Clarion Drone Academy

DroneShield Ltd’s (ASX:DRO or DRO.AU) (“DroneShield”), a pioneer and global leader in the C-UAS sector, and Squarehead, a Norwegian-based acoustic array technology company, have entered into a partnership in the C-UAS space.
 
Going forward, DroneShield will be offering an integrated system for C-UAS detection and mitigation, with DroneShield’s radiofrequency, radar and camera-based UAS detection and electronic warfare UAS defeat products integrated with Squarehead’s Discovair G2^TM direction-finding acoustic system, within DroneSentry-C2^TM airspace awareness, command-and-control and reporting software. This product integration of the two companies’ offerings has been completed, and the combined solution is available to customers at present. The combined system is presently undergoing test evaluation schedule with the U.S. Department of Defense.
 
Squarehead CEO Stig Nyvold said: “We are pleased to enter into the partnership with DroneShield in the rapidly emerging C-UAS space. C-UAS security and airspace awareness is becoming an increasing problem for  wide range of military and civilian customers, and we expect our capability to detect any drone in the near field to provide a great added layer in DroneShield’s solution.”
 
Oleg Vornik, DroneShield’s CEO, added: “This partnership combines DroneShield best-in-class C-UAS sensors and effectors with Squarehead’s expertise in the acoustic domain. The combined system is already being evaluated by the US military, and we look forward to rolling this out globally, with an extensive schedule in front of us over next several months, including Europe and the US. ”

About DroneShield: DroneShield (ASX:DRO) is an Australian publicly listed company with its head office in Sydney and teams in the US and UK, specialising in C-UAS, Electronic Warfare, RF sensing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, sensorfusion, rapid prototyping and MIL-SPEC manufacturing. Our capabilities are used to protect military, Government, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, commercial and VIPs throughout the world. For more, please visit www.droneshield.com
 
About Squarehead: Squarehead Technology is a Norwegian, privately held company headquartered in Oslo with a subsidiary in Washington D.C. and teams in Canada, Denmark and Argentina. The company specializes in array acoustics, allowing for highly directional and long range sound capture. Acoustic detection allows the detection of all drones, even those who actively attempt to hide their presence. The technology can furthermore be applied in a wide range of defense applications and domains, as advanced AI-algorithms provide automated alerts and alarms for drones today – but ever more acoustic events in the future. For more info, please visit www.sqhead.com

Congressmen in the U.S. have rejected a House version of the National Defense Authorization Act which would ban the purchase of Chinese drone tech by U.S. federal agencies or with federal funding.

By: Miriam McNabb

The drone industry has reached a tipping point. While China took an early lead in developing, manufacturing and distributing drones, increasing security concerns are forcing the industry to reflect on it’s current path.

It’s a conversation that the world’s governments and leading enterprises are paying close attention. And, says Kevin Sartori, co-founder of Auterion and director of the board  at the Dronecode Foundation it’s a conversation not without precedent.

The story of two Chinese tech giants 

Over the years, China’s DJI has become the world’s largest maker of consumer and commercial drones, seemingly offering something for everyone, from drone hobbyists to government contractors. However, a reexamination is happening in the direction of the global drone market and of DJI, not unlike what’s occurring with sizable Chinese technology companies in other sectors.

In the United States, Congress introduced the American Drone Security Act of 2019 that bans federal departments and agencies from purchasing commercial off-the-shelf unmanned aircraft systems manufactured or assembled in countries linked to national security concerns – namely, China. With DJI controlling 75-80% of the drone market worldwide, that opens the door to a multi-billion dollar market opportunity for drone companies operating outside of those named countries. 

This story may sound familiar to those who have kept an eye on Chinese communications giant Huawei. Recently, the UK banned the use of Huawei equipment from its 5G networks. The government is giving mobile providers until 2027 to remove all existing Huawei equipment from their 5G networks while also encouraging operators to transition away from using Huawei’s broadband kit over the next two years. This ban followed sanctions imposed by the US in May of this year, citing that Huawei posed a national security threat.

Following the country’s sanction of Huawei, researchers in the US recently found DJI has been collecting personal information via an app on Google’s Android operating system, which The New York Times reported could be exploited by the Beijing government.

This security vulnerability will potentially contribute to the US’ decision to impose additional bans on the use of DJI’s drones beyond existing sanctions. Yet despite the UK’s proactive decision to ban Chinese equipment from their telecom networks, they haven’t taken similar steps for DJI. 

One reason may be that the question of drone security is not as evolved as that of secure telecommunications networks. But as we’ve seen with IoT, the smallest devices can be targets for malicious attacks and dangerous data harvesting.

Modern commercial drones are increasingly software-defined, making the security of these cyber-physical systems a key priority, especially as their cargo becomes more precious, whether it be proprietary data, critical medical supplies or human passengers, not to mention surveillance. These increasing security concerns are making governments question who and what they can trust with their most sensitive drone needs. 

If not DJI, then who?

If the UK and Europe decide to follow the US’ lead and ban the use of Chinese-made drones for government use, what other options do they have? It’s been nearly impossible for any single company to compete due to DJI’s dominant size, along with an inability to easily scale. While UK’s mobile operators have a menu of alternative telecom equipment providers to choose from, those looking to swap out their DJI drones are looking at a starkly different market.

One viable option goes against everything we’ve come to know about technology and the free market. While most drone companies are focusing on proprietary technology in order to compete, it won’t be any single company that challenges DJI’s monopoly. Rather, it will be a growing ecosystem of drone manufacturers and developers that are bringing together the fragmented industry around hardware and software standards built off of open source technology to create enterprise and government-friendly drone solutions.

Open source the prime way to build software in 2020 – allows larger drone players to build their own implementations while smaller players can outsource their systems, creating a more diverse and democrative environment for drone innovation. 

Open source drone technology is ideal for enterprise and government partners alike because the code is fully auditable, providing peace of mind in the age of ongoing data security concerns. While the US Defense Department’s drones currently run on custom, proprietary software maintained by a handful of military contractors, persistent concerns about vendor lock-in and overall security makes open source’s decentralised approach an attractive alternative.

The question now is not if the rest of the world will follow suit and drive their independence from Chinese drone manufacturers, but when. While consumers may not feel motivated to swap out their Chinese-made drones for others in the market just look at Huawei’s recent smartphone sales enterprises and governments may start to feel the pressure to find alternatives. If we are to interpret the recent Huawei bans as any indication of what’s to come, that time may come sooner than you think. 

The author is Kevin Sartori, co-founder at Auterion and director of the board at the Dronecode Foundation.

by DJI ViewPoints Team

This year stands as the worst year for wildfires on record in California and across much of the western United States. Five of the six largest fires in California history happened this year, and experts estimate more than 8.5 million acres have burned so far due to decades of forest mismanagement and a lack of prescribed burns.

Battling these blazes has become an intense concern for communities across the West. Yet even as firefighters look for new ways to contain outbreaks, a well-proven technology is still waiting for wide adoption – drones.

Drones have become an invaluable force-multiplying tool for firefighters across all phases of their work – from preventative measures, to incident management and rescue operations, to post-event surveying. Some are equipped with multispectral cameras to analyze vegetation, or LiDAR technology to generate precise 3D fuel maps that show where fires are most likely to spread. Other drones can be used to drop small flammable balls to spark controlled burns in areas that are difficult to traverse. At a working fire, drones can use thermal imaging cameras to peer through smoke to follow fire movements and save lives. And when the fire is out, drones can create high-resolution orthomosaic maps of devastated areas to document the damage, speed insurance claims and jumpstart recovery planning.

California’s most dangerous weather often comes in the fall, after an arid summer during which the landscape turns to tinder. This year, remnants of a tropical system brought storms of lightning with no rain, which helped touch off more than 700 fires across the state. All of this makes controlled burns, which reduce the amount of “fuel” available for potential future wildfires, even more important to accomplish before the next fire season starts.

riven controlled burns a regular occurrence – but those who have used drones say they want one for every fire. Laura Barrett, a fire specialist at the U.S. Forest Service who assisted in late August at the Woodward Fire in Marin County, said, “The brush here hadn’t burned in nearly 100 years. The drone is not only safer but cheaper and does work efficiently. At first, we were hesitant, but now we want a lot more.”

While change happens slowly, it happens inevitably, as seen with the embrace of other firefighting tools over time such as 747 Supertankers, which were once new. Drones currently aren’t available on California’s Firescope, a log of assets available for fire chiefs to order ahead of blazes such as helicopters, 747 Supertankers, and extra crew.

“We’ve already seen how successful drones can be, so continuing to increase drone certifications is a must,” said Durscher. “For example, during the Camp Fire, a team of drones began recording images of the devastation below in efforts to help the people who lost their homes. By the time they were done, they had collected 70,000 images over 17,000 acres resulting in 1.4 trillion pixels of data. That data is still in use and helping people rebuild today, two years later.”

As fires increase in size and complexity so too will our technological capabilities. As familiarity increases, we’ll soon see a future in which these aerial tools become the go-to in the fight against wildfires – saving homes from destruction, aiding firefighters, and saving lives.

Image Credits: AutoX

Residents of Shenzhen will see truly driverless cars on the road starting Thursday. AutoX, a four-year-old startup backed by Alibaba, MediaTek and Shanghai Motors, is deploying a fleet of 25 unmanned vehicles in downtown Shenzhen, marking the first time any autonomous driving car in China tests on public roads without safety drivers or remote operators.

The cars, meant as robotaxis, are not yet open to the public, an AutoX spokesperson told TechCrunch.

The milestone came just five months after AutoX landed a permit from California to start driverless tests, following in the footsteps of Waymo and Nuro.

It also indicates that China wants to bring its smart driving industry on par with the U.S. Cities from Shenzhen to Shanghai are competing to attract autonomous driving upstarts by clearing regulatory hurdles, touting subsidies and putting up 5G infrastructure.

As a result, each city ends up with its own poster child in the space: AutoX and Deeproute.ai in Shenzhen, Pony.ai and WeRide in Guangzhou, Momenta in Suzhou and Baidu’s Apollo fleet in Beijing, to name a few. The autonomous driving companies, in turn, work closely with traditional carmakers to make their vehicles smarter and more suitable for future transportation.

“We have obtained support from the local government. Shenzhen is making a lot of rapid progress on legislation for self-driving cars,” said the AutoX representative.

The decision to remove drivers from the front and operators from a remote center appears a bold move in one of China’s most populated cities. AutoX equips its vehicles with its proprietary vehicle control unit called XCU, which it claims has faster processing speed and more computational capability to handle the complex road scenarios in China’s cities.

“[The XCU] provides multiple layers of redundancy to handle this kind of situation,” said AutoX when asked how its vehicles will respond should the machines ever go rogue.

The company also stressed the experience it learned from “millions of miles” driven in China’s densest city centers through its 100 robotaxis in the past few years. Its rivals are also aggressively accumulating mileage to train their self-driving algorithms while banking sizable investments to fund R&D and pilot tests. AutoX itself, for instance, has raised more than $160 million to date.

Acquisition Provides Company with Comprehensive Mission Coverage within Group 1 Unmanned Systems for Defense Customers; Bolsters Position to Deliver Solutions for Commercial and Public Safety 

ARLINGTON, Va., December 2, 2020 ― FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) announced today that it has acquired Altavian, Inc., a privately-held manufacturer of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) for defense and public safety customers. Altavian’s airframes integrate multiple sensors, including FLIR thermal technology, to provide users with decision support and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability.  

Based in Gainesville, Florida and founded in 2011, Altavian designs and manufacturers Group 1 UAS solutions for long or short range operations. With both quadcopter and fixed-wing UAS designs, Altavian’s expertise includes aeronautics, avionics, and software, and its solutions are engineered around an open system architecture aligned to the needs of government and defense customers.

Altavian is one of five drone manufacturers approved by the U.S. Department of Defense under the Blue sUAS program to sell to the U.S. military and federal agencies.“Altavian’s proven engineering expertise and assets will allow us to offer customers the most comprehensive solution portfolio of any American sUAS provider,” said Roger Wells, General Manager of the Unmanned Systems and Integrated Solutions business of FLIR Systems’ Defense Technologies Segment, under which Altavian will be integrated.

“With the addition of both a low-cost, rapidly deployable quadcopter and a longer range fixed-wing UAS, FLIR is strengthening its already impressive drone lineup, including our Black Hornet^® and SkyRaider^™ platforms used extensively by militaries around the globe. We’re excited about the multiple new franchise opportunities FLIR will be able to pursue for defense, public safety, and industrial markets worldwide.”  

For more information about FLIR Systems’ existing sUAS solutions, visit: www.flir.com/defense-uas

POCKET-LINT

(Pocket-lint) - From military drones to amateur camera drones pestering celebrities, crashing into National Parks or hitting the headlines because of airports – drones are everywhere.

There's never been a better time to buy one because today's drones are extremely capable and brilliant at the basics. With the advancement of battery efficiency, navigation, obstacle avoidance and stabilisation, you don't need to pay too much to get a great experience. Top dollar still gets you the best overall drone, but the barrier for entry is significantly lower than it's ever been. 

Whatever your need, there's a drone for it. 

• Drone flying in the UK and US: All the rules and regulations explained

And that's why we're here - to run through the best drones you can buy today. 

Our pick of the best drones to buy today

DJI Mavic 2 Pro 

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• 1-inch 20MP CMOS sensor
• 31 mins maximum flight time
• 4k video 30fps, 3-axis gimbal
• Omnidirectional obstacle sensing

DJI's Mavic 2 Pro is - without doubt - its best consumer drone to date. It takes the high-end performance and camera capabilities of the bigger Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian, but puts it in a package that's foldable, still fits in your backpack and does everything you could possibly need a drone. It's fantastic. 

Image and video quality is pretty much unmatched by anything else in its price range, thanks to the use of a large 1-inch CMOS sensor, and optics designed with the help of renowned camera-maker, Hasselblad. It shoots fantastic pictures, thanks to advanced 10-bit HDR processing, as well as great 4K video. What's more, professionals can make use of DJI's Dlog-M profile to give them a raw file that's really great for colour grading and tweaking in the edit suite. 

As well as awesome image and video capabilities, the Mavic 2 Pro has all of DJI's latest innovations in obstacle avoidance and pre-programmed flight patterns. It's one of the only drones to feature obstacle sensors on every side, and has the APAS system that - instead of stopping in front of obstacles - can figure out a path through them, providing they're not completely blocking its path. 

There's a bunch of QuickShot flight modes enabling you to create stunning cinematic effects by just choosing one of the modes and selecting your subject. Depending on which mode you choose, the drone will then circle, follow or pull away from the object or person it's focussed on.  

It has few flaws. Even the 25 mins or so battery we got from a full charge is decent for a drone. It's a little expensive, but it's genuinely brilliant.  

• Mavic 2 Pro review

DJI Mavic Air

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• 3-axis stabiliser
• 3-way obstacle avoidance
• Small enough to fit in a coat pocket
• 12MP stills/4K video
• Up to 21mins flight

If you're after a really small drone with all the power and features of the bigger flagship models, look no further. The Mavic Air is that drone. It's essentially a halfway house between the tiny Spark, and the bigger Mavic 2/Mavic Pro series drones. It's small, fits in the side pocket of a backpack, but still packs some serious punch. 

When folded, it's only slightly longer than a big smartphone, sharing similar dimensions to the included remote controller that comes with most Mavic series drones. That means it can comfortably sit on your palm without any issue. 

Despite its size, it's a more than capable drone. It has three-way obstacle sensing, and can make use of many Quick Shot flying modes enabled in other drones. What's more, the camera is mounted to a tiny 3-axis stabiliser. it's also surprisingly capable of withstanding wind. 

You get 4K video at 30fps and HDR stills from the 12-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor too, so there's not much compromise in image/video quality. 

• DJI Mavic Air review

POCKET-LINT

DJI Mavic Mini

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• 30 minutes flight time
• 2.7k video, 3-axis gimbal
• GPS/VPS
• 2km range with controller

Before 2019, DJI's smallest drone was the DJI Spark, which - while being tiny - wasn't the best drone around. It had minimal stabilisation, only full HD recording and the arms were rigid. With the Mavic Mini, DJI improved virtually everything. If you're after a small, inexpensive drone without any legal red tape, this is the one. 

Like all the other Mavics, the arms are foldable, allowing you to reduce the size of the drone so that it's virtually the same in length and width as a smartphone. It folds small enough to fit in your coat pocket. It's tiny. 

You don't get any of the usual caveats that you'd normally get with a small drone either. Battery life is superb for its size, it records up to 2.7k resolution video which is super stable thanks to the three axis gimbal and it even features some of the advanced QuickShot modes from the bigger drones. 

Add to that the fact that it only weighs 249 grams, and you have a drone that's not restricted by any of the regulations and rules you need to abide by with anything even a single gram heavier. In the UK, that means you don't need to take a theory test or register it. 

If you're wanting an experience of what it's like to fly a proper, advanced drone, without the financial outlay and in a drone that's small enough to take anywhere, this is the one for you. It's brill. 

•  DJI Mavic Mini review

YUNEEC

Yuneec Mantis Q

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• Up to 33 mins flight time
• 168 x 96 x 58 mm (folded)
• 4K video capture (30fps)
• 1.5k video transmission range

From its product range and pricing strategy, it seems Yuneec is going after DJI's features, but at a lower price point. The Mantis Q feels a lot like the Mantis Air in its promise of portable, foldable design, but with high end specifications and features. 

As well as this portable design, the Yuneex Mantis Q is equipped with a camera capable of recording 4K video at 30 frames per second, and a number of smart flying features. You can get it to circle around a point of interest, return home automatically using the GPS and GLONASS navigation, as well as command it with your voice. 

You can tell it to "wake up", "come back" or "start recording" just by yelling at it, plus, the remote is simple to use, and features a cradle for your smartphone. 

DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian Edition

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• 30 mins flight time
• 7km flight range with remote
• 4K video at 60fps
• 5-directional obstacle avoidance
• 20MP 1-inch camera sensor

The Phantom 4 series was the standout drone from DJI up until the Mavic was released. In 2017, the series was grown to include several versions, but none are as impressive as the Pro Obsidian model. If you want the smoothest, most stable flight and footage, as well as the best looking image quality available without going super high-end, the Phantom 4 Pro is the drone for you. 

Perhaps the biggest advantage this has over the Mavic is the camera technology. Inside its magnesium alloy chassis, and attached to a gimbal, the camera features a mechanical shutter and a huge 1-inch sensor packed with 20 million pixels. It also has the ability to shoot 4K resolution videos at 60 frames per second. For the video nerds, you can shoot H.265 as well as the usual H.264 codec.  

Its battery is more capacious than the older Phantom 4 thanks to increased density, and can now last up to 30 minutes flight time on a single charge. 

It has a bunch of flight modes, including the Active Track feature that can track objects, and a new Draw Mode that lets you draw a path for it to follow. Of course, there are many more flight modes, and an almost endless number of settings to dig into, both for recording and flying. 

The biggest takeaway from our time with it was how effortless it seemed to fly. It was impressively stable, comfortable and performed very well. 

•  DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian review

POCKET-LINT

Parrot Anafi

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• 4K/30fps + 1080p/60fps
• Lossless zoom 
• 3-axis gimbal
• 25 mins flight time

It's not the most well-built drone around. In fact, its lightweight plastic casing makes it feel a bit cheap, but there's no denying the specifications of the Anafi are very good. 

It folds up to be really slim, similar in width to a water bottle, making it perfect for storing in the side pocket of a backpack. What's more, it has a camera built on to a 3-axis gimbal on the front that's capable of pointing upwards towards the sky. 

It can last up to 25 minutes on a single charge, and fills up quickly again using Type-C connection. It shoots 4K at 30fps, and can survive in wind speeds up to 31mph, and reaches flight speeds of 33mph. 

PARROT

Parrot Bebop 2/Bebop 2 Power

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• 25 mins flight time
• HD videos and 14MP stills
• 2km range with SkyController
• Digital stabilisation for smooth video

The Bebop 2 is the follow up to the popular Bebop, which we loved when we reviewed it at the time of its launch. The design has changed quite a lot, but the value for money has increased.

The Bebop 2 can fly over 37mph and resist winds of the same speeds, and an slow down to a stand still within four seconds. It has a Follow Me feature to track you while you're cycling, running, climbing, or whatever else you might be doing, and it uses GPS to track its position and return home again when you're done. 

Its camera can shoot in 1080p full HD resolution, and take great pictures with its wide-angle 14-megapixel lens. It can even capture in RAW and DNG image formats, giving you the ability to edit them professionally afterwards. 

At £349, it's great value for money, and you can control it with your smartphone. Or, for £499 price point you can also get the brand new Skycontroller 2 control pad and the first person view (FPV) glasses, which let you watch the live stream of the camera's video feed in real time. 

Skycontroller 2 gives you an impressive 2km range when piloting the drone, while the glasses can stream 1080p video footage right to your eyes. 

There's also the all-new Parrot Bebop 2 Power which comes with 60 minutes battery life thanks to shipping with two batteries. You can buy the Power FPV pack with VR goggles and the physical remote for just £549. 

Dromida XL

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• Dedicated auto-flip control
• 3-axis gyro and 3 accelerometers for stable flight
• 2.4GHz radio control
• 10-12 mins flight time per battery

If you're after a drone that can perform its own stunts, the Dromida XL looks like a lot of fun. Like many modern drones it can take off and land automatically at the press of a button, but its one-press feature list also includes the ability to perform a flip. It also has a front facing 1080p camera, and can fly quickly, close to the ground.  

GOOGLE IMAGES

Hubsan X4 H107D FPV

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• 6-axis gyroscope for stable flight
• Built-in screen on remote
• Up to 100m range

This more affordable drone still manages to cram a camera into its palm-sized body.

The transmitter remote has a built-in screen, allowing you to control the flight from a first-person perspective. Not that you should need it much with a limited 100m range. The camera is a 0.3-megapixel device that manages a 640 x 480 resolution video feed. This can be recorded if an SD card is inserted into the controller. While it might not be high quality, it should be clear thanks to the latest 6-axis gyro sensitivity.

The battery lasts about seven minutes, claims Hubsan, and recharges to full via USB in 30 minutes. For those that want a cheaper option, there's the Hubsan X4 V2 H107L, which doesn't have a camera but manages nine minutes on a half hour charge and costs a fraction of what you'd pay for anything else.

POCKET-LINT

Parrot Swing

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• Auto take off and landing
• Up to 19mph speed
• Rotate 90-degrees to fly forwards
• Up to 60m range

This is an affordable fun way to try out drone flying.

The Swing is a relatively unusual form factor for Parrot, and was first drone to be able to fly with its propellers faced upwards like a regular quadcopter, or turn and fly horizontally like an X-Wing fighter. It's lightweight, easy to fly, and has a camera onboard.

Although its wings are relatively large, they're made from a polystyrene/styrofoam-like material, making the aircraft very lightweight. This means that while it's not exactly sturdy, it's so light it's unlikely to get damaged from dropping to the floor. 

You can control it either by using the included gamepad-style controller, or by downloading the app on to your iPhone or Android smartphone. 

• Parrot Swing drone review

Parrot Disco

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• First person view glasses
• Up to 45mins flight time
• 1.24 mile/2km range
• Fixed wing design
• Up to 50mph

If you're looking for something entirely different, there's Parrot's fixed-wing beast, the Disco. Unlike most hobby and toy drones, the Disco is fixed wing. That means it looks more like a plane than a quadcopter.

It can fly as fast as 50mph and has a battery that'll get you up to to 45 minutes of flying time, which is pretty remarkable in the drone world. It's got a built in computer/brain called CHUCK, which helps provide its auto-piloting capabilities. Just press the start-up button, hold it until ready, then throw the drone like a frisbee, then the autopilot takes over. 

Because of its vast wingspan, it doesn't need four propellers to keep it airborne. Instead, it has one blade at the back to propel it forwards, while the wings ensure it stays in the sky. 

It has 1080p video recording which has three axis stabilisation, and 32GB of onboard storage to host all of your captured footage. What's more, you can view all this footage in real-time while flying, using the FPV glasses. 

• Parrot Disco preview

Writing by Cam Bunton.

Retailer teams up with Intel to reimagine the tradition of holiday lights

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Nov, 2020 — This year’s holiday season feels like it needs more than the standard set of lights. Instead, think drones. To help families end the year looking up, Walmart is gifting the “Walmart Holiday Drone Light Show,” an all-new magical experience that brings the joy and wonder of the holiday season to the skies of select communities across the country, and to all families through a special live-streamed event.

The “Walmart Holiday Drone Light Show” is a free and contactless experience that brings holiday songs to life like never before. Thanks to nearly 1,000 Intel drones launched into the night’s sky, the light show creates three-dimensional seasonal shapes and characters, like snowflakes, reindeer, snowmen and holiday presents, choreographed to a soundtrack of classic and modern holiday favorites, from “Frosty the Snowman” by Bing Crosby to “Run Run Rudolph” by Kelly Clarkson.

“After a particularly tough year, we want to help families end the year looking up. We want customers and communities to enjoy a moment of rest, peace and hope,” William White, chief marketing officer at Walmart, said. “From our summer movie drive-in to our fall gameday and Halloween experiences, we’ve been finding ways to help families enjoy seasonal traditions in a year when they thought it might not be possible.”Walmart Holiday Drone Light ShowPlay Video

Eight communities across the country will be able to experience the modern light show live when it flies through their town. The event promises a fun and safe family night out complete with pre-show entertainment, including music from local DJs and a short holiday special, “DreamWorks Trolls Holiday,” before the drones take flight. From Dec. 4-20, the “Walmart Holiday Drone Light Show” will visit:

• Friday, Dec. 4: Kansas City, Kansas at Kansas Speedway
• Saturday, Dec. 5: Dallas, Texas at the Cotton Bowl
• Wednesday, Dec. 9: San Antonio, Texas at Six Flags Fiesta Texas
• Thursday, Dec. 10: Doswell, Virginia at Kings Dominion
• Sunday, Dec. 13: Phoenix, Arizona at Phoenix Raceway
• Wednesday, Dec. 16: Charlotte, North Carolina at Carowinds
• Friday, Dec. 18: Sacramento, California at Sleep Train Arena
• Sunday, Dec. 20: Fayetteville, Arkansas at 112 Drive-In

Families can visit www.WalmartDroneShow.com starting on Monday, Nov. 23 at 5:00 p.m. ET to reserve free tickets to watch the show from the safety of their own car or a designated viewing area right next to their car. When confirmed, families will receive an email with a QR code, which will grant their vehicle entry on the day of the event. Tickets are available while supplies last.

The joy and wonder of the “Walmart Holiday Drone Light Show” isn’t limited to just these communities. Any family can be wowed as the drones paint the sky with holiday cheer by tuning in to a live broadcast of the light show on Walmart’s Facebook, Instagram and TikTok channels on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7:40 p.m. ET.

Intel is using its newest drone light show technology to brighten this holiday season for families across the country through the “Walmart Holiday Drone Light Show.” Blurring the boundaries between art and technology, each Intel drone serves as a pixel of light that paints the night sky with dynamic 3D animations to create a vivid and truly unforgettable story.

About Walmart
Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better — anytime and anywhere — in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, over 265 million customers and members visit approximately 11,400 stores under 55 banners in 26 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2020 revenue of $524 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at twitter.com/walmart.

Mark Watson

Head of UTM Service Integration NATS

During a recent series of trial flights, NATS has been working closely with the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) to assess how remotely piloted and unmanned aircraft can be used for search and rescue operations by HM Coastguard.

The trial flights involved several test ‘missions’ for a remotely piloted Elbit Hermes 900 aircraft, including a single 10-hour sortie where the aircraft took off from West Wales Airport (Aberporth), transited controlled airspace and performed a low-level overwatch mission in Oceanic Airspace off the south-west coast of Ireland.

An unmanned aircraft passing through controlled airspace alongside commercial manned traffic is a complex operation and close involvement was required from the team at our Swanwick air traffic control centre to plan, communicate and conduct the operation safely.

On its outbound leg, the aircraft (callsign ‘Coastguard 26’) spent around two hours in communication with Swanwick, covering 50 nautical miles through UK controlled airspace to the boundary with Irish airspace, where it was successfully transferred to Shannon Control.

Unlike many unmanned flight trials which operate in their own segregated areas, the Hermes 900 was handled by Air Traffic Controllers in the same way as other manned aircraft.  The team at Swanwick leveraged the expertise they developed in previous projects to enable the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to fly safely in controlled airspace, despite the pilot being many miles away on the ground at West Wales Airport.

The most obvious difference was the speed of the aircraft itself, compared to jet powered, manned aircraft. This presented a challenge in terms of safely integrating with aircraft flying at normal cruising speeds – rather like riding a pushbike along a motorway!  Thanks to the expertise of the team at Swanwick this issue was identified beforehand, and it was alleviated by ensuring the drone flew at the lowest available Westbound flight level (16,000ft) to allow faster jet traffic to overtake by passing safely above it.

From a NATS and ATM perspective, the flight was a complete success, with the aircraft flying its planned route within controlled airspace, remaining in communication with the team at Swanwick and safely separating from other air traffic at all times.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in all their forms are an inevitable part of our future and the demand for these aircraft is helping to drive the development of tools to assist in their safe control. This trial clearly demonstrated that integrating a UAV with manned aircraft is more than possible and should prove to be a significant milestone for the next generation of maritime operations – from search and rescue to counter-pollution patrols.

On the heels of recent U.S. government efforts to ban Chinese drones for official use, Japan this week announced a similar plan.

According to a Reuters report, several government insiders say the initiative would shut out China from selling any drones to Japanese agencies in an effort “to protect sensitive information … as part of a broad effort to bolster national security.”

“The primary concerns, those people said, centered on information technology, supply chains, cyber security and intellectual property – worries that have been rising outside Japan as well,” the report notes.

An unnamed senior government official revealed to Reuters that, while Japan is deeply dependent on China as a trade partner, “there are worries that advanced technologies and information could leak to China and could be diverted for military use.”

Currently, Japan’s defense ministry deploys several hundred drones, several of which are manufactured in China. In addition, the coast guard has 30 – mostly Chinese – drones. Both agencies tell Reuters they don’t use drones on security-related missions.

The report goes on to add:

“It’s unclear whether all would need to be replaced, but the new drones, used for sensitive work such as criminal investigation, infrastructure work and emergency rescues, would have to be secured against data leaks and go through stricter vetting procedure.”

Although neither the American nor Japanese bans specifically mentioned China, government insiders confirm the world’s largest drone exporter is the primary target.

Last month, the U.S. justice department finalized a similar measure, forbidding any agency using DOJ funds from purchasing drones from “Covered Foreign Entity,” defined as:

“Any entity that is determined or designated, within the Department of Justice, to be subject to or vulnerable to extrajudicial direction from a foreign government.”

Experts say the wording of the ban directly addresses China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which requires Chinese companies to cooperate with the government. Other regulations could require companies to provide access to their network assets upon demand.  (See a third-party explanation of China’s National Intelligence Law here.)