In WMD Report, U.S. Gets A C, (Washington Post)…Spencer S. Hsu
Seven years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the federal government has made only limited progress toward preventing a catastrophic nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil and combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction abroad, according to a report card to be issued tomorrow by 22 former U.S. officials.
Japan Sees a Chance to Promote Its Energy-Frugal Ways, By MARTIN FACKLER, Published: July 4, 2008
“Superior technology and a national spirit of avoiding waste give Japan the world’s most energy-efficient structure,” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said in a speech outlining his agenda for the meeting. Japan “wants to contribute to the world,” he said.
Star Wars-Style Laser Technology To Reach Battlefield (London Daily Telegraph)…Thomas Harding, July 15, 2008
…After decades of delay and billions of pounds spent, it will be simple commercial lasers rather than the hugely expensive US Department of Defence technology that could be used to save hundreds of troops’ lives. In just 18 months the American defence firm Raytheon has turned a laser used in the car manufacturing industry into a weapon that can hit incoming rounds at the speed of light, melting the outer casing and detonating the explosive inside.
Laser beam technology is being rushed into service to combat the threat of insurgent missiles and mortars raining down on British and American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
‘Lob Bombs’ Called Biggest Worry For US Forces
(Boston Globe)…Robert Burns, Associated Press, July 12, 2008
US forces may be close to unlocking the mystery of who is behind a deadly innovation in Iraqi insurgents’ weapons, a “lob bomb” now being used in Baghdad to target US and Iraqi combat outposts, a senior American general said yesterday.
The 107 mm rockets that are used in the improvised bombs – which some call an airborne version of the roadside bombs that through the course of the war have been the leading killer of US troops – are manufactured in Iran, officials said. But some officers cautioned against assuming Iran is directly involved.
The weapons are launched from small trucks and are fired in multiples of four to nine rockets at a time. The detonation is sometimes triggered by a signal from a cellphone, other times by a washing machine timer.
New Flying IEDs Being Used In Iraq
(CNN)…Barbara Starr, July 10, 2008
Last month here in Baghdad’s Adamiyah neighborhood, 18 civilians were killed and 29 wounded when a large explosion rocked the neighborhood — one of the latest examples of yet another type of bomb being used by insurgents — improvised rocket assisted mortars or I-RAMs.
… With these, insurgents line the back of trucks with launch tubes. Using Iranian-made rocket charges, they propel cylinders full of explosives, like mortar and tank shells, sometimes over walls more than 20 feet high — the type surrounding U.S. bases.
U.S. Finds It’s Getting Crowded Out There
(Washington Post)…Marc Kaufman, July 9, 2008, Pg. 1
…Although the United States remains dominant in most space-related fields — and owns half the military satellites currently orbiting Earth — experts say the nation’s superiority is diminishing, and many other nations are expanding their civilian and commercial space capabilities at a far faster pace.
In a recent in-depth study of international space competitiveness, the technology consulting firm Futron of Bethesda found that the globalizing of space is unfolding more broadly and quickly than most Americans realize. “Systemic and competitive forces threaten U.S. space leadership,” company president Joseph Fuller Jr. concluded.
Joan Johnson-Freese, a space and national security expert at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, said the United States has been so determined to maintain military space dominance that it is losing ground in commercial space uses and space exploration.
“Other nations are falling over each other to work together in space; they want to share the costs and the risks,” she said. “Because of the dual-use issue, we really don’t want to globalize.”
Biometrics: The Army as Executive Agent for the Department of Defense
Biometrics are measurable physical and behavioral characteristics that enable the establishment and verification of an individual’s identity. Once established, a biometric identity can be used to regulate individual access to DOD services and resources or to deny a criminal or adversary the ability to hide his true identity by stripping away anonymity with swift, accurate, and definitive identity verification.
Biometrics are key to intelligence and security efforts in the war on terrorism. The ability to establish an individual’s identity with certainty and link the individual to past aliases or activities gives our Soldiers a decisive edge in fighting the war on terrorism and aiding other U.S. government organizations. In addition, biometrics add a layer of security and a method of identity verification when accessing DOD and federal government spaces by further automating the identification process and increasing speed of entry.
‘Missiles In A Box’ Test Is Successful, (Arizona Daily Star (Tucson))…Arizona Daily Star, 07.08.2008
Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems said Monday that NetFires LLC, its joint venture with Lockheed Martin, has successfully launched another Non Line-of-Sight-Launch System Precision Attack Missile.
The NLOS-LS, formerly called NetFires and informally dubbed “missiles in a box,” is a system of self-contained missiles and launch containers that can be adapted to various military platforms.
In 2004, NetFires was awardeda a six-year, $1.1 billion contract to develop the system as part of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat System.
Father Of Soldier Killed In Iraq Launches Robot Bomb Disabler (Arizona Daily Star (Tucson))…Associated Press, July 6, 2008
…Hart contends LandSharks will be far less expensive than many of the Pentagon’s current bomb-disposing robots, including models made by two larger Boston-area companies, iRobot Inc. and Foster-Miller Inc. Those models have more sophisticated electronics, but also are more fragile than LandSharks, which use car batteries rather than lighter and pricier lithium-ion batteries.
Navy Challenges Sonar Restrictions, (Washington Times)…Associated Press, June 27, 2008 , Pg. 4
The Navy is challenging Hawaii’s authority to protect whales by restricting the use of sonar during training exercises, environmentalists and military representatives say.
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