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Military News As part of an escalating offensive against extremist targets in Pakistan, the United States is deploying Predator aircraft equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems that were instrumental in crippling the insurgency in Iraq, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials. American officials requested that details of the new technology not be disclosed out of concern that doing so might enable militants to evade U.S. detection. But officials said the previously unacknowledged devices have become a powerful part of the American arsenal, allowing the tracking of human targets even when they are inside buildings or otherwise hidden from Predator surveillance cameras. The Predator, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems of San Diego, is 27 feet long, has a 49-foot wingspan and can hover above a target for hours. Full Story Los Angeles Times_ 9/12/08 (logon required) North Korea destroys nuclear plant cooling tower to demonstrate commitment to ending nuclear weapons program Destruction of the 60 foot cooling tower at Yongbyon, North Korea's main nuclear power plant, bore witness to the incremental progress that has been made in U.S.-led multilateral efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. But some experts in South Korea said the demolition, although dramatic, did not answer key questions, such as how many weapons North Korea has built or whether it has exported its nuclear technology to countries like Syria. On Thursday, North Korea submitted its first significant — although partial — account of its arms programs. Almost simultaneously, President George W. Bush announced that Washington was removing North Korea from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, and issued a proclamation lifting some sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The Yongbyon complex, built around a Soviet-era nuclear reactor, is the North's only known source of plutonium. North Korea had started disabling the reactor and other parts of the complex last year under an agreement with the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. Full Story International Herald Tribune_ 6/27/08 Pakistani may have delivered advanced nuclear designs; Evidence suggests Iran, North Korea might possess plans The Bush administration and Western governments are voicing renewed fears that advanced nuclear-weapon designs may have been provided to Iran and North Korea through the smuggling network run by Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. These fears have been stoked by evidence obtained by Swiss authorities who are prosecuting three European members of Mr. Khan's network in Bern, Western diplomats said. In 2003, the U.S. and allied governments broke up Mr. Khan's smuggling network, which had delivered centrifuge equipment for uranium-enrichment work to Tehran and Pyongyang and Chinese-based nuclear-weapons designs to Libya. Full Story Wall Street Journal_ 6/16/06 (logon required) U.S. Air Force to China: our geeks can beat up your geeks In a recent interview in Foreign Policy, former US cybersecurity czar Richard Clark discussed the US military's forthcoming Air Force Cyber Command and the nation's overall security picture in the global, networked knowledge economy. Clark's concern is not that we'll have an earth-shaking, stupor-dispelling Internet version of 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, but that we won't. Instead, Clark fears that a steady, silent bleed of public- and private-sector secrets will weaken the US military and economy. "What is happening every day is quite devastating, even though it doesn’t have a kinetic impact and there are no body bags," Clark told Foreign Policy. "What's happening every day is that all of our information is being stolen. So, we pay billions of dollars for research and development, both in the government and the private sector, for engineering, for pharmaceuticals, for bioengineering, genetic stuff—all sorts of proprietary, valuable information that is the result of spending a lot of money on R&D—and all that information gets stolen for one one-thousandth of the cost that it took to develop it." Clark blames most of the damage on attacks by the Chinese government, but he's also concerned about the potential of non-governmental actors—mainly terrorists and organized crime—to wage cyber-warfare on a level that matches or exceeds that of governments like the US and China. In response to these threats, the US Air Force will soon launch its Air Force Cyber Command (AFCYBER), yet another explicit recognition that the US now sees our national and international communications infrastructure as a theater of war, and that the country is serious about developing the capacity to mount a credible offense in it. Full Story ars technica_ 4/5/08 China's computer hacking worries Pentagon China in the last year has developed ways to infiltrate and manipulate computer networks around the world in what U.S. defense officials conclude is a new and potentially dangerous military capability, according to a Pentagon report issued Monday. Computer network intrusions at the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies, think tanks and government contractors last year "appeared to originate" in China, according to the report. In addition, computer intrusions in Germany, apparently by Chinese hackers, occur daily, along with infiltrations in France and Britain, the Pentagon said. Last year, British intelligence officials alerted financial institutions across the country that they were targets of "state-sponsored computer network exploitation" from China. The Pentagon report does not directly accuse the Chinese military or government of the attacks but says the incidents are consistent with recent military thinking in that country. U.S. military officials believe that Chinese cyber-warfare advances, coupled with China's increasing skill at neutralizing information-transmitting satellites and other capabilities, is part of a military objective of crippling potential foes, even those that may be militarily superior such as the United States, in the event of an international crisis or confrontation. The report, an annual assessment of China, also says Beijing has continued to develop a sophisticated missile program and appears focused on warding off any U.S. intrusion in the area around Taiwan. Full Story Los Angeles Times_ 3/4/08 (logon required) Northrop-Airbus team wins U.S. aerial tanker deal In a stunning upset that could reshape the nation's aerospace industry, Northrop Grumman Corp. and European partner Airbus were tapped Friday for a $40-billion Pentagon contract to build 179 aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force. Century City, California-based Northrop upset rival Boeing Co. in a surprising win that analysts said could alter the companies' fortunes and erode the Pentagon's long-standing policy of buying weapons systems made by U.S. companies. The award, likely to be the nation's last big Pentagon purchase for at least a decade, will have enormous economic consequences. It will create thousands of jobs around Mobile, Ala., which will become the site of a Northrop production facility, as well as in Southern California. "The decision means billions of taxpayer dollars will be used to create and sustain jobs in foreign countries, rather than here in the U.S.," said Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, a major union at Boeing. The contract, initially worth $40 billion, could grow to $100 billion with follow-on orders; the Air Force is considering acquiring more than 400 tankers over the next four decades. Full Story Los Angeles Times_ 3/1/08 (logon required) Iran testing advanced centrifuge, diplomats say Iran is testing an advanced centrifuge designed to more swiftly produce enriched uranium in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions ordering it to stop, diplomats confirmed Thursday. The centrifuges are still in the early testing stages, and are not being used to enrich nuclear material, said diplomats familiar with information from the International Atomic Energy Agency. David Albright, a nuclear expert and former U.N. inspector said it did not change the estimate of his organization, the Institute for Science and International Security, that the earliest Iran could have a nuclear weapon is by the end of 2009. U.S. intelligence agencies in December issued an assessment saying they had concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. The intelligence agencies said Iran ended covert efforts to produce highly enriched uranium suitable for use in a bomb, but made it clear that it could resume its efforts at any time. Enriched uranium can be used to generate electricity or to produce material for a bomb, depending on the degree of enrichment. Iran insists that it has the right to develop nuclear technology for civilian use, and has rejected the U.N. Security Council's calls to halt enrichment and the IAEA's requests to allow closer inspections. The IAEA says that Iran must rebuild confidence after keeping its nuclear program secret for nearly 20 years and buying black market technology. The centrifuge seems to be based on a P2 design obtained illicitly in 1995 from the network of rogue Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Full Story Los Angeles Times_ 2/8/08 (logon required) Iran launches rocket to commemorate new space center Iran fired a research rocket into space on Monday to mark the opening of its space center, a move that was immediately condemned by the United States. Iran’s state news media reported that a rocket for research purposes was fired from a newly built space center in the deserts of Semnan Province, southeast of Tehran, the capital. The rocket, called Kavoshgar-1, meaning Researcher-1, was fired in preparation for the planned launching in June of Iran’s first domestically made satellite, the semiofficial Fars News Agency said. The United States criticized Iran’s action. Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said the launching “is just another troubling development, in that the kinds of technologies and capabilities that are needed in order to launch a space vehicle for orbit are the same kinds of capabilities and technologies that one would employ for long-range ballistic missiles." Full Story New York Times_ 2/5/08 (logon required) Pakistan calls nuke program security 'foolproof' Pakistan's nuclear program has "foolproof" and "second to none" security, the head of the program insisted today, calling doubts about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal "inaccurate" and "based on a lack of understanding." Retired Lt. Gen. Khalid Kidwai, the director-general of Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division, did acknowledge that as militants have increased their attacks in the last six months "the state of alert has gone up," but insisted there were no specific threats to the nuclear program. His assertions come as politicians in the United States and the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog have questioned the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Mohammed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat that he feared "nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of extremist groups in Pakistan or Afghanistan." In the last year militants based along the volatile border with Afghanistan have launched a string of assaults aimed mostly at the military and the police, but also politicians and civilians. That has fueled fears that the militants may have their eyes on a larger goal: nuclear sabotage. Full Story ABC News_ 1/26/08 North Korea misses nuclear deadline Under a deal reached in February 2007, the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-il had agreed to do two things by December 31: disable its Yongbyon reactor site, and provide a full declaration of all its nuclear activities. But the year ended with work still incomplete at Yongbyon - and stony silence from Pyongyang. North Korea has evidently decided to sacrifice the ageing Yongbyon facilities - a cause of concern for almost 20 years - now that they have done their job and given Kim the bomb, as seen in October 2006's small nuclear test. The current delay seems mainly technical. To extract and remove some 8,000 fuel rods at this decrepit facility simply could not be done safely by year-end. However, there are now hints that recently Pyongyang has slowed the process due to reported dissatisfaction with what it is - or is not - getting by way of rewards for its co-operation. This puzzles the other five nations involved in the six-party process - China, the US, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Most have sent heavy fuel oil and other energy aid, as an agreed quid pro quo. Only Tokyo refuses, as it still demands a full account of the fate of Japanese abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Pyongyang regards that issue as closed, and relations are at rock bottom. North Korea also wants to come off the US State Department's list of countries accused of supporting terrorism, and an end to long-standing US sanctions. Full Story BBC News_ 1/1/08 North Korea to disable nuclear complex A U.S. team, including technical experts, will head to North Korea next week after the communist country agreed to begin disabling its nuclear weapons facilities, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Wednesday. Hill's remarks came shortly after the Bush administration said Pyongyang had agreed to disable its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon -- where plutonium is produced -- by the end of this year in a deal forged by the so-called six-party talks in Beijing. By "disable," Hill said, the agreement means making it difficult to restart a nuclear program by sealing the facility and removing certain components that would not be easy to replace. The goal in the next phase, the assistant secretary of state said, is complete dismantlement, but that could take as long as five years. Full Story CNN_ 10/4/07 U.S. Air Force pilot helped clear the fog of war Greg Harbin saw a way to streamline airstrikes. The solution -- and his cause -- was the Rover, a device that would one day save his life. Over four years, Harbin took a niche technology, spread it throughout the military -- and helped change how the Air Force fights wars. The Rover, or the Remote Operations Video Enhanced Receiver, was born in 2002, shortly after the Afghanistan war began. It's a combination video receiver and laptop computer. Full Story Los Angeles Times_ 9/13/07 (logon required) Iran reaches nuclear goal Iran has reached its long-sought goal of running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Sunday in a report on state media. The U.N. Security Council had threatened a third round of sanctions against the country if it did not freeze the uranium enrichment program -- which Iran maintains is for peaceful energy purposes, but the U.S. says is to hide a weapons program. "The West thought the Iranian nation would give in after just a resolution, but now we have taken another step in the nuclear progress and launched more than 3,000 centrifuge machines, installing a new cascade every week," the state television Web site quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. Full Story AP/CNN_ 9/3/07 North Korea agrees to nuclear deadline North Korea agreed to disclose all of its nuclear activities and disable its nuclear programs by the end of the year, a senior U.S. official said Sunday after negotiations this weekend in Geneva. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill said details of North Korea's agreement would be worked out later this month in meetings sponsored by China and involving Russia, Japan and South Korea, in addition to the United States and North Korea. Hill said it was the first time North Korea had agreed to a timeline to end its nuclear programs. In separate remarks, the head of the North Korean delegation, Kim Gye Gwan, said his country had agreed to declare and dismantle its nuclear facilities, but he did not mention a deadline. Full Story Washington Post_ 9/2/07 North Korea shuts down nuclear reactor, allows UN inspectors North Korea shut down the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and allowed international nuclear inspectors to return to the communist nation, U.S. officials said. United Nations inspectors will be able to verify that the plant is shut down, ending production of plutonium for nuclear weapons, in coming days, White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said today on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program in Washington. Representatives of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency were expelled from North Korea in 2002. Since then, North Korea has extracted plutonium from Yongbyon's spent fuel rods and on Oct. 9 tested a nuclear device, prompting the UN Security Council to impose sanctions. The Yongbyon shutdown may ease tensions with the U.S. before a July 18 meeting in Beijing of negotiators for six- nation talks aimed at North Korea's nuclear disarmament. In February, North Korea agreed with the U.S., South Korea, Russia, China and Japan to close Yongbyon in return for energy aid. Full Story Bloomberg_ 7/15/07 Iran will allow inspection of heavy water reactor Iran has agreed to allow United Nations nuclear inspectors to inspect a heavy water reactor, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday. The IAEA said the inspection will take place before the end of July, after Iran had banned inspectors earlier this year. In a further sign of compromise, the IAEA said the country also agreed to answer questions about past experiments that the international community fears could be linked to a weapons program. Any Iranian decision to cooperate with the agency could weaken a push by the United States and Western allies on the council to impose new U.N. sanctions - even if Iran continues to defy the council's main demand that it freeze uranium enrichment. Years of Iranian stonewalling have left the IAEA unable to determine the truth about the country's claims that it has no nuclear weapons ambitions, and that its atomic activities are meant strictly to generate power. Iran's refusal to cooperate was the trigger that prompted U.N. Security Council involvement last year and led to two sets of sanctions. Full Story NPR_ 7/13/07 Iran producing its own nuclear centrifuges: report Iran is producing centrifuges for refining uranium domestically, a senior adviser to the country's supreme leader said on Tuesday, limiting the impact of United Nations sanctions on its contested nuclear program. Iran has surprised monitors familiar with its nuclear research program by launching around 2,000 centrifuges since February, the majority enriching uranium in linked networks. Centrifuges are used to make fuel for power plants, which is what Iran insists is its goal. But they can also be used to enrich uranium to a far higher level to make bomb material. The deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Olli Heinonen, goes to Tehran on Wednesday to test Tehran's promise of an "action plan" to answer long-standing questions about its nuclear ambitions. Full Story Reuters_ 7/10/07 Atomic agency concludes Iran is stepping up nuclear work Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agency’s top officials. The findings may change the calculus of diplomacy in Europe and in Washington, which aimed to force a suspension of Iran’s enrichment activities in large part to prevent it from learning how to produce weapons-grade material. In a short-notice inspection of Iran’s operations in the main nuclear facility at Natanz on Sunday, conducted in advance of a report to the United Nations Security Council due early next week, the inspectors found that Iranian engineers were already using roughly 1,300 centrifuges and were producing fuel suitable for nuclear reactors, according to diplomats and nuclear experts. “We believe they pretty much have the knowledge about how to enrich,” said Mohammed ElBaradei, the director general of the energy agency, who clashed with the Bush administration four years ago when he declared that there was no evidence that Iraq had resumed its nuclear program. “From now on, it is simply a question of perfecting that knowledge. People will not like to hear it, but that’s a fact." The material produced so far would have to undergo further enrichment before it could be transformed into bomb-grade material. To accomplish that, Iran would likely first have to evict the I.A.E.A. inspectors, as North Korea did four years ago. Full Story New York Times_ 5/14/07 (logon required) General Dynamics receives $28 million contract to provide Ku-band satellite on-the-move antenna system to U.S. Army Under the World Wide Satellite Services contract, General Dynamics will provide a single Warrior Model 20-20 Satcom-on-the-Move™ (SOTM) antenna system for verification and testing, with additional purchases to follow successful tests. The total potential value of the award if all options are exercised is $28 million over three years. The General Dynamics-designed and -manufactured equipment transmits and receives data at speeds up to 1.54 Mbps in Ku-band, giving unit commanders robust satellite communications in moving vehicles, providing unequaled mobile access to a broad spectrum of information services including video, data and imagery. The terminals track satellites very accurately using a combination of integral satellite-beacon receivers, gyro stabilization and inertial measurement units. The contract was awarded through PM Warfighter Information Network-Tactical under the contracting authority of the Communications and Electronics Command, Ft. Monmouth, N.J. The SOTM antenna system will be installed on High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV), Bradley Fighting Vehicles or Stryker Infantry Combat Vehicles. Full Story News Release_ 4/3/07 U.S. orders review into vulnerabilty of military satellites The Air Force's top general has ordered a wide-ranging review of the vulnerabilities of U.S. military satellites — one that could lead to the lifting of restrictions on using force against another country's space capabilities — because of continuing alarm over a successful Chinese missile test. The review, ordered last month by Gen. T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, comes amid concern over the Chinese government's failure to explain why it destroyed one of its own weather satellites in January. That test created a large debris field that continues to expand in low-Earth orbit. China's secrecy has led to concerns that Beijing is attempting to perfect a wide array of anti-satellite weapons, including jammers for navigation and communications satellites, and possibly the deployment of small "space mines" that could disable U.S. military satellites in the event of a conflict. The U.S. and Russia have demonstrated the ability to knock down satellites, but neither has done so since tests they conducted during the Cold War. Although there are treaties that govern weapons in space, many standards about harming another country's satellites are based on international norms rather than law. Full Story Los Angeles Times_ 4/22/07 (logon required) General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies to supply German Armed Forces with strategic and tactical antennas and radio support equipment ND SatCom Defense GmbH of Friedrichshafen, Germany selected General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies to supply the equipment to the German Armed Forces SATCOMBw Step 2 Program. The total value of the contract if all options are exercised through 2014 is approximately $30 million. SATCOMBw Step 2 will create a complete satellite communications infrastructure under the control of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr). The program comprises a fleet of geosynchronous satellites, tactical (mobile) satellite communications terminals, strategic communications ground stations, a network control system and the expansion of existing satellite anchor stations. The system is scheduled to be implemented incrementally this year with full operation expected in 2009. Full Story News Release_ 3/1/07 U.S. military shows off new heat-beaming ray gun The military calls its new weapon an "active denial system," but that’s an understatement. It’s a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people more than 500 yards away feel as though they are about to catch fire. Apart from causing that terrifying sensation, the technology is supposed to be harmless — a nonlethal way to get enemies to drop their weapons. The weapon is not expected to go into production until at least 2010, but all branches of the military have expressed interest in it, officials said. The system uses millimeter waves that can penetrate only 1 /64 th of an inch of skin, just enough to cause discomfort. The waves cannot go through walls or glass but can penetrate most clothing, officials said. Full Story AP/Columbus Dispatch_ 1/25/07 General Dynamics' SATCOM Technologies receives $15.5 million order from Marines for satellite communications terminals The terminals will be used in the U.S. Marine Corps' Support Wide Area Network (SWAN) program to provide deployed warfighters with robust, beyond-line-of-sight communications for video, multimedia, data, imagery and other information. SATCOM Technologies' award, issued through the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Lifecycle Management Command, Ft. Monmouth, N.J., is part of a four-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract with a total potential value of $160 million if all options are exercised. Under terms of the order, the U.S. Marine Corps will receive Warrior 120 (1.2-Meter) and Warrior 180 (1.8-Meter) flyaway terminals and 2.4-Meter trailer-mounted terminals for quick-setup tactical communications. "Reliable, easy-to-deploy communications products are vital to supporting tactical missions," said Gary Kanipe, vice president of SATCOM Technologies for General Dynamics. "General Dynamics is the original equipment manufacturer for the VertexRSI antennas and electronic products that comprise these terminals, ensuring a high-quality, reliable, on-the-move communications solution for customers." The Marine's SWAN program is acquiring this equipment through the World-Wide Satellite Systems (WWSS) contract, which is intended to provide communications systems that are capable of overcoming existing and projected bandwidth constraints for Department of Defense transformation programs worldwide. WWSS is available to support all federal communications missions, including disaster relief and homeland security efforts. Full Story News Release_ 1/23/07 China's anti-satellite test widely criticized, u.S. says no new treaties needed Standing by the new space policy the White House issued last year, a U.S. State Department official said China’s Jan. 11 test of an anti-satellite weapon in space is not cause to open negotiations on a new treaty that would place limits on what countries can do in space. The official said the space policy clearly states that the United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to, or use of, space and that no change in that policy is warranted. Gordon Johndroe, the National Security Council’s (NSC) chief spokesman, said in a statement provided by an NSC press official Jan. 18 that the Chinese used a ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile to knock out an aging Chinese weather satellite orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 537 miles (865 kilometers). The State Department official said U.S. Defense Support Program missile warning satellites and “other assets” detected the launch of a ballistic missile and an event that generated debris. The State Department official also said the United States received no advance notice from the Chinese. A U.S. intelligence official told Space News Jan. 19 the Chinese had conducted two previous tests that were unsuccessful, but declined to provide any additional details. A Senate aide said the Jan. 11 test was the first one that was successful. The aide also said weather satellite was under control but dying. Early details of the event were first reported Jan. 17 in a blog written by Jeffrey Lewis, executive director of Harvard’s Managing the Atom Project, on the Web site armscontrolwonk.com and in a story posted Jan. 18 on the Web site aviationnow.com. Lewis said one positive result of the Chinese action could be a call for improved debris field modeling. Reaction was almost universally critical of the Chinese actions. Full Story Space.com 1/19/07 Northrop Gruman delivers satellite antennas for detecting nuclear blasts Northrop Grumman Corporation has delivered all V-Sensor deployable antenna assemblies that will be used to detect nuclear blasts as an adjunct payload on the Global Positioning Satellite 2F program. The company's Astro Aerospace unit completed manufacturing and testing this summer of six qualification units and 18 flight units of its V-Sensor deployable antenna assemblies and recently delivered them to its customer, Los Alamos National Laboratory. About the size of a pack of cigarettes, these STEM antennas deploy to a length of almost seven feet. They permit detection of electromagnetic pulses as part of nuclear arms control. These antenna assemblies will be integrated on the next generation of GPS satellites by prime contractor The Boeing Company. Full Story Testandmeasurement.com_ 11/8/06 Defiant North Korea conducts nuclear test North Korea said it conducted an underground nuclear test on Monday, defying a warning from the U.N. Security Council and opening its crippled economy to the risk of fresh sanctions. South Korea put its troops on heightened alert after the announcement, which came just minutes before Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe landed in Seoul for a visit. The move could heighten regional tension and deal a fresh foreign policy blow to Timeline: North Korea’s Nuclear Development AP/New York Times 10/9/06 (logon required) Questions and Answers: North Korea’s Nuclear Program Confirmed information about North Korea’s nuclear capabilities is scant. Here is a broad outline of what experts know, surmise or suspect, based on information from the Institute for Science and International Security. AP/New York Times_ 10/9/06 (logon required) General Dynamics names Christopher Buck director, government programs SATCOM Technologies General Dynamics C4 Systems announced it has appointed Christopher (Chris) Buck to the position of Director, Government Programs for the Company's SATCOM Technologies Programs strategic business unit. In this new position, Mr. Buck will be responsible for identifying new products and system requirements for the government and military market and will work across the Company's divisions to provide proposal and program support for strategic government and military opportunities. Full Story Press Release_ 9/28/06 Dean E. Wooldridge, 93, missile system developer, is dead Dr. Wooldridge was a crucial figure in the development of the technology of nuclear warfare in the 1950’s. He died Wednesday at a hospital in Santa Barbara, Calif., his hometown. The cause was pneumonia, his son James said. Dr. Wooldridge was the “W” in TRW, one of the biggest military contractors of the last half century. The company merged with Northrop Grumman in 2002, creating the nation’s second-largest military contractor, after Lockheed Martin. With his colleague Simon Ramo, Dr. Wooldridge was a leading systems engineer in the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles — the backbone of American nuclear strategy during the cold war. After World War II, when the Air Force became a separate entity from what had been the Army Air Corps, the foremost questions confronting the military involved how to protect the United States from a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union, and how, if necessary, to pursue a nuclear war. Full Story New York Times_ 9/23/06 (logon required) North Korea test-fires missles North Korea has test-fired a number of missiles, one of which was a long-range weapon capable of reaching the US, state department officials believe. It is thought the Taepodong-2 missile failed about 40 seconds into flight. The US said North Korea may have fired as many as six missiles. At least three - two of them said to be shorter range - fell into the Sea of Japan. US envoy to the UN, John Bolton, said he was "urgently consulting" with other Security Council members on the issue. Both the US and Japan had said they would consider a range of options - including economic sanctions - if a launch of the Taeopdong-2 missile went ahead. Full Report BBC News_ 7/4/06 June, 2006 Northrop Grumman begins flight testing Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems radar antenna for B-2 stealth bomber Northrop Grumman Corporation, working closely with Raytheon Company, has begun flight testing a new radar antenna on the B-2 stealth bomber that, combined with other upgrades, will enhance the aircraft's ability to respond to emerging worldwide threats. Testing of the active, electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna on the B-2 represents a milestone for this radar modernization program because it allows engineers to determine, for the first time, how the radar operates under actual flight conditions. Full Story Press Release_ 6/13/06 February, 2006 Bomb buster for Iraq hits Pentagon snag A new high-tech vehicle that destroys roadside bombs has passed a series of U.S. military tests but has not yet been sent into battle, prompting charges that Pentagon bureaucracy is slowing the effort to protect American troops in Iraq. Last April, Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of a Pentagon task force in charge of finding ways to combat the makeshift bombs known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, endorsed development of the vehicle, called the Joint IED Neutralizer. The remote-controlled device, built by Tucson-based Ionatron Inc., blows up roadside bombs with a directed electrical charge, and based on Votel's assessment, then-deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz recommended investing $30 million in research and sending prototypes to Iraq for testing. But 10 months later — and after a prototype destroyed about 90% of the IEDs laid in its path during a battery of tests — not a single JIN has been shipped to Iraq. "The decision has been made that it's not yet mature enough," said Army Brig. Gen. Dan Allyn, deputy director of the task force, which was recently renamed the Joint IED Defeat Organization. Iraq is "not the place to be testing unproven technology. It puts the burden on people who have a mission to perform and puts them at risk." But the Marine Corps believes otherwise and recently decided to circumvent the testing schedule and send JIN units to Al Anbar province in western Iraq. Full Story Los Angeles Times_ 2/12/06 (logon required) General Dynamics to buy Anteon for $2.1 bln Gen. Bernard Schreiver, 94, U.S. Air Force missile chief, dies Schriever oversaw the Air Force's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and other rockets that ushered in the space age and escalated the weapons race with the Soviet Union. He died was 94. Schriever oversaw development of the Atlas, Minuteman, Thor and Titan missiles. Full Story New York Times_ 6/24/05 (logon required) January, 2005 DynCorp gets $762 million U.S. Navy contract to run Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center DynCorp Technical Services, a unit of Computer Sciences Corp., will complete the contract work on Andros Island in the Bahamas by April 2008. AUTEC is a major range and test base facility that provides deep and shallow water test and training environments for the U.S. Navy. Full Story Reuters_ 1/31/05
'Robot soldiers'
bound for Iraq Raytheon Co. wins $93.9 million U.S. Navy contract to support Relocatable-Over-the-Horizon-Radar ROTHR is a high frequency radar system designed to provide early warning of strikes against aircraft carrier task forces. Given its ability to monitor large open water areas at ranges up to 2,500 nautical miles, the system has also been used to monitor air traffic as part of U.S. efforts to catch drug traffickers. Full Story Reuters_ 1/11/05 Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) awarded U.S. Air Force research laboratory contract for High Power Microwave Program The five-year, $49.9 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract calls for development of new technologies and applications research and development in pulsed power and HPMs, with a focus on transitioning important non-lethal technologies from the Air Force Research Laboratory to end users in the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Directed energy technology solutions are viewed as important tools for national security, homeland defense, and the global war on terrorism. Full Story Press Release_ 1/3/05 December, 2004 Military seeks
tech tools to train MDs Alion Science
and Technology awarded $3.5 million DARPA contract to support Real-time
Adversarial Intelligence and Decision-making
NASA's unmanned 'scramjet' pushes Mach 10 for another world record The X-43A - a supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) - flew in excess of nine times the speed of sound. It was the third and final mission for the Nasa vehicle - and it is not clear where the technology the agency has spent years developing will now fit into its future plans. Scramjets are being developed in a number of countries as an alternative propulsion system to rockets. Full Story BBC News_ 11/16/04
Pentagon building "God's-eye-view" of battle, its own Internet for wars of the future The Global Information Grid, or GIG, may take two decades and hundreds of billions to build. Its goal is to use spy satellites and computers to give all American commanders and troops a moving picture of all foreign enemies and threats. The first connections were laid in September and skeptics say the costs are staggering and the technological hurdles huge. Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet and a Pentagon consultant on the war net, said he wondered if the military's dream was realistic. "I want to make sure what we realize is vision and not hallucination," Mr. Cerf said. Military contractors - and information-technology creators not usually associated with weapons systems - formed a consortium to develop the war net on Sept. 28. The group includes an A-list of military contractors and technology powerhouses: Boeing; Cisco Systems; Factiva, a joint venture of Dow Jones and Reuters; General Dynamics; Hewlett-Packard; Honeywell; I.B.M.; Lockheed Martin; Microsoft; Northrop Grumman; Oracle; Raytheon; and Sun Microsystems. The Pentagon has tried this twice before. Its Worldwide Military Command and Control System, built in the 1960's, often failed in crises. A $25 billion successor, Milstar, was completed in 2003 after two decades of work. Pentagon officials say it is already outdated. Full Story New York Times_ 11/13/04 (logon required) General Dynamics C4 Systems' Controls and Structures facility receives distinguished James S. Cogswell Industrial Security Achievement Award Only eight cleared facilities selected from a pool of more than 12,000 contractors received the Defense Security Service's award for outstanding overall security programs. Controls and Structures provides precision antennas, positioning systems and control systems for satellite communications, radio telescope, optical telescope, radar, and other specialized applications. It was acquired by General Dynamics C4 Systems as part of the purchase of TriPoint Global Communications in Sept. 2004. Full Story Press Release_ 11/12/04 September, 2004 Top five U.S. defense contractors, communications companies join European rivals to develop better weapons communication standards The 28 companies, led by Chicago-based Boeing Co., said they would develop a sort of "building code" that would allow military commanders, intelligence officials and even first responders to use different systems built by different manufacturers -- and still be able to communicate. Incompatible technologies in the past made it difficult for U.S. forces on the ground, in the air and on the seas to communicate rapidly with each other. Similar communications problems prevented firefighters and police responding to the 9/11 hijacking attacks from talking to each other. Full Story Reuters_ 9/28/04 Navy to award $6.4 billion military communications satellite contract The Pentagon's Defense Space Acquisitions Board paved the way for awarding the contract when it approved the Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS, four to eight satellites that will provide narrowband communications to ships, aircraft, submarines and ground forces. The system, slated to become operational in 2010, would provide 10 times more throughput, or volume of information that can be transmitted, than the current Ultra High Frequency Follow-On System, built by Chicago-based Boeing Co. The contract will go to either Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, which has teamed with Boeing and General Dynamics Corp. or to Raytheon, which teamed with Honeywell International; Northrop Grumman Corp. and Loral Space and Communications Ltd. Full Story Reuters_ 9/21/04
August, 2004 US defence contractor
Northrop Grumman gets $1 billion contract for prototype X-47B unmanned
fighter Highly sophisticated software pairs with street surveillance cameras to create digital Olympics security guards with intelligence-gathering skills The system -- developed by a consortium led by San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC -- cost about $312 million and took up a sizable chunk of Athens' record security budget of more than $1.5 billion. Much of the analysis is enabled by software from London-based Autonomy Corp., whose clients include the U.S. National Security Agency, that parses words and phrases collected by surveillance cameras and in communications traffic. Other companies in the SAIC consortium include Germany's Siemens AG; General Dynamics Corp. and Honeywell International Inc. of the United States; and the Israeli company Elbit Systems. Several Greek companies also are participating. Full Story AP/CNN_ 8/10/04 IBM to build supercomputer for U.S. Army The computer, code named "Stryker," will be deployed at the Army Research Laboratory Major Shared Resource Center in Aberdeen, Maryland, IBM said. It did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. The supercomputer consists of 1186 powerful IBM computers connected with about 2,300 64-bit microprocessors made by AMD. The supercomputer would run on the Linux operating system. IBM expects the computer to be ranked among the world's 20 fastest computers. The fastest computer, according to the most recent list, was the Earth Simulator Center in Japan made by NEC Corp. Full Story Reuters_ 8/3/04 Military readies directed-energy weapons One uses a laser beam to zap an opponent, paralyzing muscles even as hearts and lungs function normally. So far, that weapon is scheduled for testing only on chickens. Another is under development by the Air Force and Raytheon Co. It 's called the Active Denial System and repels adversaries by heating the water molecules in their skin with microwave energy. The pain is so great that people flee immediately. Some experts believe the use of directed energy will be limited by international law and treaties. Military officials believe the intended uses of the Active Denial System do not violate any international laws or treaties and do not cause any permanent health problems. Full Story AP/CNN_ 8/2/04
The tiny submarine, no bigger than a toy, can dive to around 5,000 metres (16,500 feet), turn, somersault and perform a range of scientific tasks. Its designers say the Serafina could be used in shipwreck recovery, in search and rescue and may have military uses. The price is small too, starting at about A$1,000 (US$700) each. The only possible problem is that it's so small, it could possibly be eaten by an aquatic creature. Full Story BBC News_ 7/30/04 Federal authorities
in Camden, New Jersey, charge seven with conspiring to sell military
technology to China June, 2004 DARPA: Water
could propel next-generation satellites U.S. warned to
modernize fighter jets to maintain air supremacy U.S. Air Force
tests robot guard vehicles
The Royal Navy and the US Navy both have plans of their own for similarly futuristic ships with low radar visibility. Ever since radar was invented by the British during World War II, military boffins have been trying to think of ways to beat it. The first Visby corvette, designed by the Swedish shipbuilders Kockums and built at their Karlskrona yard, has just completed sea trials with the Royal Swedish Navy. It will come into service in January and will be followed by four more. American designers are working on the DD(X) destroyer, which is due to enter service in 2011. Northrop Grumman Ship Systems is leading a consortium which has been given the $2.8 billion contract to build the futuristic ships. Full Story BBC News_ 6/10/04 May, 2004 V-Shaped airship
bigger than a baseball diamond groomed for flight to edge of space Will U.S. missile
shield really work? High-intensity
laser shoots down largest rocket to date in New Mexico desert test Air Force Major General Jeffrey B. Kohler nominated to lead Defense Security Cooperation Agency President George W. Bush nominated Kohler to the Senate for confirmation as the next Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and promotion to the grade of Lieutenant General. Maj. Gen. Kohler is currently serving as Director of Plans and Policy (J-5), Headquarters United States European Command at Stuttgart, Germany. Full Story Press Release_ 5/5/04 New non-lethal
weapons to fight illegal smuggling of weapons of mass destruction
developed by Oto Melara, owned by Finmeccanica S.p.A. April, 2004 Lockheed Martin
BMC2 Team Demonstrates Advanced Cruise Missile Defense, Time-Critical
Targeting Capabilities Robotic X-45 aircraft
built by Boeing makes successful unmanned bombing run Atlas rocket carries
Japanese commercial satellite aloft, but the future is with the
U.S. military
Feature: The future of military drones is now Unmanned aircraft are slowly becoming full-fledged killing machines -- armed to the teeth, and designed for the deadliest parts of war. Full Story Wired News_ 4/1/04 March, 2004 Boeing snags $189
million U.S. Air Force satellite surveillance contract DARPA's new Humvee-mounted
sensor helps soldiers in Iraq determine when they are under attack
and locate the enemy Vietnam veteran develops a skycam for a laptop-toting infantry: device can prevent ambushes After seeing how easily photos could be transferred between digital cameras and laptop computers, he came up with a way for soldiers to get a quick bird's eye view of the battlefield. Full story AP/MSNBC 3/18/04 New OS for weapons and communications on the horizon The US Department of Defense is considering developing the common Operating System for command and control, communications, weapons management, mission planning, human interface and other functions involving unmanned combat aerial vehicles. Full story UVonline 3/16/04 High-tech snooping
for bin Laden Troops get high-tech noisemaker U.S. soldiers in Iraq have new gear for dispersing hostile crowds and warding off potential enemy combatants. The equipment, called a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" that blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam. The developer is American Technology Corp. of San Diego. Full story AP/CNN 3/3/04 |
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