Israeli warplanes on Thursday shot down over the Mediterranean a drone controlled by the Gaza Strip's Islamist rulers Hamas, the army said.

"An (Israeli) fighter aircraft shot down a Hamas-owned unmanned aircraft flown from the Gaza Strip to the Mediterranean," an army spokeswoman said.

The drone fell into the sea without entering Israeli territory, she added.

"The Israeli army will not allow any violation of our airspace and will act firmly against any attempt of this kind," she added.

Hamas, with which Israel has fought three wars since 2008, did not immediately comment.

In December, Hamas accused Israel of the murder Mohamed Zaouari in Tunisia.

He was an aeronautical engineer described as a specialist in the development of drones who Hamas said had been working for them for 10 years.

U.S. Navy's wingman drone technology used in combat trials
Washington (UPI) Feb 23, 2017 - U.S. Navy research teams recently completed combat trials with the branch's Tactical Battle Manager system using unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Tactical Battle Manager system, or TBM, is a software platform designed to coordinate combat missions using "wingman" UAVs to assist manned and unmanned teams in combat. Researchers tested the system in a simulated beyond-visual-range combat scenario.

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory collaborated with the Naval Air Systems Command, the Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence and the Air Force Research Laboratory for the trials.

During the tests, operators controlled a lead air vehicle and communicated with autonomous agents controlled by the TBM.

"The main idea here is if the UAV/wingman is left to its own devices, it has the ability to recognize when or how to change its goal or objective as the mission scenario unfolds," NCARAI head Dr. David W. Aha said in a press release.

"While some systems allow users to insert new goals or pre-program the selection of new goals, goal reasoning agents can dynamically select new goals to pursue that are not pre-programmed."

Researchers integrated the TBM with the Air Force's Analytical Framework for Simulation, Integration and Modeling system, or AFSIM, in addition to NAVAIR's Next Generation Threat System, or NGTS. The devices are designed to simulate air, land and surface platforms for virtual training and testing purposes.

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Milrem displays THeMIS modular unmanned ground vehicle
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UPI) Feb 22, 2017
Estonian defense company Milrem plans to market its modular unmanned ground vehicle in the Middle East and North Africa. The THeMIS vehicle, in three different configurations, has been on display at the 2017 IDEX exhibition in the United Arab Emirates. The first configuration features a SARP remote weapon station from IGG Aselsan Systems. The second THeMIS is configured as a tran ... read more

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