Iron Maidens,Bruce Dickinson’s rep slams ‘malicious’ drone development report
Iron Maiden rocker Bruce Dickinson has blasted an online report suggesting he is involved in a US$500 million contract to manufacture drones for the US military.
The singer was recently named in an article on news website DorsetEye.com, titled Bruce Dickinson: Rock ‘n’ Roll Warmonger, in which he was sensationally accused of investing in a company hired by US officials to develop unmanned aerial vehicles for war.
The blog editors sourced their claims from an announcement made on a South African conference speakers’ website, but on Thursday, a representative for Dickinson slammed the allegations and dismissed the story as false.
A statement released to NME.com reads: “This is a totally inaccurate and malicious piece of writing that seems to have stemmed from an unfortunate mistake in terminology on a South African website that the writer of said blog has since used as a starting point and catalyst to go off on a flight of sheer fantasy.
“Both Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden’s manager Rod Smallwood were early investors in, and remain great supporters of, Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a company that has nothing whatsoever to do with drones, ‘lighter than air’ or otherwise!
“The future implementation of HAVs is a likely global trend which has massive positive implications in many areas of life and both Bruce and Rod are proud to be involved with a British company at the cutting edge of this technology.
“As with many far-sighted technological advances, early adopters and financial supporters tend to be military-based as they have the resources to invest and develop, be that everything from space-travel to medicine… Rather than being involved in attacks in the Third World, as this writer has claimed in such an erroneously dramatic and defamatory manner, HAVs are designed to offer much needed assistance to civilians, businesses and governments that would be unavailable otherwise, due to the unique nature of these incredible vehicles.
