Spycraft or Prime Drone in U.S. and Canadian Air Space?  

JEDI killed, the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) was pushed back to the 2026. Pentagon opened a competition and invited select companies “Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Oracle and Google.”   

FAA and DOD: Are the ‘objects’ foreign or domestic? Aircraft OR Amazon ‘Prime Air’ Drone? Recall their secret sites of “unmanned aircraft operations” of 12,000 test flights and “other new technologies?” NASA, your satellites not as powerful as adversaries are led to believe?

Objects taken down were found to have U.S. parts? Says Prime Air architect, “We are going to end up with unique shapes, unique vehicles.” Sure, after receiving the Federal Aviation Administration approval in 2022, Amazon Prime Air was set to launch “later this year” noting drone measurements of “6.5 feet wide and almost 4 feet tall.”

Sound familiar? Wasn’t one of the objects shot down the size of a small car?

U.S. Law Enforcement has been known to “shoot first and ask questions later.” By contrast, Lt. General Douglas Sim, II says, “We think before we shoot.”

Well Sim, here’s what Gur Kimchi, the ‘architect of Prime Air’ had to say, “‘We do what’s necessary.’ Ok, but let’s be clear Kimchi, though “Amazon’s planned domestic drone delivery service” may have been successful, its execution seems to have failed, and failed badly.

Amazon, Once Upon a Time…

In 2015, “Amazon is testing its drone delivery service at a secret site in Canada…conducting frequent experimental flights with the full blessing of the Canadian government…the test site is barely 2,000ft from the US border.” 

Funny, US. politicians warning China as to restrictive or controlled air space reminds me of when “a senior Amazon executive appeared before a US Senate subcommittee and warned that there would be consequences if federal regulators continued to act as a drag on its ambitions…” 

It gets funnier! As Senators heard the blah blah blah of a VP, “Amazon drones were buzzing in the skies just north of the border.”

Reps from national security were asked if they knew what China was after. Unable to answer a yes/no question without divulging what, leads me to think there are other works at play here.

Important to consider trajectory before reaching U.S. skies. Other than China or foreign state actor, who had the means and opportunity? U.S. companies. According to The Guardian Exclusive:

“Early experiments in Canada have focused on a range of individual drone capabilities: sensors that can detect and avoid obstacles in a drone’s path; link-loss procedures that control the aircraft…a new Amazon prototype drone will be assembled…”

But the outdoor online flea market is not the only one. Reportedly seven years ago, “The FAA has received more than 750 requests for outdoor drone testing licenses from American businesses, Amazon’s among them… granted just 48.” Of course it’s peanuts compared to Canada’s “1,672 commercial drone certificates” in 2014.

Still, the powers that be were hesitant to “throw caution to the wind.”

“The FAA has stated bluntly it does not believe that drones can be flown safely under their own autonomous control, and is insisting that humans must keep them within eyesight at all times. That is a deal-breaker for Amazon Prime Air, which could only function if drones were able to fly well beyond visual line of sight.”

Right bastards, flown far away from the safety of your Executive seats.

BUT, IT APPEARS THE FAA FOLDED. According to the Korea Times, by September of 2020, not only was Amazon approved to ‘fly delivery drones’, the FAA certified both UPS “drone airline” and “Alphabet’s drone project Wing.”

In 2015, Amazon’s vice president of global public policy, Paul Misener “believes that with such opportunities exploding beyond US borders, it is only a matter of time before the FAA is forced to accept that drones are here to stay.”

Well, that time was August 2022.  So FAA, did the FCC force your hand?  “Amazon Prime Air has received permission from the Federal Communications Commission for drone testing over the next two years…”

Sure, they may have obtained an “air carrier certification from the Federal Aviation Administration” but did they get approved for design and safety of “latest drone model?”

Suddenly, I am reminded of 9/11 and an Offensive Drone Strike ↙↘ On Any Given Sunday

…not so Amazing. The End.

Amazon, so you got approved last summer but now it looks like winter has bitch slapped you. So WTF happened? In December 2018, a CEO in the carrier business shared his prescient views with AP News.

 “Frank Appel, the CEO of DHL’s parent company, Deutsche Post AG, said “over the next couple of years” drones will remain a niche vehicle and not widely used. He said a big obstacle is battery life.” Hmm, makes China an ideal contender given its command of rare earths used in electric energy sector.

Appel points out “If you have to recharge them every other hour, then you need so many drones and you have to orchestrate that. So good luck with that.” Well, looks like the Amazon is not only not so amazing but shit out of luck.

Plus, “Appel said human couriers have another big advantage over drones: They know where customers live and which doorbell to ring. “To program that in IT is not that easy and not cheap.”  It seems Amazon had other priorities.

Yep, their timing sucked leaving workers SOL as “the layoffs come only two months after the company unveiled a redesigned drone that could fly further than its predecessor and withstand light rain.” It appears they literally saw themselves in the clouds ready for the JWCC race against Microsoft, Oracle and Google.

Layoffs have been seen across the big tech sector. Yet, “Prime Air’s  team experienced a culture clash between new executives and existing employees last year, with a 20% turnover rate, which was higher than many other parts of Amazon.”

Oh, recall the words of their VP of global public policy, “opportunities exploding beyond US”? Well, “It also closed its office in the UK last year, laying off more than 100 employees.”

In the midst of firings and Union strikes, what’s quite odd is “The team’s rigorously hands-on approach… Prime Air employees — not warehouse workers — currently pack each item for the test deliveries, and every product on its trial website needs to be curated to ensure it fits in the drone.” Jeff, don’t trust your “warehouse workers?”

Impractical and unsustainable some would say. Of course, risk management is a bitch and pricey when running restricted operations, especially when guarding against IP theft.

Public, on the other hand, may not always have the luxury of such privacy concerns. As it stands, “Federal regulators currently bar Amazon’s drones from flying over people, roads, or buildings.”

However, “Amazon expects regulators to approve the company’s request to scale back some guardrails…” requesting relaxing restrictions.  Yet, this speaks nothing of their gaining access to personal medical information as it pertains to shipping meds.

Seems the companies selected for the JWCC competition got hit hard. From “drones to Alexa AI, and even Halo,” Google, Microsoft and Amazon were hit.

Of the planned 18,000 workers sacked by Amazon, the bad news “hit certain divisions hard, including Comixology and Prime Air.” Jeff, looks like you replaced the comics with tragedy.

In an Oregon’s drone test site half were axed, a “Prime Air employee wrote in a LinkedIn post.” Hey, heard you removed post. Why, looking to join Blue Origin? If you do will you get lost or fired in space?

Looking to Join Top Player in Space?

Beaammmmmmmmmmmm me up Elon!

SpaceX has repeatedly been contracted by Space Force, NASA and DOD.

Jeff, since Blue Origin’s founding in 2000 it took 21 years to take a crew up to sub-orbital space? Really, a flight experience of a matter of minutes costing hundreds of thousands? Space tourists, seems you’re not getting a “bang for your buck” compared to a trip up Space Mountain on Land at Disney.

Contracts with NASA or DOD held back?  Reportedly flight engines have not qualified. Will layoffs push back the reported moon lander set for 2024?

Jeff, failure to launch or is it that Elon is still America’s “golden boy”?

Elon, as the Space Wars continue, I imagine you’re at the top of a very short list, and with mass layoffs in other companies, the list is getting shorter!

Amazon, did you hear that Bozo?