Future of drones is small and cheap

By: Mark Pomerleau, May 12, 2017 

Intelligence might be one of if not the most coveted asset for commanders of all stripes. While combatant commanders and other strategic leaders are always in need of more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, so is the case for field commanders on the ground with small units. As such, the desire for micro or nano drones has increased immensely. 

The size of unmanned aerial systems has continued to decrease. “Overall, small is the future,” Peter Singer, strategist and senior fellow at the New America think tank, told C4ISRNET. 

These micro drones, many of which are so small they can fit in the palm of one’s hand and weigh as large as 20 pounds, provide unique ISR capabilities for squads on the ground. 

Flight time is around 15 minutes per battery (there are two in the kit), but with a top speed of 22 mph and a range of 1 kilometer(Credit: AeroVironment)


Just this week, drone manufacturer AeroVironment unveiled the Snipe Nano Quad, a micro quadcopter weighing 5 ounces and capable of attaining speeds of 20 mph. AeroVironment said it delivered 20 of these systems to a government customer, who is reportedly the U.S. Army, but the company did not say. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

“Snipe enables operators to spring into action quickly,” Kirk Flittie, AeroVironment vice president and general manager of its UAS business segment, said in a news release. “No assembly is required for the five-ounce (140-gram) nano-UAS, which is designed to be worn by its operator so it can be deployed in less than a minute.” 

The system is capable of relaying high-resolution images and real-time video, in both daylight and darkness, controlled by an application on a ruggedized touch-screen controller, the company said. 

The desire for smaller systems, for which the Army has issued industry solicitations in the past for such devices, is surely related to the projection by many military leaders that the battlefields of future wars will occur in dense, complex urban environments. 

“It’s highly probable that the military forces armed conflict will occur in highly dense urban complex terrain, physical terrain,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said in a May 4 address, noting that by 2050, the global population is slated to reach 8 billion people, of which 85-90 percent will live in highly dense, complex urban areas. 

Moreover, Milley discussed megacities, defined as cities with populations of more than 10 million people — Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and Mexico City, for example. Today there are 10 to 15 of these cities, while in 2050 the number is expected to reach 50. 

Capability goals 

Similarly, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said during a conference in September 2016 that with this urbanization, the force will need a swarming capability — something unmanned and small to be able to perform ISR in these urban environments. 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Fast Lightweight Autonomy, or FLA, program has sought to devise systems that can operate in these dense urban environments, which not only include operations between city blocks, but the cramped, multistory buildings themselves. 


First announced in late December 2014, FLA is designed to enable UAS to operate autonomously in highly cluttered urban environments at high speeds, much like the flight of a bird or insect. DARPA’s hope is that the program will engender new capabilities to provide soldiers eyes on highly cluttered urban environments that previous systems could not traverse, such as inside structurally damaged buildings. Similar systems can allow assaulting soldiers with insights around corners and through stairwells prior to advancing. 

Other roles for these and slightly larger systems, such as Group 1 quadcopters, could be a leader-follower type of capability. In fact, Paul Scharre would like to see a cloud of drones surrounding a formation as it patrols through a city on all angles looking for possible threats. The senior fellow and director of the Future of Warfare Initiative at the Center for a New American Security spoke to C4ISRNET about the technology. The goal would be for these systems to do this autonomously and cooperatively without human intervention, then alert humans when threats are detected. 

While challenges persist with nano devices — such as the hummingbird-sized UAS, in that they might be too small to carry desired payloads or computer processors to execute autonomy — Scharre said the underlying technology for all this is not far off. If units just want to peer around a corner like a little periscope, he said, that is very doable today. 

However, realizing the majority of these capabilities might be further down the road than expected. Singer, who co-authored “Ghost Fleet,” a book about future warfare, said this depends on one’s level of expectation. Some systems could be used now, but there might be a high attrition rate; many might get lost or won’t be well integrated into command and control architecture; and most are civilian grade, not hardened for military use. Inversely, he noted that the Islamic State group is using commercial drones in Mosul for ISR and strike. While not as effective as U.S. systems, they offer a previously unrealized capability. 

An 'instant visual' 

AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven
Aircraft model
The AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven is a small hand-launched remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle developed for the United States military, but now adopted by the military forces of many other countries. Wikipedia

Wingspan: 4′ 6″
Unit cost: $173,000 per system (includes 4 UAVs, 2 GCS and spare parts)
Number built: 19,000+ airframes
Manufacturer: AeroVironment
Produced: 2004–present
Developed from: FQM-151 Pointer

First flight: October 2001

The Army has reevaluated how it conducts its small UAS training, even opening up a first-of-its-kind multi-domain training lane at Fort Riley, Kansas. "We want capable UAS operators who get good training, who know how to first operate the RQ-11 Raven and the RQ-20 Puma, which are very good systems but there’s some complexity to them,” Chief Warrant Officer 4 Sarah Good said in a recent interview with C4ISRNET.  “We want to add in the quadcopters, then add in smaller micro-sized elements." 

AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma
Aircraft model
The AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma is a small, battery powered, American hand-launched unmanned aircraft system produced by AeroVironment based in California. Wikipedia
Top speed: 52 mph
Wingspan: 9′ 2″
Length: 4.593′

Unit cost: $250,000
Number built: 1,000+
Primary users: United States Army; United States Marine Corps; United States Air Force
Manufacturer: AeroVironment

From an operational perspective, these small UAS assets could be used either to gain intelligence prior to moving in on a target or during operations. 

The main reason they believe in building up the small assets, according to Good, is to get at the ISR gap at lower echelons. With these systems, units have an operator that knows exactly what’s going on in the battlefield. It allows them to get an “instant visual of what’s going on,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Samuel Kleinbeck, who is also with 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. 

According to Singer, one of the frustrations with large systems is there’s not enough of them to go around. Commanders often have to call back for support, whereas with a small system they have control of it. 

Acknowledging the duality that the world’s population is gravitating toward urban environments and the Marine Corps will unlikely grow in size, Col. James Jenkins, director of science and technology for the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, said during an October presentation that the service is looking at unmanned systems to take advantage or leverage current abilities in urban environments. 

He linked one urban challenge to the need for a three-dimensional capability. Within urban environments, “now that I’ve got to climb stairs, climb elevator shafts, go down into parking garages, anything like that,” he said, “I’ve added a … layer of complexity to what I’m asking that unmanned system to do.” 

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has previously offered that every infantry squad could have its own small UAS. Neller also directed the procurement of four battalions’ worth of small Group 1 UAS, which, while slightly larger than micro systems, is an indication that units require more closely held ISR assets. 

YUCK! Woman Caught On Video Repeatedly Scratching Her Private Part On The Train

Sure, not every woman is walking around with an itchy vagina, but many are. And the reasons why can range from benign (your choice of undies) to more worrisome (an STI).

That’s why it’s important to see a gynecologist to figure out what the heck’s going on. So that you can avoid scratching your crotch all day in PUBLIC! 

Recently, a super disgusting video was spread on social media by a Facebook user. In that video, a woman can be seen scratching her private part repeatedly on the train. Yes, you read that right. 

She was so carried away with her mobile phone she didn’t know where her hands went playing. During that horribly nasty moment, the unfortunate woman was even captured on camera having a good long scratch! 

Ladies and gentleman, just be careful whose hand you shake next, you can’t be too sure where they have been.

A Dumb woman born every minute

‘I DEFINITELY WANT TO MARRY A WHITE BOY, I WANT A HALF-CAST BABY’ : SEXY FILIPINA-AUSSIE MODEL FLAMED FOR ANTI-ASIAN TWEETS

Controversy has surrounded a popular Filipina Instagram model whose past racist tweets resurfaced online.

Lily Macapinlac, more popularly known as Lily May Mac who is based in Sydney, criticised Asian men and said she wanted a “half-cast (sic) baby” in tweets dating back to 2013.

The 22-year-old wrote: “If another short old Asian dude tries buying me a drink, I’m going to puke on them.”

She also posted: “Definitely going to marry a white boy, [and] I want a half-cast [sic] baby’.”

And defended her tweet by saying: “My dad is cheering me on. He said ‘If he’s white then it’s okay.”

Netizens have been accusing her of having ‘white fever’ and the tweets have even affected her partnerships with brands.


She tweeted an apology on May 3:



“In light of what is resurfacing, I want to say sorry for what I said when I was obviously closeminded (sic) & away from [the] public eye.”



– http://www.stomp.com.sg/

THE GRAND FALSE CELEBRATION: EVEN IN UMNO’S AGE, NAJIB MISLEADS…

Usually people tend to claim to be younger than their actual age. But not the people in Umno. No not individually but as a group.

They have been at it for years. This year, they are saying their party is 71 years old. Hence, today being Umno Day, the party is celebrating its 71st birthday.

Going by history that Umno was formed on 11 May 1946 by the late Datuk Onn Jaafar, the Umno folks are right.

But wait, wasn’t that Umno of ’46, pardon the expression, “dead and buried ” back in 1988?

A quick throwback.

Older readers would surely remember. But I’ll write it anyway, for the younger readers who might not be familiar with the story. And even for those who knew, well, take a trip down memory lane all the same.

On 24 April 1987, Umno held its annual general assembly and triennial party election after a vicious and bitter campaign.

Fighting for power was Team A led by then president Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his deputy Ghafar Baba, against Team B headed by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah aided by Musa Hitam as number two.

Mahathir and Ghafar won.Two of the three vice presidents elected were from Team A, and the supreme council made up of 16 Team A members compared to nine from Team B.

Then allegations of irregularities, said to be hurled by Team B supporters, surfaced.

On 25 June 1987, an appeal was made by 12 Umno delegates (one pulled out subsequently) to have the Umno assembly and the 24 April election declared null.

In short, the issue was brought to the court. After a series of interlocutory hearings over the discovery of documents that took more than seven months, the matter finally came before Justice Harun Hashim in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on 4 February 1988.

The judge ruled that under existing law he had no option but to find the party, Umno, to be an unlawful society due to the existence of several unregistered branches which contravened the Societies Act of 1966.

Hence, the question of the assembly itself being illegal (sought by the 11 Umno delegates) became academic.

So, based on the High Court decision, Umno the party “died”, again pardon the expression, on 4 February 1988. And it was not revived. Never resurrected.

Instead, Dr Mahathir put into motion the machinery to form a new party, a surrogate party, so to speak, and in due course registered it formally calling it Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu (Baru) or United Malays National Organisation (New), meaning the new Umno registered by Mahathir back then, which is the current Umno led by Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was born in 1988.

Which makes the party a youngish 29 years old instead of the 71 years presently trumpeted all over the country.

Umno must have its own reasons for wanting to be known older than its present age, perhaps to show credibility, longevity and sustainability?

Or perhaps because of this — the suffix “Baru” was eventually dropped and Umno (Baru) became both the de facto and de jure successor of Umno (with the old Umno’s assets handed to them).

Maybe that’s why Umno now calls itself simply Umno and not Umno Baru anymore.

The fact remains although the Umno of Datuk Onn is long gone. What we now have is a replacement. Not a or a resurrected version nor a reincarnation of the Umno formed in 1946.

Anyway, Selamat Hari Ulang Tahun Umno!

– Mysinchew

RESHAPE THE WORLD IN CHINA’S IMAGE

Chinese President Xi Jinping stands by national flags at the Schloss Bellevue presidential residency in Berlin on March 28, 2014. Chinese President Xi Jinping begins a landmark visit to fellow export powerhouse Germany Friday, the third leg of his European tour, expected to cement flourishing trade ties and focus on the Crimea crisis.

 AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE (Photo credit should read JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

BEIJING – China is one of the few countries in the world today with money to spend, and Xi Jinping is ready to write some checks.

China’s president will host some 28 world leaders in Beijing on Sunday at the first Belt and Road Forum, the centerpiece of a soft-power push backed by hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects. More than 100 countries on five continents have signed up, showing the demand for global economic cooperation despite rising protectionism in the US and Europe.



For Xi, the initiative is designed to solidify his image as one of the world’s leading advocates of globalisation while US President Donald Trump cuts overseas funds in the name of “America First.”

The summit aims to ease concerns about China’s rise and boost Xi’s profile at home, where he’s become the most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping died in 1997.

The Belt and Road Initiative “will likely be Xi’s most lasting legacy,” said Trey McArver, the London-based director of China research for TS Lombard, an investment research company. “It has the potential to remake global — particularly Asian — trade and economic patterns.”

The strategy also carries risks. The initiative is so far little more than a marketing slogan that encompasses all sorts of projects that China had initiated overseas for years, and major world leaders like Trump, Angela Merkel and Shinzo Abe are staying away. How Xi answers a range of outstanding questions will go a long way in determining its success.

Key to reducing uncertainty will be addressing the concerns of strategic rivals like India, Russia and the US, particularly as China’s growing military prowess lets it be more assertive over disputed territory. Chinese moves to spend more than US$50 billion (RM217 billion) on an economic corridor in Pakistan, build a port in Djibouti and construct oil pipelines in central Asia are all creating infrastructure that could be used to challenge traditional powers.

“China needs to recognise that the way it perceives the Belt and Road Initiative is not necessarily the same way others will,” said Paul Haenle, a former China director on the US National Security Council who now heads the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing.

For countries like the US, he said, “it’s impossible not to view the BRI through a geopolitical lens — a Chinese effort to build a sphere of influence.”

Excess capacity

In September 2013, when Xi first pitched the plan at an obscure Kazakhstan university, he focused on the Eurasia landmass. Since then, it has repeatedly changed names and expanded to include the entire world, with the main goal of rebuilding the ancient trading routes from China to Europe overland and by sea.

One key driver was economic: China wants to spur growth in underdeveloped hinterlands and find more markets for excess industrial capacity. With more than US$3 trillion in international reserves — more than a quarter of the world’s total — China has more resources than developed economies struggling to hit budget targets.

The plan gained steam last year when populist movements spurred a backlash against trade and immigration in the US and Europe. Brexit raised questions about the European Union’s viability, while Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership gutted the biggest US push to shape global economic rules.

Trade champion

“It was very disappointing, and it makes us feel that there is a big vacuum that Belt and Road can help to fill,” Cheah Cheng Hye, chairman and co-chief investment officer at the Hong Kong-based Value Partners Group. “So all of sudden, we begin to appreciate this Chinese initiative.”

Xi wasted no time filling the void. With exporting nations looking for a free-trade champion, he told the global elite in Davos, Switzerland, to resist protectionism and join China in boosting global commerce.

The US and Europe “almost unwittingly” created space for Xi to push China’s interests, according to Peter Cai, research fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

“China is offering an alternative to the US version of globalization,” Cai said. “In the Chinese case, it’s globalisation paved by concrete: Railways, highways, pipelines, ports.”

Draft communique

This year, five European countries — Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, France and Italy — openly voiced support for the initiative. On trips to China in February, Italian President Sergio Mattarella proposed plans for the ports of Genoa and Trieste, while French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve attended the arrival ceremony of a freight train from Lyon.

The summit will feature the likes of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Greece’s Alexis Tsipras and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte. The US and most Western countries are expected to send lower-level representatives.

A draft communique circulated before the event combined a commitment to open markets with endorsements of China’s diplomatic goals, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the document. It also generated some controversy among Beijing-based diplomats who said they didn’t have enough time to vet the document, underscoring the initiative’s potential to cause conflict.

US$500 billion

China has invested more than US$50 billion in Belt and Road countries since 2013, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Credit Suisse Group AG said this month that China could pour more than US$500 billion into 62 countries over five years.

China’s state-run companies like China National Petroleum Corp. and China Mobile Ltd — the world’s largest wireless carrier — are positioned to reap the rewards. Executives from six of China’s largest state-run firms sought to reassure the public this week that the risks were manageable.

China’s three development banks, its Silk Road Fund and China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank were involved in US$143 billion of lending outside of the country last year, up more than 140 per cent from 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Still, financial hurdles are starting to appear. China’s slowing economic growth has left fewer resources to spend overseas. Its international reserves have fallen about 6 percent over the past year, and China needs a healthy amount to defend the yuan.

Some previous Chinese ventures abroad have turned sour. While China’s no-strings-attached approach to investment is generally welcomed by developing countries, they often have poor credit ratings and questionable governance. China has struggled to recoup loans in Venezuela and Africa, and several projects in Central Asia have spurred protests. Announcements with big dollar signs often fail to materialise.

Nonetheless, Chinese scholars see the sum of Xi’s plan as bigger than any individual project. It represents a “profound change” in how China interacts with the world, according to Wang Yiwei, director of at Renmin University’s Institute of International Affairs in Beijing, who has written three books on the initiative.

“China has moved from a participant of globalisation to a main leader,” he said. “It’s Globalisation 2.0.”

— Bloomberg

PAS forgets who helped PAS in GE12 and GE13

‘DON’T FORGET YOU WON ONLY ONE SEAT WITHOUT DAP’S HELP’ – MAHATHIR WARNS ‘LONE WOLF’ PAS IT WILL PERFORM BADLY IN GE14

Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad has warned PAS that it will perform badly if it decides to contest alone in the 14th general election.

Commenting on the decision by the party’s syura council yesterday to sever political ties with PKR, the former prime minister described the Islamist party as “confused”.

“Well I do not know, I think it is very confusing for PAS, as on one hand they do not want to work with anybody, and on another hand they want to work with somebody. I do not know their policy.

“On their own, PAS never performed well. If they go for the election on their own, without working with others, for example with the DAP in particular, their performance will be very bad,” he said when met at the Jalan Duta court complex in Kuala Lumpur today.

Mahathir recalled that PAS won just one seat when it contested alone.

However, when the Islamic party contested with the DAP, he added, it once had 27 parliamentary seats.

“That was their highest score and obviously (if they contest alone) they cannot form the government.”

Mahathir was referring to the general election in 1986 when PAS won only one parliamentary seat.

Yesterday, the PAS syura council officially announced that it was severing ties with PKR.

PAS, PKR and DAP were formerly members of the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat.

Following the collapse of Pakatan Rakyat, DAP and PKR formed Pakatan Harapan, together with Amanah. Bersatu later joined the coalition.

Asked to comment on the prospect of not having a one-on-one contest in the 14th general election following PAS’ decision, Mahathir said three or four-cornered fights are part of the democratic system.

“My opinion is that the third contestant (a party contesting against the opposition) will only be helping the BN. They will cause a split in the opposition (votes) and so indirectly, they are helping BN,” he said.

Mahathir who returned from Muscat, Oman, last night, came to the court to attend the proceedings of the financial sabotage case against Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Matthias Chang.

– M’kini

Video of blind man stopping Bangsar traffic goes viral

PETALING JAYA: An elderly blind man forced traffic along a Bangsar street to come to a standstill on Wednesday afternoon and refused to budge unless he was given RM20.

In a video recorded by radio presenter Matthew Ong, which has now gone viral, the man is seen standing in the middle of the street on Jalan Telawi 4, with a line of cars in front of him.

Ong said he first noticed the man when a passer-by attempted to help him but he still did not move.

"Thinking it was a language issue, I went up to him to help, but then I realised that he wasn't clueless.

"He knew exactly what he was doing and wouldn't budge unless I gave him some money," he wrote in a Facebook post.


Ong said he handed the man RM1, but the man still refused to move off the road.

"He took the cash and then continued standing there after berating me that it wasn't enough. He wanted RM10 or RM20. That's when I took this video," he said.

In the video, Ong can be heard telling the man in Hokkien that he is holding up traffic and verbally offers him RM5.

However, the man refuses to accept and replies "don't make me angry or I will hit you".

The camera then pans to a car blocked by the elderly man.

The driver, who appears frustrated, hands RM10 to Ong to pass to the man to get him to move away.

The man accepts the money and slowly ambles off to the side of the road, allowing traffic to pass.

The video has been viewed more than 150,000 times, received 2,000 shares and has garnered comments from the public who claimed to have encountered the same man with the same modus operandi.

They say he has been spotted in various areas such as Desa Sri Hartamas, Kota Damansara, Mont Kiara and USJ Subang Jaya.

"Seen him in Hartamas before too. He was standing at the roadside calling for help to bring him across. I did. But after that, he asked me to buy his magazine. I said I'll pass," posted Facebook user Candy Han.

"Then he rudely asked me, are you working here or are you just a poor student? He then scolded me saying I was heartless for not buying from a blind uncle. Speechless," said Han.

Yaacob Khan, another Facebook user, said he had encountered the man in Kota Damansara and Mont Kiara.

"He yells tolong (help) to the point where his voice breaks ... either he asks for money or a ride elsewhere " he said, adding that he was taking advantage of the kindness of others.