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newyorklily
03-22-2012, 04:52 PM
From Secrecy News http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/03/sandia_drone.html

Secret Drone Technology Barred by “Political Conditions” (http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/03/sandia_drone.html)

March 22nd, 2012 by Steven Aftergood A certain technology that could extend the mission duration and capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was favorably assessed last year by scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation. But they concluded regretfully that “current political conditions will not allow use of the results.”
The assessment was carried out to explore the feasibility of next generation UAVs. The objective was “to increase UAV sortie duration from days to months while increasing available electrical power at least two-fold,” according to a June 2011 Sandia project summary (http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/sand-uav.pdf).

And that objective could have been achieved by means of the unidentified technology, which “would have provided system performance unparalleled by other existing technologies,” the project summary said.
“As a result of this effort, UAVs were to be able to provide far more surveillance time and intelligence information while reducing the high cost of support activities. This technology was intended to create unmatched global capabilities to observe and preempt terrorist and weapon of mass destruction (WMD) activities.”

Read more here http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/03/sandia_drone.html