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Shenzhen-based DJI is already the world’s largest commercial drone maker.

http://www.dji.com/

Drone giant DJI launches crop-spraying drone

Billion-dollar drone company DJI is expanding from consumer and camera drones into the agriculture industry.

The Chinese firm's latest model is a crop-spraying drone, which it claims is "40 times more efficient" than manual spraying, despite having just 12 minutes of flight time.
It will be released in China and Korea where hand-spraying is more common.

DJI made $500m (£332m) in drone sales in 2014 and some analysts predict the firm will hit $1bn in sales this year.

The Agras MG-1 has eight rotors and can carry up to 10kg of crop-spraying fluids per flight.

The foldable device is also dustproof, water-resistant and made of anti-corrosive materials, the firm says on its website (in Chinese).

Farmers around the world have used drones for some time but generally for monitoring their crops and livestock.

Huge farms use aircraft for crop-dusting but they can be very expensive.

"With this new product, we've shown that DJI can not only offer the ultimate aerial experience for the mass consumer, but also improve the efficiency of production and benefit so many others in all walks of life," said DJI chief executive and founder Frank Wang.

The Wall Street Journal reports it is expected to be priced at around $15,000 (£10,000).

DJI's current best seller, the Phantom 2 Vision+ camera drone, costs around $1100.

Source: BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34944136

US drone whistleblowers have their bank accounts frozen

Source: Hang The Bankers

http://www.hangthebankers.com/us-drone- ... -accounts/

The Navy’s $864 million underwater drone still doesn’t work…

Source: Bloomberg

http://thecrux.com/meet-the-u-s-governm ... oondoggle/

Tokyo Police Launch Drone Designed To Take Down Other Drones

Source: NPR

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... her-drones

$700 Million Mine-Hunting Drone Can’t Find Explosives: Report

By Jack Phillips

Source: Epoch Times

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1918780 ... campaign=4

Drone imports to U.S. are skyrocketing…

by David Yanofski

Source: QZ.com

http://thecrux.com/chart-of-the-day-dro ... rocketing/

How drones are turning everyday citizens into superheroes

By Danielle Muoio

Source: Business Insider

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/drone ... 57598.html

Inside a military drone market
http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/201 ... g-orig.cnn

Pentagon mulls future use of drones to assist manned aircraft

BY IDREES ALI

The Pentagon is examining how it might use unmanned craft in the future to accompany piloted battlecraft, likely starting with drones that would fly alongside manned aircraft, a senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday.

The concept of such assistance was most likely to take shape first in the air and at sea, before being implemented on the ground, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work told a gathering of defense experts hosted by the Washington Post.

Large defense contractors are always looking for insight into where the U.S. Defense Department may be heading in its future technology use.

Apart from unmanned attack drones that already launch strikes while being commanded from afar, Work mentioned that unmanned helicopters have been used to supply U.S. troops in parts of Afghanistan.

Work stressed that the United States would maintain human command over its unmanned systems and would not delegate the authority to kill, although he said he was concerned that other countries might not do the same.

"There's two things that really keep me up at night .. .The first is adversaries who will give machines lethal authority and how will we respond to that," Work said.

Source: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-p ... y%20Report