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Drone strikes are police work, not an act of war?
Launching an air strike in another nation would normally be considered an act of aggression. But advocates of America’s rapidly expanding unmanned drone programme don’t see it that way.
They are arguing, as Tom Ricks writes on his blog The Best Defense over at Foreign Policy, that the campaign to kill militants with missile strikes from these unmanned aircraft, is more like police action in a tough neighborhood than a military conflict.
These raids conducted by sinister-looking Predator or Reaper aircraft in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen – and since last month in Somalia – should not be seen as a challenge to states and their authority. Instead they are meant to supplement the power of governments that are Read more…
These Fake Chinese Microchips Were Made To Disarm U.S. Missiles
Image: fox o’ryan via flickr
Last year, the U.S. Navy bought 59,000 microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders that turned out to be counterfeits from China.
Wired reports the chips weren’t only low-quality fakes, they had been made with a “back-door” and could have been remotely shut down at any time.
If left undiscovered the result could have rendered useless U.S. missiles and killed the signal from aircraft that tells everyone whether it’s friend or foe.
Apparently foreign chip makers are often better at making cheap microchips and U.S. defense contractors are loathe to pass up the better deal.
The problem remains with these “trojan-horse” circuits that can be built into the chip and are almost impossible to detect — especially without the original plans to compare them to.
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) is now looking for ways to check the chips to make sure they haven’t been hacked in the production process.
Expect to see a whole lot more funding directed to this goal. Or, considering IARPA is the research and development section of the intelligence community — expect the money to be spent — don’t expect to see where.
Monster Chinese Telescope the Next ET Hunter?
In radio astronomy, the bigger the telescope, the better. And in 2016, the Chinese are expected to blow the international radio telescope competition out of the water with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST).
Construction has begun in the Guizhou Province in southern China where the world’s largest single dish radio telescope will take up residency in a natural depression in the landscape, not dissimilar to the world-famous Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. However, FAST will be bigger, faster and Read more…
An end to traditional crime dramas? New DNA technology could reveal who committed a crime in less than an HOUR
Suspects could be identified within minutes of committing a crime thanks to new technology developed by forensics experts.
The portable, high-speed equipment uses specially developed rapid profiling techniques to identify DNA from blood or tissue samples at the scene of a crime in a matter of minutes.
Currently, DNA samples have to be carefully lifted from any crime scene and transferred to a laboratory. The National DNA Database can then take several days to match a sample with a suspect.
No time for a getaway: The new technique means suspects could be identified within minutes (Posed by model)
LGC Forensics, which has developed the speeded-up technique, said it will give detectives a vital head start in their hunt for criminals.
Company managing director Dr Steve Allen told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Within 60 minutes of taking a sample it can produce a profile which can be transmitted to Read more…
War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs
A microdrone during a demo flight at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds.
The base’s indoor flight lab is called the “microaviary,” and for good reason. The drones in development here are designed to replicate the flight mechanics of moths, hawks and other inhabitants of the natural world. “We’re looking at how you hide in plain sight,” said Greg Read more…
France transfers sensitive warship technology to Russia
French-built Mistral class amphibious assault ship
© AFP/ Eric Feferberg
France has transferred to Russia all the technology it asked for under a $1.7-billion deal for two French-built Mistral class amphibious assault ships for the Russian Navy, a Russian arms exporter said on Monday.
Under the deal signed on Friday, the first warship will be delivered in 2014 and the second in 2015.
“The French side has transferred all technologies, including the Zenit-9 [command and control] system, as well as two other systems,” said Anatoly Isaikin, head of the Rosoboronexport state-controlled arms exporter.
A formal contract for the construction of the two Mistral class ships will be Read more…
IPHONE users may soon be stopped from filming at concerts — as a result of new Apple technology.
Click to enlarge
The leading computer company plans to build a system that will sense when people are trying to video live events — and turn off their cameras.
A patent application filed by Apple revealed how the technology would work.
If an iPhone were held up and used to film during a concert infra-red sensors would detect it.
These sensors would then contact the iPhone and automatically disable its camera function.
People would still be able to send text messages and make calls.
The new technology is seen as an attempt to protect the interests of event organisers and broadcasters who have exclusive rights to concerts.
The companies are often left frustrated when videos of shows appear online via websites such as YouTube which let users watch them for free.
Apple filed for the patent 18 months ago — and it is thought if successful it will help them negotiate deals with record labels to sell content through iTunes.
Iran launches home-made satellite into orbit
Iran has launched a satellite into earth orbit in a feat that is likely to raise concerns among those who fear Iran’s intentions and nuclear development program.
“Our glorious scientists successfully put Iran’s first image-collecting satellite into orbit,” the TV report said.
Iran has made a series of claims about advances in its ambitious space program in recent years, which has Western powers worried about the possibility of its military applications.
Last year, Iran announced it had successfully launched a rocket carrying a mouse, turtle and worms into space.
Iran’s space program has expressed a goal of putting a man in orbit within 10 years, despite the Read more…
Look Out Above! Russia May Target U.S. Sats With Laser Jet
Back in the early 80s, Soviet engineers began outfitting an Ilyushin-76 jet with a laser cannon. Two models of the “Falcon-Echelon” planes were flown — presumably as counterweights to U.S. efforts to construct a fleet of missile-zapping jets. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Falcon-Echelon program perished, as well.
Or so it seemed at the time. Now, there’s mounting evidence that Read more…
CBP set to deploy new surveillance aircraft
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| CBP’s MEA |
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is set to deploy the first of 30 new patrol aircraft that bristle with passive and active surveillance systems capable of supporting a variety of land and water-based operations.
The CBP’s new King Air 350, twin engine Multi-role Enforcement Aircraft (MEA) will replace an aging fleet of surveillance aircraft, providing the Department of Homeland Security with new capabilities to patrol the skies along the nation’s land and maritime borders.
The first MEA is slated for deployment to the southwest border in mid-June 2011 to undergo initial test and evaluation and to conduct missions aimed at enhancing ground tactics and enforcement coordination, said CBP in a June 10 statement.
The aircraft is built by Hawker Beechcraft Corp and modified for CBP missions by the Sierra Nevada factory in Hagerstown, MD. CBP could eventually have up to 50 MEAs patrolling the land and maritime Read more…
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