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Canadian Firm Gave Libyan Rebels Surveillance Drone
Joining the posted submitter club, suasfan22 writes with a bit in Wired about the use of a drone by Libyan Rebels. From the article: "The Libyan revolutionaries are more of a band of enthusiastic amateurs than experienced soldiers. But it turns out the rebels have the kind of weaponry usually possessed by advanced militaries: their very own drone. Aeryon Labs, a Canadian defense firm, revealed on Tuesday that it had quietly provided the rebel forces with a teeny, tiny surveillance drone, called the Aeryon Scout. Small enough to fit into a backpack, the three-pound, four-rotor robot gave Libyan forces eyes in the sky independent of the Predators, Fire Scout surveillance copters and manned spy planes that NATO flew overhead. Don't worry, it's not armed."
Buncha Canadian imperialists!!!
Not Armed...Yet. Given time and duct tape though?
And sufficient lift, which is probably not available.
How are ground attack missions part of a "No Fly Zone"? And where are the anti-war protestors?
Just wondering if it is okay to make all the strikes you want without the approval of congress as long as it is just with drones?
And was the Libyan government any more evil, corrupt, and dangerous than Iraq?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Like many things the movement of technology getting cheaper and easier to use will impact how things like wars unfold in the future. Pretty soon the US's dominance in drones and automated warfare will be countered by adversaries with similar means. I think it's only because the current two wars were against essentially backwards nations that the US has escaped relatively unscathed, but what happens when they start flying their own armed drones?
That's how military technology works: Somebody invented a spear, so somebody else invented a shield. Then another person made a bow. Fast forward a few thousand years and we have robot planes that blow people to kingdom come before they even see them coming.
It's inevitable that the rest of the world will get their own version of the drones eventually, so Uncle Sam's just going to have to keep building better weapons like he always does. The entire history of mankind is little more than a massive arms race.
It is a piece of equipment that has been designed to help in a military operation. Why does it matter whether it is in itself armed or whether it "just" helps armed troops in attacking the other side more efficiently? When we get tangled up to such semantic differences, we see ridiculous claims about the newest military technology saving lives or stuff like that.
...Aeryon Labs, a Canadian defense firm, revealed on Tuesday that it had quietly provided the rebel forces with a teeny, tiny surveillance drone, called the Aeryon Scout.
This means the rebel forces got some hardware, right?
Small enough to fit into a backpack, the three-pound, four-rotor robot gave Libyan forces eyes in the sky independent of the Predators...(emphasis mine)
With this, my understanding then shifts to the fact that the Libyan government forces got "eyes in the sky" with this "hardware donation".
And here's why: The Libyan forces up until a few hours ago, referred to Libyan Government forces led by Mr. Gaddafi. Right?
I am confused. Or am I getting old?
While I have no problem with supporting democracy, I'm worried if these conflict zones are becoming testing grounds for arms manufacturers. Maybe it's just me, the blunt sales pitch on the video is a little shameless.
mateys ?!?!
Read radical news here
It's good for the rebels, bad for the regime. Are we supposed to be cheerleaders? Is this story about technology or about the Libyan civil war?
Great tool by the way.
Does anybody think it's a good idea to meddle with internal conflicts of other nations?
You can't handle the truth.
It probably had an iPad to show the Lybians something scary that they havent't seen before, like a never ending Terrance and Phillip show...
Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
Yet.
Sincerely,
Wacko Serial Bomber.
Poor-sport hockey fans on the west coast notwithstanding, isn't being polite a Canadian stereotype?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
ah it's not like we'd be dumb enough to put al-queda into power because we see them as the lesser evil... wait we did? oh right I keep forgetting apparently we are all idiots.
Hand it over to a bunch of dudes that strap APC turrets to the back of pickup trucks.
I would think that if such guys can use the drone then the design is pretty good.
And where are the anti-war protestors?
Waiting for a republican administration apparently.
Yes cruise missiles are very similar to tiny helicopters...
Not really. More like a more maneuverable RPG.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
The entire history of mankind is little more than a massive arms race.
Well, there's something the human race can be proud of.
Reminds me of "Market Forces" (by Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon among others).
Kind of like venture capital firms, but competing for would-be regimes in sovereign states instead of startup businesses.
Rather plausible.
A coup in Cambodia. Guns to Guatemala. For the men and women of Shorn Associates, opportunity is calling. In the superheated global village of the near future, big money is made by finding the right little war and supporting one side against the other–in exchange for a share of the spoils.
Oh, and the "death match" road warrior duels to make Partner in a firm didn't hurt the story any. :-)
because who has a 4 foot backpack? Their are r/c heli vehicles with extreme range and cameras on the white market. Big whoop.
Lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.
ask a libyan
the point is aggression is wrong, right?
well, the aggression of the qadaffi regime against it's own people has been defeated. as someone who doesn't like aggressive warmongering, you're happy, right?
oh i see. you believe in things like the toothfairy, the easter bunny, and that people like qaddafi go away by themselves, like a popped soap bubble. and that all the criminality they do in the meantime, until they will magically pop like a soap some day, is acceptable to you? is that it?
choose:
1. oppose qadaffi, with force, in the name of the people of libya, with the people of libya. that's really all the justification you need
2. or allow him to continue to exist, thereby making you complicit with evil by your inaction
there is such a thing as a pacifist in this world, and i appreciate them. but sometimes, i imagine some pacificists would sit there serenely, while witnessing a rape or murder. because force, ANY use of force, is apparently wrong to them
when do you pick up force of arms and oppose evil at work in the world? never? then to me, you are not a pacifist, you are an inert stump. you live in an ivory tower and sneer down at us poor fools in the messiness of life, and imagine yourself superior, because you won't roll up your sleeves and get messy in important struggles as well. you've simply ceased to matter to the world, by your own choice, and therefore, you have also forfeited your right to comment, on situations you yourself have chosen not to matter to
so stand for something in this world, ready to back up with force if necessary, or follow through on your own philosophy of not mattering in this world, and fuck off and shut up
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
hmm.. when did we do that? or are you talking about something Canada did?
Give Red Green some time, he could do it, eh? Canada is funny.
Al Qaeda is bad, ergo all rebel forces are bad forever!
Great logic you got going there. Nevermind the fact that in any large movement of people whose only membership criteria is a pulse, you'll find a whole bunch of bad ones. The Republican party probably contains at least a thousand neo-Nazis. That doesn't mean that the GOP is a Nazi organization.
So why should it matter if there are some self-proclaimed Al Qaeda members among the Libyan rebels? Should we insist that they be ruled by oppressive dictators forever, lest the unsavory elements among them try to hurt us? And if so, is there any country on Earth that shouldn't be so oppressed?
Story picked up by international news agencies regarding real world use with real imagining from that use on their web site. Some marketing drone, pun intended, is in for a job promotion.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Hmmm wonder if they given the Libyans any ITAR restricted stuff... If they have and they haven't got the proper agreement in place, then they're in deep doo-doo... Canadians or not...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
For the past 14 months the S.R.R Special Reconnaissance Regiment has been in Libya assisting the Rebels, along with CIA operatives on the ground, Canadian SAS, British SAS and SBS (Special Boat Service) and French Special Forces etc.
This uprising was actually engineered well before what you have seen unfolding over the last 7 months. Covert operations saw uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia etc and being ex-forces we laughed that you cannot get the right trained soldiers anymore when 21 and 22 SAS got caught http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/mar/06/arab-and-middle-east-protests-libya (6th March 2011).
I have not been in the forces now for over 14 years and I specifically quit out of protest of illegal wars and the political motivated bullshit plundering another Countries wealth with fake propaganda.
The Rebels in Libya are highly disorganized and are volatile. Getting them to form a government will see corruption, suicide bombings and further unrest in the Middle East, but that is what world leaders want...... chaos as a means of continuing with the New World Order political machine. If you want to see what is NOT in the news just google "Iraq Today". Nothing but chaos left behind whist stealing oil.
I am sat on the fence regarding the rebels and Gaddafi. It would have just been better to have left things as they stood instead of poking our noses in where it did not belong. All you will see is Guerilla Warfare for years to come and more terrorist attacks, which will add to the New World Order political control and more anti-terrorist laws. Besides it is within the "Public's Best Interest"....... "Choke".
All cows eat grass!
Did they eat it?
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
run by a touchscreen tablet powered by Windows XP
Pretty brave of these Libyan rebels to rely on Windows in a battlefield.
Not great for traverse, but the elevation probably worked so a "Truck/StuG" cross is a lot better than nothing.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
If you count Toronto as part of Canada or not...