Sramana Majumdar

"Violence, Identity and Self-determination: Narratives of conflict from the Kashmir Valley" 4:15 PM, Monday 18 Nov Room 239, BYC Bryn Mawr College

Exposure Index

Tired of paper and pencil questionnaires about integration and intergroup contact? Try the new and improved EXPOSURE INDEX (click tab above on this page).

Ukraine Resurrects Soviet-Era Super Drones

While drones may be exploding onto the world consciousness at the present time, the idea is surprisingly old, with autonomous torpedos, mobile anti-tank mines, and also these jet-powered surveillance drones from the 1970s. Unable to land properly, the Tu-141 carries a parachute system instead. It does, however, manage to have a top speed more than […]

Drone Battle Over Syria

Both Assad’s forces and the rebels have been using small, often commercial, drones for battlefield intelligence. Even in a war torn and now heavily isolated country, innovation continues.

Which drone future will Americans choose?

This commentary attempts to look at drones in the context of nuclear proliferation. While drones certainly are more focused than a nuclear bomb, they are also far cheaper to obtain. While the fears stated may be exaggerated, privacy and proliferation will continue to be major concerns. The Asch Center also agrees with the author that […]

Chinese Stealth Drone Makes First Flight

China has been working towards this project since at least 2006, when the ‘Dark Sword’ project became public knowledge. The ‘Sharp Sword’ drone mentioned in this article appears designed as a mid- to long-range unmanned stealth bomber. Unlike the U.S. Reapers and Predators, the Sharp Sword is clearly designed for symmetric conflict.

European Defense Firms’ Drone Push Remains Elusive

Despite interest, the United States and Israel remain the dominant manufacturers of drones. Some of Europe’s problems seem to originate from bad management – see the part about their being more requested variants of a drone than countries offering to buy it. Others come down to bad PR management – namely Germany’s EuroDrone project, killed […]

Israeli drone strike kills suspected Islamic militants in Egypt

Egypt denied any cooperation with Israel on the strike, and even denied that a strike had taken place. This conflict between a government desiring drone strikes and a populace that sees them as signs of western imperialism and civilian casualties is familiar from Pakistan.

India: Army ‘mistook planets for spy drones’

A tense border and a paranoid view of Chinese military developments conspired to produce this absurdity.

RAF Waddington drones protesters face trial

An interesting facet of this case is that the RAF base did not launch drones – it merely held the facilities that remotely controlled them. This part of the war can be managed from thousands of miles away. Distinctions between deployed abroad and at home may well be blurring.

Age of drones: Israeli Air Force now flying more unmanned than manned sorties

While Israel may be the first to reach this level of drone saturation, it is unlikely to be the last.

2010 German Drone Accident Video Revealed

Originally published in German tabloid Bild here.

Posted in English at UAS Vision.

March 2010: one of Germany’s three Israeli-leased Heron drones crashed into another airplane on the ground of an airport in Afghanistan. Accident was clearly operator error, but comes shortly after anger over another until-recently classified accident and related cancellation of the EuroHawk […]