General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper
This is exciting:
American scientists have drawn up plans for a new generation of nuclear-powered drones capable of flying over remote regions of the world for months on end without refuelling.
The blueprints for the new drones, which have been developed by Sandia National Laboratories – the US government's principal nuclear research and development agency – and defence contractor Northrop Grumman, were designed to increase flying time "from days to months" while making more power available for operating equipment, according to a project summary published by Sandia.
"It's pretty terrifying prospect," said Chris Coles of Drone Wars UK, which campaigns against the increasing use of drones for both military and civilian purposes. "Drones are much less safe than other aircraft and tend to crash a lot. There is a major push by this industry to increase the use of drones and both the public and government are struggling to keep up with the implications."
"Struggling" is an understatement. "Implications" can mean
many different
things.
In January we learned that police are turning to drones for domestic surveillance. In February we learned that the Pentagon is working with the FAA to open U.S. airspace to combat drones. Last month we learned that the NSA is building the country's largest domestic spy center. We also learned this:
For more than two years, a handful of Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee have warned that the government is secretly interpreting its surveillance powers under the Patriot Act in a way that would be alarming if the public — or even others in Congress — knew about it.
On Thursday, two of those senators — Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado — went further. They said a top-secret intelligence operation that is based on that secret legal theory is not as crucial to national security as executive branch officials have maintained.
The senators, who also said that Americans would be “stunned” to know what the government thought the Patriot Act allowed it to do, made their remarks in a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. after a Justice Department official last month told a judge that disclosing anything about the program “could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”
And it's always encouraging to know that the DOJ considers the disclosure of anything about a double super secret domestic surveillance program would be really really exceptionally horribly bad for national security. As opposed to the damage done to our basic Constitutional rights by a program that Democratic senators have been warning us is stunning in its scope. Because we can trust the DOJ. This DOJ, anyway, right? Because it's our guys, as opposed to the other guys, and the other guys will never again be in power and have this stunningly invasive power at their disposal, and anyway the right and justification to spy on us depends on which party is in power to begin with. Right? Or something.
So with domestic spying ramping up to stunning levels, with drones now being used for domestic surveillance, and even the use of combat drones over domestic air space in line for approval, we now may have drones capable of staying in the air for months on end.
[UPDATE] As per Magnifico's comment, this story may have been reported late and therefore no longer accurately by The Guardian. According to Wired:
Sandia National Laboratories cooks up some of the craziest new technologies you’ll ever see—and some you’ll never see. That’s the fate of a secret method for driving unmanned aerial vehicles with nuclear power, abandoned by its creators.
The plan was outlined in a document (.pdf) acquired by the Federation of American Scientists, which outlines a study Sandia conducted. The results? A new way, potentially, of powering military drones...
But it just won't be, at least for now, and Sandia is sad about that:
So what happened? “It was disappointing to all that the political realities would not allow use of the results,” Sandia laments. The lab gave up on nuclear drones due to political pressures, perceived or otherwise. “No near-term benefit to industry or the taxpayer will be encountered as a result of these studies.”