined how the world drives and flies? When its many technological "firsts" include the first practical electric car, flying the Nano Hummingbird drone, record-setting, solar-powered aircraft flights in near space, and reshaping the battlefield with portable, hand-held, tactical drones and loitering munitions? It takes on another world. AeroVironment, Inc. has revealed its critical role in collaborating with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA/JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. to build the drone helicopter recently selected by NASA/JPL's Mars Exploration Program, and displayed a model of the Mars Helicopter, which is planned to fly on Mars in less than three years. "AeroVironment's deep, rich and diverse history of innovation combined with our experience with near-space aircraft like Pathfinder and Helios make us uniquely suited to collaborate with NASA and JPL on this historic, interplanetary venture," said AeroVironment President and Chief Executive Officer Wahid Nawabi.

Marines will soon be even more deadly - and safer - with their new extremely lethal Switchblades. When you think of a switchblade, you think of a smallish knife that fits in a pocket, right? Marines will soon have in their hands entirely different breed of Switchblades – these are smart, flying little drones loaded with devastating miniature missiles. Tiny, fast and very quiet, they are extremely difficult for adversaries to detect or track. Even if an adversary does spot the drone, it doesn't matter.

In a lawsuit filed last month and unveiled Thursday, United States defense contractor and drone-maker company AeroVironment was sued by one of the its ex-employees, who claimed he and his colleagues were fired for reporting an incident that violated commercial flight laws. Former programs chief of AeroVironment Mark Anderson claimed in the wrongful termination lawsuit, filed April 18 with the California Superior Court, an unidentified employee of the company traveled from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles in April 2015 on a Delta Air Lines commercial flight with an explosive-laden drone in a carry-on bag. The flight was carrying 230 passengers at the time. It was unclear how the employee managed to take bomb-loaded drone past Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents before getting on the flight. TSA has an extensive list of items that are banned on commercial flights, be in carry-on or check-in luggage.

This article was originally published on the Motley Fool. Flying a plane with solar energy alone may seem like a far-fetched idea, but it's now a reality. In 2016, a prototype plane built by Solar Impulse with a single pilot flew around the world on nothing but solar energy, a first for humanity. A number of companies are trying to take that test flight from prototype to commercial viability. A realistic commercial application for solar-powered aircraft could be drones flying high above Earth where energy requirements to maintain altitude are lower.

Drone-maker AeroVironment has developed a handheld quadcopter that it says can be carried by soldiers on the battlefield and quickly deployed to get an aerial look at a potentially hostile location. The drone, called Snipe Nano Quad, has retractable rotor arms so it can be carried in a compact form and unpacked when needed. It weighs just 140 grams (5 ounces). It's equipped with cameras that can send a visible or infrared image back to a handheld controller unit. The infrared view provides a way to see the body heat of a person who may be hidden. The drone has a top speed of around 20 miles per hour and a radio range of about 1 kilometer.

Drone-maker AeroVironment Inc unveiled a small four-rotor surveillance helicopter on Tuesday that can be carried in a small pouch and launched from the palm of a hand. The smaller size and simplicity of operation means it can used by ordinary soldiers, offering squads and other small military units the kind of surveillance capacity previously reserved for larger military units, where drones are operated by specialists. AeroVironment said it delivered 20 of the 5-ounce (140-gram) Snipe unmanned aircraft to its first U.S. government client in April. The company declined to identify the government agency that purchased the drones, but Aviation Week reported last year that AeroVironment was developing prototypes for the U.S. Army. AeroVironment said the drone benefited from advances in technology achieved in the development of its Nano Hummingbird drone for DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has been responsible for many technological and scientific breakthroughs used by the military.

WASHINGTON – Millions of dollars' worth of U.S.-supplied drones that Kiev had hoped would help in its war against Russian-backed separatists have proven ineffective against jamming and hacking, Ukrainian officials say. The 72 Raven RQ-11B Analog mini-drones were so disappointing following their arrival this summer that Natan Chazin, an advisor to Ukraine's military with deep knowledge of the country's drone program, said if it were up to him, he would return them. "From the beginning, it was the wrong decision to use these drones in our (conflict)," Chazin, an adviser to the chief of the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces, told Reuters. The hand-launched Ravens were one of the recent highlights of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, aiming to give Kiev's military portable, light-weight, unarmed surveillance drones that were small enough to be used widely in the field. They are made by AeroVironment.