Autonomous Capabilities for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Conducting Radiological Response: Findings from a High-fidelity Discovery Experiment

This article presents a preliminary work domain theory and identifies autonomous vehicle, navigational, and mission capabilities and challenges for small unmanned aerial systems (SUASs) responding to a radiological disaster. Radiological events are representative of applications that involve flying at low altitudes and close proximities to structures. To more formally understand the guidance and control demands, the environment in which the SUAS has to function, and the expected missions, tasks, and strategies to respond to an incident, a discovery experiment was performed in 2013. The experiment placed a radiological source emitting at 10 times background radiation in the simulated collapse of a multistory hospital. Two SUASs, an AirRobot 100B and a Leptron Avenger, were inserted with subject matter experts into the response, providing high operational fidelity. The SUASs were expected by the responders to fly at altitudes between 0.3 and 30 m, and hover at 1.5 m from urban structures. The proximity to a building introduced a decrease in GPS satellite coverage, challenging existing vehicle autonomy. Five new navigational capabilities were identified: scan, obstacle avoidance, contour following, environment-aware return to home, andreturn to highest reading. Furthermore, the data-to-decision process could be improved with autonomous data digestion and visualization capabilities. This article is expected to contribute to a better understanding of autonomy in a SUAS, serve as a requirement document for advanced autonomy, and illustrate how discovery experimentation serves as a design tool for autonomous vehicles

Drones for Disaster Response and Relief Operations

Aerial drones are one of the most promising and powerful new technologies to improve disaster response and relief operations. Drones naturally complement traditional manned relief operations by helping to ensure that operations can be conducted safer, faster, and more efficiently. When a disaster occurs, drones may be used to provide relief workers with better situational awareness, locate survivors amidst the rubble, perform structural analysis of damaged infrastructure, deliver needed supplies and equipment, evacuate casualties, and help extinguish fires -- among many other potential applications. This report will discuss how drones and the aerial data they collect can be used before, during, and after a disaster. It includes an overview of potential solutions and deployment models, as well as, recommendations on removing regulatory barriers to their use. The American Red Cross, leading private sector companies, and federal agencies coordinated by Measure, a 32 Advisors Company, have come together to explore and explain how and why drones should be used in the wake of natural disasters and other emergencies that threaten widespread loss of life and property

Guide to Mine Action 2014

Mine action is developing at a rapid pace and the sector has evolved in recent years with a continuous improvement of methodologies, the adoption of new approaches and a broadened scope. The fifth edition of the Guide to Mine Action, published by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), addresses these developments. The publication aims to provide readers with an understanding of mine action (what it is, how it is regulated and how it has evolved over the years) as well as to describe how its components are managed in practice by the different actors in the sector. Given its descriptive and analytical parts, it is as relevant to diplomats as it is to practitioners on the ground

To Walk the Earth in Safety 21st Edition (CY2021)

The United States is committed to reducing these threats worldwide and is the leading financial supporter of CWD, providing more than $4.2 billion in assistance to more than 100 countries since 1993. This makes the United States the world’s single largest financial supporter of CWD. The Department of State, Department of Defense, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) work together with foreign governments, private companies, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to reduce excess SA/LW and conventional munitions stockpiles (including MANPADS), implement best practices for PSSM at conventional weapons storage sites, and carry out HMA programs. In 2021, PM/WRA managed$234 million* in CWD assistance programs globally. It also led the U.S. interagency MANPADS Task Force (MTF), which coordinates counter- MANPADS efforts by the Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, and other relevant stakeholders, and helps partner nations eliminate or better secure their MANPADS. In addition to these Department of State-led efforts, the Department of Defense Humanitarian Demining Training Center (HDTC) trains deminers, ammunition handlers, and stockpile managers from partner countries. The Department of Defense Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program (HD R&D) improves CWD technologies, enhancing the efficiency and safety of humanitarian demining operations around the world. USAID also assists landmine and ERW survivors, providing medical and rehabilitative care through the Leahy War Victims Fund (LWVF)

To Walk the Earth in Safety (FY2022)

After deadly landmines are removed and booby-traps and improvised explosive devices are cleared, wheat fields are now ready for harvesting, children can run to school on a path, families can return to their partially destroyed homes, and elephants are able to migrate through grasslands. Elsewhere, man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and small arms and light weapons were secured or destroyed to prevent terrorists from acquiring them and attacking civilians. These are just some of the successes the U.S. Conventional Weapons Destruction Program achieves day after day, year after year, one step at a time. In fiscal year 2022, the United States again answered the call to confront the threats of landmines, unexploded ordnance, and unsecured small arms and light weapons, to make this world a better place. The dedication of all those involved in the removal of these hazards and securing weapons must be commended and applauded every time a life is saved due to their efforts. These successes are well documented in this year’s To Walk the Earth in Safety

Robotics and the Future of International Asymmetric Warfare

In the post-Cold War world, the world's most powerful states have cooperated or avoided conflict with each other, easily defeated smaller state governments, engaged in protracted conflicts against insurgencies and resistance networks, and lost civilians to terrorist attacks. This dissertation explores various explanations for this pattern, proposing that some non-state networks adapt to major international transitions more quickly than bureaucratic states. Networks have taken advantage of the information technology revolution to enhance their capabilities, but states have begun to adjust, producing robotic systems with the potential to grant them an advantage in asymmetric warfare

Clearing the Mines 2021

As at 1 October 2021, 56 States and 3 other areas (territories that are not internationally recognised as States) were contaminated by anti-personnel mines, as listed in Table 1. Asia (including the Middle East) is the most affected continent, with 23 mine-contaminated States. Most are not party to the APMBC. Across Asia (including the Middle East), Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, Oman, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Yemen are all States Parties. China, India, Iran, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Lebanon, Myanmar, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Pakistan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Syria, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam are all States not party

Clearing the Mines 2019: A Report by Mine Action Review for the Fourth Annual Review Conference of the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention

We welcome the publication of Mine Action Review’s Clearing thhe Mines 2019 in this important year of the Oslo Review Conference, where the mine action community is taking stock of progress made and setting the agenda for the next five years. In positive developments, since last year’s report Jordan has completed clearance of the remaining mined areas that required verification and Palau has determined that it does not have any mined areas under its jurisdiction or control. It is always preferable to report good news, but the reason we came together as Advisory Board members to support this project was to ask the difficult questions, even when we don’t like the answers. This is how we improve programme performance. We believe that Mine Action Review has changed the mine action narrative since it was launched at the Third Review Conference in 2014. Many states have shown great maturity by engaging positively with the project and continue to do so, even when this means openly discussing the challenges and not just the progress. The Mine Action Review works best where it has provoked debate and discussion. In-country coalitions which bring together the national authority, implementing partners, and donors, can use the annual report to pull together towards completion, despite operators working in a sector in which competition is hardwired in national and international frameworks. Impressively, some of the closest intra and inter-sector cooperation has happened in the most challenging environments, where recent conflict has led to new contamination – and new victims

The nature of the British soldier : warrior or weapons platform a philosophical framework

This thesis is an examination of how the nature of the British soldier is constructed/imagined in contemporary British society if a spectrum of meaning is imagined that posits a warrior existing at one extreme and a weapons platform at the other. Located within a philosophical setting and indebted to Charles Taylor’s modern social imaginaries, a number of sub-questions function as the mechanism used to explore the thesis question in the six research chapters which are: 2, Identity and Narrative; 3, Being and Doing; 4, Clausewitz, Trinitarian War and New Wars; 5, Selected Societal Factors (Death, Risk, and Post-heroicand Feminised Society); 6, The Future Nature of Conflict; and 7, Future Technology. This thesis provides a basis by which to evaluate the cultural, practical, philosophical and intellectual pressures affecting how the British soldier is envisaged in the UK social imaginary. It also offers a functional framework to understand those roles British society is prepared to tolerate and validate when deploying and utilising the generic soldier. The main conclusions of the research chapters are contained in the following six propositions: 1. The identity of the warrior requires a narrative of war(fare) validated by the society with whom he/she is in relationship. The identity of the soldier does not necessarily require a narrative of war. 2. The distinction between the warrior and the soldier is best framed in the language of ‘being’ and ‘doing’. For the warrior their ‘being’ is intuited in combat; whereas the soldier requires a narrative that validates the required/expected output. 3. New wars are non-Clausewitzian. Any Western narrative will suffer narrative deflation in the soldier’s daily experience in non-Western operational settings. 4. Post-modern, risk averse, post-heroic societies will struggle to generate a nonapocalyptic narrative capable of tolerating significant casualty numbers. 5. The question of intervention in a non-Western, non-permissive operational setting will examine the depth of liberal values in Western societies. 6. Though pragmatic, the development of robotic weapons stands in contradiction to the authenticity of the warrior and robs the West of the vitality of its liberal values

Clearing the Mines 2020: A Report by Mine Action Review for the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention

Key Findings: In 2019, a global total of more than 131 square kilometers was cleared of anti-personnel mines, with more than 96% of recorded clearance occurring in States Parties to the APMBC. However, this total is a marked decrease on output in 2018 of more than 155 square kilometers, and was the lowest recorded clearance globally for more than ten years. The true total area of clearance is probably considerably greater, but data recording and reporting problems prevent accurate reporting of a higher figure, in addition to a lack of transparency by several States not party. In total, almost 164,000 emplaced anti-personnel mines were destroyed during clearance and explosive ordnance disposal operations (EOD), an increase compared to 153,800 in 2018. In addition, 39,700 anti-vehicle mines were destroyed during clearance of anti-personnel mined areas in 2019, a slight increase on the 38,500 destroyed the previous year. When considered together with the area of land cleared, this might indicate more targeted and efficient clearance was achieved in 2019. No clearance was recorded or reported for 2019 in eight States Parties: Cameroon, Cyprus, DR Congo, Eritrea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, and Senegal. A small amount of mined area was, however, cancelled through non-technical survey in Cyprus and reduced though technical survey in Senegal. Some clearance, including in spot tasks, may also have occurred but which was not reported. No State Party fulfilled its APMBC Article 5 obligation to survey and clear all mined areas containing anti-personnel mines in 2019, but Chile declared completion in February 2020. Since entry into force of the APMBC in 1999, 33 States (all States Parties to the APMBC, except for Nepal) and 1 other area (Taiwan) have completed mine clearance.1 Mauritania was on this achievement list last year but has since reported newly discovered mined areas under its jurisdiction or control and is seeking a new extension to its Article 5 deadline. As at 1 October 2020, 57 States and 3 other areas were confirmed or suspected to have anti-personnel mines in mined areas under their jurisdiction or control,2 an overall increase of one State on the previous year. While Chile was removed from list, Mauritania and Mali3 were added. Of the 57 affected States, 35 are party to the APMBC. As at 1 October 2020, three of the 35 States Parties (Cameroon, Mali, and Nigeria) did not have a legal Article 5 deadline in force, but have ongoing Article 5 obligations due to new contamination from the use of anti-personnel mines of an improvised nature by non-State armed groups on areas under their jurisdiction or control. These States must therefore request an extension to their previously expired deadlines and submit Article 7 reports detailing the new contamination and clearance of anti-personnel mines of an improvised nature. In addition, Eritrea’s Article 5 deadline expires on 31 December 2020 after it was granted an interim extension at the Fourth Review conference in November 2019. However, as at 1 October 2020 Eritrea had yet to request a deadline extension