Massive U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan; $3B in Patriots

(Wired: Danger Room) - The U.S. is moving ahead with a sale of six billion dollars’ worth of weapons to Taiwan — including 330 Patriot interceptor missiles.

The anti-missiles and associated gear account more than $3.1 billion of the approximately $6 billion arms package, announced by the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Also included are 30 Apache helicopters, 34 sub-launched Harpoon missiles, fighter jet spare parts, and 182 Javelin guided missile rounds.

The U.S. has long been concerned that China is building up new fleets of ships, submarines, fighter jets, ballistic and cruise missiles in preparation for an attack on Taiwan. “Consistent with a near-term focus on preparing for offensive Taiwan Strait contingencies, China deploys its most advanced systems to the military regions directly opposite Taiwan,” a recent Pentagon report noted.

READ MORE HERE

Never Mind the Bailout, Pentagon Wants Mega Cash

(Wired: Danger Room) - Last week, a key Congressman predicted that the mega-expensive Wall Street bailout would naturally force the government to cut back defense spending.

Well, not if the Pentagon has anything to do with it.

The Defense Department “wants an increase of$57 billion in fiscal 2010, about 13.5 percent more than this
year’s budget of $514.3 billion,” according to Bloomberg News.

READ MORE HERE

Did the U.S. Prep Georgia for War with Russia?

(Wired: Danger Room) - Georgia and Russia are careening towards war. And the U.S. isn't exactly a detached observer in the fight. The American military has been training and equipping Georgian troops for years.

The news thus far: Georgia, which has been locked in a drone war over the separatist enclave of Abkhazia, has launched an offensive to reclaim another breakaway territory, South Ossetia. Latest reports indicate that Georgian forces are laying siege to Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. And Russia, which has backed the separatists, is sending in the tanks.

So why should we care? Oh, just the prospect of a larger regional war that could drag in Russia – and involve the United States as well. Since early 2002, the U.S. government has given a healthy amount of military aid to Georgia. When I last visited South Ossetia, Georgian troops manned a checkpoint outside Tskhinvali -- decked out in surplus U.S. Army uniforms and new body armor.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, Nathan Hodge, August 8, 2008 ]

Navy Preps New EMP Blaster

(Wired: Danger Room) - Every corner of the military community has its own boogeyman. Some lock in on bioterrorists; others, crybercriminals, or the growing Chinese Navy. For nearly ten years, a collection of Congresscritters and missilemen have fixated on the possibility that some madman might detonate a nuclear in the skies -- triggering a king-sized electromagnetic pulse that would instantly fry all of America's electronics. The country would be instantly returned back to the mid-20th Century. Or worse.

The other day, driving through Alaska, I heard one of these types on talk radio, warning that Iran was thisclose to be able to bring America on her knees with such a weapon. Previous predictions to the same haven't exactly panned out -- and have often been based on fishy evidence. But Iran has made strides in missile and nuke technology, this fellow argued. And besides, remember what EMPs did in the Matrix trilogy?

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, Noah Shachtman, August 8, 2008 ]

Army Deploys All-In-One Nonlethal Warfare Kit

(Wired: Danger Room) - The U.S. Army is deploying an all-in-one package of nonlethal devices that covers everything from checkpoint control to riot control. "The first of the Brigade Non-Lethal Capability Sets (NLCS) is now fielded to the Army's 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team," reports Defense Daily, an industry newsletter (sorry, subscription only).

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, Sharon Weinberger, August 8, 2008 ]

Canadian military acquiring new helicopters, drones

(CBC.ca) - The Canadian military confirmed plans Thursday to bolster its troops by purchasing and leasing new helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.

“Our government is determined to give the Canadian Forces the tools that they need to do the important work that we ask of them,” Defence Minister Peter MacKay said, speaking to reporters in the Montreal-area city of Longueuil.

MacKay said the new acquisitions will be made over time, with some equipment available to troops immediately, while other resources will arrive several years from now.

The equipment will be used in Afghanistan and other overseas missions, MacKay said. It will also be used at home, to protect the sovereignty of Canada’s High Arctic and patrol coastal areas.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 7, 2008 ]

Assault Ship Sets Sail, Packed with Doctors

(Wired: Danger Room) - Her job, originally, was to deliver 2,000 Marines and their gear to war. Now, instead of hauling grunts and Harrier jump jets and Cobra attack choppers, the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge is loaded with 550 humanitarian workers including Navy and Air Force construction workers; military doctors and dentists from the U.S., The Netherlands and Brazil; civilian plastic surgeons; and even a couple of historians. Kearsarge left Norfolk, Virginia, on Thursday Wednesday for a four-month Central and South American cruise, calling at six countries, including Nicaragua, to deliver free medical care and economic assistance. The 41,000-ton, 844 foot-long, and 106 foot-wide Kearsage is one of two East Coast-based assault ships pioneering a new naval strategy. The idea, says Commodore Frank Ponds, is “influencing generations to come.”

“This is not a new mission for the Navy,” contends Kearsarge skipper Captain Walter Towns. He says the Navy has always had a humanitarian bent.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, David Axe, WarisBoring.com, August 7, 2008 ]

Patrol frigate to escort aid ships in Somalia

(CBC.ca) - A Canadian naval frigate will provide protection from pirate attacks for ships carrying food and other supplies through the waters off Somalia.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the federal government is sending HMCS Ville de Quebec at the request of the UN World Food Program.

“Food supplies are urgently needed in Somalia but deteriorating security has made delivery difficult by land and sea,” MacKay said in a release.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 6, 2008 ]

Air Force Special Ops Getting ‘Light’ Gunship

(Wired: Danger Room) - The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to buy a small gunship for Air Force Special Operations Command, according to a budget document provided to DANGER ROOM. In a mid-year reshuffling of money, the Pentagon is providing $32 million to buy a C-27J as a prototype for the AC-XX, the next generation gunship designed to replace the AC-130. The smaller C-27J will server as a "light gunship" allowing the military to "operate in austere conditions," such as in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

[ Image: U.S. Air Force ]

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, Sharon Weinberger, sharonweinberger@hotmail.com ]

Why is Google Earth Hiding Dick Cheney’s House?

(Wired: Danger Room) - What the heck is so special about Dick Cheney's official residence that Google feels the need to obscure it? Oh, must the be that secret bunker allegedly built underneath it. But if that's indeed the case, why then is the vice president's home at the Naval Observatory crystal clear on Yahoo Maps?

In an article this month for Discover, I looked at how widely available commercial imagery has affected national security. While governments typically can't force companies to restrict imagery, it's certainly possible for them to coerce or persuade services like Google Earth from posting sensitive images. There have been a number of articles, for example, hinting that Google is trying to avoid stepping on the toes of China's government, which is concerned about sensitive images of its military installations available on Google Earth. But even in the United States, Google may be looking to avoid conflicts with the Pentagon. Google has a growing federal business, including contracts with the Defense Department, and antagonizing your customer is never a good idea.

Earlier this year, Google responded to concerns about personal privacy by obscuring faces of people caught by its Street View cameras, but the only time I know of that Google has publicly admitted to removing imagery at the request of the U.S. government is the case of Fort Sam Houston in Texas. That was reasonably straightforward: camera teams for Google Street View were mistakenly let onto to base and allowed to take panoramic images of the installation (one military official I interviewed called the Street View images the best pre-operational surveillance tool he had ever seen). There have also been reports that Google Earth obscured images of bases in Iraq.

So, how common is it that Google Earth obscures images based on security issues? If you find sensitive areas that Google Earth (or other online services) that seem to have obscured or blocked, leave a comment below or e-mail me at sharonweinberger[at]gmail.com.

[ Image: U.S. Government ]

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, Sharon Weinberger, sharonweinberger@hotmail.com ]

The Microwave Scream Inside Your Skull

(Wired Danger Room) The U.S. military bankrolled early development of a non-lethal microwave weapon that creates sound inside your head. But in the end, the gadget may be just as likely to wind up in shopping malls as on battlefields, as I report in New Scientist.

The project is known as MEDUSA – a contrived acronym for Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio. And it should not be confused with the Long Range Acoustic Device and similar gadgets which simply project sound. This one uses the so-called "microwave auditory effect": a beam of microwaves is turned into sound by the interaction with your head. Nobody else can hear it unless they are in the beam as well.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired Magazine Blog, David Hambling, d_hambling@hotmail.com ]

Exclusive: Ex-Congressman at Center of Arms Deals Between Russia, Libya, Iraqi Army

(Wired Magazine Blog) - Former congressman Curt Weldon is helping broker deals between Russian and Ukranian weapons suppliers and the Iraqi and Libyan governments as part of his new job with a private American defense consulting firm, Wired.com has learned.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired Magazine Blog, Sharon Weinberger, sharonweinberger@hotmail.com ]

Is This the Man With a Plan for Gitmo?

Everyone from McCain to Obama to the Supreme Court says we should close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But no one has a plan for how to do that -- well, except for one general on the rise.

Major General Douglas Stone just returned from a year as Commanding General of Task Force 134, Detainee Operations. Which means he was in charge of the prisoners held by American forces in Iraq.  As I set out in my Financial Times piece this weekend, Stone claims some enormous successes there, including increased detention conditions, better (but not perfect) due process, and much-reduced recidivism rates. 

READ MORE HERE

Air Force Purge Stemmed From Future War Fights

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the Air Force's military and civilian chiefs earlier this month, he insisted that the decision was "based entirely" on the service's mishandling of nuclear weapons. Michael Wynne, the ousted Air Force Secretary, would beg to differ.

READ MORE HERE

Federal government quietly releases $490B military plan

The Conservative government has quietly released the details of its extensive plan to beef up the military, including spending $490 billion over the next 20 years to ensure Canadian soldiers are well-equipped, well-trained and highly active.

Details of the plan, known as Canada First Defence Strategy, were posted Thursday night without fanfare on the Department of National Defence’s website.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca ]

Secret Pentagon Funding Near All-Time High

The latest Pentagon budget request contains a near record high level of money for classified, or "black" programs, reports the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.  Fiscal year 2009 includes a whopping $34 billion to fund classified weapons purchases and development, though it is not the highest level ever.

"The FY 2007 level is higher than the FY 2009 request primarily because it includes war-related funding, while the FY 2009 figure does not," notes the report, which is updated annually by Steven Kosiak. "It is likely that once war-related funding is included, the FY 2009 total will surpass the FY 2007 level—making it the highest total for classified acquisition programs since FY 1987 in real terms."

READ MORE HERE

Iran Attack ‘Rehearsal’ in Israeli War Game

More than 100 fighter jets. A fleet of rescue copters. Refueling tankers flying more than 900 miles, the distance from  Israel to Iran’s atomic plant at Natanz. 

"Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities," the New York Times is reporting. And the giant spectacle was designed to send a message: "that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter."

READ MORE HERE

Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater is Still in Charge, Deadly, Above the Law and Out of Control

Think Blackwater’s days are numbered? Think again. Jeremy Scahill explains why its slaughter of Iraqis has not stopped the notorious mercenary firm.

On June 3, Jeremy Scahill’s bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army was released in fully revised and updated paperback form. The new edition includes reporting on the now-famous Nisour Square massacre on Sept. 16 of last year, in which Blackwater mercenaries opened fire in a Baghdad neighborhood, brutally murdering 17 Iraqi civilians. The killing spree, which the U.S. Army would label a “criminal event,” would reveal the extent of the lawlessnewss enjoyed by private contractors abroad and the lengths the Bush administration will go to protect its private army of choice.

Antonia Juhasz caught up with Scahill on the phone the day the new edition was released. A fellow at Oil Change International and author of The Bush Agenda, Juhasz is also the author of the forthcoming book The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry, and What We Must Do to Stop It. Juhasz and Scahill discussed, among other topics, the story behind Blackwater, congressional inaction, radical privatization, Barack Obama, corporate vs. independent media, GI resistance in the age of private mercenaries, getting real about challenging corporations and the power of dissent.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Alternet.org ]

Roomba Maker Will Build Blob ‘Bots

iRobot, maker of Packbot and the Roomba vacuum cleaner, has announced that it was awarded a contract by the far-out thinkers at the Pentagon to build a robot that can slither under doors and through other small openings.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard will work with iRobot on the ambitious Chembots project, which is run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

"During military operations it can be important to gain covert access to denied or hostile space. Unmanned platforms such as mechanical robots are of limited effectiveness if the only available points of entry are small openings,” Mitchell Zakin, the Darpa program manager says. “We believe that a new class of soft, flexible, meso-scale mobile objects that can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than their dimensions to perform various tasks will be quite valuable in many missions.”

While definitely on the rather far-out side, Darpa points to a number of examples from nature: "Many soft creatures, including mice, octopi, and insects, readily traverse openings barely larger than their largest "hard" component, via a variety of reversible mechanism."

Video: iPhone Controls Robot Plane Squad

Since 2004, a team of professors and students from the University of California, Berkeley has searched for ways to let a single human supervise a team of robot planes. Now, this Center for Collaborative Control of Unmanned Vehicles has a new device for ordering around its drones: an iPhone.

In a video taken from this month's Teaching & Technology conference, the Berkeley crew uses an iPhone to pick tasks for its drone squadron, input a set of coordinates for a local reconnaissance mission, and send the planes new orders while the aircraft are in the sky.

But don't tell Steve Jobs how the Berkeley folks are using his gadget. According to the terms of the Apple Software Developer Kit agreement, "applications may not be designed or marketed for real-time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes."

(Fly high: DIY Drones, The DEW Line)

Pentagon Wants Kill Switch for Planes

The Pentagon’s non-lethal weapons division is looking for technologies that could “disable” aircraft, before they can take off from a runway — or block the planes from flying over a given city of stretch of land.

In a request for proposals, issued earlier this week, the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate announced that it would like arms-makers to come up with a way to “safely divert an aircraft in the air or stop and/or disable an aircraft on the ground.” And no, shooting the thing with a missile doesn’t count. The Directorate wants “reversible effects which allow the targeted aircraft to be quickly returned to an operational condition with minimal time to repair.”

READ MORE HERE

Super Gun Maker Scores Navy Contract

Metal Storm, the plucky little Australian company that rose to fame on its “million-rounds-a-minute” gun, has won a contract worth nearly $1 million from the U.S. Office of Naval Research. The money is for the company to continue development of its 12-gauge, Multi-shot Grenade Launcher, one of a number of weapons the company is developing with its unique stacked projectile technology.

Good news? Yes. Enough to keep the company, which has been around now for over a decade now, afloat? Unclear. A million dollars is chump change in terms of weapons development, but for investors, it may signal confidence in (and hope for ) the company’s technology, which has yet to find a military customer. Is that confidence warranted? Well…..

Metal Storm has both its detractors and defenders, but I have yet to see any sane argument for how the company will start making significant sales to a major military customer.

[Image: Metal Storm]

 

U.S. Military Gets Newest Kill-Bot

The U.S. military’s small, but growing, arsenal of armed robots has a new addition. Bot-maker Foster-Miller has shipped the first of its new killer machines to the Defense Department’s Combatting Terrorism Technology Support Office. 

READ MORE HERE

Researchers Build Electrostatic, Wall-Crawling ‘Bots

Adhesives, man-made tornados, or plain ol’ dexterity and balance — researchers have come up with all sorts of ways for robots crawl up walls and tall buildings. Now SRI International, which has long been a leader in robotics, has developed ‘bots that scale and stick to walls using electrostatic charges. Computerworld reports: READ MORE HERE