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101st Airborne Division takes flight with 3D printed drones
January 21, 2025
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Turning another page in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) journey within the Army’s transformation and its emerging technologies, the Division now has plans underway to revolutionize military drone creation in preparation for their upcoming division training exercise — Operation Lethal Eagle.
The Division began 3D manufacturing of small-unmanned aircraft systems at the EagleWerx Applied Tactical Innovation Center at Fort Campbell.
“This is bigger than simply printing parts. We are reshaping the sUAS enterprise at the tactical level,” said Col. Travis McIntosh (promotable), deputy commanding officer for support of the 101st Airborne Division.
He said the project will impact the entire unit as it would affect “how we do small UAS in the division, from air worthiness to parts ordering, to fielding and training.”
The plan to build the systems at Fort Campbell came as a cooperative effort from the Division and 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne).
Soldiers asked for sUAS that were more versatile, durable and expendable than the standard previously fielded versions. For experimentation during the exercise, the division and EagleWerx representatives are manufacturing 100 sUAS units and purchasing the ground control consoles, at a fraction of the cost of previously acquired sUAS’s.
Operation Lethal Eagle, a 21-day rigorous training exercise, is designed to prototype Army initiatives, train unit lethality and build mastery of large-scale, long-range air assault capabilities throughout the Division.
Many on the project including Capt. Andrew Blomquist, the 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team innovation officer, are excited for the 3D printed drones to get into the hands of the end-users permanently.
“We have done multiple Soldier touch points, demos, and flight tests so luckily, we have already received great end user feedback”, said Blomquist.
“One Soldier in particular that has experience with all of the previously fielded sUAS was surprised with its performance.”
The Division’s revolutionary experiment will continue in anticipation of its next major training event, in late spring at the Joint Readiness Training Center, at Fort Johnson, Louisiana.
https://www.army.mil/article/282644/101st_airborne_division_takes_flight_with_3d_printed_drones
Suspicious drones spotted near Latvia’s military installations
January 23, 2025
Considering the growing use of drones in Latvia and the widespread availability of such devices worldwide, drones have been spotted close to Latvian military grounds, as LETA was told by the National Armed Forces.
There are cases when it is not possible to identify the drone, as there are no available means of preventing all unsanctioned drone flights, NBS explains, adding that the industry is actively working on improving this situation.
Latvian armed forces actively follow the development of technologies to find ways to improve drone countermeasures.
Considering that the issue of drone counter-action capability is classified information, the National Armed Forces are not authorised to disclose information neither on the location of this capability nor technical capabilities.
In cases when it is possible to identify a drone pilot, NBS look up information and contact that person to request explanations. If a violation is identified, the Military Police commence administrative proceedings.
https://bnn-news.com/suspicious-drones-spotted-near-latvias-military-installations-264339
HPA and police test fly drone successfully
23 January 2025
Hamburg Port Authority and police cooperating on use modern technologies and security
The Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) and the Hamburg Police successfully test flew a drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Thursday (January 16, 2025) from Hamburg to Neuwerk on the Lower Elbe as part of their efforts towards a teleoperated and fully-automated drone service.
The aim is to transform security and infrastructure services and make them more sustainable.
"By using drones, flights that were previously carried out by helicopter can be done more economically and ecologically," said Jens Meier, CEO of HPA.
The "Droneport" was established in the Port of Hamburg last summer and is now Europe's first ground infrastructure for unmanned aviation.
A first cross-border flight over three German states was recently completed to include drone technology in security, disaster and flood protection as well as port and infrastructure management.
Drones instead of helicopters could soon be used to control flights over the River Elbe.
Drones should make information gathering and processing more sustainable and efficient.
"Drone flights beyond the line of sight of the drone pilot have the potential to become a new, resource-saving and environment-friendly addition to our capabilities," said Falk Schnabel, Chief Constable.
By working with HPA, the police have gained insights for future operations.
"This project shows how innovative technology can create real added value for the police," said Schnabel. Projects and collaborations of this kind have made Hamburg an official European Union Model Region for Urban Air Mobility.
https://hamburg-business.com/en/news/hpa-and-police-test-fly-drone-successfully
FAA Grants vHive Historic Multi-Drone Authorization for Autonomous Solar Farm Inspections
January 23, 2025
In a groundbreaking development for the commercial Drone Industry, vHive has secured an exclusive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver authorizing autonomous multi-drone operations for solar farm inspections across the United States.
The authorization, announced on January 22, 2025, positions vHive as the first company permitted to deploy software-controlled drone swarms for utility-scale solar inspections, marking a significant advancement in drone automation technology.
According to vHive’s announcement, this authorization represents a fundamental shift in how large-scale solar installations can be inspected and maintained.
The technology enables simultaneous deployment of multiple autonomous drones, dramatically reducing inspection times while ensuring consistent data quality across vast solar arrays.
The significance of this FAA waiver extends beyond mere operational efficiency.
It demonstrates the regulatory body’s growing confidence in advanced drone automation systems, particularly in critical infrastructure inspection roles.
This authorization builds upon the FAA’s broader initiatives to integrate complex drone operations into national airspace, while maintaining rigorous safety standards.
vHive’s system leverages sophisticated autonomous flight control software that enables multiple drones to operate in coordinated patterns, optimizing coverage of solar installations regardless of their size or configuration.
This technological approach represents a significant advance over traditional single-drone or manual inspection methods, particularly for utility-scale solar farms where inspection efficiency directly impacts operational costs and energy production.
The introduction of authorized multi-drone autonomous operations promises to transform solar farm maintenance practices.
Tomer Daniel, vHive’s Co-founder and CTO, emphasizes that the system enables operators to conduct more frequent inspections while reducing operational costs and enhancing safety.
This capability is particularly crucial for early detection of power loss and anomalies that can significantly impact solar farm efficiency.
The solution’s comprehensive approach integrates autonomous multi-drone flight control with AI-powered analytics for anomaly detection, while its Digital Twin platform provides comprehensive asset visualization and real-time data processing for immediate insights.
This integrated system allows solar farm operators to maintain optimal energy production through early detection and rapid response to potential issues.
This authorization arrives at a critical juncture for the U.S. solar industry, which continues to expand rapidly amid growing demand for renewable energy solutions.
The ability to efficiently inspect and maintain large-scale solar installations has become increasingly important as utility companies seek to optimize their renewable energy assets.
From a regulatory perspective, this waiver sets an important precedent for BVLOS operations and autonomous systems in the drone industry.
It suggests a pathway for other companies developing similar technologies, while establishing new benchmarks for safety and reliability in autonomous drone operations.
The implications of this authorization extend beyond solar farm inspections.
By demonstrating the viability of autonomous multi-drone operations in a highly regulated environment, vHive’s achievement may accelerate the adoption of similar systems across other infrastructure inspection applications.
This development aligns with broader industry trends toward automation and artificial intelligence in drone operations.
The convergence of advanced autonomous flight control systems, multi-drone coordination capabilities, AI-powered inspection analytics, and digital twin technology integration in vHive’s authorized system represents a significant milestone in the evolution of commercial drone operations.
This sophisticated combination of technologies, now validated by FAA authorization, sets new standards for efficiency and safety in infrastructure inspection.
As the drone industry continues to mature, this authorization may serve as a template for future regulations governing autonomous drone operations, particularly in critical infrastructure inspection roles.
It demonstrates how innovative technology companies can work within regulatory frameworks to advance drone capabilities while maintaining necessary safety standards.
https://dronexl.co/2025/01/23/faa-vhive-multi-drone-authorization-solar-farm-inspections/
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vhive-exclusively-authorized-by-faa-for-its-autonomous-multi-drone-solar-inspections-in-the-us-302357475.html
https://www.vhive.ai/solutions/products/vhive-capture/
Drone technology usage picks up in ag farming
Jan. 23, 2025
Human-sized drones were a popular sight this year at Manitoba Ag Days as the use of drone technology gains momentum in the farming industry.
Standing beside two large drones at the Keystone Centre, Kayden Wiersma from Green Aero Tech told the Sun he was surprised to see how many vendors were offering drones this year, compared to last.
As a drone technician, he said growth might come from two selling points today — drones are cheaper, compared with ground equipment, and they do not disturb the soil.
“A very big thing is the price difference and the ‘no tire tracks’ on the ground,” Wiersma pointed out.
Wiersma explained that ground machines used for spraying crops often cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that the $37,000 price point of the drones makes them more attractive to farmers.
He also revealed that Green Aero Tech, which is based out of Sperling, Man., has sold about 400 drones across Canada since getting into the sales business a year and a half ago.
It is now focused on selling and servicing the Agras T50 model, which was released in 2024.
Standing in front of a drone at Ag Days, North Dakota farmer Dwayne Vormestrand told the Sun he has seen drone use grow in his area.
“It’s just taking off, it feels like now,” said Vormestrand. “When you see your neighbours with drones in their fields, it’s like, OK.
“Kinda makes you feel like you’re behind the times.”
The American farmer said he’s curious about drones, but he plans to wait a few years to let the technology mature.
The primary motivation he has to buy a drone is to make life easier.
“I like it as efficiency,” said Vormestrand. “Less waste, all that stuff.”
Vormestrand said he estimates that about $7 worth of yield per acre is crushed when he drives a land tractor across his crops to spray.
Drones would offer a solution to that, as well as for spreading seeds for cover crops, he stated.
The farmer produces on roughly 8,000 acres in the Willow City area, with crops, such as barley, wheat, soybean and canola.
He said he sees the drone as a tool for specific areas that are hard to reach, but would favour a ground machine for the time being.
When asked about the performance of drones, Wiersma said the machine flies a mile round-trip, spraying chemicals such as herbicide all the while.
It returns to the user to swap the battery, refill the chemical tank and launch the next cycle.
The drone flies according to a map the user draws on a touchscreen, Wiersma said. The map defines boundaries, no-spray zones and obstacles to avoid.
“You push a button that says ‘Go,’ and it (flies) there and comes back,” he told the Sun from his booth in the Keystone Centre on Wednesday.
Wiersma also explained the machines weigh about 210 pounds when full. They fly at about 10 feet above the crops, and work best in winds of up to 20 kilometres per hour. It is common that large acreages use multiple drones.
He added the drones can also reach areas that ground equipment cannot, such as wet areas that tractors would get stuck in.
https://www.thespec.com/news/canada/drone-technology-usage-picks-up-in-ag-farming/article_cc8ec431-afa6-57c4-9119-c2d6ed0f2ea7.html
NJ mayor: Drones are likely not a matter of national security
Updated: Jan 22, 2025 / 04:23 PM CST
Michael Melham, the mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, said the mysterious drones being reported over his area are likely not a matter of national security, but adds that residents still need answers, which he hopes will be provided by President Donald Trump.
Melham has been outspoken regarding the issue since significant numbers of drones began appearing over New Jersey last year.
The state didn’t get any answers under President Biden, but President Trump reiterated his desire to get answers on his first day in office.
“I would like to find out what it is and tell the people. In fact, I’d like to do that. Could we find out what that was?” he told White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
While Melham hopes the mystery will be solved under Trump, he said it’s likely the new president has gotten the same information as the outgoing one.
“Our president-elect receives the same exact national intelligence briefing that our president does, so if it was a foreign adversary or something alien or extraterrestrial, I’m certain, as president-elect, he would have known,” Melham said.
“The fact that he doesn’t seem to have that many details … tells me that if he’s not briefed on it yet, it’s probably not a matter of national security, or certainly not an alien invasion or anything crazy like that.”
Melham said it’s “more than likely” the aircraft are “our own government or experimental drones that are up in the sky.”
In any event, Melham said residents continue to be concerned about the lack of answers.
“I do take the president at his word. I do think that we are gonna get some kind of disclosure, he said, adding that it will “come soon.”
https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/northeast/nj-drones-matter-national-security/
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5100162-mainstreaming-ufo-discourse/
UFOs and drones: How to prepare for the ultimate unknown
01/23/25 11:30 AM ET
Even if you don’t “want to believe,” it is time to prepare for it.
Throughout most of human history, those believing in UFOs were considered crackpots and never quite taken seriously.
In recent years, though, attitudes have started to change — likely due to mounting evidence of unresolved mysteries and credible voices stepping forward to share their experiences and demand answers.
With UFO hearings on Capitol Hill and the recent alarm over unexplained drone sightings in the Northeast, something has shifted in American society.
At the heart of the mainstreaming of UFOs is journalist Ralph Blumenthal, who retired from his 45-year career with the New York Times back in 2009.
When journalist Leslie Kean approached him with a lead, he jumped back into the fray to collaborate on a story that would shift the nature of UFO discourse.
A Pentagon official named Luis Elizondo was threatening to resign in frustration and go public with information regarding a secretive working group within the Pentagon that had been set up to investigate UFOs.
“At the time, the Pentagon was not officially in the UFO business,” recounts Blumenthal. “No one knew that they were studying UFOs, so it was quite a revelation.”
Blumenthal reached out to New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet about the subject and, to his surprise, got the green light to run with the story.
The result was a blockbuster, front-page story published in December 2017, specifically delving into the Pentagon’s “mysterious UFO program.”
“It was the first time a mainstream publication was really interested in UFOs, and it played a huge role in making it respectable,” says Blumenthal.
“Until then, the subject was considered fringy. We did follow-up stories on pilots who had experience with UFOs, stories on near misses and even touched on the recovery of crashed UFOs and the materials that have been recovered.”
Eventually, UFOs were renamed UAPs — unidentified anomalous phenomena — since the sightings weren’t just airborne but coming from the ocean as well.
A blizzard of government working groups boasting an alphabet soup of acronyms like AARO (All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office) has come to light since then and it is now apparent that, despite decades of denials, the U.S. government has been studying the phenomena for years.
Blumenthal points out that “all the important information is classified, so there was only so far we could go with our reporting.”
Despite the seismic shift in attitude, so much remains beyond our understanding.
With the government acknowledging that there are crafts in the skies and emerging from the seas that they don’t understand — and can’t credibly attribute to human technology — it’s time for both the public and private sectors to take steps in preparing for scenarios that could potentially disrupt daily life.
Here is where we step in: in the corporate security world, we advise clients on what is referred to as business continuity planning.
The idea is simple: help businesses prepare for low-likelihood but high-impact events like terrorist attacks or natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes.
We develop plans on how to continue to operate in the face of hugely disruptive events that might otherwise cripple or even destroy operations.
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Given the stronger evidence suggesting we may not be alone in the universe — and could even be visited by extraterrestrials — it seems prudent for key sectors of society to consider planning for such possibilities.
The recent drone mystery over New Jersey is a good example. So far, there has been no credible explanation for the sightings witnessed over the East Coast.
The government’s failure to communicate effectively has fueled rumors and speculation to fill the void. It’s not hard to envision a scenario where panic reaches a critical, and dangerous, mass.
The government should have a clear communication plan in effect in cases of this sort.
Police forces should be given accurate information pertaining to the objects seen in the sky: Are they part of regular air traffic or some kind of government test?
Stonewalling both the public and essential agencies could create hysteria and panic, leading to a plethora of dangerous repercussions.
America’s well-armed populace should probably be receiving instructions to not fire at objects in the sky (it would be great to avoid an intergalactic war).
In light of the possibility of electronic communication breaking down in some sort of anomalous event, police officials should have ways to communicate with the population at large through different means.
In short: If the government is taking this seriously enough to carefully study the issue, those responsible for public safety should have some basic plans in place to keep order — at least better than what we have seen happen in New Jersey in recent months.
Businesses should be planning as well. Sure, the mere thought of an enormous alien craft hovering over a major American city, or even descending and making contact with us, overshadows the needs of businesses — but we have no idea how such contact would play out.
Chief security officers, many of whom manage private aircraft, report being asked questions about this subject and admit that they have no answers.
The aviation community specifically has been at the heart of the matter for years now, with commercial, civilian and military pilots reporting on encounters with unexplainable objects.
Yet there has been a history of discouraging the reporting of UAPs, never mind working on actual emergency plans.
Establishing simple protocols related to safety and communications isn’t impossible and would make a lot of sense.
There is so much that we don’t know about UAPs — but we also know so much more than we did a decade ago.
Why not make use of that information and establish basic plans to keep everyone safe and informed?
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‘Age of Disclosure’ UFO Documentary Trailer Touts “Biggest Discovery in Human History”
January 22, 2025 1:02pm
An upcoming documentary about the UFO/UAP phenomenon promises to be the most well-sourced and credible film every made about the buzzy topic and its first trailer has just been released (below).
The Age of the Disclosure, by filmmaker Dan Farah, features on-record interviews with 34 current and former senior members of the U.S. government, military and intelligence community with direct knowledge of unidentified aerial phenomena.
The film contends there has been an 80-year cover-up of the existence of non-human intelligent life and a secret war among major nations to reverse engineer UFO technology.
As announced earlier Wednesday, The Age of the Disclosure has earned first-time director Farah a coveted premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival, where it will screen at the historic Paramount Theatre in March.
Some of the officials interviewed include newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio (who says in the trailer that, when it comes to this subject, “even presidents are operating on a need-to-know basis”), New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds and General Jim Clapper (who was a U.S. director of National Intelligence under President Barack Obama).
From the official description: “The film was granted unprecedented access and support from senior members of the U.S. government, military and intelligence community.
Everyone interviewed in the film has direct knowledge of UAP as a result of their work for the U.S. Government.
The film exposes the profound impact the situation has on the future of humanity, while providing a look behind the scenes with those at the forefront of the bipartisan disclosure effort.”
Jim Semivan, who spent 25 years as a senior official with the CIA, says in the trailer: “UAPs are here, they are real and they are not human.”
Adds Jay Stratton, former director of the U.S. government’s UAP task force: “The first country that cracks the code on this technology will be the leader for years to come.
This is similar to The Manhattan Project; this is the atomic weapon on steroids.”
Former Department of Defense official and longtime UAP disclosure advocate Christopher Mellon declares, “This is the biggest discovery in human history,” while former Department of Defense official and member of the government’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program Luis Elizondo says, “You have information being locked away that can change the trajectory of [our] species.”
The Age of the Disclosure was made in secret over the past two years and filmmakers are currently in talks for commercial distribution plans; Cinetic is handling domestic sales.
The film follows a surge of public interest in the subject and two bipartisan congressional hearings over the past year where former officials and whistleblowers gave testimony claiming non-human intelligent life has visited Earth and that the U.S. has been engaged in a decades-long cover-up in an effort to reverse-engineer alien technology.
Farah’s producing credits include Ready Player One, which likewise scored a SXSW Film Festival premiere at the Paramount in 2018.
The Age of Disclosure is a Farah Films production, in association with Born Ready Films. Produced and directed by Farah, executive producers are Colin Frederick, Andrew Farah and Shara Senderoff.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/age-of-disclosure-ufo-documentary-trailer-sxsw-1236114831/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35520315/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkU7ZqbADRs
Confirmation before Declas
Rep. Burchett: Aliens Are Hiding Under the Sea
Thursday, 23 January 2025 01:17 PM EST
In an interview with former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said he believes aliens are hiding under the sea.
Burchett was responding to Gaetz asking about unidentified anomalous phenomena being reported over water.
"I haven't been briefed on this, just from what I'm putting together, but we have some secret sonar," Burchett said. "But what's so crazy about it, like we're hiding it from the Chinese.
The Chinese sold us the components for it — they know what's in our sonar probably better than we do.
But when they tell me something's moving at hundreds of miles an hour underwater, and our capabilities are, I don't think we have anything that'll do 40 miles an hour, and this one was as large as a football field underwater, and this was a documented case, and I have an admiral telling me this stuff."
Burchett said he believes the aliens have been traveling light years to arrive on Earth.
"I think it's possible in the vastness of God's great universe," Burchett said. "I mean, light years, you know, the light from those stars that we see at night left there before the time of Christ.
I mean, the vastness of God's great universe is unreal."
Burchett said he is not concerned about being the victim of an alien invasion.
"I'm not worried about them harming me. I mean, with that capabilities, they would have barbecued us a long time ago," he said.
Burchett has been vocal about his belief the government is covering up aliens. In 2023, he shared his belief with Newsweek that the U.S. government has recovered a UFO craft and possible "beings."
Burchett also said U.S. officials attempted to reverse engineer the UFO craft in order to better understand the advanced alien technology.
Burchett told Newsmax in 2023, that the U.S. government has recovered UFO crafts through the years but has been reluctant to share any of the details with the public.
"We've got some of our top pilots" in the U.S. Navy and Air Force "spotting these things. I've talked to them. They're not allowed to testify in congressional hearings," said Burchett.
https://www.newsmax.com/us/aliens-ufo-uap/2025/01/23/id/1196244/