George Bush's Personal Spy Drone

[kpete]

George Bush's Personal Spy Drone
By Sharon Weinberger October 31, 2007

DARPA, the Pentagon's far-side research agency, has a plan to send a robotic surveillance drone anywhere in the world within an hour. And it is apparently intended for one particular user: The President of the United States. Space News reports on this "Rapid Eye" unmanned aerial vehicle project:

The idea is to give the U.S. president a first, quick look at the scene, DARPA Director Tony Tether said, following his talk at the Geoint 2007 Symposium in San Antonio.



"We got this idea from NASA," Tether said.

Engineers from NASA's Ames Research Center in California and Langley Research Center in Virginia, who are working on competing concepts for "planetary aircraft," began speaking with DARPA officials earlier this year about adapting some of their concepts for needs on Earth.

The concept of using rockets to deploy sensors as rapidly as possible to any hot spot throughout the world also is a goal of the U.S. Air Force's Operationally Responsive Space initiative.

"We didn't have that in mind," Tether said, noting that DARPA's concept for Rapid Eye is to support "the president." Nevertheless, the same concept could be used to support military personnel in the field, Tether said.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/the-presidents-.html