PMC News + Terror Drill Research

Reminder: PMC News now at Daily Dose of Terror

2007-10-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

http://dailydoseofterror.blogspot.com/

PMC News at new URL

2007-10-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

For easier memory, PMC News will now be Daily Dose of Terror. Please subscribe or go to URL below for PMC/Fake terror news...
http://dailydoseofterror.blogspot.com/

TOPOFF4 Related Drills?,D.E.W.+FCS updates & News

2007-10-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

"Operation October" Oregon (TOPOFF4 State)

Elaborate bomb drill slated for Tuesday
http://www.newsregister.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=226840

Operation October, designed to simulate a countywide multiple explosives incident, will be launched in dramatic fashion.
At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, a call will be received at the Yamhill Communications Agency dispatch center in McMinnville that a bomb has just gone off at the building across from the courthouse where the Yamhill County commissioners have their offices.
Local law enforcement and emergency medical personnel will respond, along with the Oregon State Police Bomb Squad, which will send its robots and other equipment into the building in search of any additional explosive devices.
Streets in the immediate area will be cordoned off, occupants of nearby buildings will be notified and the Yamhill County Jail will be locked down.
Three elementary schools - Carlton Elementary, Newberg's Mabel Rush and Sheridan's Faulconer-Chapman - will each be informed of reports a bomb has been planted in the building. Those schools will be evacuated.
John Boynton, the county's emergency manager, will be positioned at the Dayton Fire Hall, where the primary emergency operations center will be located. He will monitor activities at the commissioners office and each of the schools.
"This drill will best the communication, accountability and coordination of the participating local, county, state and federal agencies and the school districts," Boynton said (cont..)

‘Red Flag’ War Games

After Navy, IAF to give ammo to Left with joint exercise
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/After_Navy_IAF_to_give_ammo_to_Left_with_joint_exercise/articleshow/2433581.cms

"Malabar CY 07-2"

Joint naval exercise: SEATO in new format?
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=6809

"Warrior 2007" China

China lifts veil on army exercise

http://www.timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsID=3266

Ten thousand Chinese soldiers were used in the latest in laser animations in combination with live action at the "Warrior 2007" exercises

Ionatron D.E.W.

When 'Physics Gets in the Way'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/01/AR2007100101896.html?hpid=artslot

Dept of Homeland Security caused 'mini-DDoS'
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39289832,00.htm

A contractor for the US Department of Homeland Security has initiated "a mini denial of service" against thousands of security professionals, according to Marcus H Sachs, the director of the SANS Internet Storm Center, a community that monitors global security threats. (cont..)

Thales and Boeing Selected for FRES Integration Role
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQF04705102007-1.htm

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD) today announced that Thales UK in partnership with Boeing , through its Boeing Defence UK subsidiary, have been selected as the preferred bidder for the role of System of Systems Integrator (SOSI) for the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) program. (cont..)

Science Applications Elects Tony Moraco As GM Of Space And Geospatial Intelligence Business Unit
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/BREAKING%20NEWS/674747/

Ariz. will be ‘target’ in terrorism attack drill (TOPOFF update)
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/98843

LRTA holds anti-terror drill
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view_article.php?article_id=92939

JUST A DRILL The Light Rail Transit Authority simulates a bomb explosion for a "mass casualty incident drill" in its Cubao station. Here, members of the triage team, which determines the priorities for action in an emergency, tag victims inside a train cab.

40,000 Take Part in Valley Fire Drill
http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=611269
* I think this is tied to the TOPOFF 4 taking place in AZ

Charleston Police Train For Terror
http://www.live5news.com/news/state/10274747.html

Pandemic preparedness to be tested at Wilton mass vaccination drill
http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/wilton/23536.shtml

$450M for Contingency Response in the Philippines, and Beyond
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/144m-to-help-us-socom-in-the-philippines-03357/?camp=newsletter&src=did&type=textlink
*Guam TOPPOFF4 could be simulation for secret "Al Qaeda Pearl Harbour"

General Dynamics at Association of the United States Army Expo
http://www.jobwerx.com/news/gdls-biz-949348-738.html
WHAT: Displays at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition include firepower enhancements, force protection and soldier survival to networked communications systems. Also to be featured from General Dynamics, Falls Church, Virginia, USA, are systems for the Army’s Future Combat Systems and complementary programs, as well as products in production to sustain combat operations.

TOPOFF Questions, Russia/Space War, DARPA + PMC/DHS News

2007-10-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

Questions Raised Over Terror Exercise (TOPOFF )http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071003/D8S1N7080.html

Participants perform their roles during a terrorism response exercise 04 April 2005 in New London, CT. The comprehensive drill, dubbed "TOPOFF 3" (short for Top Official), is part of a five-day exercise simulating chemical and biological terrorist attacks in the eastern US states of Connecticut and New Jersey. (Don Emmert, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation is preparing for its biggest terrorism exercise ever next week when three fictional "dirty bombs" go off and cripple transportation arteries in two major U.S. cities and Guam, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
Yet even as this drill begins, details from the previous national exercise held in 2005 have yet to be publicly released - information that's supposed to help officials prepare for the next real attack.
House lawmakers were expected to demand answers Wednesday, including why the "after-action" report from 2005 hasn't been made public. Congress has required the exercise since 2000, but has done little in the way of oversight beyond attending the actual events.
Next week will be the fourth Top Officials exercise - dubbed TOPOFF. The program costs about $25 million a year and involves the federal government's highest officials, such as top people from the Defense and Homeland Security departments.
"The challenge with TOPOFF is not the exercise itself. It's to move as quickly as possible to remedy what perceives to be the problems that are uncovered," former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in an interview with AP this week.
Ridge, who launched his own security consulting company on Monday, said he's a big fan of the TOPOFF exercises. But he said "it's not acceptable" that the review from the 2005 exercise is still not released publicly.
The House Homeland Security emergency communications, preparedness and response subcommittee was holding a hearing Wednesday on the terrorism exercise program.
This year's TOPOFF will build on lessons learned from previous exercises, according to the Homeland Security Department, which runs the program. The agency said the Oct. 15-19 exercise would be "the largest and most comprehensive" to date.
According to an internal department briefing of next week's exercise obtained by AP, a dirty bomb will go off at a Cabras power plant in Guam; another dirty bomb will explode on the Steel Bridge in Portland, Ore., impacting major transportation systems, and a third dirty bomb will explode at the intersection of busy routes 101 and 202 near Phoenix.
Local hospitals and law enforcement agencies will be involved in the "attacks" by the dirty bombs, which are conventional explosives that include some radioactive material that would cause contamination over a limited area but not create actual nuclear explosions.

Missile defense system is up and running, military says
http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7728048

WASHINGTON: After a successful test last week, the tracking radars and interceptor rockets of a new American missile defense system can be turned on at any time to respond to an emerging crisis in Asia, senior military officers said Tuesday.
General Victor Renuart Jr., the senior commander for defense of United States territory, said that the antimissile system could guard against the risk of ballistic missile attack from North Korea even while development continues on a series of radars in California and the Pacific Ocean and on interceptor missiles in Alaska and California. (Cont..)

Counter-measures to be added to US missile defense tests: general
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hPGEA3Do8OhpnrhwV2YxBxQEoCgw

NORAD general urges Russia to file a flight plan before sending out bombers
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=294533

Russia warns of arms war in space: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL033142820071003?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's military space commander vowed to retaliate with an arms race if any country started putting weapon systems into orbit, he said in remarks published on Wednesday.
"We need to have strong rules about space, to avoid its militarization and if any country will place a weapon in space, then our response will be the same," Space Forces Commander Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin told the newspaper Trud.
Popovkin's remarks were the latest in a series of increasingly assertive statements from the Russian military, which is alarmed at what it sees as a growing hardware imbalance with the West (cont..)

Darpa hatches plan for insect cyborgs to fly reconnaissance
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202200707

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Cyborg insects with embedded microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) will run remotely controlled reconnaissance missions for the military, if its '"HI-MEMS" program succeeds. Hybrid-Insect MEMS--a program hatched earlier this year at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa)--aims to harness insects the way horses were harnessed by the cavalry. (Cont..)

Driverless Truck Lurches Out of Lab
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gidNK6us6X157b6yr2X4w7ZkpmswD8S18OTG0

GE, NRL, SAIC Nab DNDO Awards To Develop Stand-Off Rad Detectors
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/668627/

Oct 03, 2007 (Defense Daily/Access Intelligence via COMTEX) --
DETC charts news PowerRating -- The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) this week awarded contracts to General Electric's [GE] Global Research Center, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and SAIC [SAI] worth a combined $33 million to develop Stand-Off Radiation Detection Systems (SORDS) that can automatically determine the type and location of radiation sources at distances much greater than current technology.
"The SORDS approach, if validated, could be used in a wide range of monitoring applications including border crossings, sea lanes and air surveillance," Vayl Oxford, DNDO director, said in a statement. "This program could create a significant increase in capability for monitoring the illicit movement or radiation sources." (Cont..)

Merger opens U.S. defense to China ("Red Storm Rising" Psyop)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071003/NATION/110030088/1001

Senate ends debate on authorization bill, but not on Iraq
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1007/100207cdam2.htm

Excerpt: "The House's measure slices $867 million from the Army's Future Combat Systems, about 25 percent of the Pentagon's fiscal 2008 request for the $160 billion program that forms the centerpiece of the service's technology transformation efforts. But the Senate, where lawmakers have largely supported FCS over the years, added $115 million to the program."

Homeland security drill planned at Georgia Highlands Bartow campus
http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news842974.html

‘Hostage’ Gives Eyewitness Account Of Grueling Urban Shield Exercise
http://www.ebpublishing.com/*ws4d-db-query-Show.ws4d?*ws4d-db-query-Show***IPN-BAG-154155156159154155-1456***-Database***-***sltimes(directory)***.ws4d?sltimes/column(R).html

Senate Again OKs $3B for Border Security
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5injFfO8MlwJfFFF_n29IR630N94AD8S1TETG1

Ball State gets Homeland Security grant
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071003/LOCAL/71003016

Fallout Program, Russian x's, TOPOFF4 update + DHS News

2007-10-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

PC program predicts fallout from terrorist strike
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/pc-program-predicts-fallout-from-terrorist-strike/2007/10/02/1191091115304.html

THE Federal Government has developed a computer simulation that predicts the fallout from terrorist strikes and natural disasters, including the potential number of deaths and the impact on water and electricity supplies.
The $20 million program, to be unveiled today, will be accessible by businesses and government and can provide immediate updates on disruptions to critical infrastructure and the central business district. It can assess the human losses and economic damage caused by a range of disasters such as bombings, earthquakes, the contamination of water supplies or attacks on the power grid or communications services.
The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, said the simulation had taken two years to develop and was based on confidential information provided by banks and communications, energy and water companies.
"Ultimately [this] will help build a more resilient business sector, which can bounce back in the face of adversity, ensuring less disruption to our way of life," Mr Ruddock said.
The program was used in the lead-up to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meetings to provide information to security organisers about the impact of various attacks on 10 conference venues. Security authorities have also used the program to consider the impact of simultaneous bombings in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and the effect on gas supplies and ports from a tsunami hitting the North-West Shelf.
Mr Ruddock will today invite businesses and government agencies to apply to have scenarios tested by the program.
"These 'virtual insights' will feed into the decision-making processes of business and government and will contribute to more targeted and cost-effective policies," he said.
The program, which is being developed by researchers at Geoscience Australia and the CSIRO, is yet to incorporate information on transport, health services and food supplies.
In the United States, where a similar program is under development, researchers have warned it could pose a security risk because it could be hacked by criminals or terrorists.
The Herald understands the program will be stored in a secure facility, which has been approved by ASIO. "Electronic penetration is not possible," a project source said

Russia steps up bomber exercises near Alaska and Canada
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/01/america/NA-GEN-US-Russian-Bombers-Alaska.php

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Russian warplane exercises around Alaska have become routine in the past few months, U.S. military officials said Monday, as the former Cold War superpower steps up flights from its Arctic bases.
Over the summer, Russian bombers have staged at least seven exercises in a buffer zone outside U.S. air space, each time alerting the U.S. through reports by Russian news agencies, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Alaska region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
U.S. and Canadian fighter jets, including F-15s, were dispatched each time to escort the Russian planes in the exercises, which ranged from two to six aircraft, Herritage said.
The latest exercise came Sept. 19 and involved two planes flying somewhere off the coast of Canada, Herritage said. They were met by Canadian planes from NORAD, which is jointly operated by the U.S. and Canadian militaries.
At least five exercises by the Russian Tu-95 Bear heavy bombers have taken place off Alaska's Aleutian Islands and other historic Cold War outposts, such as Cape Lisburne and St. Lawrence Island, according to NORAD records. All occurred beyond the 12-mile boundary that constitutes U.S. airspace.
"They used to have them from time to time, but not nearly in this frequency," Herritage said. "These exercises used to be more common during the Cold War."
The exercises come amid troubled relations between Russia and the West and are seen by some as intimidating moves by an increasingly assertive Russia, but Herritage said the exercises are not a cause for alarm.
"The recent exercises appear to be routine training activities," he told The Associated Press. "They are nowhere near U.S. airspace."
President Vladimir Putin announced in August that Russia was resuming long-range bomber flights over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Russian Air Force officials could not be reached for comment after hours. They have repeatedly said that the planes were not violating any nation's airspace or any international agreements.
But in mid-September, British and Norwegian jets intercepted Russian military aircraft after they breached NATO airspace close to the U.K. and Finland. And on a handful of occasions this year, NATO nations, including Britain and Norway, have sent fighters to escort Russian bombers nearing their territory.

The RP-7 Robotic System
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/8129

Hey, Dr. Chung, can I talk to you a minute?" Not an unusual greeting in a busy hospital hallway - unless Dr. Chung is actually at home, or on temporary duty in another city, or perhaps sitting in a café while on leave.
MAJ Kevin Chung, medical director for the Institute of Surgical Research\'s burn intensive care unit (ICU) at Brooke Army Medical Center, is accustomed to people addressing his image on an RP-7 robotic system while he is sitting at a keyboard in another location.

Universal Detection Technology Comments on the Upcoming TOPOFF 4 Exercises
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,189634.shtml

LOS ANGELES, CA -- 10/02/07 -- Universal Detection Technology (http://www.udetection.com/) (OTCBB: UDTT), a developer and provider of early-warning monitoring technologies to protect people from bioterrorism and radiological weapons, commented on the upcoming TOPOFF 4 Full-Scale Exercise (T4 FSE) that will test the responses of first responders to a simulated radiological (dirty bomb) attack.
Taking place October 15-19, 2007, the T4 FSE will feature thousands of federal, state, territorial, and local officials. These officials will engage in various activities as part of a robust, full-scale simulated response to a multi-faceted threat. The exercise will address policy and strategic issues that mobilize prevention and response systems, require participants to make difficult decisions, carry out essential functions, and challenge their ability to maintain a common operating picture during an incident of national significance.
The TOPOFF 4 scenario begins as terrorists, who have been planning attacks in Oregon, Arizona, and the U.S. Territory of Guam, successfully bring radioactive material into the United States. The first of three coordinated attacks occurs in Guam, with the simulated detonation of a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD), or "dirty bomb," causing casualties and wide-spread contamination in a populous area near a power plant. Similar attacks occur in the hours that follow in Portland and Phoenix.
"We will closely monitor the outcome of the TOPOFF 4 exercises as it will be an indicator of the government's needs in the fight against terrorism," said Mr. Jacques Tizabi, UDTT's Chief Executive Officer. "We have recently added radiological detection devices to our array of detection systems and will continue to grow our portfolio of detection systems," he added.

UConn gets federal grant for homeland security training
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--uconn-homelandsec1002oct02,0,6679014.story
STORRS, Conn. - The University of Connecticut is getting more than 1.3 million dollars to launch a training program for homeland security officials nationwide. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is awarding the grant to the university's Center for Continuing Studies, which is developing the training program and will offer it through 2010. The program's will train 660 state and local homeland security officials from across the U.S. in leadership skills, planning, incident management and other areas (cont..)

Former Homeland Security Secretary Ridge launches security consultancy
http://www.scmagazineus.com/Former-Homeland-Security-Secretary-Ridge-launches-security-consultancy/article/35896/

Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security
Tom Ridgehas formed his own private security consulting firm.The company, Ridge Global LLC, will offer a variety of consulting services, including what it calls "strategic business generation, global trade security, risk assessment and contingency planning, crisis management and communications, leadership guidance and change management, special event security and technology innovation and integration," according to a news release. (Cont..)

UXV Combatant,DAWARS, Northrop G.,GD,+ News

2007-10-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

Navy's radio control supership
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007450541,00.html

THIS is the shape of war to come — a supership to launch unmanned jets, submarines, tanks and boats by remote control.
By 2020 a new generation fleet of Royal Navy ships will replace tens of thousands of troops on the battlefield.
The Sun has been given exclusive blueprint images of this first prototype.
Dubbed the UXV Combatant — and nicknamed Mothership — the concept has been drawn up by UK arms giant BAE Systems.
It could be in service in 13 years — replacing the current fleet of Type 22 frigates.
The 8,000-ton Mothership is a cross between an aircraft carrier and the Navy’s newest Type 45 destroyer.
Its sleek, stealth design means it only shows up on radar as the size of a small fishing boat. Main weapons systems will be concealed, including the 75-mile range, 155mm gun with precision-guided shells.
Each Mothership could carry up to 24 unmanned vehicles for different combat scenarios.

DARWARS

THE VIRTUAL WAR
http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/10/01/Features/The-Virtual.War-3003064.shtml

Today, Sergeant First Class Paul Tidwell will deploy a squad of first-year Army ROTC cadets to Baghdad, Iraq where they will engage enemy insurgents on a blistering desert battlefield for the first time in their lives. Despite the daunting task, the sergeant's orders don't seem to unsettle the students, who munch on cookies prepared by Tidwell's wife as they sit before him in t-shirts and shorts. The students won't need to trade in their civilian clothes for boots and body armor. They will conduct the whole mission in the friendly confines of the West Duke building's subterranean computer lab.The program that makes it possible is called DARWARS Ambush!, an interactive computer combat simulator that is revolutionizing the way Army ROTC cadets train to become leaders at Duke. As the first Army ROTC program to utilize the software, Duke is demonstrating a definitive link between virtual training and real-life success on the battlefield.While interviewing for a job opening as director of the Duke-North Carolina Central University Army ROTC program in 2005, Lt. Col. Charles Hodges discovered ten computers collecting dust in a closet and saw the potential for innovation.At the time, Hodges was serving as an operations officer for the First Stryker Brigade at Fort Lewis, Wash., and had been briefed on a computerized military simulator that was being used at the base to simulate convoy operations. DARWARS Ambush! had been created in the fall of 2003 at DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a wing of the Department of Defense responsible for the development of military technology, after the agency's director expressed concern about the growing number of ambushes occurring in Iraq. "I asked myself whether there was a way to train the voice in the back of the head of every service person how to identify ambushes, how to prepare for them, how to deal with them, and how to recover," Dr. Ralph Chatham, the DARPA project manager credited with the creation of DARWARS, wrote in an e-mail. "When I was given the unexpected gift of new money for the DARWARS program, I decided to find out."After six months of development, Chatham's team had created a networked, multi-user, computer simulation that allowed soldiers to move around in a shared, first-person perspective environment where they could carry out training and combat operations. DARPA had created a video game where there was more at stake than winning or losing-it was a tool intended to save lives by shaping better, more prepared soldiers.DARWARS caught on quickly, and by 2006 bases across the country and overseas featured more than 100 computers dedicated to training with DARWARS Ambush!. Over the course of the year, more than 20,000 soldiers, Marines and airmen trained with use of the program, Chatham wrote.(Cont..)

Northrop Grumman Showcases Integrated Security Solutions At National Homeland Defense Foundation Symposium V
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/primenewswire/127672.htm

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Oct. 1, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) will highlight its homeland security and defense capabilities this week at the National Homeland Defense Foundation Symposium V.
The exposition will be held Oct. 2-4 at the Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colo. The Northrop Grumman exhibit will be located at booth 401.
"Northrop Grumman provides extensive and uniquely tailored homeland security and homeland defense solutions that meet the critical needs of our nation's public safety agencies and emergency response personnel as well as our men and women in uniform," said Jerry Buckwalter, Northrop Grumman's vice president of Homeland Security. "Our demonstrations and presentations at the Symposium highlight the critical knowledge, processes and tools Northrop Grumman provides to the homeland security and homeland defense communities."
In the exhibit hall, Northrop Grumman will feature multiple homeland security and defense planning solutions that will be integrated together into a scenario-based demonstration. This demonstration will illustrate the ability to bridge various solutions from across the company into a common operating environment that can be used by both military and civilian organizations: * Emergency Preparedness Federation is a suite of training
simulation, control, interface and visualization tools that
offer comprehensive solutions to help planners, strategists,
emergency responders and post-disaster recovery teams prepare
for and handle emergency situations.
* Critical Incident Response System (CIRS) is a way to utilize
hardware and software technologies to enable planning,
engagement and management of emergency situations and complex
events. CIRS provides the capabilities necessary for
comprehensive command and control, integrating data from
various sources.
* The Northrop Grumman Cyber Warfare Integration Network (CWIN)
provides a distributed, collaborative, interactive environment
to test new systems, rehearse missions, perform engineering
analysis, mature concepts and mitigate risk through a
combination of live and virtual inputs. Equipped with a broad
range of platform models, communications systems, and extensive
data capture and analysis tools, the CWIN's modeling and
simulation infrastructure can access and display all
supporting technical and operational data to whatever level
the customer desires. Northrop Grumman will present a
maritime-homeland security defense vignette, which provides
an innovative and cost effective method to explore potential
solutions that include persistent intelligence, identification
and interoperability.
* Mobile Chemical Agent Detector (MCAD) detects hazardous and
chemical agents early enough for soldiers and first
responders to take protective actions for themselves and
others. Working in real time, the MCAD detects, identifies,
maps and reports chemical agents within a 5-mile radius.
* C2 Framework is an internal research and development project
that uses a service-oriented architecture and provides a
low-cost mechanism for rapidly integrating data from multiple
legacy systems with little or no modification. This framework
provides a great deal of flexibility in transforming to an
integrated system and has tools to support the community of
interest functions that are essential for network centric
operations.
* The Global Disease Surveillance Platform (GDSP) and the
Pandemic Flu Simulation display an outbreak scenario of
infectious birds with a tracking system that demonstrates
how the current spread of pandemic flu in birds correlates
to specific geospatial factors, and how a "risk map" can be
developed to predict future outbreaks. An air travel analysis
application shows how quickly a highly contagious strain of
the flu can spread around the globe. A final application
demonstrates how geospatial analysis and satellite imagery
can help plan for the distribution of a limited amount of
flu vaccine in a major metropolitan area
(cont..)

General Dynamics (GD) Awarded $71 Million to Support Department of Homeland Security
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20071001/general-dynamics-gd-awarded-71-million-to-support-department-of-homeland-security.htm

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded General Dynamics Corp. a task order to provide support and maintenance services for the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis. If all options are exercised, including a first-year option of $11.2 million, the award is potentially worth $71.4 million over 5 years
Under the task order, awarded under the DHS Enterprise Acquisitions Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions (EAGLE) contract, GD will provide services and support to information assurance, National Security Systems activities, systems engineering, architecture, governance, information assurance, and program management. (cont...)

Northrop Grumman and SAIC to Pursue Measurement and Signature Intelligence/Advanced Geospatial Intelligence (MASINT/AGI) Contract
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/primenewswire/127765.htm

RESTON, Va. and ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 1, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Defense industry leaders Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE:SAI) announced today the formation of an industry-wide team to bid on the Measurement and Signature Intelligence/Advanced Geospatial Intelligence (MASINT/AGI) program competition for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
The MASINT/AGI program will provide timely, tailored MASINT and AGI products, services, capabilities, and technical support to the operational, arms control and treaty monitoring, acquisition policy, scientific and technical intelligence communities, and to national defense policy makers.
The request for proposals and contract award are expected in 2008. Northrop Grumman will lead the team as a prime integrator with SAIC serving as the principal team partner.
"The state-of-the-art and emerging MASINT/AGI capabilities developed by Northrop Grumman, SAIC, and our other team members will help NASIC's growing customer set to execute timely, informed decisions or actions anywhere in the world," said Frank Moore, vice president and general manager of Missile Defense Division for Northrop Grumman Mission Systems sector. "The Northrop Grumman team represents experienced and active members within the Air Force-wide Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance enterprise, including the Distributed Common Ground System, and is well positioned to provide a seamless integration in the National System for Geospatial Intelligence. Together, the Northrop Grumman-led team of highly experienced scientists, engineers, analysts and production specialists will strive to exceed the customer's expectations for MASINT/AGI program production, research and development, phenomenology and support of global operational challenges." (Cont..)

EMA wins SPAWAR C4ISR contract
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Briefing/2007/10/01/ema_wins_spawar_c4isr_contract/6306/

Putin: From President to Prime Minister?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6963454,00.html

MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin, in a surprise announcement, opened the door Monday to becoming Russia's prime minister and retaining power when his presidential term ends next year.
The popular Putin is barred from seeking a third consecutive term in the March presidential election, but has strongly indicated he would seek to keep a hand on Russia's reins after he steps down.
Putin's remarks Monday at a congress of the dominant, Kremlin-controlled United Russia party hint at a clear scenario in which he could remake himself as a powerful prime minister and eclipse a weakened president (cont..)

*Kind of like the PMC's installing Hillary Clinton (Bush crime family associate)

U.S. delays domestic satellite spying program
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN0133926820071001

President Bush Welcomes New Military Advisor
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-10-01-voa45.cfm

President Bush has taken part in a military ceremony honoring the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and welcoming his replacement. From the White House, VOA's Michael Bowman reports
From left: General Peter Pace, President Bush, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, 01 Oct 2007

Blackwater Employees Shot Civilians, Report Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ayQt7vxwyVyo&refer=us

Joint Croatia-NATO military exercise begins
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/01/europe/EU-GEN-Croatia-NATO-Exercise.php

Flu Pandemic Exercise in Salem
http://wjbdradio.com/news_view.asp?WEBID=10285

The Marion County Health Department is asking all area residents in need of a flu shot to be a part of their flu pandemic exercise Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. until noon at the Evergreen Christian Church located at 1875 North Broadway in Salem. Health Department Spokeswoman Shelly Yoder says the more people who participate, the more help they will be to the Health Department (cont..)

Aerospace," According to White
http://www.afa.org/magazine/oct2007/1007keeper.asp

Are air and space separate military environments? Or are they simply parts of a single "seamless continuum"—the aerospace—in which USAF operates? These seemingly academic questions have stirred fierce debate for five decades, with perceived influence, resources, and policy direction in the balance (cont..)

Moron of the Day

(please PMC News readers, contact this idiot/shill, I have no stomach for this)

Phasers, the World Trade Center, And Discrediting the Left
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_john_r_m_070930_phasers_2c_the_world_t.htm

Iran War Prep, + Raytheon, CACI, In Q-Tel

2007-09-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

US trains Gulf air forces for war with Iran
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/30/wiran130.xml

The American air force is working with military leaders from the Gulf to train and prepare Arab air forces for a possible war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
An air warfare conference in Washington last week was told how American air chiefs have helped to co-ordinate intelligence-sharing with Gulf Arab nations and organise combined exercises designed to make it easier to fight together.
Gen Michael Mosley, the US Air Force chief of staff, used the conference to seek closer links with allies whose support America might need if President George W Bush chooses to bomb Iran.
Pentagon air chiefs have helped set up an air warfare centre in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where Gulf nations are training their fighter pilots and America has big bases. It is modelled on the US Air Force warfare centre at Nellis air force base in Nevada.
Jordan and the UAE have both taken part in combined exercises designed to make sure their air forces can fly, and fight, together and with American jets.

Explosive growth doesn't satisfy Tucson's Raytheon
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0930biz-raytheon0930.html

Tucson's Raytheon Missile Systems is on a roll.The company's Tomahawk and Paveway missiles are the weapons of choice for the U.S. military in Iraq.Its Standard Missile 3s and its Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicles are the backbone of an elaborate plan to defend the United States and its allies from enemy attacks
Raytheon Missile Systems, a unit of Waltham, Mass., defense contractor Raytheon Co., now is the world's largest supplier of guided missiles and the largest private employer in southern Arizona.Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent invasion of Iraq, Raytheon has racked up billions of dollars in new government contracts that have doubled company revenue to more than $4.5 billion a year.Louise Francesconi, Raytheon Missile Systems' forward-thinking president, isn't satisfied. She's obsessed with reinventing a peacetime role for the wartime powerhouse and new niches for the company inside an increasingly high-tech U.S. military.
Francesconi, 53, the defense industry's highest-ranking woman, has been on a mission to diversify Raytheon's products and make the company more responsive to its customers since she took the helm in 1996. With long-term contracts to supply and maintain weapons arsenals in the U.S. and dozens of foreign countries, Raytheon could cruise like one of its renowned Tomahawks. Instead, it is looking to leverage technology that can guide a missile to a target in space into a range of new products for national defense and space exploration.The projects include guidance systems for spaceships, protective force fields for airports, weapons that shoot light and radio waves, and satellitelike robots that seek out and ram enemy missiles in space.And those are just the projects the tight-lipped defense contractor can talk about."If anyone is going to invent us out of business, I want it to be us," said Michael Booen, Raytheon Missile Systems' vice president of advanced missile defense and directed energy weapons.
Mandates for change
Francesconi asserts that the company has no intention of abandoning the guided missiles that have been its bread and butter since industrialist Howard Hughes founded the business in 1951. But she adds that new technology, changes in the way wars are being fought and political pressure to rein in defense spending and get out of Iraq are mandates for change that the company can't ignore. When she thinks of the military's future, Francesconi sees directed energy weapons such as lasers and microwave beams, unmanned air, sea and land vehicles and smart missiles all linked and controlled by computers.
'Bike Shop' innovation
To come up with new products, Francesconi has created an "innovation tank" comprising two groups of about 650 people who are focused on developing new technologies for use on and off the battlefield.Many products are developed at a Tucson research facility she started called the Bike Shop. There, engineers and machinists develop prototypes of products and existing weapons that have been modified to meet the changing demands of urban warfare.Francesconi has been focusing Raytheon's sights beyond the Department of Defense.Raytheon sees a bright peacetime future for itself at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and is bidding on a key contract there that could get its foot in the door."The technology that literally allows us to hit a bullet in space with one fired on the ground certainly has applications in space," Booen said.Raytheon wants to build the avionics and guidance system for NASA's Ares I crew launch vehicle that will carry astronauts into orbit when the Space Shuttle is retired in 2010. NASA is expected to award a contract for the Ares I rocket guidance system before the end of the year. "NASA is a perfect fit for us," Francesconi said.
Hybrid company
Raytheon Missile Systems now consists of the amalgamated missile-manufacturing businesses of Hughes Aircraft, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Texas Instruments. Hughes bought General Dynamics' missile business in 1992 and Raytheon bought Texas Instruments' missile unit in 1997. Then Raytheon bought Hughes later in 1997 and consolidated the missile businesses in Tucson.While the U.S. Department of Defense is Raytheon's largest customer, about 25 percent of its revenue comes from foreign military sales that are either arranged or approved by the U.S. government.The ramp-up in defense spending after 9/11and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been a boon to Raytheon."The growth has been unbelievable," said John Patterson, Raytheon spokesman. He noted that production of Raytheon's air-launched Paveway missiles went from a handful to more than 2,000 per month after 9/11.During that period, global employment has grown by 2,500, to 12,000, and in Tucson by 1,000, to 9,000. With a backlog of more than $5 billion in orders at the end of 2006, the trend is expected to continue - but not indefinitely.Not only is demand for its traditional products likely to diminish as the war in Iraq winds down, but Francesconi sees its primary customer, the Defense Department, becoming more cost-conscious."We have to produce products that do more and cost less," she said.
Changing wartime needs
The urban nature of the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq also is creating demand for smaller, more precision weapons that cause less collateral damage.As the U.S. military becomes more Internet-centric, or "netted," weapons are going to have to be able to communicate and do more than hit a target.The next generation missiles will be able to be reprogrammed from the ground and gather and disseminate information while in flight.Technology also is changing the nature of weapons. Instead of bullets, they will fire directed beams of light and radio waves.
Directed-energy research
So-called directed energy is a major area of research and development for Raytheon and a field where the company has taken the lead.The company's prototype laser weapons can destroy a mortar at 500 meters and, someday, may be able to take out aircraft and enemy missiles.Its Vigilant Eagle Airport Protection Systems is a protective microwave dome that covers large commercial airports and airbases and protects planes in the airspace from terrorist attacks. The microwaves scramble the heat-seeking sensors on shoulder-launched missiles, diverting them from the target.Another developing product called Silent Guardian is a focused radio beam that penetrates the skin creating an intolerable heating sensation. The sensation causes the targeted individuals to "instinctively flee or take cover."The company is developing a large-scale version for the military and a smaller one that could be used by law-enforcement agencies.

CACI to Expand High-Security Force
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR2007092401763.html

CACI International, an
Arlingtongovernment contractor, said yesterday it was buying Athena Innovative Solutions, an intelligence-analysis firm with a coveted supply of employees with security clearances but also a controversial past.
The acquisition, valued at $200 million, would give CACI, a developer of technology systems for the Defense Department, intelligence agencies and civilian agencies, a company in which 95 percent of the 600 employees hold top-secret security clearances.
The deal also represents a new phase for Athena, which was known as MZM and ran into trouble after it was linked to the bribery scandal of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a former Republican congressman from California who is serving eight years and four months in prison.
MZM's founder, Mitchell J. Wade, stepped down in June 2005 after reports suggested he did financial favors for Cunningham while the lawmaker pushed funding for military intelligence programs on which MZM worked. MZM was bought for an undisclosed sum in August 2005 by Veritas Capital, a New York private-equity firm that invests in contractors and defense companies. The company was renamed Athena. Wade pleaded guilty in February 2006 to four criminal counts in connection with the scandal.
"Nobody wanted to touch the company because of its cloud of problems," said Jon B. Kutler, chief executive of Admiralty Partners, a merchant bank in the aerospace and defense industry. Veritas "came in to take that risk and transformed the image of the company."
CACI, like other big contractors, has been on a buying binge, acquiring at least 20 companies since 2004 in the hunt for top-secret security clearances. "You can't duplicate the type of people that Athena has and the clearances it has," said Robert B. McKeon, president of Veritas. "It's a very tight market for these types of clearances. In one fell swoop to be able to buy a company with 600 of them is quite an achievement."
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the demand for such clearances has grown fast as the government outsourced more classified intelligence work. At the same time, the process for obtaining security clearance has grown arduous. A government report in February found that it took, on average, more than a year for top-secret clearance and six months for a lesser clearances. The report said it was "a totally unacceptable length of time" for the 1.9 million clearance requests each year.
CACI said its purchase of Athena is expected to close in November. Company officials declined to comment beyond a news release.
CACI, which had revenue of $1.8 billion in 2006, experienced an unexpected drop in business from the Pentagon and other federal agencies last year. Athena is expected to have revenue of $110 million this year.

QinetiQ Launches Unmanned Stealth Jetski
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/09/qinetiq-launche.html

CIA squirrels cash into British radio software

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2557240.ece
AN investment fund launched by the CIA, the US intelligence service, has made its first investment outside North America, with a stake in a British software firm.
In-Q-Tel, a fund which specialises in investing in technologies that can be adopted by the security and intelligence communities, has taken part in a £2.25m fundraising by Etherstack, a developer of software used in two-way radios employed by the military and the police
(cont..)

Software Takes Aim at Altered Photos
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9srYXrFdl2zO7a6ulSGFRFuq6Yg

Providence holds emergency disaster (update)drillhttp://www.eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7148100&nav=F2DO

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Emergency personnel from around Rhode Island are honing their response skills at a large-scale emergency disaster drill.
The drill beginning tomorrow morning at the Convention Center will simulate a full-scale emergency in which toxic chemicals are released into the air resulting in hundreds of injuries.
Nearly 300 people have volunteered to play the victims.
The state's Greater Providence Medical Response System, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Mass Casualty Drill plans will be put into action.
The drill involves first responders from Providence, Pawtucket, East Providence, Warwick, Cranston, Central Falls, West Warwick, North Providence and Johnston

DEW, FCS, DARPA +Daily Dose of Terror

2007-09-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

E-Weapons: Directed Energy Warfare In The 21st Century (older article, good refresher)
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/060111_e-weapons.html

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico -- There is a new breed of weaponry fast approaching--and at the speed of light no less. They are labeled "directed-energy weapons" and may well signal a revolution in military hardware--perhaps more so than the atomic bomb.
Directed-energy weapons take the form of lasers, high-powered microwaves, and particle beams. Their adoption for ground, air, sea, and space warfare depends not only on using the electromagnetic spectrum, but also upon favorable political and budgetary wavelengths too.
That's the outlook of J. Douglas Beason, author of the recently published book: The E-Bomb: How America's New Directed Energy Weapons Will Change the Way Wars Will Be Fought in the Future (Da Capo Press, October 2005).Beason previously served on the White House staff working for the President's Science Advisor (Office of Science and Technology Policy) under both the Bush and Clinton Administrations.
After more than two decades of research, the United States is on the verge of deploying a new generation of weapons that discharge beams of energy, such as the Airborne Laser, the Active Denial System, as well as the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL).
"History has shown that, without investment in high-technology, fighting the next war will be done using the last war type of technique," Beason told SPACE.com. Putting money into basic and long-range research is critical, Beason said, adding: "You can't always schedule breakthroughs."
A leading expert in directed-energy research for some 26 years, Beason is also Director of Threat Reduction here at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) - noting that his views are his own and do not represent LANL, the Department of the Defense, nor the Department of Energy.
Ripe for transformation?
Though considerable work has been done in lasers, high-power microwaves, and other directed-energy technologies, weaponization is still an ongoing process.
For example, work is on-going in the military's Airborne Laser program. It utilizes a megawatt-class, high-energy chemical oxygen iodine laser toted skyward aboard a modified Boeing 747-400 aircraft. Purpose of the program is to enable the detection, tracking and destruction of ballistic missiles in the boost phase, or powered part of their flight.
Similarly, testing of the U.S. Army's Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) in White Sands, New Mexico has shown the ability of heating high-flying rocket warheads, blasting them with enough energy that causes them to self-detonate. THEL uses a high-energy, deuterium fluoride chemical laser. A mobile THEL also demonstrated the ability to kill multiple mortar rounds.
Then there's Active Denial Technology--a non-lethal way to use millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy to stop, deter, and turn back an advancing adversary. This technology, supported by the U.S. Marines, uses a beam of millimeter waves to heat a foe's skin, causing severe pain without damage, and making the adversary flee the scene.
Beason also pointed to new exciting research areas underway at the Los Alamos National Laboratory: Free-electron laser work with the Navy and a new type of directed-energy that operates in the terahertz region.
Niche for new technology
While progress in directed-energy is appreciable, Beason sees two upfront problems in moving the technology forward. First of all, "convincing the warfighter that there's a niche for this new type of weapon," and secondly making sure these new systems are not viewed as a panacea to solve all problems. "They are only another tool," he added.
Looming even larger is the role of those that acquire new weapons. "The U.S. could put ourselves in a very disastrous position if we allow our acquisition officials to be non-technically competent," Beason explained.
Over the decades, Beason said that the field of directed-energy has had its share of "snakeoil salesmen", as well as those advocates that over-promised. "It wasn't ready for prime time."
At present, directed-energy systems "are barely limping along with enough money just to prove that they can work," Beason pointed out. Meanwhile, huge slugs of money are being put into legacy-type systems to keep them going.
"It's a matter of priority," Beason said. The time is now to identify high-payoff, directed-energy projects for the smallest amounts of money, he said.
Unknown unknowns
In Beason's view, Active Denial Technology, the Airborne Laser program, the THEL, as well as supporting technologies, such as relay mirrors--are all works in progress that give reason for added support and priority funding.
"I truly believe that as the airborne laser goes, so goes the rest of the nation's directed-energy programs. Right now, it's working on the margin. I believe that there are still 'unknown unknowns' out there that are going to occur in science and technology. We think we have the physics defined. We think we have the engineering defined. But something always goes wrong...and we're working too close at the margin," Beason said.
Step-wise, demonstration programs that spotlight directed-energy weapon systems are needed, Beason noted. Such in-the-field displays could show off greater beam distance-to-target runs, mobility of hardware, ease-of-operation, battlefield utility, and other attributes.
Directed-energy technologies can offer a range of applications, from botching up an enemy's electronics to performing "dial up" surgical, destructive strikes at the speed of light with little or no collateral damage.
Beason said that one blue sky idea of his own he tagged "the voice from heaven". By tuning the resonance of a laser onto the Earth's ionosphere, you can create audible frequencies. Like some boom box in the sky, the laser-produced voice could bellow from above down to the target below: "Put down your weapons."
Relay mirrors
Regarding use of directed-energy space weapons, Beason advised that "we'll eventually see it."
However, present-day systems are far too messy. Most high-powered chemical lasers -- in the megawatt-class -- require onboard fuels and oxidizers to crank out the amount of energy useful for strategic applications. Stability of such a laser system rooted in space is also wanting.
On the other hand, look to advances in more efficient lasers--especially solid state laser systems--Beason advised. "What breakthroughs are needed...I'm not sure. But, eventually, I think it's going to happen, but it is going to be a generation after the battlefield lasers."
Yet, having the directed-energy source "in space" contrasted to shooting beams "through space" is another matter, Beason quickly added. Space-based relay mirrors--even high-altitude airships equipped with relay mirrors--can direct ground-based or air-based laser beams nearly around the world, he said.
"So you're using space...exploiting it. But you are going through space to attack anywhere on Earth," Beason said.
History lesson
Late last year, speaking before the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Beason told his audience that laser energy, the power sources, beam control, as well as knowledge about how laser beams interact with Earth's atmosphere are quite mature. The technology is ready to shift into front line warfare status.
"The good news is that directed-energy exists. Directed-energy is being tested and within a few years directed-energy is going to be deployed upon the battlefield," Beason reported. "But the bad news is that acquisition policies right now in this nation are one more gear toward evolutionary practices rather than revolutionary practices."
"Visionaries win wars...and not bureaucrats. We've seen this through history," Beason observed

U.S. Air Force Plans for Future War in Space
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/higher_ground_040222.html

Space Weapons For Earth Wars
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_war_020515-1.html

The Power of Light: An Airborne Laser for Missile Defense
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/airborne_laser_techwed_041117.html

Private contractors threaten U.S. democracy
http://the.ricethresher.org/opinion/2007/09/28/private_contractors_threaten_democracy

(Good summary from Dan A.)

Leaders back Manhattan as home for defense lab (KS)
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/sep/29/leaders_back_manhattan_home_defense_lab/
As the formal public-comment window closed for a potential National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, six prominent Kansans — members of the state’s congressional delegation — made their support for the project known in a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Their conclusion: Kansas is the best home for the potential $450 million project.
"Kansas has demonstrated the research capacity, strong public support and necessary infrastructure to meet DHS’ requirements to fulfill and implement NBAF," members of the delegation said in their letter, released Friday. "We urge your careful consideration of both the Kansas proposal and look forward to ensuring the success of NBAF in Kansas."
Signing the letter were U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; and U.S. Reps. Nancy Boyda and Dennis Moore, D-Kan.; and U.S. Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.
Four other sites also are in the running for the project, which is commonly referred to as NBAF: San Antonio; Madison County, Miss.; Athens, Ga.; and Granville County, N.C.
Plum Island, N.Y., which is home to the current Homeland Security lab, also is considered an alternative, although the site would have to be upgraded.
The new lab would be a top-security center where scientists would conduct research on plant and animal diseases, including those that could affect humans. Officials have said that the center could employ up to 500 research positions, spur an estimated 1,500 construction jobs and ensure an ongoing flow of federal research dollars, spin-off operations and related offerings expected to carry positive, long-term economic effects.
In Manhattan, Kansas State University has offered Homeland Security the use of the university’s new bioresearch lab, while the federal government would build the new 500,000-square-foot NBAF. (Cont..)

Boeing robo-copter lifts heavy load
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9787416-7.html

DARPA code teams compete on same K9 robot
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/26/darpa_schizo_k9_littledog_robot/

DARPA, the Pentagon research bureau which likes to put the battiness back into battle-boffinry, is pressing ahead with its robot dog/packmule/mini-Imperial-Walker programme.
Partly-functional "BigDog" petrol-engined droid packmules have already been developed, but it seems the machines' controlling software isn't really up to dealing with rugged terrain. (Cont..)

Security Drill on Main CT Artery
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=49605
State police and federal authorities conducted a homeland security drill Tuesday that caused a traffic backup on the Merritt Parkway and left Connecticut commuters wondering about the delay.Lt. J. Paul Vance, state police spokesman, said the drill was conducted to test new equipment and communications between various municipal, state and federal agencies.The drill was conducted near Exit 41 on the southbound side of the parkway at about 11 a.m. It tied up traffic for at least two hours, as state police and men wearing camouflage reduced the roadway to one lane and appeared to be checking vehicles.

Emergency responders set to hold joint exercise with state (NM)
http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_7021744?source=most_emailed

LAS CRUCES — Emergency responders from federal, state and local levels will be in Las Cruces starting today to plan for the worst.
The New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management will coordinate with several DoZa Ana County agencies — as well as the El Paso Fire Department — in a full-scale exercise to begin today and continue through the weekend near the old city landfill at 4755 E. Foothills Road in Las Cruces.
"It's as close to real life as you can get without destroying anything or hurting anybody," Las Cruces deputy fire chief Andrew Bencomo said.
The goal, sheriff's investigator Richard Chavez said, is "to demonstrate how important emergency preparedness is. It is also to make sure that our personnel is adequately trained to deal with a large-scale incident."
The training will be continuous over the the three days and will focus on how the participating agencies plan and execute their response.
The state's Homeland Security Department will also test its Joint Information Center, tasked with disseminating information to the public during disasters.
Officials will simulate a building collapse (cont..)

Top Army Commander Visits San Francisco
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5681407

SAN FRANCISCO, Sep. 28, 2007 (KGO) - One of the Army's top commanders came to San Francisco.
General George Casey discussed his vision for the soldier of the 21st century.
Wearing his usual Army fatigues and a relaxed demeanor, General George Casey spoke before members of the Commonwealth Club. Casey says right now the Army is out of balance, but not broken.
"When we are consuming our readiness as fast as we're building it that we can not get back the strategic flexibility and the readiness the country needs for future contingencies," said Casey, U.S. Army Chief of Staff.
Casey commanded the multi-national forces in Iraq from July 2004, until he became the Army Chief of Staff earlier this year. He says the Army's primary goal is retaining and preparing its all-volunteer force. So far this year, 250,000 soldiers have enlisted or re-enlisted.
"That's a quarter of a million folks. So there's a lot of people out there that still understand what's at stake here and are committed to the ideals that this country stands for," said Casey.
With regard to a future draft, Casey says the Army is not planning on one.
"The Army is doing nothing in our planning or forecasting that involves a requesting, a reinstatement of the draft," said Casey
The Army is investing heavily in future technologies, to the tune of $160 billion in 2006. It's called future combat systems or FCS.
"I've been out here visiting laboratories in Los Angeles and Santa Clara. It's exactly the kind of system we need for our soldiers to be empowered for the 21st century warfare," said Casey.
"We're trying to get to the point where we can take a little unmanned aero vehicle&fly that thing down the alley&and they can see what they're up against before they go down there. Find an IED, those kinds of things. That's powerful."
In response to direct questions about Iraq, General Casey said there is no question the troop surge is helping.
At the same time, the Army is planning to reduce its soldiers' 15-month deployments, so they come home sooner.

Army Shows Congress FCS 'Spin-out' Technologies
http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/09/28/5105-army-shows-congress-fcs-spin-out-technologies/

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 28, 2007) - Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. showed members of Congress equipment now being used in Iraq that incorporates technologies developed under the Future Combat Systems program.Gen. Casey and Secretary of the Army Pete Geren spoke to the House Armed Services Committee Sept. 26 about the need to reset and modernize the Army to improve its overall readiness."We are ultimately working toward an agile, globally responsive Army that is enhanced by modern networks, surveillance sensors, precision weapons and platforms that are lighter, less logistics-dependent and less manpower-intensive," Gen. Casey said.Research and development of such systems is well underway with the FCS program, Gen. Casey said, but he added that the Army needs the support of Congress to keep up the momentum. While major new FCS systems may not be fielded until 2012 with the new FCS Brigade Combat Teams, Gen. Casey pointed out that a number of new technologies "spun out" of the research are already helping Soldiers today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Micro Air Vehicle is shown here during an operational test flight with a military Explosive Ordnance Disposal team at China Lake, Calif. A similar UAV was shown to members of Congress Sept. 16 during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Firefighters agree to participate in weekend terror drill (update)
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2007/09/28/firefighters_agree_to_participate_in_weekend_terror_drill/

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Providence firefighters have reversed course and agreed to participate in a statewide terror drill this weekend.(cont..)

AgroTerrorism?, TOPOFF 4 update, + Drills

2007-09-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

Drill focuses on farm terrorism
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070928/NEWS01/709280052

Washington state deputy veterinarian Dr. Paul Kohrs walks past cattle in his protective suit Thursday on a farm near Monroe. Kohrs was participating with multiple agencies in a drill.

MONROE -- It starts with a sick cow. It continues with specially trained FBI agents walking through cow patties searching for evidence of a terrorism attack on a Monroe dairy farm.It is what the FBI calls agroterrorism -- when bad guys use viruses to attack the food supply instead of crashing airplanes into skyscrapers. It is a real threat and needs to taken seriously, experts said Thursday."We don't want to get caught unprepared," FBI Special Agent Peter de laCuesta said.FBI agents joined National Guard troops, officials from the state Department of Agriculture and others Thursday for the first agroterrorism training exercise in the United States.It happened on the Werkhoven Dairy Farm south of Monroe.The drill was meant to bring officials from different government agencies together on a working farm to practice for a real attack."We need to help people know what to look for," said Mark Kinsel, a state epidemiologist.Biological agents, such as those that cause foot-and-mouth disease, are highly contagious, easily portable and could potentially devastate the economy, de laCuesta said.From field to fork, one in six American jobs are tied to the food business, he said. The beef industry alone contributes more than $182 billion to the U.S. economy, $3.6 billion in Washington, officials said."Bioterror is a major risk. As a cattleman, I'm extremely sensitive," said Dale Reiner, a board member of the Snohomish County Farm Bureau. "All it takes is one cow."Thursday's drill started with a simulated report of a Monroe cow infected with foot-and-mouth disease. In keeping with the scenario, state veterinarians started sounding the alarm while anti-terror experts in Washington, D.C., began gathering intelligence about a possible attack near Seattle.As the training exercise played out, two men were arrested in a Seattle warehouse and teams were deployed throughout the region, including Monroe.On Thursday, a SWAT team entered the Seattle warehouse, bomb-sniffing dogs searched Seattle's Qwest Field and agents dressed in hazardous material outfits collected evidence at the Monroe farm."When I look around and see how susceptible we are to that kind of terrorism, I can't imagine why (a drill) hasn't happened sooner," Reiner said. (Cont..)

"Urban Shield"

250 Participate In Anti-Terrorist Drill In Dublin
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5680803

DUBLIN, Calif., Sep. 28, 2007 (KGO) - A first of its kind anti-terrorist drill is getting underway in Alameda County. 250 members of law enforcement from across the state are involved in a Homeland Security operation called Urban Shield.
There will be helicopter drills at a base camp in Dublin and they will get to practice their fire arms training at a gun range there. However, most of the activities will take place far away from Dublin and you might even see them in your community (cont..)

TOPOFF 4 (update)

Huge homeland security exercise to be staged in Chandler
http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/0927cr-terror0928.html

Federal authorities will descend on Chandler's historic Crowne Plaza San Marcos Golf Resort in October to stage one of the largest homeland security exercises in the country, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials announced this week. Top Officials 4, or TOPOFF 4, will run Oct.15-19 and involve various federal agencies along with representatives from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, officials said. "San Marcos was a facility that could accommodate the needs of the exercise," said Michael Murphy, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Health Services, who is assisting in communications for the exercise
The hotel offered the government discounted per diem rates, Murphy said. All the rooms will be occupied by participants of the exercise. The exercise will also take place in Oregon and Guam, and combined will involve more than 15,000 participants, including the Chandler Fire Department, in a full-scale, simulated response to radiological dispersal-device attacks, FEMA authorities said in a statement. The devices are unconventional weapons that a terrorist might use to destabilize a community. A "dirty bomb" is one example. The operation will focus on mass decontamination, long-term recovery, prevention and intelligence.

Russia promises retaliation if weapons deployed in space
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070927/81302492.html

MOSCOW, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to take appropriate measures if weapons are deployed in space, the commander of the Russian Space Forces said Thursday.
"Should any country deploy weapons in space, then the laws of armed warfare are such that retaliatory weapons are certain to appear," Col. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said.
He said Russia and China have drafted an international declaration on the non-deployment of weapons in space and sent it to the UN.
"It is necessary to establish the rules of the game in space," he said, adding that the deployment of weapons in space could have unpredictable consequences, since such weapons are "very complex systems."
"A sizable war could break out," the commander said.
He said space must not be the sphere of interests of any one country.
"We do not want to fight in space, and we do not want to call the shots there either, but we will not permit any other country to do so," he said.
Popovkin also said that Russia has an integrated missile attack warning system, covering the country's entire territory.

Russia to carry out 308 counter-terrorism drills this year
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070927/81361325.html

Alabama City Reopening Fallout Shelters
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070927/D8RU0NAG0.html

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - In an age of al-Qaida, sleeper cells and the threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville is dusting off its Cold War manual to create the nation's most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.
Others would hunker down in college dorms, churches, libraries and research halls that planners hope will bring the community's shelter capacity to 300,000, or space for every man, woman and child in Huntsville and the surrounding county.
Emergency planners in Huntsville - an out-of-the-way city best known as the home of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center - say the idea makes sense because radioactive fallout could be scattered for hundreds of miles if terrorists detonated a nuclear bomb.(cont..)

US Video Shows Simulated Hacker Attack
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070927/D8RTQDL80.html

A government video shows the potential destruction caused by hackers seizing control of a crucial part of the U.S. electrical grid: an industrial turbine spinning wildly out of control until it becomes a smoking hulk and power shuts down. (Cont..)

Governor criticizes firefighters' planned terror drill protest
http://www.abc6.com/news/drill_971159___article.html/firefighters_picket.html

Excerpt: "The drill is funded by a $50,000 federal grant and involves a hypothetical terrorist attack at the Rhode Island Convention Center."

UIC Plays Host To City's Emergency Drill
http://www.nbc5.com/news/14222080/detail.html

Former 8th Air Force head outlines space, cyberspace needs
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070927/BREAKINGNEWS/70927031

US-RP Phiblex and Talon Vision exercises
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/Story_Page/tabid/55/cat/regions/news/3723/Default.aspx

U.S. Military Recruits Kids w/Games, + Drills & more...

2007-09-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

Military recruiters sponsor Halo 3 release party
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Military+recruiters+sponsor+Halo+3+release+party&articleId=fc5f832b-88aa-43be-a57f-fca94ef3cda3

Manchester – By 9 p.m. more than 100 gamers, some with parents in tow, had gathered at the GameStop for a "Halo 3" release party, and plenty more were expected by midnight, when the wildly popular X-Box game would officially go on sale.
There was only one glitch in the festivities -- a "Halo 2" tournament was delayed after the chain store's district manager, Suzan Shockley, announced that nobody under 18 could participate. Top prize: a copy of "Halo 3."
"I'm sorry, but it's a company rule. We take the game ratings seriously," she said. "Our store manager misunderstood the rules of the tournament."
The futuristic combat game is rated M for Mature for "blood and gore, mild language and violence," which means you have to be 17 to buy it, or a parent has to buy it for you.
Fortunately, the Air Force was on hand to save the day.
As co-sponsor of the gaming event, local Air Force recruiters were manning party central outside in the strip shopping center parking lot off South Willow Street, where underage gamers who had fled the store in despair flocked for pizza, Mountain Dew and a chance to play "Halo 2" on a split screen from the back of a pimped-out military SUV.
T.J. Abbott, 13, propped a cell phone between his left ear and shoulder while his rapid-fire fingers unloaded a plasma grenade, via wireless controller, onto a lanky alien who came into range from behind a tree in a desolate virtual village.
"Nice kill," said an electronic voice.
Abbott and his friends, R.J. O'Brien, Jorge Rojas and Sean Collins, all eighth-graders at Southside Middle School, have been waiting since the 2004 release of "Halo 2," when they were just a bunch of little kids, for this moment.
"We're getting up at 5 a.m. to play it," said O'Brien, who considered taking a day off school after a late night at the launch party. "But then I couldn't talk about it in school."
For more than a year now, gamers who have loved the first-person shooter aspect of "Halo" have been salivating over all the high-tech improvements promised by Microsoft in its final incarnation.
Pre-sales of "Halo 3" beat all previous records by hitting the million mark two months before the game's release, said Darrell Kiley, a GameStop employee and member of the National Guard.
Sales are expected to be unmatched.
That's thanks to heightened anticipation fueled by a mass-marketing campaign that has included a host of strategic TV trailers and key sponsors -- from Mountain Dew and 7-Eleven, to NASCAR, Pontiac and Burger King.
And of course, having the U.S. government on board doesn't hurt.
"This is going to be huge," said Air Force recruiter Staff Sgt. Christopher Johnson, who got to the site about an hour before the party to set up. He took a break from attaching wings to a replica of a mini F-22 jet.
"We expect a big showing. We have the same demographic as they do," he said, nodding toward the video game store across the parking lot, where kids were already starting to mill around inside. "Our target market is identical to that of video game stores," Johnson said.
He said last month's Air Force/GameStop tailgating bash for the launch of "Madden '08" netted two new recruits.
He said he has yet to hear anyone object to the marketing marriage between the military and adolescent video-gamers.
"I was warned when I got to New Hampshire that it was a very liberal, not exactly pro-military environment, but so far I haven't had any negative feedback," Johnson said.
Joe Turcotte of Derry, a veteran of the Iraq war and member of the New Hampshire chapter of Iraqi Veterans Against the War, said there are those who feel the practice of using simulated war games as a recruiting tactic isn't the best way to enlist new soldiers.
"The whole idea of serving your country out of patriotism gets lost. It cheapens the honor and sacrifice when you turn it into a video game," Turcotte said. "We are proud of our service to our country, but there's something about this that just doesn't seem right."
He feels having military recruiters at the biggest video game launch in history is over-the-top marketing.
"I would like to know if there's a disclaimer, if they're warning kids that their actual combat experience may vary," he said. "War is not a game."

Terrorism simulation will have real explosions, fires
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/184823.html

Downtown Wichita will be rocked by explosions, fires and mass casualties next month.
Elsewhere in the city, terrorists may hold a school hostage.
But it will only be a drill.
Emergency service agencies from more than a dozen counties will converge on Wichita to take part in a full-scale terrorism simulation and training from Oct. 13 to 21.
The exercise will be capped by a 48-hour simulation with actual explosions and fires unfolding in more than one location around the city, officials said.
The mass casualty disaster simulation is being sponsored by the University of Kansas Medical Center and the South Central Kansas Homeland Security Council, and financed in part by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security.
Dozens of people acting as victims will await rescue in rubble left behind by a terrorist attack on buildings on the northwest corner of Washington and Waterman. A demolition crew on Tuesday tore down part of a building that will be used in the simulation.
"This is just an unprecedented opportunity to have real-time training in a scenario that's as realistic as you can get," said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state's adjutant general and director of Kansas Emergency Management.
A wide range of emergency personnel -- firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency management, doctors and medical technicians -- will take part in the simulation after several days of training at locations around Wichita.
"Victims" will wear moulage, realistic body make-up depicting injuries, officials said. Medical personnel will "treat" victims caught in the rubble. (Cont..)

Anthrax drill unites agencies, shows potential problems
http://www.journalpilot.com/articles/2007/09/26/news/news1.txt

Imagine a outbreak of anthrax. How can help be given to residents without cause mass confusion and widespread panic?Several area agencies worked together Wednesday, Sept. 19, at the Hancock County Fair Grounds in Augusta to run through a mass medication dispensing drill for an outbreak of anthrax.The practice drill included the Hancock County Health Department, Hancock County ESDA, Augusta Fire Department, West Point first responders and about a dozen community volunteers. Students from Southeastern High School played community members who drove to the fair grounds to receive medications.Public information officer Melita Finney of the health department began the day with a media session at Augusta City Hall. She read a prepared statement outlining the anthrax outbreak and the steps citizens needed to take to receive medication.The instructions stipulated no one was to leave their vehicle. People were also to know their family medical history, to note any medications they were on or give any conditions like allergies.(Cont.)

Bank exercise plans for disaster
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/09/26/b1.bz.pandemicbanks.0926.p1.php?section=business

What if bird flu mutated into a disease that could be passed readily from human to human? What if it was brought to the United States by an infected traveler and quickly spread to pandemic proportions?
And what if financial life had to go on - transactions essential and mundane needed to be conducted - despite the dire nationwide circumstance?
Sometime after the next three weeks, you can ask the U.S. Treasury Department.
A total of 2,725 banks and other financial institutions across the country - including several in the Eugene-Springfield area - have volunteered to take part in a federal exercise to highlight the risks a pandemic would present and the readiness of the financial services sector to weather such an outbreak. The drill began Monday and will run through Oct. 12. (Cont..)

Australia to take part in U.S. anti-terrorism exercise
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/26/content_6796195.htm

CANBERRA, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock announced on Wednesday Australia will take part in a U.S. counter-terrorism exercise for the first time next month.
Exercise Top Officials 4 in Arizona, Oregon and the U.S. territory of Guam, or TOPOFF 4, is the fourth in a series of exercises hosted by the United States.
The exercise is aimed at testing U.S. preparedness and response systems in relation to a simulated terrorist incident.
Australian government agencies will join Canada and the United Kingdom in this year's exercise.
"Australia has a comprehensive counter-terrorism exercise program to test our arrangements at a national level," Ruddock said in a statement.
"TOPOFF 4 will allow our Australian security agencies to test their responses in conjunction with some of our international partners," he said.
"Taking part in a large scale international exercise allows Australia to continue to strengthen our national preparedness while also expanding international coordination mechanisms," he said.
During the exercise, personnel from Australian agencies will beembedded with U.S. agencies as they respond to simulated attacks.
Australia will also work with the three countries to respond toconsular issues arising from the attacks.

County agencies drill for disasters
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab2.cfm?newsid=18855247&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506066&rfi=6

Anthrax spores. Hostages in the schools. Terror hits home. Sort of.On Sept. 22, the county's public safety personnel including police and firefighters, and school officials participated in the Virginia Department of Emergency Management's Region II Full-Scale Exercise (cont..)

Phoenix to conduct 'World's Biggest Fire Drill' on Oct. 4
http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/0924phx-firedrill0926.html

*Please see:http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/06/340472.shtml

SAIC homeland security work may jump 20 pct in 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN2132499120070924

NGA

Department of Defense begins building on Belvoir expansion
http://www.examiner.com/a-955832~Department_of_Defense_begins_building_on_Belvoir_expansion.html

Fort Belvoir, Va. Department of Defense officials broke ground at Fort Belvoir on Tuesday, kicking off a massive set of construction projects that will eventually accommodate thousands of new workers on the base.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, plans to bring 8,500 workers to the installation’s Engineer Proving Ground over the next four years. The shift is part of the 2005 round of federally mandated Base Realignment and Closure adjustments and is expected to add a total 19,000 new jobs to Belvoir’s work force.
The NGA, headquartered in Bethesda, is a highly secretive intelligence agency whose mission is to collect and analyze geographic data for national security purposes. The new $1.4 billion facility at Belvoir includes 2.4 million feet of administrative and support space and will house all of the agency’s eastern operations. The construction is scheduled to be completed in 2011.

From the Start, the Space Race Was an Arms Race
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/science/space/25mili.html?ref=space

DC Exercise, Future Combat Syst.'s updates +Drills

2007-09-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

Air Exercises Over The District
http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=63175&provider=gnews

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Residents in the national capital region may hear and see military aircraft zipping through the skies today -- but there's no need for alarm. The North American Aerospace Defense Command --or NORAD -- says that it will conduct in-flight training exercises, including F-16s and Coast Guard helicopters. NORAD has held such training exercises since the September 11th, 2001 attacks. It says it has responded to more than 2,300 possible air threats. Residents can expect the flights to occur throughout today, even early morning and late at night.

I/ITSEC Selects Alion Paper to be Presented at Annual Conference
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070924005775&newsLang=en

Excerpt: "The paper looks at the Urban Resolve 2015 Experiment, conducted in 2006, and examines the successes and challenges encountered during the experiment. It also makes recommendations for streamlining integration among diverse simulations distributed over multiple sites. The experiment, which tested roughly 30 simulations that replicate an urban environment after a major crisis has occurred, involved more than 1,000 participants at 19 different sites across the United States. " (cont..)

TOPOFF 4 (update)

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Conducts Largest Counterterrorism Exercise To Date
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1190667427078.shtm

US Army eyes miniature weapons for Future Combat System air vehicles
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/09/24/216896/us-army-eyes-miniature-weapons-for-future-combat-system-air.html

Range could use common propulsion section and family interchangeable warheads
Work is under way to design a new range of munitions specifically for use by the unmanned air vehicle element of the US Army's Future Combat Systems programme, with a version of the service's General Atomics Warrior potentially to be the first to benefit.
US military UAVs have until now used inventory weapons such as the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire and Northrop Grumman Viper Strike, but a new range of munitions could use a common propulsion section and a family of interchangeable warheads to deal with both stationary and moving targets.
Each munition is expected to be around 45cm (18in) long, weigh around 0.9kg (2lb) and to deliver smaller areas of effect than traditional missiles, possibly requiring them to be launched in salvoes, or to have a glide capability, the army says.
"We want lethality for a non-traditional enemy," US Army advanced science and technology directorate director Suzy Young told the US-European micro air vehicle competition and workshop in Toulouse, France. The service has also set out a long-term roadmap for innovative methods for target acquisition and tracking, she said, with FCS payload options including laser designators to highlight targets for armed unmanned ground vehicles.
The US Army meanwhile expects to test fire an air-launched version of Israel Aerospace Industries' gun-launched laser homing anti-tank weapon system from a Northrop MQ-5 Hunter UAV. The anti-armour missile weighs 13kg and has a maximum range of over 14km (7.5nm).

Senate Wants Robo-Copter, ASAP

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/senate-wants-ro.html

US Army dalek assassins to pack mini-missiles?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/24/us_army_dalek_thermobarics/

The US Army is looking to develop a range of miniaturised guided missiles for use by its robot warriors of the future, according to reports. Each missile could be the size of a large party cracker.
Under its Future Combat System (FCS) programme, the US Army plans to kit itself out with all kinds of futuristic gear. Originally, this was to include a lot of robots - including a kind of autonomous droid tank and four different kinds of aerial death-mech - but budget worries have led to several of the machine warriors being deferred.
Some are still left, however, including the miniature flying-dalek Class I and the robotised helicopter Class IV (the class-IV, charmingly, is to be capable of Manned and Unmanned teaming, or MUM operations, in which it cooperates with ordinary fleshy pilots. We suggest SCHTUM, Sudden CHange to Targeting of Unsuspecting Meatsacks, for the day of the inevitable machine-army coup d'etat).
Not so much "Exterminate" as "Obliterate", then.
Thus far, flying kill-droids have tended to be armed with ordinary air weapons, for instance the Hellfire laser-guided missile. This is carried by air force Predators and Reapers, as well as ordinary old Apache attack helicopters. But Hellfires are big old five-foot jobs weighing 100 pounds. They're a bit heavy for little robots to lift. Sometimes, too, a Hellfire might be a bit of a sledgehammer when what you really wanted was a nutcracker.
Now, according to Flight International, the US Army plan to address these concerns. The plan is to develop a new class of mini-missiles, perhaps not dissimilar to the ones used for corridor scuffling by the little flying killbots at the end of Terminator 3.
Suzy Young, US Army advanced science and tech chief, told a killbot convention in France that "we want lethality for a non-traditional enemy", presumably referring to testy southwest Asians rather than the Governator and chums. It appears that each missile will be perhaps 18 inches long and weigh two pounds, even smaller and lighter than the Vietnam-vintage M72 LAW rocket.
(The LAW was always of dubious usefulness against its intended target - enemy tanks - but has long been popular among foot soldiers for taking out bunkers, blowing holes in walls etc. US Marines are still using it in Iraq, reportedly fitted with a new trendy fuel-air warhead.)
The LAW was a simple free-flying job, too, but the new droid-carried micro-missiles will be capable of tracking in on a laser dot at the very least. There are man-portable weapons which do this, or which can track an aircraft's heat exhaust, but they tend to be quite heavy and bulky.
The new US initiative seems to suggest a guided missile not much bigger than a tube of Pringles; one that could perhaps be carried by the new generation of man-portable, hand-launched silent mini-planes now going into action.
Latest-generation thermal imager kit might allow the new micro-missiles - or their launching droid motherships - to track the heat signature of individual humans in true sci-fi style. Flight reckons there will be a "family of interchangeable warheads", no doubt including fashionable fuel-air, armour piercing etc.
In many ways it seems a bit lazy of the US defence establishment to only develop these lightweight super-missiles for the convenience of robots. Many a cursing, overburdened human grunt of recent decades would have been glad to have a trouser-pocket thermobaric bomb rather than a mortar baseplate or similar.
The arms designers would contend, of course, that until very recently they were mainly looking to blow up enemy tanks - and you need a fairly big, fat missile for that. But it could be that in fact the weapons factories are working more and more for the robot army rather than the fleshy one...

Local health department to conduct Flu Drill http://www.themillennews.com/news/2007/0926/Other_Jenkins_News/007.html

The East Central Health District and the Jenkins County Health Department will conduct a mass immunization drill Oct. 2-4. The purpose of the drill is to test the organizations' capacity to provide mass immunizations in the event of a biological disaster. (cont..)

Anthrax drill is met with relief and skepticism (Update)http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/09/24/anthrax_drill_is_met_with_relief_and_skepticism/

Queshan 2007 military exercise heats up in central China http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/24/content_6786327.htm

Is India aligning in a new Cold War?http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/113308.html

Even as Russo-American tensions smoulder from Eastern Europe and Central Asia to the Arctic seabed, the US Secretary of State is denying the onset of a renewed Cold War. Yet, unmistakable signals of a counter-balancing effort by Russia and China were sent last month through the largest-ever war games of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a six-nation anti-US alliance (cont..)

Wednesday Sept 19 updates

2007-09-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

* PMC News may not be updated until the following Tue...I will be taking a vaction in L.A and SF....

Maryland Guard Vigilant in Homeland Defense Exercise
http://www.army.mil/-news/2007/09/19/4922-maryland-guard-vigilant-in-homeland-defense-exercise/

Members of the 32nd Civil Support Team of the Maryland National Guard suit up to perform simulated hazardous material recovery operations during Exercise Vigilant Guard in downtown Baltimore. Photo by

Maryland National Guard
BALTIMORE (Maryland National Guard, Sept. 19, 2007) - Soldiers of the Maryland National Guard's 115th Military Police Battalion were among the first troops securing the scene at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and six years later, some of these same Soldiers are fully engaged in a homeland defense exercise aimed at preparing for a potential repeat of that day's events - training they hope never to use.It's called Exercise Vigilant Guard, and it's an annual training exercise sponsored by the National Guard Bureau at locations across the country. One such exercise took place in Maryland Sept. 5-7."Exercises such as Vigilant Guard ensure the National Guard is as prepared as possible in order to respond to any contingency that may occur," said Maj. Gen. Bruce F. Tuxill, the adjutant general of Maryland. "Having Soldiers and Airmen who are trained, equipped and ready for domestic emergencies is at the heart of the National Guard mission."The terrorist attack scenario unfolded over the course of the three-day exercise. The first two days were played out on computer screens and communication equipment at the Joint Operations Center at Camp Fretterd Military Reservation in Reisterstown, Md., primarily testing the Maryland Guard's ability to coordinate and interoperate with other state and local agencies.Using simulated reports - "notional injects" in exercise parlance - from a variety of sources, the scenario unfolded. First a truck bomb collapsed a span of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge during rush hour traffic. Next, a bomb exploded on a rail line, derailing a train near the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. As public concern spread, traffic approached gridlock and telephone lines become overwhelmed. Suspected terrorists next fired an anti-tank rocket at a train in downtown Baltimore, followed by a shoot-out with city police who found a suspicious white powder in their vehicle near the M&T Bank Stadium.With local responders overwhelmed, the situation became serious enough to require military assistance, and Gov. Martin O'Malley called out the National Guard.The third day of events was no longer just notional; it was full of action as National Guard troops, Baltimore City Police Department, Baltimore City Fire Department and other local first responders swung into action and actually implemented their response in downtown Baltimore.A cloud of debris rose from a parking lot in downtown Baltimore as Maryland National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters landed near the stadium and began to disperse Soldiers from the 115th Military Police Battalion's Initial Reaction Force. Soon the Guardsman had assessed the situation and deployed their forces, setting up checkpoints and patrolling the streets.Meanwhile, Soldiers and Airmen of 32nd Civil Support Team, who specialize in detecting nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, donned blue HAZMAT suits and attempted to analyze materials at the scene.For added realism, the whole operation was under the scrutiny of "mock media" - reporters and news cameramen played by members of the Maryland National Guard and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.As the military police and HAZMAT teams worked to contain the situation, members of the 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment and the 175th Wing formed a Joint Media Operations Center to respond to reporters' questions and increase the flow of information to a worried public.In the end, the scene was secured and the threat identified.More important, the goal of the exercise was achieved: to prepare for the worst. As Vigilant Guard came to a close, Col. Pete Hinz, the Joint Task Force commander, reflected on the overall intent of the exercise."Although this was a National Guard Bureau sponsored event, Vigilant Guard really encapsulated some of Gov. O'Malley's 12 Homeland Security Goals. Three of the main goals we exercised here today were interoperability among many of the first responders, hazardous material recovery and training, training, training," Col. Hinz said."We have learned a lot from this exercise and will use these lessons learned to continue to improve our homeland readiness here in Maryland."

"Exercise Pacific Shield 07"

Japan to host multinational WMD intercept drill in October
http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2007/sep/18/japan_host_multinational_wmd_intercept_drill_october.html

TOKYO, Sept 18 (KUNA) -- Japan will host a multinational Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) exercise southwest of Tokyo October 13-15 in an effort to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
"Australia, France, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, and the US will participate in the PSI Maritime Interdiction Exercise 'Pacific Shield 07,' to be held in the eastern sea area off Izu Oshima, and Yokosuka and Yokohama ports," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
(Cont..)

180,000 Private Contractors Flood Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/19/AR2007091901836.html

A US private security officer with his face covered against dust, sits in a Chinook helicopter as they accompany Iraq's US civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer on a visit to the southern marsh areas of Iraq in this Thursday, Sept 18, 2003 file photo near the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The Iraqi Interior Ministry said Monday Sept. 17, 2007that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of civilians during an attack on a U.S. State Department motorcade in Baghdad. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight people were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad. The spokesman said witness reports pointed to Blackwater involvement but said the incident was still under investigation. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo, File) (Karel Prinsloo - AP)

WASHINGTON -- The United States has assembled an imposing industrial army in Iraq larger than its uniformed fighting force and responsible for a such a broad swath of responsibilities the military might not be able to operate without its private-sector partners.
More than 180,000 Americans, Iraqis, and nationals from other countries work under a slew of federal contracts to provide security, gather intelligence, build roads, forge a financial system, and transport needed supplies in a country the size of California.
That figure contrasts with the 163,100 U.S. military personnel, according to U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., the organization responsible for military operations in the Middle East. The Pentagon puts the military figure at 169,000. There are another 12,400 coalition forces in Iraq.
But it has its dangers. Employees for Blackwater USA were involved in a weekend shooting that left 11 Iraqis dead.
The heavy reliance on contractors in a war zone is partly the result of a post-Cold War shrinking of the armed forces and the Bush administration's preference for contracting out government functions to the corporate world.

Bush Urges Congress To Further Expand Spy Powers
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008571898

Mock bomb exercise at Fort Lee
Drill tests ability to face real thing
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-09-19-0154.html

Local officials drill for disaster
http://www.siftingsherald.com/articles/2007/09/19/news/news4.txt

Public health drills for emergencies
http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070919/NEWS01/709190309

*as always..thanks to Nico Haupt:
10/16: Forthcoming huge FCS/DEW 3 Day Conference in Huntsville, Alabama
http://forum.911movement.org/index.php?showtopic=331&st=30#entry14504857

GA Anthrax Drill, UAV Kill, Taiwan, + DHS Fraud..

2007-09-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

* this is worst than a SNL skit...

Terrorist drill unfolds early Sunday at Mall of Georgia
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=117438

BUFORD - It was a drill, only a drill, Sunday morning at the Mall of Georgia but Gwinnett area emergency responders treated a terrorist scenario involving deadly anthrax like it was the real thing.Fire, police and public health services observed September's National Preparedness Month with a drill that included simulated bombs, shooters and medical treatment according to Vernon Goins with East Metro Public Health.
"This is the first time that we've ever come together and all of the agencies that would be involved participated in one drill," Goins said." equipment that we've never had to deploy before and setting up a moment's notice to decontaminate and treat people."

Army records first UAV kills
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/09/army_UAV_kills_070915w/

When Army scouts in Iraq spotted two men planting a roadside bomb Sept. 1, they called in a nearby Hunter unmanned aircraft, which dropped a laser-guided bomb and killed the two men.
"We had the first confirmed use of an Army weaponized UAV," said Col. Don Hazelwood, project manager for Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems at Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
The Army is mounting precision-guided weapons on hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hazelwood said.
The MQ-5B Hunter will carry the laser-guided GBU-44/B Viper Strike, a 42-pound glide bomb with a one-yard wingspan that can strike within one meter of its aim point.
The Army intends to increase the number of Viper Strike bombs it intends to buy, but declined to give specific numbers, said Tim Owings, the Army’s deputy project manager for UAVs.
AGM-114 Hellfire missiles are going on the Warrior AlphaUAV, a prototype version of the MQ-1C Warrior Extended-Range Multi-purpose UAV to be ready by 2009. Eventually, the Warrior may also carry Viper Strikes.
Both UAV types will carry laser designators that can be used to guide munitions dropped from UAVs or manned aircraft, said Owings.
He said the Army has a human in the loop who decides when to fire a UAV’s weapons (cont..)

The warning behind the air raid drill
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/09/16/2003379042

Sunday, Sep 16, 2007, Page 8
Yesterday, three closely related events occurred in three cities -- two in Taiwan and one in China. Major rallies were held in Taichung and Kaohsiung by tens of thousands of Taiwanese supporting the nation's bid to join the UN. Meanwhile, Shanghai held its largest air raid drill since 1949, with sirens ringing across the city for as long as 20 minutes. These events indicate that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will not back down over Taiwan's sovereignty. (Cont...)

Get your flu shots free as part of pandemic drill
http://www.gazette.com/articles/flu_27302___article.html/health_people.html

"Exercise Himalayan Warrior"
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=31275

Himalayan Warrior, a joint UK-India exercise comprising specialist high altitude training, will be held in the Ladakh region 17 September-11 October including a period of acclimatisation. This is a unique opportunity to share best practice between elite soldiers of both British and Indian Armed Forces. (Cont..)

DANEX 07 brings together 20 units from five European nations
http://www.shippingtimes.co.uk/item922_albion.htm

HMS Albion has just taken part in a multi-national exercise in the Baltic, involving more than 20 units from 5 countries (Denmark, UK, Norway, Germany and Poland). The UK contribution also included a detachment of 2 Lynx Helicopters from 815 Naval Air Squadron. Staged and co-ordinated by the Danish Navy, DANEX 07 provided training in littoral operations, with a particular emphasis on Crisis Reaction Operations. The exercise included a Disaster Relief Operation and Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (or NEO). (cont..)

Operational Readiness Inspection

Barksdale exercises may increase noise
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070913/BREAKINGNEWS/70913044

Pentagon, Homeland Security fail audits
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/09/ap-pentagon-hom.html

Financial records at the Pentagon and Homeland Security Department are so disorganized and inconsistent that they cannot be audited fully, making them subject to waste, fraud and abuse.
(Cont...)

"OJ" Arrest: News Cycle Distraction/Military/intel sting psyop?

http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/14126108/detail.html

USJFCOM: "Solid Curtain",MODSIM EXPO, FCS, Drill, "Stand Down" update..

2007-09-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

"Solid Curtain 2007"

Exercise Solid Curtain 2007 Scheduled for Sept. 14 – 21: Base access to be limited Sept. 20
http://www.navycompass.com/news/newsview.asp?c=224980
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-now-navytraffic,0,7429687.story

Exercise Solid Curtain 2007, a Navy force protection exercise, will be conducted on all naval installations in the continental United States Sept. 14 - 21, 2007.Exercise Solid Curtain 2007, conducted to enhance training and readiness of naval security personnel, is a regularly-scheduled exercise and is not in response to any specific threat.While disruptions to base operations will be limited, there may be times when the exercise causes increased traffic or delays in base access.Area residents may also see increased military activity associated with the exercise.On Sept. 20, all continental United States naval installations will increase their Force Protection Condition, which will limit base access and impact local area traffic patterns. However, this exercise will not affect the homecoming of USS Peleliu (LHA 5), the San Diego-based amphibious assault ship returning home from a four-month humanitarian deployment to Southeast Asia and Oceania. A training time out will be in effect at Naval Base San Diego during Peleliu's homecoming.

Command profiles modeling and simulation usage at MODSIM World Conference and Expo 2007
http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2007/pa091207.htm

U.S. Joint Forces Command helped lead a panel on homeland defense and modeling and simulation as the Virginia Beach Convention Center hosted the MODSIM World Conference and Expo 2007. The event features the latest in modeling and simulation technology and discussions about the future of modeling and simulation for use in homeland defense.

(VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.) – Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), founder and chairman of the Congressional Modeling & Simulation Caucus, speaks to attendees of the MODSIM World Conference and Expo being held at the Virginia Beach Conference Center Sept. 11-13, 2007. (Photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Bryan D. Axtell)(Released)
(VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Sept. 12, 2007) - U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) and several of its partners were on hand as
modeling and simulation (M&S)took center stage this week at the MODSIM World Conference and Expo 2007 at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. (Cont..)

FCS (update)

Tracking Trends In Military-Electronics Technologies
http://www.mwrf.com/Articles/Index.cfm?Ad=1&ArticleID=16646

Some of the largest of military programs are pushing for troop and fleet modernization, making use of advanced technologies as well as practical manufacturing approaches
Military-electronics technology has long trended toward achieving more functionality and performance in smaller packages. The ways in which electronic technologies are applied may change, but that trend for smaller and lighter electronic devices and systems remains. For companies faced with supplying electronic components and equipment for military applications, most innovations focus on saving size, power, weight, and, of course, cost.
At the highest levels, military-electronics technology is driven by large programs, and each of the branches of the United States military has invested in major, "pet" programs aimed at modernization and/or future capabilities. The US Army's appropriately named Future Combat Systems (FCS) program (www.army.mil/fcs), for example, represents one of the most ambitious developmental programs in US military history. Often referred to as a "system of systems," FCS is based on a vision of a robotic battlefield, using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and robot soldiers, and a sophisiticated wireless communications network for communications and control among humans with remote controls and their robotic counterparts. Under the stewardship of prime contractor, The Boeing Co. (http://www.boeing.com/), and partner Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), acting as Lead Systems Integrator (LSI), the FCS program has so far met all major milestones in developing this next-generation electronic army.
The FCS System of Systems Functional Review, for example, conducted about two years ago, lasted for five days and involved more than 35 briefings and dozens of demonstrations to attendees who included members of the US Army, Department of Defense (DoD), and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The review included more than 11,000 system-of-systems engineering requirements derived and allocated through a rigorous systems engineering process. The review, conducted more than two years into the FCS program, was part of the FCS Systems Development and Demonstration Contact, valued at $20.9 billion. Since the review, the FCS program has undergone several successful field experiments and demonstrations, to the great satisfaction of US Army attendees and participants involved with various aspects of FCS electronic systems. The spinout of FCS capabilities is expected to begin in 2008, including networking, unattended munitions, sensors, and robotic systems, with the first FCS Unit of Action (larger-scale system) scheduled for release in 2014. The Unit of Action includes 18 manned and unmanned ground and air platforms, tied together by wireless network.
Most recently, Boeing and SAIC (http://www.saic.com/) have selected Elgin, OK as a principal site for FCS Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) integration and assembly work. Partner BAE Systems (http://www.baesystems.com/) will construct and manage a 150,000-sq.-ft. facilityat the Ft. Sill Industrial Park in Elgin. The facility will initially house production integration and assembly activities for the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) initial production platform, the first of eight FCS vehicle variants. Completion of the new facility is anticipated in 2009. The FCS MGVs are being developed in partnership with BAE Systems and General Dynamics (http://www.generaldynamics.com/) with the intent of dramatically enhancing soldier survivability. The MGVs feature an integrated hybrid-electric propulsion system, the first use of such technology in operational Army ground combat vehicles. The first use of the hybrid electric drive technology will be in the NLOS-C.
Looking forward, Boeing and the US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) have signed a three-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to analyze current, emerging, and future joint warfighting concepts and capabilities. The analysis is in concert with the USJFCOM's Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate (Suffolk, VA), and will employ computer modeling, simulation, and analysis with virtual and live experiments to evaluate the US DoD's joint concepts and enabling capabilities. Boeing Advanced Systems' AMSE division will lead the company's efforts under the CRADA.
In addition to its sophisticated networking capabilities, the FCS relies on advanced robotics technologies to keep human soldiers out of harm's way. Boeing recently signed a teaming agreement with robotics specialist iRobot Corp. (http://www.irobot.com/) to develop and deliver a next-generation Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) for military, civil, and commercial applications. The SUGV is designed to be less than 30 lbs. and enable users to remotely conduct reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering operations. The agreement calls for the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology to the greatest extent possible in the development of the SUGV, which is expected to be in production by 2008.
The developmental SUGV Early will be a smaller, lighter version of iRobot's PackBot® robot, which is battle tested in Iraq and Afghanistan for safely disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as well as searching buildings, tunnels, and caves for hostile forces. According to Vice Admiral Joe Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.), president of iRobot Government & Industrial Robots, "By teaming with Boeing, we can leverage their system-of-system capabilities and global marketing strength to quickly get these life-saving robots into the hands of our troops, first responders and allies worldwide."
Boeing and iRobot will jointly market the new SUGV Early robot. Boeing will also contribute expertise in systems integration, large-volume production, and global marketing, while iRobot will design, develop, and manufacture the robot using its proven experience with the iRobot PackBot and its development work on the FCS program. Dennis Muilenburg, vice president and general manager for Boeing Combat Systems, says "We see ground robots as a major new growth market and iRobot, as the industry leader in this field, is our partner of choice to bring new robot technology to market." More than 900 iRobot PackBot robots have been delivered to a broad range of military and civilian customers worldwide, for operations that have included life-saving missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. iRobot recently announced a delivery order from the US Navy to build additional bomb-disposal robots for shipment to the US forces overseas. The $14 million award from the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) calls for 101 iRobot PackBot® Man Transportable Robotic System (MTRS) robots, plus spare parts to repair robots in the field. iRobot shipped the initial lot of PackBot robots for this order in late March 2007, and the company expects to deliver the remaining robots pursuant to this delivery order before the end of this year. Under the terms of the previously existing Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract, the military could order up to the full $264 million value in robots, spare parts, training, and repair services. The US military's MTRS program has requirements for as many as 1200 robots through 2012. (Cont..)

Nanotechnology Weaponry

Any danger in ‘nano’ bits?
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2007/09/12/news/opinion/5edi01_nano.txt

NYC (Staten Island)

Island-wide emergency preparedness drill scheduled
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2007/09/islandwide_emergency_preparedn.html

The Port Richmond Community Emergency Response team will conduct a borough-wide emergency preparedness drill on Staten Island on Sept. 23 at 1 p.m.
Residents can make contact with members of the team by tuning in to channel 1 on the two-way radio FRS (Family Radio Service).
The purpose of the drill is to practice using auxiliary methods of communications which could be useful during times of emergency when primary communications methods like telephones and cell phones break down. Using the radio during emergencies, Staten Islanders can stay in touch with friends and neighbors and solicit help in times of need.
The drill will last for about one hour

Air Force ordered to stand-down tomorrow: NORAD, NORTHCOM on alert for U.N. meetings (update)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6765

Contrary to rumors surrounding the Air Combat Command's stand-down of all 100,000 active-duty airmen ordered for tomorrow, the U.S. will not be devoid of fighter aircraft to protect the nation.
Michael Kucharek, spokesman for NORAD and USNORTHCOM, told WND the stand-down does not include the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves assigned to NORAD.
About 70 percent of the aircraft involved in NORAD alerts are Air National Guard or Air Force Reserves aircraft, according to Kucharek.
Meanwhile, NORAD and USNORTHCOM will be on alert status Monday when the U.N. convenes a high level meeting on climate change and also Tuesday when the General Assembly begins its 62nd Session in New York City.
The stand-down Friday was ordered by Gen. Ronald Keys to conduct a command-wide review of operations, safety procedures and checklists after the Aug. 30 incident at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, according to the Air Force Times.

"Cooperative Marlin 2007"

Computer simulation command post NATO exercise "Cooperative Marlin 2007" underway in Sevastopol, Crimea
http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=148&listid=51559

The exercise drew together participants from the navies of 15 countries: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates (cont..)

"Operation Steel Hammer"

County disaster drillplanned for Saturday
http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18811823&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478569&rfi=6

HAMMER DOWN Here's a schedule of simulated emergencies and training exercises for Operation Steel Hammer:Friday, Sept. 148 a.m. to noon - Beaver County Airport, Chippewa Township, a plane lands with some type of biological or chemical agent aboard.8 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Bradys Run Park, Brighton Township, mass casualty incident in the ice arena parking lot.9 a.m. to noon - Beaver County Courthouse, Beaver, terrorist attack at the courthouse.9 a.m. to noon - The Medical Center, Beaver, in Brighton Township, surge of patients into the hospital's emergency room.9 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Beaver Valley Power Station, Shippingport, internal security exercise.6 p.m. to 10 p.m. - Propane tank farm along Route 68 in Industry, at the border with Midland, propane tank explosion and fire.8 p.m. to midnight - Northern Lights Shopping Center, Economy, military civil support team training.Saturday, Sept. 153 a.m. to 5 p.m. - Beaver County Courthouse parking garage, collapse of the parking garage, with people trapped inside.5 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Ohio River, near Rochester, military exercise involving a barge.6 a.m. to 3 p.m. - South Beaver Township, along Georgetown Road, search for a possible biological or chemical agent.9 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Community College of Beaver County, Center Township, mass casualty incident in parking lot by student union building.9 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Conway Yards in Conway, tanker car leaking chemicals.11 p.m. to 1 a.m. - Beaver Valley Mall, Center Township, discovery of possible chemical or biological agent.Sunday, Sept. 163 a.m. to 10 a.m. - South Side High School, Greene Township, investigation of possible biological or chemical agent.6 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Freedom Area High School, New Sewickley Township, mass casualty incident.9 a.m. to noon - Beaver Area High School, Beaver, hostage situation.9 a.m. to noon - Rochester, borough power outage (cont..)

Computerised voices could unleash "vocal terrorism"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/sep/13/voice

Computerised speech capable of mimicking any human voice is in danger of unleashing a form of "vocal terrorism", where disinformation is spread by hacking into telephone networks, British scientists warned today. (cont..)

Taiwan holds unprecedented naval drill
(Link expired)
Kyodo News, Japan - 15 hours ago... a submarine, and other vessels and aircraft -- cruised 54 kilometers west of Taiwan toward China to stage a live-fire drill and antisubmarine maneuvers

ROVER, Vigilant Guard, FCS, Taiwan Drill, Russia etc..

2007-09-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

ROVER Sics TacAir on America's Enemies
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/rover-sics-tacair-on-americas-enemies-updated-01700/?camp=newsletter&src=did&type=textlink

"ROVER" is an unimpressive piece of equipment. Mostly, it looks like a ruggedized laptop with antennas. But SpaceWar.com quotes Lt. Col. Gregory E. Harbin, of the 609th Combat Operations Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, SC, who says "...the ROVER is bringing a phenomenal capability to our people on the ground." ROVER is the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver, which receives camera images from nearby aircraft and UAVs (somewhat like Israel's
wrist-mounted V-RAMBO), then integrates them with other US positioning and targeting software.
Staff Sgt. Justin Cry, a Shaw Joint Tactical Air Controller (JTAC), has a job that's an art form at the best of times. Describing features from the ground to a pilot looking down while flying at high speed is no easy task. He used the system in Iraq and in New Orleans, and says simply: "I can circle an area on my screen, drawing arrows for emphasis, and what I'm drawing appears on (the pilots') screens as well."
ROVER continues to evolve, and is becoming an unheralded but critical piece of equipment in America's arsenal. This is DID's FOCUS Article covering the system and its ongoing developments – the latest of which is a contract for next-generation ROVER III data links.

Vigilant Guard exercise designed to fight terrorism
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpID=574&NewsID=837329&CategoryID=8012&show=localnews&om=1

Excerpt: "From Sept. 5 to 7, military contractor Anser Corp. threw a series of intelligence alerts and emergency reports -- via e-mail -- at guardsmen in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. They even videotaped phony cable news reports to convey the details, emotion and misinformation surrounding the terrorist attack."..(cont..)

Shelby announces defense funding for north Alabama

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=7059793&nav=0hBE

WASHINGTON, DC Tuesday, September 11, 2007 -- U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, today announced subcommittee approval of important funding for North Alabama included in the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2008. Following today's action by the subcommittee, this bill will go to full committee for consideration on Wednesday. "The funding approved by the Senate will support important defense-related programs that strengthen our national security," said Shelby. "These programs are critical to the stability of our nation's military infrastructure and readiness and the Senate's approval demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the safety of our citizens and the strength of our military. Having just returned from Iraq, I know these programs will prove beneficial as we continue the fight against terrorism. In total, this bill provides $459.3 billion for defense-related needs.......
"Future Combat System (FCS) -- $3.107 billion
"Future Combat Systems (FCS), the core building block of the U.S. Army's Future Force, is a joint networked combat and combat-support system that provides our soldiers with greater situational awareness so they can see first, understand first, and act first," said Shelby. "FCS is integral to equipping the warfighter with the most technologically advanced weapons system." (Cont..)

Eye on Taiwan, Shanghai plans major air raid drill
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6914728,00.html

BEIJING, Sept 12 (Reuters) - China is to hold a major air raid drill in Shanghai, the likely target of Taiwan missiles in the event of conflict, a sign the country's leadership still views war as a possibility with the island it claims as its own.
Saturday's drill will coincide with a rally in Taiwan's Kaohsiung city at which the ruling Democratic Progressive Party will try to mobilise 1 million people to demonstrate support for the island's frustrated bid for membership of the United Nations. (Cont...)

Russia tests 'Dad Of All Bombs'
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=paBomb_Wed_18_Russia_bombUD&show_article=1

Russia's military has successfully tested what it describes as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb.Channel One television said the new ordnance, nicknamed the "Dad Of All Bombs" is four times more powerful than the US "Mother Of All Bombs"."The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a
nuclear weaponin its efficiency and capability," Col Gen Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said.Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb does not pose an environmental threat from the release of radiation, he added.The statement reflected the Kremlin's efforts to restore Russia's global clout and rebuild the nation's military might.The muscle-flexing comes at a time when ties with Washington have become strained over US criticism of Russia's slips on democracy, Moscow's vociferous protests against US missile defence plans and rifts over global crises.The US Massive Ordnance Air Blast, a large-yield satellite-guided, air delivered bomb, had been described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history.Channel One said that while the Russian bomb contained about 7 tons of high explosives compared with more than 8 tons of explosives in the US bomb, it is four times more powerful because it uses explosives developed with the use of nanotechnology.While the American bomb was equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one was equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon's blast radius is 1,000 feet, twice as big as that of the US design, the report said.Like its US predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian "Dad Of All Bombs" is a so-called thermobaric weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shockwave created by the air burst and high temperature.

Marine Corps' Mattis nominated to lead JFCOM
http://www.fcw.com/article103737-09-11-07-Web

President Bush has nominated Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Mattis to be promoted to the rank of general and commander of Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., the Defense Department announced today (cont..)

BAE Wins $17.9M for ARGUS Wide-Aera Video
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/bae-wins-179m-for-argus-wide-aera-video-03781/?camp=newsletter&src=did&type=textlink

Security "Surges," Drills Now Commonplace For NYPD
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=73449
Fort Drum conducts force protection exercise
http://news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=119666&SecID=83

Norway pulls out of NATO exercise
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/09/12/norway_pulls_out_of_nato_exercise/747

ONR 3D Immersive Trainer, North Grum:FCS UAV, etc

2007-09-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

U.S. Marine Simulation Evolves Into Immersion
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3018479&C=america

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The days when U.S. Marines trained for battle with combat video games may be over, now that advanced technologies are propelling military simulators into the three-dimensional realm of "immersive training."
This month, the Marine Corps and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) plan to unveil a $1.3 million prototype Infantry Immersive Trainer at Camp Pendleton, Calif. A second simulator is planned for the Marine Expeditionary Rifle Integration Facility at Quantico, Va.
"We show what the art of the possible is," said Navy Cmdr. Dylan Schmorrow, a program officer who is helping lead the project for ONR. "You’re able to operate temporally through three-dimensional space."
Immersive training, a relatively new term, means a combination of live and virtual training, and eventually constructive, or networked, aspects as well.
Announced in April, the project incorporates several technologies developed by ONR, which has spent nearly $75 million and plans to spend another $50 million in the next five years on human performance, training and education programs.
The Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at the University of Southern California, meanwhile, has developed FlatWorld, which combines sounds and high-resolution imagery projected on digital flat-screen displays with real physical objects, movable props and reconfigurable rooms and buildings.
It’s a far cry from a decade ago, when the Marine Corps turned to "Marine Doom," a military version of the popular two-dimensional personal-computer-based game, to help sharpen the battlefield tactics of its troops and fire teams.
A Leap Ahead
Fire teams or squads will participate within a 3-D video game of urban-battlefield streets in life-size combat driven by video-game simulations and interactive technologies that are more realistic and adaptable and easily incorporated into training facilities. A rifle squad could practice closer to home base while operating virtually in simulated play through a key firefight during the 2004 battle of Fallujah, for example.
The Infantry Immersive Trainer is being developed in a 30,000-square-foot former tomato-packing warehouse near Camp Pendleton’s northern infantry camp, San Mateo, Schmorrow said. Once it goes online, it could pave the way for broader uses for the Corps’ version of immersive training.
"We use the term ‘holodeck,’" said Tom Buscemi, director of the I Marine Expeditionary Force Simulation Center at Camp Pendleton, referring to the popular Star Trek show. "Certainly, technology doesn’t offer that kind of thing right now with holograms and that sort of thing. But we’ve had enough of the 16-inch, 21-inch-monitor flat screen. We need something that is more real, more interactive, more personally involved."
The immersive trainer grew out of a requirement identified last year by Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Lt. Gen. James Mattis, then-commanding general.
"Mattis has been very visionary," Schmorrow said. "He’s been a good bully pulpit."
Mattis wanted a system "that was gymnasium-size, that provided for the inoculation, primarily for the guy that hadn’t done it before, into close-quarters battle, and the chaos, the confusion and the ethical problems that they experience," Buscemi said.
Immersive training would challenge infantrymen ethically through scenarios and help prepare them for the more intense, larger-scale "Mojave Viper" exercises at the Corps’ desert training base in Twentynine Palms, Calif., he said.
Mattis wanted infantry simulations to get the kind of money and attention spent on flight simulators, and he wanted more than the traditional static trainers, such as indoor marksmanship trainers.
"People had asked, ‘Why aren’t we doing this with the infantry, for the Marine Corps?’" Schmorrow said.
Mattis wanted a trainer that didn’t tie up Marines with wires and extra gadgets, that allowed them to wear their standard combat gear and carry and operate their weapons.
"He’s not going to be hooked and wired with MILES gear," Buscemi said.
About 1,000 acres will be developed into a larger training area so a platoon could get off a helicopter and assault or operate in the simulated town, he said.
The new simulator will be produced by ONR, the Corps’ Training and Education Command and its training systems program office.
Evolution of a Trainer
The trainer will showcase emerging virtual technology with live training environments. An initial conceptual drawing of the Infantry Immersive Trainer prototype shows a series of buildings with courtyards, interior rooms and multiple levels. The street would be wide enough to operate tactical vehicles such as Humvees.
Members of a fire team or squad will dismount and patrol with their standard weapons and communications and combat gear, searching shops, homes and other buildings — some with virtual interactive life-sized images projected on walls. Rooms and buildings will be tailored and fashioned to a specific combined-arms operating or combat environment.
Buscemi said he was stunned when the Institute for Creative Technologies showed off a countersniper trainer with life-size images projected on flat screens.
"You opened a door and there was an insurgent there who fired. And he fired, and bullet holes appeared on the other wall. I jumped through my skin when I saw that," said Buscemi, a Vietnam veteran and helicopter pilot.
"How they do it was not too technically difficult," he said. "The realism, the size definitely got your attention, because you walked into a room that had furniture strewn about from some combat action and you didn’t know what to expect."
The concept will use live people and things: role-playing civilian villagers and insurgent fighters as well as furnishings, doors and stairwells. Those will be combined with virtual effects — explosions, sounds and smoke — and interactive flat-screen projected images that show, for example, images of a room’s interior or a fighter standing by a doorway. All eventually would be tied into a constructive play that can be tailored toward particular missions, roles and environments.
"It’s going to be able to leverage all that underlying simulation technology ... so they’re in the game," Schmorrow said. "One of the biggest bangs for the buck is we are better able to prepare people to have that live experience. It’s even more effective training."
The training will stretch beyond shoot/don’t-shoot scenarios; they will test infantry squads mentally as well as tactically and physically. A fire team, for example, could burst their way into a clinic and be confronted with loud noises and a foreign-speaking medic.
"Maybe that’s a virtual projection in the room. Do you shoot them? Do you communicate with him?" he said. "These afford us very complex and cognitive training platforms."
By tapping into existing training aids and simulation technologies to train Marines to operate and handle stressful, chaotic situations well before they reach a real combat zone, the Corps is increasing the chances those Marines will get through their first combat experiences, whether an enemy attack, ambush or roadside bomb.
"A lot of studies have shown if you survive your first firefight, then the likelihood of you surviving the rest of your tour is getting increased," Schmorrow said.
Cubic Corp. also is working on a live-virtual-constructive prototype for an immersive training system, said John Lewis and John Schmader, retired Army infantry officers who work for Cubic’s Training and Education Division in Leavenworth, Kan.
"We’ve got the constructive piece finished, the live [piece] is in and we’re working now to bring the virtual piece all together," Schmader said.
Can a Marine or soldier step into the play and participate in an event in, say, the battle of Fallujah — and, more importantly, do his part to drive the progress of the event — with realistic and accurate reactions and feedback while fully intertwined with his squad and other "players" in that virtual environment?
Taking training beyond the 3-D environment into 4-D immersive training is doable, Lewis and Schmader said, but may take some time to perfect.
"The real challenge now is to take multiple players and put them in a realistic environment so they interact," said Schmader, a retired brigadier general who served as deputy commanding general of the Army’s Combined Arms Center at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Leavenworth.
"We are on the verge ... of programs that [place] a person into a scenario and environment that’s realistic, and everybody comes into a game and actually plays it out," he said. "There’s a lot of people out there that have the individual pieces."
Existing technologies can meet 80 percent to 90 percent of the current needs. "What we’re looking at is, ‘What is the availability of the technology that is in place today [to] put it into a package that is user-friendly and training friendly?’" Lewis said.
Cubic’s prototype will involve no proprietary software, Schmader said.
"We’re trying to use software that has commercial applications" so users can alter the product to meet their specific needs, he said.
Part of the challenge is taking real events — for example, Fallujah in all its house-by-house fighting intensities — and tying that into a virtual storyline.
"You turn a lesson learned into a story. You make that story digital, and then you make it interactive digital. You turn it into a real immersive type of learning," Schmader said.
"It’s a systems approach to training. It’s not just buying a game. Games are just one component of immersive training," Lewis said. "Ultimately, what you’re trying to do is enable for the training that’s needed — the learning that’s needed — to be delivered 24/7."
Building Individual Skills
Schmader said immersive trainers will do to individual squad-level training what high-tech simulators such as the Battle Command Training program have done for battle staff training and planning. "We want the individuals to determine the outcome via the game," he said.
"My goal is to go out to the live-fire range and for two guys to get into a fistfight," he said. "We want to really get these young soldiers involved in their own learning."
With an immersive training system, the "walk-crawl-run" mind-set of infantry training would start with building individual skills and small-unit competencies at the fire team and squad levels with systems that support home-station training and portable adaptable systems to support deploying units. Then, he said, you work up the levels of command to support small-unit and command-level training across a larger battle space.
"What you’re looking for is a solution that provides an enabling training tool for that crawl stage," Lewis said.
An immersive training system may enable such things as podcasting a training support package in a gaming format that tests the decision-making of a fire team, for example.
And at the walk stage, a squad could come together using 3-D games, a Virtual Battlefield System or perhaps 4-D holographic images to support team learning, he said. It could support the "run" piece by synchronizing an LVC environment and team at a higher level of command and control.
Lewis is optimistic about what immersive technologies will represent to today’s Marine infantry training programs.
"If you build it, they will come, because that’s the way they learn today," he said. "It’s a shift in how we learn, developed by the operational commanders and driven by the tactical guys."
Schmorrow, who has worked for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, said it may take three to five years for immersive training technologies to mature.
"We can do a lot of this today," he added. "It’s just a matter of leveraging systems and coming into agreement."
Existing technologies already provide high-resolution graphics and interactive simulations that help keep some video games as popular training tools. Among those is the Close Combat series of video games, created by Atomic Games, which includes the 3-D tactical shooter game "Close Combat: First to Fight," designed for infantry fire teams.
"For years, when a company developed a virtual training system for a military customer, it developed its technology from scratch, and it did not update them very quickly," said Peter Tamte, president of Destineer, a Plymouth, Minn., company that develops computer and video games. Users in time quickly noticed the lag in outdated images and lower-quality graphics, he said.
But military simulation has caught up with the video-gaming world.
"The business model is based on sharing video-game technologies with the development of [military] training systems," Tamte said.
The emerging simulation systems are benefiting from higher quality and lower costs, and with the advantage of injecting more realism with the help of combat veterans and other experts, he said, "we can use them to make our commercial video games more authentic."
Tamte said military immersive training systems and the video-gaming industry will benefit from technological advances, including improved graphics that can help drive decision-making, networking that allows more users to train together either on a local area network or on the Internet, and artificial intelligence that can play the role of friendly or opposing forces.
"It allows users, the students, to train multiple times in environments they might not be able to train in in the real world," he said. "It’s repetition that really builds instincts."
While immersive trainers meld the live with the virtual, some wonder what balance between the two will yield the best and most effective training environment.
Tamte said some combat veterans tell him, "You can’t create scenarios and use simulations for learning. There’s never a substitute for reality. But we can create systems where the behaviors are realistic." •

Modeling and simulation mean real opportunities
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=132095&ran=202406

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Built by Northrop Grumman, Gets a Lift From Marine Corps KC-130T Hercules
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/primenewswire/126375.htm

MOSS POINT, Miss., Sept. 10, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- A cooperative effort between the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) resulted in the first ever transport of a Navy MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Take-off and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) in a Marine Corps KC-130T aircraft, flown by Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234, Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas.
http://media.primezone.com/noc/
As part of an ongoing Navy Fire Scout contract, this aircraft was transported from Northrop Grumman's Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point, Miss., to Naval Air Station Patuxent River for flight test operations. The Navy is continuing Fire Scout developmental testing at nearby Webster Field, St. Inigoes, Md.
A Navy MQ-8B Fire Scout was first loaded onto the KC-130T followed by an Army MQ-8B Future Combat Systems (FCS) Class IV UAV. Only the Navy Fire Scout was airlifted, but loading both vehicles demonstrated that a KC-130T tandem loadout is possible. Because transportation requirements for the KC-130 are the most restrictive, this flight certification will be updated to include other aircraft such as the C-5 and C-17. The vehicles were loaded using common procedures for both services, further demonstrating the versatility of the Fire Scout design. This activity allowed the Army to review MQ-8B FCS Class IV UAV transport capabilities early in the development process (cont..)

China 'cyber arms' build-up
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2178383,00.html

Excerpt:
"In 2001, the US military held a computer-simulated "space war" exercise involving a complex stand-off with military satellites, missiles, space planes, lasers and cyber warfare.."

Agencies Stage Drill on Potomac River
http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=25&sid=1243637

WASHINGTON -- Local, state and federal agencies will participate in a drill on the Potomac River off the D.C. shoreline Monday morning.
More than 50 local, state and federal agencies will be involved in the drill, called "Nautical Shield."
Monday's scenario involves an oil slick, but similar coordination would be needed in a terrorist attack involving the Potomac River, Coast Guard Petty Officer John Edwards says.
Officials will be practicing everything from response time, deployment of cleanup resources, coordination between state, federal and local government and how to handle public information.
Drills will also be taking place at Metro and MARC train stations in Montgomery County this week.
More than 160 representatives from local and county police agencies will participate in the training, which lasts from Monday through Thursday.
Montgomery County Police tell the Examiner the training has nothing to do with a security threat.

Office of Homeland Security Announces Expansion of Operation Safeguard
http://www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=7052860

New Disaster Plan Says Who's in Charge
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hAHAJFS3EB2dCMWC6_I1-eBAccjw

Indonesia Signs $1B+ Defense Credit Agreement With Russia
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/indonesia-signs-1b-defense-credit-agreement-with-russia-03760/?camp=newsletter&src=did&type=textlink

Boston Anthrax Drill, Russia UK "Cold war games" etc..

2007-09-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

Unknowing Residents To Take Part In Terror Drill
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/14068248/detail.html

BOSTON -- About 23,000 Boston residents are weeks away from taking part in a bioterror drill, and many probably don't even know it.
Health officials plan to have mail carriers deliver tiny white cardboard boxes to the doorsteps and mailboxes of thousands of residents in the city's West Roxbury and South End neighborhoods on Sunday, Sept. 23.
"Anytime you are talking about a release of anthrax in the city, you are talking about pretty much a worst case scenario where you need to get medications to people as quickly as possible," said John Jacob of the Boston Public Health Commission.
The empty boxes will be used to simulate how quickly antibiotics could be delivered to residents in the event of a bioterror attack.
"No one knows the streets, knows the deliveries, knows where the houses are and the sequence they are set up in better than letter carriers do," said Bob Cannon of the U.S. Postal Service.
In the event of a real emergency when the antibiotics are highly coveted, the mail carriers will have a police escort.
"There is no emergency whatsoever. This is just a test, and this is a way for us to figure out if this particular delivery option is a good fit for Boston," Jacob said.
If it were a real emergency, each box would hold 20 pills.

NJ

Earle conducts preparedness, coordination drill
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070907/NEWS01/709070376/1004

Navy personnel Thursday carry an "injured" man from the scene during a mass-casualty drill on Normandy Road near West Front Street
COLTS NECK — The simulated scenario at Naval Weapons Station Earle was the aftermath of a chemical weapons attack involving a truck carrying chlorine gas and its intended target, an ordnance-filled military train.
So, early Thursday morning members of the Monmouth County Office of Emergency Management, county Prosecutor's Office, county hazardous-materials unit, State Police and state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness gathered at the corner of West Front Street and Normandy Road, the 15-mile military thoroughfare.
All were on site for Earle's mass casualty drill, an all-day exercise to assess the military base's preparedness level and its ability to successfully coordinate with the local and state emergency authorities, base spokesman Patrick Fisher said.
"This will be unfolding without a lot of people knowing (the details)," Fisher said before the drill. "Only about 15 to 20 people know the scenario." (Cont..)

County to hold disaster drill Saturday
http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/223415

Emergency personnel will respond to a major emergency Saturday morning. Fortunately for Portage residents, it will be only a simulation.
The situation area officials planned for is a massive simulation engineered by Canadian Pacific Railway, Columbia County Emergency Management and a number of other local, state and federal agencies. Saturday's event is a simulation and not an actual emergency — something officials want to make very clear to Portage residents.
The nature of the emergency in the simulation is not being released so that participants can't anticipate events. (Cont..)

Russia plays Cold War games
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22380542-2703,00.html

THE RAF scrambled to intercept eight Russian nuclear bombers heading for Britain yesterday in the biggest aerial confrontation between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.
The Tupolev-95 Bear bombers were approaching in formation when they were met by four Tornado F3 fighter jets.
Defence sources said the Russian pilots turned away as soon as they spotted the approaching Tornados and did not enter British airspace.
Norway had earlier sent four F16 jets to shadow the Russians as they neared its airspace in what Moscow insisted was a training mission.
The bombers had flown over international waters from the Barents Sea to the Atlantic before heading for Britain. (Cont..)

Langley planes to be grounded
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/hampton/dp-18333sy0sep07,0,3949434.story

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE - Planes at Langley Air Force Base will be grounded Sept. 14 in response to an incident last week when a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown for three hours across several states.The stand-down was ordered by Air Combat Command and includes all jet fighters and bombers in the Air Force. The command, headquartered at Langley, oversees all of the service's fighters and bombers.Planes in Iraq and Afghanistan and planes participating in air shows this weekend are not affected by the stand-down. (Cont..)

Drills: MD National Gaurd, IL POD , Russia

2007-09-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

Md. Guard plans exercise near stadium Friday
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-guard0906,0,7935909.story

Don't be alarmed if you see military helicopters and soldiers near M&T Bank Stadium tomorrow morning -- it is all part of a homeland security exercise.The Maryland National Guard says that starting about 9:30 a.m., Parking Lot O near Ridgely Street will be filled with ground forces, hazardous material teams and military vehicles and aircraft. The exercise is expected to end tomorrow."The goal of the exercise is to test the National Guard's ability to respond to domestic emergencies under the control of the governor and to support and coordinate with state and local agencies ... while responding to a terrorist attack," the Guard said in a statement.

Health Department needs participante for drill
http://www.journalpilot.com/articles/2007/09/05/news/news3.txt

The Hancock County Health Department will conduct a medication dispensing drill at the Hancock County Fair Grounds in Augusta on Wednesday, Sept. 19. This drill will allow public health, first responders and others to practice their assigned duties in the event of a disaster."We are looking for volunteers from all over Hancock County to participate. Volunteers who participate will drive through the dispensing site to test our dispensing abilities," said Victoria Roberts, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator. "Volunteers are a vital component to the ongoing preparedness efforts in Hancock County." (Cont..)

Indian, Russian paratroopers to stage joint drill
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/102983.html

Russia is to ban weapons in outer space
http://www.russia-ic.com/news/show/4703/

Russia is to ban deployment of nuclear weapons in outer space. It’s the Russia’s official position for the 62d Session of the United Nations General Assembly.At the 62d Session of the United Nations General Assembly on September, 18 Russia aims to get support for working our and signing the Treaty of Banning Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in outer space. The joint initiative of Russia and China to work out such a document is being discussed in the UN for more then five years. Russia offers to include in such a document the main issues: not to place on the Earth orbit any objects carrying any kinds of weapons; not to place any weapons on any stellar bodies and in outer space; not to use force or threat of force towards space objects; not to assist the activity, banned by this Treaty. Some countries might wish to use deployment of nuclear weapons in outer space to guarantee their own security. But there is threat of using the same weapons by terrorists

Jets intercept Russian fighters
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2178364,00.html

Oslo - Norwegian and British fighter jets scrambled to intercept Russian bombers over the north Atlantic, Norway's military command said on Thursday, the latest in a series of such incidents.
Eight Russian Tupolev-95s were detected in international air space over the Barents Sea early on Thursday, said Wing Commander Jon Inge Oegland, a spokesperson for Norway's general staff in Stavanger.

China Hack Psyop, DARPA Watch, GD + DHS News

2007-09-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

Beijing's strategy
Army sets sights on targets in space and cyberspace
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/05/internet.hacking

The People's Liberation Army strategists have made little secret of their desire to establish cyber warfare units capable of mounting just such sorts of mission as the hacking of international government targets.
From a satellite-killing missile test in January to reports of spyware in German government computers last month, there are growing concerns that China is being increasingly sophisticated and ambitious in its use of technology to secure information and disrupt communications.
For more than a decade the Chinese military has been aware of the potential of information warfare. Army journals and generals' speeches have emphasised the importance of securing "electromagnetic dominance" in the early stages of any conflict. Although the US military is dominant in terms of firepower, the Pentagon's reliance on satellites and computers is seen as a source of vulnerability.
The US department of defence says China has an established information warfare unit. Its scale is unknown, but Beijing has been boosting military spending for 20 years and switching the army's focus from conventional arms to high technology. This year it declared military spending rose 17.8% to $45bn, but US analysts believe the real sum is much higher if the cost of the space programme and secret projects are added.
Beijing's offensive capability in cyberspace and outer space were apparent on January 11, when its succeeded in blasting one of its own communications satellites into smithereens 500 miles above the earth.
This test heightened fears of the "China threat", particularly in the US, which sees this fast rising Asian economy as the country most likely to challenge its global dominance.
The technological prowess of China is growing along with internet penetration, which will reach 150 million of its people this year and is on course to overtake the US within five years.
Chinese censors use some of the world's most sophisticated internet filters. The so-called Great Firewall of China restricts information about the Dalai Lama, Taiwan, Falun Gong and other politically sensitive topics. Experts have offered to share this technology with other repressive states, including Zimbabwe.
While China is almost certainly among the many countries developing systems of cyber attack, it denies making any use of them in the latest case. "The Chinese government has consistently opposed and vigorously attacked according to the law all internet-wrecking crimes, including hacking," a foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters. She said the accusations were an example of "cold war" thinking.
In Taiwan, the main target of the Chinese military, there have also been repeated attempts by mainland hackers to enter government networks.
China-based hackers have also been blamed for attempted attacks on offices in the Houses of Parliament in Britain and for leaving offensive messages and patriotic slogans written in Mandarin on websites in Japan.

Portsmouth University plans to wage war with flying robots
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/09/05/portsmouth_university_plans_to_wage_war_with_flying_robots.html

Portsmouth University and Ant Scientific formed Team Locust to take part in a Ministry of Defence competition, and their idea has been short-listed.
The university says:
The competition - Grand Challenge - aims to put robots which can identify snipers and bombs in built up areas on to battlefields across the globe.
Charlie Baker-Wyatt, manager of the university's defence and homeland security research section, said: "The challenge was to create devices that could be used in the fight against people who don't fight under established rules." (Cont..)

Mind-controlled prosthetic arm plays the piano
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/05/bionic.arm/

( PopSci.com) -- More than 130 veterans of the Iraq war now face the daunting challenge of learning to live with a missing arm. To make that transition easier, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, has launched a $55-million project that pools the efforts of prosthetics experts nationwide to create a thought-controlled bionic arm that duplicates the functions of a natural limb
If all goes well, by 2009 the agency will petition the Food and Drug Administration to put the arm through clinical trials.
This summer the team hit a critical milestone when it finished Proto 2, a thought-controlled mechanical arm -- complete with hand and articulated fingers -- that can perform 25 joint motions. This dexterity approaches that of a native arm, which can make 30 motions, and trumps the previously most agile bionic arm, the Proto 1, which could bend at the elbow, rotate its wrist and shoulder, and open and close its fingers. A person wearing a Proto 2 could conceivably play the piano.

The next steps are to shrink the battery, develop more-efficient motors, and refine the bulky electrodes used to read electrical signals in muscles. As for making actual music, the wearer is on his own.
How it works: (cont..)

Two-day terrorism exercise could clog traffic
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/story/148229.html

Drivers can expect traffic congestion around McChord Air Force Base over the next two days because of an anti-terrorism training exercise.
There will be increased security measures at all gates because of the basewide exercise today and Thursday, according to a news release from McChord. In addition, the roads around the base could be congested because crews will be testing various security measures.
McChord officials ask people to avoid coming to the base during the drill unless absolutely necessary. Movement within the base also will be difficult because officials will be simulating emergencies that will snarl traffic.
The exercise is designed to test McChord’s preparedness to respond to a security breach or attack.
Neighbors might hear sirens and voices, in part, because the basewide public address system will announce different security levels. Each announcement will begin and end with, "Exercise, exercise, exercise."

General Dynamics Chairman and CEO Chabraja to Participate in Morgan Stanley Conference
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NEW06505092007-1.htm

Computer Sciences, Raytheon JV win US space deal worth up to 820 mln usd
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/09/04/afx4078077.html

Chertoff reiterates support for PASS Card and national ID
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/02/chertoff_reiter.html

Purdue Holds Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Career Fair
http://www.wlfi.com/Global/story.asp?S=7031980&nav=menu591_3

UC Berkeley team to study nuclear detection for homeland security
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/04/BAMVRSDNN.DTL

Dark Horizon in the East: WWIV How soon is now?

2007-09-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

Russian strategic bombers run Arctic exercise
http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-09-03T094147Z_01_L03591691_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-RUSSIA-EXERCISE-COL.XML

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Twelve Russian strategic bombers will take part in an Arctic exercise on Monday and Tuesday including tactical launches of cruise missiles, an air force spokesman said.
He did not specify where the exercise was taking place but said TU-95MC bombers would take off from five air bases stretching from the Volga River city of Engels to Anadyr on the Chukotka Peninsula overlooking the United States.
"The planes will also practice mid-air refuelling from Il-78 transport planes," the spokesman said.
Last month, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's air force to resume long-range patrols by the strategic bombers, abandoned since the end of the Cold War.
In line with his assertive foreign policy and efforts to build up the Russian armed forces, Putin has said the resumption of patrols is needed to guarantee national security.
The air force exercise also follows a widely advertised scientific expedition to the North Pole last month with the task of finding justification for Russia's claims for a bigger slice of the Arctic zone, believed to have rich mineral resources.

New 'strategic partnership' against China
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6968412.stm

Ships, aircraft and submarines from four countries begin week-long war games in the Bay of Bengal on 4 September
It is the first flexing of muscles by the newly-formed "Quadrilateral Initiative", which brings together the US, Japan, India and Australia.
Singapore also has a small presence in the exercises.
Many analysts see the manoeuvres as efforts by a democratic coalition to "contain" rising Chinese power.
Although the participants deny this, Beijing seems to be increasingly worried.

Beijing unconvinced
When the four powers set up the initiative (informally named the Quad) in Manila last May, a deeply-concerned Beijing sent formal protests to the four governments.

Quad members reassured China that their "strategic partnership" was only aimed at maintaining regional security, and was not targeting any particular power.
A month later, Chinese President Hu Jintao sought clarification from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the G8 summit in Germany. Although he received reiterations of peace and friendship, Chinese commentary suggests Beijing was not convinced.
Dubbed Malabar 07-02, these are the biggest joint manoeuvres Indian warships have participated in. (cont..)

Japan Eyes Defense Changes
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/aw090307p1.xml&headline=Japan%20Eyes%20Defense%20Changes&channel=defense

U.S. military operations have centered on the Middle East and Southwest Asia for most of the last two decades. The result is a myopic focus on combat against insurgents and terrorists. But the Western Pacific and Eastern Asia offer another concern. Some of the world’s largest, economically fastest-growing and most industrialized nations are beginning to develop and flex their military muscle. The question for the U.S. and its partners, in particular Japan, is how to keep a lid on political tensions and the impulse to use military force to solve problems of state. Here, in a special report, Aviation Week & Space Technology examines a series of measures to do just that, ranging from the development of nonexplosive technologies to bilateral cruise and ballistic missile defenses
China, North Korea and Russia are just over the horizon, but the newest defense crisis for Japan is emerging from within.
Planners are paid to worry about foreign military capabilities; so Japanese and U.S. officials are closely monitoring advanced weapons development in North Korea and China. Even Russia is a concern because of its role as a source of sophisticated military gear for the world market. Now Japanese and U.S. planners believe they have created an answer for emerging missile and advanced strike aircraft threats with a series of new bilateral agreements addressing cooperative missile defenses, operations centers, training programs and base sharing.(cont..)

Virtual Weapons in Real Life (July 07)
http://www.thinkdigit.com/index.php?action=article&prodid=1078

Exercise Vigilant Shield '08, LMT, + Russia News

2007-09-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

Lockheed Martin Demonstrates In-Flight Beam Control for Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQF04131082007-1.htm

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin announced today that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) team has demonstrated the capability to accurately point and focus the elements of the Lockheed Martin-developed Beam Control/Fire Control system on an airborne target.
The ABL team successfully directed the beam generated by a surrogate High Energy Laser at a missile-shaped target on the side of an Air Force KC-135 Big Crow aircraft. To enable the surrogate beam to focus on the simulated target, the system first located and tracked the target, determined range to the target and then compensated for atmospheric turbulence. This significant milestone verifies the ability to maintain the focus of the laser beam while continuously tracking a target (Cont..)

Exercise Vigilant Shield ‘08

Exercise Vigilant Shield '08 slated for October
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48730875_military_exercise_vigilant_shield_08_slated_october

Fri, 08/31/2007 - 16:45 — newsdesk
August 30, 2007 -- PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command along with U.S. Pacific Command, the Department of Homeland Security as well as local, state and other federal responders will exercise their response abilities against a variety of potential threats during Exercise Vigilant Shield ‘08, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff-designated, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)-sponsored, and U.S. Joint Forces Command-supported Department of Defense exercise for homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities missions.
VS-08 will be conducted concurrent with Top Officials 4 (TOPOFF 4), the nation’s premier exercise of terrorism preparedness sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, and several other linked exercises as part of the National Level Exercise 1-08. These linked exercises will take place October 15-20 and are being conducted throughout the United States and in conjunction with several partner nations including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, as well as the Territory of Guam.
VS-08 and National Level Exercise 1-08 will provide local, state, tribal, interagency, Department of Defense, and non-governmental organizations and agencies involved in homeland security and homeland defense the opportunity to participate in a full range of exercise scenarios that will better prepare participants to prevent and respond to national crises. The participating organizations will conduct a multi-layered, civilian-led response to a national crisis.
USNORTHCOM’s primary exercise venues for VS-08 include locations in Oregon, Arizona and a cooperative venue with USPACOM in the Territory of Guam. NORAD’s aerospace detection and defense events will take place across all the exercise venues, to exercise the ability to mobilize resources for aerospace defense, aerospace control, maritime warning, and coordination of air operations in a disaster area.
Source: USNORTHCOM

Russia to continue advanced missile tests in 2007-SMF commander
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070901/76058131.html

MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Strategic Missile Forces will conduct more tests of new warheads for its intercontinental ballistic missiles later this year, the SMF commander said Saturday.
"This year we will continue test and combat-training launches of new types of warheads for the Topol-M and Bulava sea-launched missile complexes," Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov said.
He said previously a second missile battalion, equipped with advanced Topol-M (SS-27) road-mobile ICBMs, will be put on combat duty before the end of the year and that the deployment of silo-based Topol-M systems in the Saratov Region and road-mobile systems in the Ivanovo Region (central Russia) would be completed in 2010.
As of December 2006, the Strategic Missile Forces operated 44 silo-based and three mobile missile systems.
The commander said the Topol-M system will be equipped with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRV) in the next two or three years, adding that the new system would help penetrate missile defenses more effectively.
His statement came against the backdrop of growing tensions between Moscow and the West regarding plans by the United States to deploy elements of its global antiballistic missile defense system in Central Europe.

Russian Navy drill poses no threat
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=21489&sectionid=351020602

Russian Navy official describes the latest naval exercise being held off the country's Far East Coast as defense-oriented posing no threat. The military exercise which began on Wednesday, will last for seven days. The exercises are being conducted by a well known flotilla named 'Primorye' based in the Russian sector of the Sea of Japan. (Cont..)

Russia enters 'space race' to build moon base
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/31/wrussia131.xml

ICx gets $1.5 million Homeland Security contract
http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2007/08/27/daily30.html

The Department of Homeland Security awarded a $1.5 million contract to
ICx Technologiesto continue development of a low-cost bio-aerosol sensor.
ICx, which develops advanced technology for homeland and military security, already completed the sensor's initial development phase under Homeland Security's Detect-to-Protect program. The contract finances the second phase, which includes refinement and modifications to the sensor system design, testing and prototype analysis in real-world settings.

Window or aisle, chicken or beef, laser protection or SAM in the fuselage?
http://news.com.com/8300-10784_3-7-0.html?keyword=Department+Homeland+Security

The chances of your flight being hit by a shoulder-fired, laser-guided missile are good enough that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has spent more than $100 million looking into ways to prevent it.
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman just completed 6,000 hours of in-flight testing on its Guardian directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system, all part of the DHS initiative to adapt existing military technology to protect commercial aircraft from attack by surface-to-air-missiles (SAM) similar to the U.S.-made Stinger.

Decontamination drill at Lourdes hospital
http://news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=118307&SecID=83

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- The members of the Civil Air Patrol aren't really sick. But they're doing their best job to pretend they are contaminated with anthrax or a similar substance, so they can help first receivers at Lourdes Hospital prepare for an actual disaster (cont..)

Hospitals on stand-by for terrorist attack
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hospitals-on-standby-for-terrorist-attack/2007/09/02/1188671797052.html

Northrop Grumman: DEW, DOD Sim news, + Drills

2007-08-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

Northrop Grumman: DEW

Directed-energy weapons keep on truckin'
http://news.com.com/8300-10784_3-7-0.html?keyword=heat+ray

A solid-state laser does its thing under the watchful eye of a Northrop Grumman engineer. At its new Directed Energy Production Facility in Redondo Beach, Calif., the defense contractor aims to build a 100-kW device that can be used on the battlefield.
In its quest to develop laser weapons, the Pentagon is aiming both high and low.

The sky-high plans for the Airborne Laser call for a squadron of 747s that would train chemically generated laser beams on ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) to knock out those missiles long before they become a threat to targets in the United States. A "lethality" test of that system is scheduled for 2009, though if past delays are any indication of future performance...
For a more down-to-earth system, look no further than a truck-mounted solid-state laser now in the early stages of development. Rather than intercontinental missiles, this system would protect ground troops from smaller projectiles including rockets, artillery rounds and mortar shells. Advantages that solid-state lasers have over their COIL (chemical oxygen iodine laser) counterparts include smaller size and lighter weight--there's a reason that the Airborne Laser requires a 747--and the avoidance of big doses of toxic materials. COIL systems pack a bigger punch, however.
The
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Commandhas enlisted two defense sector heavyweights to vie with each other to produce the ruggedized beam control system, a key component of what will become the High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD). Northrop Grumman this week said it received an $8 million, one-year contract to do that work, followed in about a month by Boeing's receipt of a $7 million deal to do the same. For both contractors, options could extend the programs to about $50 million.
The Space and Missile Defense Command is the lead agency for the Army's high-energy solid-state laser program, the next phase of which is to boost the power capability from 25 kW to 100 kW. (According to a report from the BBC earlier this year, a solid-state laser in a lab set a record by reaching 67 kW.) (Cont..)

Management changes under way for DOD modeling and simulation
http://www.fcw.com/article103640-08-30-07-Web

Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has ordered the creation of an executive-level panel to spearhead modeling and simulation (M&S) efforts departmentwide, according to an Aug. 8 DOD directive.The undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics will lead the new M&S Steering Committee. John Young, who currently fills that position in an acting capacity until confirmed by the Senate, has voiced strong support for modeling efforts, particularly those projects striving to predict sentiments among foreign populations in response to U.S. military actions.Other key Defense Department officials to be represented on the panel include the undersecretary of Defense for policy, the undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, the director of program analysis and evaluation, and the director of operational test and evaluation, according to England’s directive. The services, the combatant commanders, the Joint Staff and U.S. Joint Forces Command also will send delegates. (Cont..)
Lockheed Martin Chosen for Jet Propulsion Lab Contract
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NETH07430082007-1.htm

Bio-Terror Drill
http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/9455146.html

A bio-terrorism lab, dangerous chemicals, and officials trying to figure it all out before they run out of time. It sounds like the script from a movie, but it was all a drill that took place in Harrisonburg this week.
The drill, led by JMU faculty members, was to help officials learn how to react to such a situation. So if a real incident like this one does occur, they'll know what to do because they've been through it before.

Navy, county plan emergency drill
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/NEWS01/708300424/1004/NEWS01

COLTS NECK — In conjunction with the Monmouth County Office of Emergency Management, Naval Weapons Station Earle will conduct a mass-casualty drill from approximately 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 6.
The drill will take place along Normandy Road (Navy Road), near the West Front Street intersection in Middletown. Residents living or traveling in the vicinity should take note that there will be a large number of emergency-response vehicles in the area.
The drill is designed to assess the naval station and the county OEM's preparedness.

China's "Snow Leopard Commando" to drill with Russian commandoes
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6250873.html

The Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP) has granted the title of "Snow Leopard Commando" to a detachment that will participate in an anti-terror exercise in Russia next month.At the title-granting ceremony on Wednesday, the Commando received its flag and emblem. Afterwards, Qu Liangfeng, the brigade leader, led his commandoes, wearing camouflage, helmet and boot, to swear to the nation and the people.The Snow Leopard Commando, namely the 13th Special Brigade of the PAP Beijing Corps, is scheduled to join in the Cooperation 2007 Joint Exercise with Russia's domestic security force in early September.The brigade, a first-class anti-terror force guarding China's national capital, was established in December of 2002. So far, it has handled over 90 major urgent cases and took part in a dozen military drills and performances.As an international practice, an anti-terror commando would have its unique name, according to the PAP Headquarters.

2D3+MOD, Sandia WWIV Prep?, Drills...

2007-08-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

2d3 signs contract with UK Ministry of Defence
http://vsd.pennnet.com/display_article/304579/19/ARTCL/Display/none/2d3-signs-contract-with-UK-Ministry-of-Defence/

AUGUST 29, 2007--The 2d3 division of OMG plc, Oxford Metrics Group (Oxford, UK; 1. www.omg3d.com), has signed a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence. The division develops advanced image-processing software for defense and visual effects. Its technology will be assessed for its utility in the monitoring of video processed on-board or relayed from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)--in particular, for automatically recognizing and locating specified targets such as vehicles moving on the ground. The software also has the potential to be used to monitor given locations and to issue alerts whenever there is activity, such as people entering or leaving a building.
To date, 2d3's automatic camera-tracking software has been used primarily by the movie industry. In 2005 OMG decided to apply its technology to UAVs, and in December 2005 the group announced an initial project with QinetiQ to recover 3-D information from airborne video imagery, which was completed in September 2006. (cont..)

Russian Generals’ Intentions of Stationing Nuclear weapons in Belarus
http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2007/08/29/weapon

Russia should deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus in return to deployment of the US antimissile system components in the Czech Republic and Poland, president of the Geopolitical Academy Colonel General Leonid Ivashov considers.

“The necessity of such actions results from the threats caused to Russia and Belarus by the NATO countries. Belarus also needs the new Russian military facilities to be deployed on its territory as it was mentioned several times by president Alyaksandr Lukashenka” ,Ivashov declared to the Interfax-ABN. (cont..0

Sandia opens resilient electronics center
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Briefing/2007/08/24/sandia_opens_resilient_electronics_center/4570/

ALBUQUERQUE, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Sandia National Laboratories has opened a new complex in Albuquerque to develop radiation resilient electronics for national security.

U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell, National Nuclear Security Administration head Tom D’Agostino and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Thursday attended the opening of the Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications complex.

"The eight-year, $516 million project was the largest in the history of the lab and was finished three years ahead of schedule and $40 million below budget," the NNSA said in a statement. The NNSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy.

"The MESA complex will produce electronic circuits and computer chips designed to withstand high levels of radiation. These 'hardened' electronics are critical to national security needs," the statement said.

The 400,000-square-foot MESA complex has a micro-fabrication facility, a micro-systems laboratory and a new weapons integration facility, "which will contain laser, electrical, visualization, and computer laboratories as well as office workspace for nearly 375 scientists and engineers. To an unprecedented degree, it will combine electronic and optoelectronics fabrication facilities with Sandia’s supercomputing simulations," the NNSA said.

"In opening the MESA complex at Sandia National Laboratories, we are increasing our non-proliferation capabilities and applying next-generation microelectronics technology to advancing our national security,” Sell said.

"The complex’s combination of high-performance computing simulations, scientific research, and production capabilities in electronics and optics at the micro- and nano-level will make it a world leader in a new type of simulation-led engineering that will ultimately improve the quality of consumer goods," the NNSA said.

“The MESA complex provides NNSA with a capability you can’t find anywhere else,” said D’Agostino. “With the technology developed here, anything from our country’s nuclear weapons to communications satellites will be able to withstand the worst of conditions.”

Sandia is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corp., a Lockheed Martin company, for the NNSA.

Officials practice disaster response
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-md.ar.communicate29aug29,0,5205306.story

Yesterday's event was the first of four that will take place over the next year, with scenarios that include an Inner Harbor dirty bomb exercise in Baltimore City, a truck bomb drill at the National Security Agency in Howard County and a hazardous-material train derailment situation in Baltimore County.

GA

The U.S. Army Held Counter-Terrorism Drills in Clarkesville
http://www.wneg32.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WNEG/MGArticle/NEG_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173352558512&path=

A highly specialized unit of the U.S. Army held a counter-terrorism drill in Habersham County today. The 4th Civil Support Team conducted the internal exercise to better prepare for possible missions.

Sydney Harbour bomb threat training drill
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2007/08/29/Sydney_Harbour_bomb_threat_training_drill

Sydney Harbour is the focus of APEC security preparations today, with a bomb threat training exercise being carried out on a ferry.
40 ferry staff, of the first fleet class vessel Friendship, will be involved.
Transport Minister John Watkins says it will not disrupt peak services.
“You may see some unusual goings on involving that Sydney Ferry and some other defence force personnel and vessels,” he said.
“But it’s a normal training exercise to make sure APEC is as safe as it possibly can be.”

Bulls Run Toward Homeland Security Stock
http://www.thestreet.com/s/bulls-run-toward-homeland-security-stock/newsanalysis/technicalanalysis/10376809.htmlpuc=googlefi

Very Highly Recommended Viewing:

Video: Nico Haupt/Dean Loren (MNN) on "Exotic Weaponry & 9/11" pt 1, 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGPqjfPvrUA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYR03AdXv9c

Nano Weapons, TOPOFF4, SAIC/DHS EAGLE ,etc..

2007-08-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

Early Products in the Nanotech Revolution
http://www.nanotech-now.com/columns/?article=106

(Excerpt:)

"Advanced military technology may have an immense impact on our future. It seems clear that even a modest effort at developing nano-built weapon systems will create systems that will be able to totally overwhelm today's systems and soldiers. Even something as simple as multi-scale semi-automated aircraft could be utterly lethal to exposed soldiers and devastating to most equipment. With the ability to build as many weapons as desired, and with motors, sensors, and materials that far outclass biological equivalents, there would be no need to put soldiers on the battlefield at all. Any military operation that required humans to accompany its machines would quickly be overcome. Conventional aircraft could also be out-flown and destroyed with ease. In addition to offensive weapons, sensing and communications networks with millions if not billions of distributed components could be built and deployed. Software design for such things would be far from trivial, however.It is less clear that a modest military development effort would be able to create an effective defense against today's high-tech attack systems. Nuclear explosives would have to be stopped before the explosion, and intercepting or destroying missiles in flight is not easy even with large quantities of excellent equipment. Hypersonic aircraft and battle lasers are only now being developed, and may be difficult to counter or to develop independently without expert physics knowledge and experience. However, even a near parity of technology level would give the side with molecular manufacturing a decisive edge in a non-nuclear exchange, because they could quickly build so many more weapons.It is also uncertain what would happen in an arms race between opponents that both possessed molecular manufacturing. Weapons would be developed very rapidly up to a certain point. Beyond that, new classes of weapons would have to be invented. It is not yet known whether offensive weapons will in general be able to penetrate shields, especially if the weapons of both sides are unfamiliar to their opponents. If shields win, then development of defensive technologies may proceed rapidly until all sides feel secure. If offense wins, then a balance of terror may result. However, because sufficient information may allow any particular weapon system to be shielded against, there may be an incentive to continually develop new weapons.This overview has focused on the earliest applications of molecular manufacturing. Later developments will benefit from previous experience, as well as from new software tools such as genetic algorithms and partially automated design. But even a cursory look at the things we can plan for today and the problems that will be most limiting early in the technology's history shows that molecular manufacturing will rapidly revolutionize many important areas of human endeavor"

FCS

Assad: DOD not keen on more integrator-led programs
http://www.fcw.com/article103613-08-28-07-Web

A senior Defense Department procurement official said this week the Pentagon has little appetite for new contracts involving a lead system integrator approach, but he stopped short of saying department officials will never use the concept again. The Pentagon is using lead system integrators for a small number of large, complex and expensive programs. Companies designated as lead system integrators have a high degree of influence over program decisions, performing duties traditionally reserved for government employees. In the future, DOD officials will use the construct sparingly, if at all, said Shay Assad, director of procurement policy in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. "We can effectively accomplish the work that we need to get accomplished with the mechanisms we already have," he said in an Aug. 28 interview with Federal Computer Week. The military’s most notable example of a lead system integrator-led program is the Future Combat System, in which Boeing and Science Applications International Corp. act as lead system integrators. The program has come under fire from lawmakers for cost overruns and schedule slips. (cont..)

U.S. will spend $1.7B on military robots
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Briefing/2007/08/28/us_will_spend_17b_on_military_robots/2738/

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. military will spend about $1.7 billion on ground-based robots in the next five years, according to figures reported by a defense analyst.The figures, covering the 2006-12 period, come from the National Center for Defense Robotics, a congressionally funded consortium of 160 companies, and were reported by analyst David Isenberg in the Asia Times Tuesday. (Cont..)

SAIC gets Eagle task from ICE
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/31312-1.html

Science Applications International Corp. has won a task order worth as much as $85 million over three years to provide information technology operations and maintenance support to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau.
SAIC won the task order through the Homeland Security Department’s Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions program, a government wide acquisition contract launched a year ago.
Under the task order, SAIC will support more than 19,000 agents at 550 sites for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau.
The new task order will provide ICE with comprehensive IT support services that include local area network administration, hardware and software maintenance, help desk, directory and messaging services and network and security operations, SAIC said.
"This key award provides an additional SAIC service offering to ICE, and will allow us to expand our Integrated Services Management Center capabilities to DHS," said Randy Cash, SAIC senior vice president and manager of the enterprise solutions business unit.

South Africa: Navy, Nato Ships to Conduct Training Drill
http://allafrica.com/stories/200708280778.html

The South African Navy is to engage in a training exercise early next week, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) naval marine group.
Six NATO ships from the navies of Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United States arrived in Cape Town, Tuesday.

South Africa's four new frigates and new submarines would be taking part in the exercise.
As part of the exercise, the South African Navy will stage mock attacks on the NATO group.
According to Lieutenant Commander Greyling van den Berg of the South African Navy the ships will be in the country until the end of the exercise next week.
"The ships will be opened for members of the public to view over the weekend," said Lieutenant Commander van den Berg.
The officer said this would be the first time that South Africa engages its newly acquired frigates as well as its submarines in a training exercise with foreign forces in local waters.
"The exercise will help to sharpen our skills and we also hope to learn from each other."
South Africa's new warships were acquired from a German company.
The first corvette, Amatola, was received in 2001. The SAS Isandlwana was the second corvette which was received in Durban last year, followed by Spioenkop early this year.
SAS Mendi is the fourth corvette acquired as part of government's multi-billion rand strategic arms procurement package approved by Cabinet in 2001.
All four corvettes, were named after the battles fought in South Africa, in order to honour and commemorate the bravery of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

TopOff 4 Homeland Sec Exercise (update)
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=48025

Taking place October 15-24, 2007, the TOPOFF 4 Full-Scale Exercise (T4 FSE) will feature thousands of Federal, State, territorial, and local officials. These officials will engage in various activities as part of a robust, full-scale simulated response to a multi-faceted threat. The exercise will address policy and strategic issues that mobilize prevention and response systems, require participants to make difficult decisions, carry out essential functions, and challenge their ability to maintain a common operating picture during an incident of national significance. As in a real-world response, agencies and organizations will deploy staff into the field and will face realistic incident-specific challenges, including the allocation of limited response resources and exercise actions needed to effectively manage conditions as they emerge. Planning and preparation for the exercise will also help strengthen working relationships between departments and agencies that are critical to successful prevention and response in real emergencies.

See original:
http://www.dhs.gov/xprepresp/training/gc_1179430526487.shtm

Tactical Laser Flashback
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/tactical-laser-.html

There's an interesting piece in
Time magazine about developments in laser weapons. As well as describing the usual anti-missile systems – like the famous multi-billion-dollar Airborne Laser - there's a smaller one I hadn't seen before. This sounds as though it might have some useful tactical applications:
…more down-to-earth military uses of the laser may be much closer at hand. TRW Systems in Redondo Beach, Calif., for instance, is working on a portable chemical laser (which produces a beam from the energy released in the reaction of two or more chemicals) that could be carried into battle by a unit of only three men. Aimed like a rifle, it would silently burn a fatal, quarter-inch-wide hole in the body of an enemy soldier up to five miles away. "Once you've got him in your sights," says a TRW engineer, "you've got him. There are no misses." (cont..)

Central Fla. Anti-Terrorism Facility Opens
http://www.local6.com/news/13992700/detail.html

An anti-terrorism facility opened on Monday in Orange County, one of only a few regional buildings of its kind in the United States.
The Central Florida Intelligence Exchange, called CFIX, will fuse together nine counties -- from Lake to Martin -- and analyze data and intelligence from local, state and federal law enforcement with the goal of intercepting possible terrorist threats to the community.

"There is a lot of data that is coming in from all different sources," FDLE Special Agent Joyce Dawley said. "They take all that data in. They look at it. They correlate it. They link it to other data that they have."

OEM NYC, NVision, BA,LMT+ GD News, Iran & Air Strikes?

2007-08-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

OEM Holds Multi-Agency Emergency Drill At Penn Station

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=72991

The Office of Emergency Management held a multi-agency field exercise at Penn Station Sunday between midnight and 4 a.m. Swarms of the city's police, firefighters, and emergency vehicles flooded the commuter hub and the surrounding area. The Office of Emergency Management wanted to assess just how well the city would respond to terrorist activity within the train station. Response crews used environmental monitoring equipment in the simulations. Some entrances into Penn Station were blocked off for the drill, but train service was not affected.

NVision Unveils New Homeland Security Tool for Counter-Terrorism Exercise August 27, 2007

http://www.directionsmag.com/press.releases/index.php?duty=Show&id=18783&trv=1

Kent, WA – NVision Solutions Inc., The Boeing Company, and NAVTEQ recently demonstrated a prototype emergency management “common operating picture” at the 2007 Pacific Northwest Asymmetric Warfare Initiative.
The federally-funded Center for Asymmetric Warfare (CAW) designed the annual regional emergency-management drill to increase protection against terrorism and provide shared working experience for thousands of first responders, military and other homeland defense professionals responding to a crisis.
On July 24th NVision, Boeing, and NAVTEQ streamed real-time emergency notifications from observers around the Port of Tacoma onto a high-resolution map depicting aerial photography as well as NAVTEQ® map data, enhanced GIS attributes, and NAVTEQ Parcel Boundaries™ in the Exercise Control Center. Boeing employees acting as mock first responders logged simulated terrorist attacks using wireless, GPS-enabled, handheld computers. Simulated terrorist attacks involved live actors, pyrotechnics, and boats.
"Working with Boeing and NVision to build and participate in CAW efforts to demonstrate multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional collaboration is another example of NAVTEQ's dedication in supporting Homeland Security initiatives," stated Roy Kolstad, Vice President and General Manager – Enterprise, NAVTEQ.“NVision is very excited this technology has matured to address critical issues such as counter-terrorism, emergency management and recovery, and homeland defense issues such as border security,” said NVision CIO Craig Harvey. “Portions of this technology have been under development with NASA’s Stennis Space Center for over three years.”
# # #
NVision Solutions, Inc. is a small, disadvantaged, minority, woman-owned certified 8(a) firm specializing in advanced geospatial solutions. NVision, an active member of Mississippi's EIGS geospatial industry cluster, is headquartered at the NASA Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi. For more information about NVision Solutions, Inc., visit http://www.nvisionsolutions.com/
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32.4 billion business with 72,000 employees worldwide.
NAVTEQ is a leading provider of comprehensive digital map information for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has over 3,000 employees located in 168 offices in 30 countries

France's Sarkozy raises prospect of Iran airstrikes http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3442638,00.html

In his first major foreign policy speech, French president says diplomatic push by world's powers to rein in Tehran's nuclear program is only alternative to 'Iranian bomb or bombing of Iran' French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday a diplomatic push by the world's powers to rein in Tehran's nuclear program was the only alternative to "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran." In his first major foreign policy speech, Sarkozy emphasized his existing foreign policy priorities, such as opposing Turkish membership of the European Union and pushing for a new Mediterranean He also presented some new ideas, such as possibly renewing high-level dialogue with 1. Syria and expanding the Group of Eight industrialized nations to include the biggest developing states.Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable and that major powers should continue their policy of incrementally increasing sanctions against Tehran while being open to talks if Iran suspended nuclear activities."This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran," he said, adding that it was the worst crisis currently facing the world.

Boeing signs R&D deal with USJFCOM
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Briefing/2007/08/27/boeing_signs_rd_deal_with_usjfcom/7662/

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Boeing has signed a three-year research agreement with the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement will "analyze current, emerging and future joint war fighting concepts and capabilities in concert with USJFCOM's Suffolk, Va.-based Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate," Boeing said in a statement Monday.
"Using constructive modeling, simulation and analysis, Boeing and USJFCOM will augment virtual and live experiments to examine the U.S. Department of Defense's family of joint concepts and their enabling capabilities," the company said.
"CRADAs are agreements between a federal government entity and industry to partner on specific research and development activities. Participants share resources to accomplish common objectives. This CRADA is expected to result in new and improved concepts, processes, organizational designs and system capabilities," it said.
"JFCOM looks forward to this collaboration of expertise with Boeing. This CRADA will enable us to further the development of our modeling and simulation tools to conduct capabilities based assessments," said Lt. Gen. Robert Wood, deputy commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command.
"In today's highly dynamic world, the opportunity to collaborate with our nations' defense forces is exceptionally important," said Guy Higgins, vice president, Analysis, Modeling, Simulation and Experimentation for Boeing Advanced Systems. "We look forward to working with JFCOM to identify solutions to challenging problems."
Boeing said the agreement came within the parameters of USJFCOM's research and development mission and transformation objectives.
"Boeing has a long history of performing analytical studies using a variety of constructive warfare simulations and operates an extensive network of experimentation facilities that can link to other real and virtual assets to optimize experiment effectiveness. Boeing Advanced Systems' AMSE division will lead the company's efforts under the CRADA," the company said.
"USJFCOM's Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate coordinates Department of Defense concept development and experimentation efforts and leads the development, exploration and assessment of new joint concepts, organizational structures and emerging technologies," the statement said

General Dynamics Land Systems Inc.

$56.5M to Upgrade Fox NBC-Recon Vehicles
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/565m-to-upgrade-fox-nbc-recon-vehicles-03661/?camp=newsletter&src=did&type=textlink

General Dynamics Land Systems Inc. in Sterling Heights, MI received a $56.5 million modification to a firm-fixed-price contract to upgrade 18 1. Fox Nuclear Biological Chemical Reconnaissance System (NBC-RS) Vehicles from M93 (14) and M93A1 (4) Configurations to M93A1P1. Work will be performed in Sterling Heights, MI; Anniston, AL; Lima, OH; and Germany and is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2009. This was a sole source contract initiated on April 24, 2007 by the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (DAAM01-96-C-0028). General Dynamics release.

Mayor: Smoking caused WTC tower fire (.and kerosene did 9/11 :)....)

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/am-wtc0828,0,1102746.story?coll=ny_sports_highschool_util

U.S. and Romania begin 3-month joint training exercise

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/27/europe/romania.php

Military Exercises “Georgian Express 2007” Opened In Vaziani

http://eng.primenewsonline.com/news/123/ARTICLE/14867/2007-08-27.html

Boeing, Lockheed Lead '07 U.S. Defense Contractors
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/BOEI082707.xml&headline=Boeing,%20Lockheed%20Lead%20

Lockheed Martin Team Tests Propulsion System for Missile Defense Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicle
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQM17027082007-1.htm

US suspends vast ADVISE data-sifting system
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0828/p01s02-usju.html

"Fuerzas Aliades", Drills, Russia Tu-22 +LandWarNet Conf..

2007-08-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

Exercise "Fuerzas Aliadas"

Second Fleet Commander to lead joint training exercise
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/norfolk/dp-now-militarytraining.0824,0,3128832.story

Representatives -- both civilian and military -- from 20 countries will head to the waters off the coast of Panama and Honduras to participate in Fuerzas Aliadas, a joint military and international training exercise.The exercise, headed up by the U.S. Southern Command, runs from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7 and will bring together 30 vessels and 7,000 people.It's "focused on ensuring the security of the Panama Canal from both the Caribbean and Pacific approaches," according to the U.S. Navy. (Cont..)

Biological incident, casualty management focus of exercise
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070824/DISPATCH01/70824002/1115

The September exercise window is scheduled for Sept. 11 through 13.
A terrorist’s use of biological agent, and the 42nd Medical Group’s casualty management and use of the portable decontamination unit, dominated the August exercise. Gary Looney, base Exercise Evaluation Team chief, said the exercise went well in several areas (cont..)

Emergency responders train for terrorist threat (update)
Licking, Fairfield, Perry agencies at Buckeye Lake
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070826/NEWS01/708260307/1002

MILLERSPORT -- Hundreds of police, fire, medical and other emergency personnel from Licking, Fairfield and Perry counties responded Saturday to terrorist threats around Buckeye Lake.
It was a not a real emergency, but rather a training exercise to prepare emergency responders from various agencies and jurisdictions for a major threat. Funding for the exercise comes though the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

Russia conducts Tu-22 strategic bomber drills in the south
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070824/74204305.html

MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers successfully conducted a series of tactical exercises in the south of the country and in Kazakhstan this week, an Air Force spokesman said Friday.
The Tu-22M3 Backfire-C is a supersonic, swing-wing, long-range strategic bomber that Russia uses mainly to patrol the skies over its southern borders, Central Asia and the Black Sea region.
"We held a series of strategic bomber exercises [involving Tu-22M3 bombers] Tuesday and Friday to practice penetrating the air defenses of a potential adversary," Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said.

LandWarNet Conference Remarks by the Secretary of the Army in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
http://www.army.mil/-speeches/2007/08/23/4547-landwarnet-conference-remarks-by-the-secretary-of-the-army-in-fort-lauderdale-fla/

Secretary of the Army Pete Geren speaks at the LandWarNet Conference at the Grand Floridian Ball Room in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., August 21.

OC to hold homeland security drill

http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070824/WCT01/70824022/1002/NEWS01

OCEAN CITY - The town will hold a homeland security preparedness exercise Monday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Emergency Services Director Joseph Theobald announced.
The exercise aims to improve Ocean City’s method to better coordinate and integrate public safety in order to prepare for and respond to acts of domestic terrorism, and to protect the citizens and the town’s infrastructure
The drill will assess Ocean City’s capability to mitigate, minimize and recover from incidents that could occur

Multilateral Naval Drill Not A Military Alignment: Antony
http://newspostindia.com/report-12575

India Saturday sought to allay apprehensions that an upcoming multilateral naval drill, also involving the US navy, in the Bay of Bengal had military overtones, saying it was a pointer to the country's growing importance on the world stage.'There is no question of confrontation. There is no military alignment. It's only an exercise,' Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters here of Malabar-2007, the five nation drill Sep 4-9 involving the navies of India, the US, Japan, Australia and Singapore.'It (the exercise) will only help enhance the capabilities of our armed forces to deal with natural calamities (like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami) and other eventualities,' the minister said on the sidelines of an Indian Air Force (IAF) exposition of its multifaceted capabilities at this sprawling air base in central India. (Cont..)

Special military group looks ahead to fight America's future wars
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/26/BU5ORKEUK.DTL

Envision an aircraft carrier in the sky. Drugs that can immediately prepare soldiers for duty at high altitudes. Prosthetic limbs with something approaching real sensitivity.
The Pentagon has.
For half a century, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - a low-profile but vital division of the Defense Department - has developed technologies to confound America's foes and comfort its friends. The agency has been the force behind dozens of weapons, from the M-16 rifle and night-vision goggles to smart bombs and stealth aircraft.
Now, DARPA is planning for a long war in which U.S. troops will be expected to face guerrilla adversaries. And just as during the Cold War, DARPA is counting on high-tech Silicon Valley to give U.S. forces the edge.
"We need to anticipate all of the challenges and discover the technical means to conquer those challenges," Anthony Tether, DARPA director, told more than 3,000 scientists, entrepreneurs and military leaders who gathered in Anaheim earlier this month for the agency's 50th anniversary conference. (Cont..)

Is China preparing for war with U.S.?
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/editorials/local_story_236133107.html

In hiring surge, Uncle Sam wants you, you and you
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003853422_unclesamhires26.html

Uncle Sam, the nation's largest employer, is gearing up for a major hiring effort.
Over the next two years, federal agencies expect to hire nearly 193,000 new workers in almost every occupational field, according to a report from the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that urges young Americans to consider careers in government.
More than 83,000 of the jobs are expected to be filled at Defense and Homeland Security as part of the continuing effort to protect and secure the nation from terrorism. (Cont..)

REGIONAL: HOMELAND SECURITY STUDYING SILICON VALLEY EMERGENCY INFORMATION SYSTEM
http://cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2007/08/24/n/HeadlineNews/EMERGENCY-INFORMATION/resources_bcn_html

FCS

BAE Systems, Congressional, Community and Army Leaders Celebrate Inauguration of Elgin Site
http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070822005666/bae-systems-congressional-community-and-army-leaders-celebrate-inauguration-of-elgi.html

Exercises, Drills + SBI, DHS, ....

2007-08-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

Exercise Koa Lightning
http://www.strategypage.com/military_photos/20078222234.aspx
B-52 Stratofortress takes off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to participate in an exercise scenario Aug. 22. The aircraft, aircrew and maintainers are deployed from Barksdale AFB, La., as part of the continuous bomber presence in the Pacific region. During their deployment to Guam, the bomber squadron's participation in exercises will emphasize the U.S. bomber presence, demonstrating U.S. commitment to the Pacific region. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Master Sgt. Mahmoud Rasouliyan)

Video Games As Disaster-training Tools
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070823175729.htm

Science Daily — Peanut butter and jelly. Wine and cheese. Dinner and a movie. Some things just naturally go together. But national security and video games? At first glance, those two aren’t exactly a soft brie and a glass of Merlot in terms of compatibility.

Players of the game can view the action from several vantage points. Here, fire trucks and police cars can be seen from building level. The exclamation points in red depict 9-1-1 calls that may offer valuable information to players, such as medical symptoms that citizens may be experiencing. Other icons re identified in the legend in the left-hand corner. (Credit: Image courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories)

If Sandia computer scientist and software engineer Donna Djordjevich has her way, however, perhaps today’s video game-loving youth will become our next generation’s terrorist-fighting scientist, especially if a prototype project she now has under development with the University of Southern California’s GamePipe Laboratory fulfills its promise. And a recent demonstration of the prototype for real-world emergency responders indicates she is on track.
Djordjevich is the principal investigator of a Sandia-funded project titled “Game Technology-Enhanced Simulation for Homeland Security.” Its mission is to create an interactive gaming platform specifically designed to prepare decision makers and first responders for weapons of mass destruction/weapons of mass effect (WMD/WME) attacks in metropolitan areas. The first version of this platform, more commonly known as “Ground Truth,” provides a virtual environment where users can play through such a scenario to see the effects of their decisions under the constraints of time and resources. The project was funded and started in FY07, with development beginning last October. (Cont..)

Boeing Border Effort Faces Delays
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118783524574006203.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Boeing Co. has changed the management of an electronic-surveillance project along the U.S.-Mexican border after falling more than two months behind schedule, marking the complications involved in setting up a new generation of border security.
The project, part of a larger Department of Homeland Security program called SBInet, is a critical link in the plan to use technology to monitor the borders for illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and possible terrorists. Towers set up along a stretch of the border near Nogales, Ariz., are supposed to use motion sensors, cameras and radar to keep track of wide areas. According to the government, Boeing has had trouble getting the different components to work together without glitches.
The government's plans for monitoring as much as 6,000 miles of the Canadian and Mexican borders hinge on towers such as these working properly. If they prove ineffective, officials could be forced to spend billions of dollars for more traditional security measures, such as fences and more officers. The Homeland Security Department currently estimates that the virtual fence will cost about $8 billion through 2013, although the agency's inspector general wrote last November that the cost could balloon to $30 billion.
In recent days, Boeing named Daniel Korte, a veteran executive in the company's Integrated Defense Systems unit, to head the SBInet program. Mr. Korte was previously vice president of supplier management and procurement for the defense unit and has also worked on the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. Jerry McElwee, who had been overseeing SBInet, is working with Mr. Korte during the transition and remains at the advanced systems group. Mr. McElwee's next assignment hasn't been announced.
Boeing characterized the changes in management as part of a planned transition of the SBInet program to the network and space-systems group from its previous home in the advanced-systems group, which handles competitions and project development. The network and space-systems group oversees key programs, such as Future Combat Systems, which is supposed to use high-tech vehicles, communications and sensors to tie together all parts of the battlefield.
(Cont..)

U.S. missile shield is provocation: Austrian minister
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2352932420070823?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos has called U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe a "provocation" reviving Cold War debates.
"That the United States are installing a defense shield in eastern Europe is a provocation in my view," Darabos was quoted as saying in an interview with daily Die Presse on Thursday.
"The U.S. has chosen the wrong path in my opinion. There is no point in building up a missile defense shield in Europe. That only unnecessarily rekindles old Cold War debates."
The remarks drew a swift reaction from Washington.
"We view the Cold War as being over. Such comments are not helpful and we now face a new strategic environment that requires us to move beyond Cold War thinking," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said.
"We've been open and transparent with all E.U. and NATO allies on this, and we'll continue to do so. We're discussing missile defense with the Russians," Gallegos said at a news briefing.
The United States plans to deploy elements of its shield -- designed to intercept and destroy missiles from "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea -- in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Russia sees the initiative near its borders as a threat to its own security. On Tuesday Russia's military chief told the Czech Republic that hosting the shield would be a "big mistake".
Darabos said he saw no danger from Iranian long range missiles and the United States should try for a different solution.

OH

Anti-terrorism drill coming Saturday
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070823/UPDATES01/70823025/1002/

BUCKEYE LAKE — Buckeye Lake will be the target of a fake terrorist attack this weekend.
Licking County first responders will team with Fairfield and Perry county responders in a drill Saturday, said Jeff Walker, director of the Licking County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency ManagementThe drill will start at 7:30 a.m. and wrap up by 3 p.m.

The exercise will be a mock terrorist attack based on the July 4 celebration, in which a terrorist group would plant mock homemade explosives in the area. The agency would then work with other agencies to address the situation. (cont..)

DRPA Performs Emergency Response Drill
http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_235090730.html

CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Coast Guard conducted an emergency preparedness drill Thursday morning near the Ben Franklin Bridge and Philadelphia Port Authority.

The Port Security Training Exercises Program (PortSTEP) exercise is a means to evaluate preparedness and response to a terror-related incident. Officials believe the drill will help improve current maritime security plans.

"PortSTEP is designed to benefit maritime and surface transportation security communities throughout the U.S. via a suite of training exercises, evaluations and accompanying information technology products," said Noreen Brown, TSA's PortSTEP Project Officer. "This information will prove invaluable as we work to balance freedom of commerce and protection of our nation's transportation system."

Exercise scenarios ranged from an explosion on the Ben Franklin Bridge to terror-related activity around the port. (cont..)

To thwart nuclear terror, US directs trade partners to inspect 11 million cargo containers
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/23/america/NA-GEN-US-Port-Security.php

WASHINGTON: The specter of a nuclear bomb, hidden in a cargo container, detonating in an American port has prompted Congress to require 100 percent screening of U.S.-bound ships at their more than 600 foreign starting points. (Cont..)

Serco gets more anti-terrorism work
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/31295-1.html

Serco Inc. has won a three-year, $62 million contract from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center to design and deploy advanced anti-terrorism systems for ships, Navy ports and other unspecified federal facilities.
The new Naval Electronic Surveillance Systems contract could be worth as much as $115 million if all five of the six-month options are exercised, Serco said (Cont..)

Aerostar UAV Supports USAF Angel Thunder 07 Exercises
http://www.shephard.co.uk/UVOnline/Default.aspx?Action=-187126550&ID=ad2b2acc-150c-466a-af53-390153484956

Aeronautics' Tactical Class, Aerostar Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), operated by the New Mexico State University’s Physical Science Laboratory (NMSU-PSL), successfully participated in the USAF Exercise Angel Thunder 07, from 11 to 18 July at the Playas Training and Research Center (PTRC) of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT). The Air Combat Command (ACC) exercise involved multi-service, tactical air and ground teams in Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) missions (cont..)

LandWarNet gaining momentum
http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/44904-1.html

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — U.S. Army Secretary Peter Geren urged Army information technology managers and industry executives to stay focused on technology efforts that deliver the right information to the right people in real time, noting “we cannot afford a modernization holiday.”
Speaking at the LandWarNet conference, Geren stressed the importance of equipping soldiers with information about their situation without overwhelming them.
“We must make sure we don’t replace the fog of war with the fog of information overload,” he said.
He also noted that Army leadership was committing greater attention to LandWarNet and the use of technology with the creation of a new LandWarNet directorate at G3 “to help synchronize the efforts across the force,” he said.
“LandWarNet is central to changing how the Army fights. It seeks to integrate every element of Army modernization,” he said, “and seamlessly connect the leader to the soldier on the battlefield — and connect the soldier to the information he or she needs wherever and whenever he or she needs it.”

That future is taking place now, he said.
“We are spinning out the first of the [Future Combat Systems] technologies, unattended ground sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles,” Geren said. “Instead of line-of-sight radio and up-and-down satellite signals, LandWarNet and FCS will give us a three-dimensional mesh of ground, aerial and satellite platforms and nodes, with the soldier on the ground at the center of the effort.”
Balancing the need for security and proper classification and the urgent needs on the battlefield remain important issues and “will not be easy,” he said. “We’re working on it. We must get it right for the soldier.” (cont..)

IN

Park will close for mock drill
http://www.county29.net/cms2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5667&Itemid=1

CDC Coordinates Emergency Drills in WV
http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=27969

Joint training leader discusses Unified Endeavor 2007
http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2007/pa082307.htm

NFIRE satellite tracks Minuteman ICBM
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Briefing/2007/08/23/nfire_satellite_tracks_minuteman_icbm/3338/

SAIC

Is US Army ordering robot spy blimp? (Update)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/23/droid_airship_peeper_purchase/

The March to WWIV, Taiwan, Russia +China

2007-08-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

Expert warns on PRC's military drills
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/08/22/2003375289

RISING TENSIONS: The secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei said that the next six months will be critical for cross-strait relations
Over the past six months, China has intensified its military exercises in the Taiwan Strait as a subtle threat to Taiwan in advance of next year's elections and plans for a referendum on UN membership, raising the prospects of heightened cross-strait military tensions through next spring, a leading Taiwan expert said in Washington on Monday.
"The next six months will be a critical period for cross-strait relations," Andrew Yang (???), the secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei, told a seminar on cross-strait relations sponsored by the Atlantic Council.
"For the past six months or so, the military in Taipei has witnessed `unusual military exercises being conducted' in the coastal regions facing Taiwan," he said.
"The Taiwanese military is concerned that with the exercises, the PLA [People's Liberation Army] is enhancing its readiness for some sort of action against Taiwan. They're really worried about it," he said.
The leadership in Beijing, "is demanding that the military upgrade their readiness to face any political fallout [from next year's presidential election and the UN resolution]," he said.
The military exercises, Yang said, "send a signal to Taipei that Beijing is intensifying its preparations, their readiness to use force ... and their will to use force" if they deem Taiwan to be moving toward independence.
The "tendency toward escalation" over the next six to eight months "could make the Taiwan Strait a potential flashpoint for both sides," Yang said.
He said the exercises detected by the Ministry of National Defense have included an increasing number of air sorties to the middle line of the Taiwan Strait and beyond that line, as well as "naval exercises symbolizing efforts to facilitate the use of force."
They have also involved drills with live fire, "which [the Taiwan military] considers unusual compared to the past."

Pakistan to join military exercises under US Central Command
http://www.newkerala.com/july.php?action=fullnews&id=55502

Islamabad, Aug 22: Pakistan will take part in the multinational biennial military exercises to be conducted jointly by the US Central Command (USCENTCOM) and Egyptian armed forces in the Mediterranean Sea in November 2007, an official statement said Wednesday. At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the Federal Cabinet of Pakistan Wednesday allowed the Ministry of Defence to sign a memorandum of understanding between Pakistan and Egypt so as to enable the Pakistan Navy to participate in the military exercises, it said. USCENTCOM is the unified command responsible for US
securityinterests in 25 nations from Egypt in the west to Pakistan in the east, from Kazakhstan in the north to Kenya and the Horn of Africa in the south. (cont..)

Ionatron wins Navy contract for anti-bomb technology
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/197674

Tucson-based Ionatron Inc., a developer of directed-energy weapons, said today it has won a $1 million contract the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind., for development of technology to defeat improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
Ionatron shares closed today at $3.61, up 23 percent or nearly 7 percent, in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The contract represents initial funding for engineering development and testing of Ionatron's Dual Effect Standoff IED Neutralization System. The company said the system employs next generation technology for neutralizing IEDs but has not released detailed information on the technology.
An earlier Ionatron technology was designed to defeat IEDs by a strong electrical pulse.
Funding for the contract is provided by the U.S. military's Joint IED Defeat Organization, Ionatron said. (cont..)

Russia accused of entering Georgian airspace
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/22/nraf222.xml

A Russian fighter jet has violated Georgian airspace for the second time in a month by flying three miles inside its borders, the former Soviet satellite has claimed.

The report comes a day after it was revealed that two RAF Eurofighter Typhoon jets were scrambled to intercept Russian nuclear bombers approaching British airspace last week (cont..)

Deutsche Bank Psyop update
Bovis Bend, Maintenance Company of sabotaged Deutsche Bank "stand pipe", linked to Controlled Cleanup of 9/11
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/ewing2001?id=3903

Russia/China Rising, DB Psyop? Probe, + DARPA

2007-08-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

Russia Builds Highly Effective Pechora Surface-To-Air Missiles

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_Builds_Highly_Effective_Pechora_Surface_To_Air_Missiles_999.html

The final stage of the Combat Fraternity 2007 military exercise will be held at the Ashuluk firing range in the Astrakhan Region (southern Russia) on August 22. Defense ministers from ten CIS states will fly to the range after the opening ceremony of the MAKS 2007 aerospace show, which opens in Zhukovsky near Moscow on August 21 (cont..)

Russian Bombers Rehearse Nuclear Attacks Against the United States
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=1048

Calling on Russian pilots to resume "combat duty," Russian President Vladimir Putin
announced Aug. 17 http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2007/08/17/2156_type82912_141822.shtml that his country's strategic nuclear bombers would resume their Cold War-era practice of conducting long-range patrols "on a permanent basis." He told reporters that "our pilots have spent too long on the ground. I know that they are happy to now have this chance to begin a new life and we wish them luck." Although the main function of these aircraft is to conduct nuclear missile strikes against the continental United States, Putin said he hoped that other countries would show "understanding" for the Russian decision.Perhaps to Moscow's surprise, representatives of the Bush administration did precisely that. In Crawford, Texas, where the president was vacationing, White House spokesperson Gordon D. Johndroe told reporters that, "Militaries around the world engage in a variety of different activities." In Washington, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said that Moscow's action was not threatening since the two countries "certainly are not in the kind of posture we were with what used to be the Soviet Union." Alluding to the age and technological backwardness of the planes, McCormack added that, "If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision."
Some analysts might not be so sanguine. Russia's aging equipment and Russian air crews with less comprehensive training than their American or Soviet-era counterparts make the bombers more vulnerable to mechanical problems. During the Cold War, Soviet and U.S. bombers transporting nuclear weapons sometimes crashed, leading to costly environmental restoration programs and other hazards. At present, it is unclear whether they are carrying nuclear warheads on their patrols, though Putin's use of the term "combat duty" suggests such a possibility.Russia's existing strategic bomber fleet consists almost exclusively of Soviet-manufactured platforms capable of launching long-range air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) armed with nuclear warheads. The Russian Air Force currently deploys http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070814/71405929.html 40 Tu-95MS Bear-H long-range heavy bombers, 14 Tu-160 Blackjack modern strategic bombers, and 141 Tu-22M3 Backfire-C theater bombers. The planes can also launch nuclear-armed short

RAF jets scrambled to intercept Russian bomber
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2302783.ece

Criminal Probe Of Fatal Ground Zero Fire
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/21/national/main3189019.shtml

Paul Isaac of Brooklyn, an auxiliary fire fighter who worked on 9/11, holds a flag in support of the firefighters at the scene of a seven-alarm fire at the abandoned Deutsche Bank building. The blaze claimed the lives of two New York City firefighters. (Getty Images/Chris Hondros)

City officials have said that the fire started on the 17th floor of a building that was being dismantled floor by floor. (cont...)

"Cooperation 2007"

China, Russia: Joint Police Drill Proposed For September
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?selected=Situation%20Reports&sitrep=1&id=294345

The first joint counterterrorism exercise for China's armed police and Russia's interior forces, called "Cooperation 2007," is expected to take place in Moscow in September, though an exact date has not yet been determined. According to a source inside China's armed police, the proposed three-day event was developed in accordance with the principles of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other agreements signed by the two countries.

Australia keen on ties, but not at China's cost
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Australia_keen_on_ties_but_not_at_Chinas_cost/articleshow/2296601.cms

NEW DELHI: Australia might not be in favour of a quadrilateral security dialogue with India, US and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region to avoid antagonising prickly China, but it certainly wants to boost bilateral military cooperation with India. Close on the heels of Australian defence minister Brendan Nelson's visit to India last month for talks on sharing counter-terrorism, maritime security and other "classified" information, his Navy chief is now in town to take the bilateral defence agenda forward. With both India and Australia agreeing that there is "a confluence of interests" between them, especially in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), vice-admiral Russell Edward Shalders held talks with Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Army chief General J J Singh, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal F H Major and defence secretary Vijay Singh on Monday.

U.S. naval chief tours defense facilities in China
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/21/asia/china.php

BEIJING: Amid repeated calls from the Bush administration for China to be more transparent about its military buildup, a visiting senior U.S. naval commander praised his Chinese counterpart here Tuesday for allowing a revealing tour of defense facilities and exercises.
The U.S. chief of naval operations, Admiral Mike Mullen, said he had organized a comprehensive visit to the United States in April for the Chinese naval chief, Admiral Wu Shengli.
"What I asked in return was for him to do the same thing," Mullen said. "He has done that. What I have seen is actions, not just words, which have met that standard, and I consider that to be very positive."
Mullen, who will become the top U.S. uniformed military commander when he becomes chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Oct. 1, said that communication and exchanges between the two militaries needed to improve further but that he had reached a better understanding of China's goals during his six-day visit, which ends Wednesday (cont..)

Norway heightens vigilance as Russia sends more bombers to join exercises
http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2007/aug/20/norway_heightens_vigilance_russia_sends_more_bombers_join_exercises.html

DARPA

Invention: The strategy predictor
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12509-invention-the-strategy-predictor.html

Could a computer predict your next move in a game of strategy based only on observations of your past behaviour? The US
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA) certainly hopes so. It has funded a project led by computer scientist H. Van Dyke Parunak to explore the idea.
Artificial intelligence experts normally approach this problem by assuming that the inner state of a person (or an "agent" in AI parlance) can be described in terms of beliefs, desires and goals. Since these goals determine an agent's actions, it should then to be possible to use this knowledge to make predictions about the agent's future actions.
Parunak claims to have used these ideas with some success in making predictions about future behaviour. He says his simulation works in relatively complex environments, making predictions in real-time.
In war-game scenarios, for example, Parunak says his model can successfully detect players' emotions , and then predict future actions accordingly. He believes the technique could one day be applied to predict the behaviour of adversaries in military combat situations, competitive business tactics, and even multiplayer computer games. (cont..)

US intelligence launches 'MySpace for analysts'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20379182/

A rocket-powered bionic arm
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/08/21/robotic_arm/

Homeland Security seeks input on Plum Island disease lab
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-liplum0822,0,2829637.story

*Leave it to fake opposition "NATION" Mag...DHS is ALL PORK and Corp. welfare.

Report Finds 'Pork' in Homeland Security Grants
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200708/NAT20070821a.html

Please see Nico Haupt's updates on FCS, DEW etc:
http://forum.911movement.org/index.php?showtopic=331&st=15

Terror/Bio+Pandemic Flu Drills +Simulations

2007-08-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Oregon Civil Air Patrol Prepares for Major Exercise
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august202007/cao_eval_82007.php

*Noble Resolve is running through Friday in Portland.

The CAP will conduct aerial and ground operations across the state to respond to numerous fictional incidents that could involve elements of terrorist activities.
PORTLAND, Ore.) - The Oregon U.S. Civil Air Patrol is gearing up for a major USAF graded exercise. Spokesman Thomas Traver says it involves state wide capability of the CAP to conduct multiple emergency operations based on real world potential incidents within Oregon.
It happens August 25th and 26th, Traver said. "A special USAF evaluation team will inspect and grade the CAP wing on it's ability to address numerous scenarios involving Homeland Security, Search and Rescue and Disaster Relief operations."
The Exercise, which happens every two years across the country, is based on real world potential actions that would require the response capabilities of the wing to assist local and federal agencies in time of emergency.
Operating out of the CAP's Incident Command Center located at the Aurora Airport, the CAP will conduct aerial and ground operations across the state to respond to numerous fictional incidents that could involve elements of terrorist activities, air search and rescue as well as potential local natural disasters such as Tsunami's and earthquakes such as the one that hit Peru this week and that local officials expect is imminent for the Pacific Coast (cont..)

CA

Major emergency drill planned at SVMH
http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/NEWS01/70820009/1002

Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital will hold a large-scale emergency preparedness drill from 2 to 4 p.m. tomorrow in its Breschini parking lot, at the corner of Wilgart Way and San Jose Street.
Engineers at have already set up a massive isolation tent that would serve as a make-shift hospital in the event of an emergency that damaged the main hospital. Equipped with re-circulating air purification for both positive and negative pressure deployments, the tent would also be used in cases of widespread infectious disease or incidents of bio-terrorism. (cont..)

Registration open for pandemic flu drill
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/REG/70820027

SIFMA, the Wall Street trade association, today announced open registration for the pandemic flu exercise
From Sept. 24 through Oct. 12, the Financial Banking Information Infrastructure Committee and the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council will hold a pandemic flu exercise for the U.S. financial services sector.
SIFMA and the Treasury Department are sponsoring the exercise.
The three-week program will test firms’ pandemic plans against a scenario that would span an entire pandemic wave.
Each Monday at 9 a.m., Eastern daylight time, participating institutions will get a scenario update and a series of multi-choice questions.
They have until 5 p.m. on Wednesday of that week to respond online.
Employees, including internal operations staffers and crisis management teams, are eligible to participate in the exercise.
The program is free of charge and voluntary. More than 1,200 organizations have already signed up (cont..)

Smallpox returns in terrorism simulation
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_headline=smallpox-returns-in-terrorism-simulation&method=full&objectid=19660555&siteid=50082-name_page.html

THE first simulation of how healthcare professionals would cope with a terrorist attack involving smallpox will be carried out in Wales tomorrow.
Students from the University of Glamorgan’s Masters in Disaster Healthcare course will be expected to treat a patient infected with the lethal disease, which none of them have ever experienced before.
The simulation will provide the students – many of whom are front line nurses who would be expected to deal with such an outbreak if it ever occurred – with essential training and experience. (Cont..)

Real Life and Digital Simulation Will Merge by 2011
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,162689.shtml

IRVINE, CA -- 08/20/07 -- Real life and digital simulation will merge by 2011, producing a mixed-reality environment that will change the way consumers communicate, interact and conduct commerce, according to futurist Dan Lejerskar, chairman of EON Reality Inc., the world's leading interactive 3D software provider.
"What once was imagined soon will be experienced," Lejerskar explained. "The technology convergence of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Web and search, and digital content means that people can experience more in their daily lives by blurring the distinction between their physical existence and digital reality." (Cont..)

SKorea, US begin annual military drill
http://www.onelocalnews.com/pioneertimesjournal/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=154643

11th MEU conducts mass casualty exercise at sea
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/CA09396D04162E9E8525733D0016B4BC?opendocument

FCS updates, Deutsche Bank Psyop? Boeing Raytheon DEW

2007-08-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

Silicon Valley Creates High Tech Tools For The Pentagon
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5572931

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug 15, 2007 (KGO) - The Army is transitioning to a very high tech, light weight, mobile force. On Wednesday, ABC7 News got a glimpse of the Pentagon's vision: Aircraft, tanks & combat vehicles all moving through a battlefield, monitored by sensors and tracked by computers.
Santa Clara defensive contractor, BAE Systems, has created a hybrid engine undergoing its first public test at their facilities The engine is tested in a metal case which resembles the front of an armored vehicle and eventually placed in a chassis, which can become any one of eight combat vehicles.
Ted Kuriata is the technical operating officer for BAE Systems which is one of the developers for the Future Combat Systems Initiative or FCS.
Ted Kuriata: "It could be an infantry carrier. It can be a supply vehicle. It can be a recovery vehicle. I can me a medical vehicle. A tank as well"
Video from BAE systems displays some of the innovative military technology the Pentagon is including in FCS units on the battlefield.
Sensors for finding enemy combatants, unmanned air vehicle systems, even ground surveillance robots are all able to communicate with each other and the command center.
Program Manager Army Major General Charles Cartwright says the future hybrid combat vehicles in FCS units will give the Army two impressive tools.
Cartwright: "Transport yourself to the middle of Baghdad and you can move a vehicle that you don't hear. The only purpose of the engine is to provide electricity to the batteries."
According to engineers, the hybrid can also play a role while not in combat. It can puts out enough electricity to power 300 average homes for one day and can replace field generators and power the electronic combat gear and computers.
The new technology has critics who say, in urban combat, these high tech tools might feed back too much or even the wrong information. Former Assistant Defense Secretary Philip Coyle is with the Center for Defense Information.
Philip Coyle: "Is it helping them in the decisions they have to make in battle or is it a burden?"
When this project started in 2000, the budget was 91 million dollars and it is now up to 160 million dollars. Some critics say that number could double.
Cartwright: "The issue is the Army wants more and in 2004 the Army said I want your technology in current force vehicles."
The hybrid vehicles might see combat after 2010. The rest of the new technology may be ready as early as next year.

Robot wars are a reality
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2151284,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=technology

The deployment of the first armed battlefield robots in Iraq is the latest step on a dangerous path - we are sleepwalking into a brave new world where robots decide who, where and when to kill. Already, South Korea and Israel are deploying armed robot border guards and China, Singapore and the UK are among those making increasing use of military robots. The biggest player yet is the US: robots are integral to its $230bn future combat systems project, a massive plan to develop unmanned vehicles that can strike from the air, under the sea and on land. Congress has set a goal of having one-third of ground combat vehicles unmanned by 2015. Over 4,000 robots are serving in Iraq at present, others in Afghanistan (cont..)

NORTHCOM chief gets boots on the ground in NYC
http://www.blackanthem.com/News/corner/NORTHCOM_chief_gets_boots_on_the_ground_in_NYC9597.shtml

The Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto introduces NYS Governor Eliot Spitzer to Gen. Gene Renuart, Commander of the U.S. Northern Command at New York's historic Lexington Avenue Armory on Friday, Aug. 10, 2007 to review ongoing homeland security missions for the New York National Guard. Renuart visited with Soldiers from the Guard's 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry whose Citizen Soldiers were among the first military responders to the terror attacks at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and went on to serve on federal duties both for homeland security missions during Operation Noble Eagle and combat operations for Operation Iraqi Freedom. The military leaders met with leaders from the NYPD, FDNY, NYC Office of Emergency Management and the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Chief for information briefings and security updates. Renuart also visited with members of the New York Naval Militia aboard the NYS Military Emergency Boat Service whose crews provide the state's military forces with a homeland security presence on New York's waterways. The NORTHCOM commander is responsible for homeland defense and also serves as head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a U.S.-Canada command. U.S. Army photo by Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg

Blackanthem Military News, NEW YORK - The commander responsible for America's homeland defense with the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a U.S.-Canada command toured, Manhattan August 10 to better familiarize himself with New York State's military forces and ongoing homeland security missions.General Gene Renuart, the USNORTHCOM Commander received information briefings from The Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto alongside security discussions with New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer and Deputy Secretary for Public Security Michael Balboni. Much of the discussion involved a review of the state's Task Force Empire Shield, the standing homeland security task force performing state active duty missions throughout the city and state. The roles and missions of the task force have grown changed over the past years, but the presence of Soldiers, Airman, Sailors and Marines as part of the state's homeland security mission has been continuous since September 11, 2001. (Cont..)

Psyop?

Blaze Stirs Haunting 9/11 Memories
http://www.wnbc.com/news/13923390/detail.html?dl=mainclick

NEW YORK -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg says preliminary air quality tests showed no danger Sunday morning in the area around the Deutsche Bank building, which burned for almost seven hours Saturday.
The seven-alarm blaze brought back all too painful memories for the New York City Fire Department as the burning building, abandoned after 9/11, claimed two more lives. (Cont..)

Lockheed Martin buys video game maker to enter simulation market
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=389548&ssid=54&ssname=ICE%20Economy&sid=BUS&sname=

Los Angeles, Aug 18: Lockheed Martin Corp said on Friday it bought 3Dsolve, a maker of "serious" video games used for training. Financial terms were not disclosed. The defense contractor said the acquisition will strengthen its position in the fast-growing training and simulation market and allow it to provide a broader array of products and services to an expanding customer base. Bureau Report

Final stage of SCO drill begins
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-08/17/content_6032538.htm

Helicopters and armoured vehicles advance in formation during the final stage of the Peace Mission 2007 counter-terrorism drill, sponsored by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in Chelyabinsk in Russia's Ural Mountains region, August 17, 2007. Leaders and defense ministers from SCO's six member countries gathered in the Chebarkul military range near Chelyabinsk in the morning to observe the drill, which is also due to end on Friday. [Xinhuanet]

Indo-UK anti-terror war game in Ladakh
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Aug192007/scroll2007081920113.asp?section=scrollingnews

Boeing, Raytheon Tweak Laser-Based Weapons
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/LASER081707.xml&headline=Boeing,%20Raytheon%20Tweak%20Laser-Based%20Weapons

Gaming 4G warfare for the USAF, with rayguns
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/02/poa2_usaf_simulation/

"Noble Resolve" and Simulation,SCO, +Drills

2007-08-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

* *the info below from Portland Indy media, I found interesting in comparison
with the use of Future Combat Systems on 9/11 in Manhattan with simulation
and imagery inserted into the tv broadcasts.....

Noble Resolve (updates)
Noble Resolve 07-2 aims at making communication easier
http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2007/pa081007.htm
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/363597.shtml

Portland Seeks Designation as First ‘Synthetic City’
http://www.rainsnet.org/press/pr/pr0818066778.asp

Portland, OR - August 18, 2006 -
"On Friday, August 18, a group of federal, state and local officials, academics, and private sector leaders will convene on the campus of Portland State University to talk about a potential transfer of power. Under discussion is the notion that technology used to fight the war on terror abroad could soon be applied to homeland security needs…and that Portland, Oregon could be an early test-bed for such transfers.
According to the Regional Alliances for Infrastructure and Network Security (RAINS), a central player in the development of homeland defense technology solutions, the primary military technology under consideration for transfer is "synthetic city" software—a digital information platform that fuses data from a variety of real-world sources, such as 9-1-1 centers, atmospheric sensors, smart buildings, health networks, and intelligent transportation systems—then organizes and displays it all in a 3-D geographical modeling and simulation environment.
"Our military friends are going to be demonstrating some very cutting edge technology—sort of the ultimate Sim City," explained RAINS’ chairman Charles Jennings, "They’ll be displaying virtual version of the real Portland, with real-time data inside." Jennings is the CEO of Portland-based Swan Island Networks.
The "Synthetic Portland" conference brings together participants from around the country, representing all levels of government, large federal contractors and system integrators; information technology vendor companies; universities; hospitals; and various types of non-governmental service organizations. "

China, Russia, Central Asian Leaders Tout New Strength
http://mnweekly.ru/news/20070816/55267854.html

BISHKEK (AFP) - The leaders of China, Russia and four Central Asian states touted their growing military and political strength Thursday in a firm challenge to US attempts at gaining influence in the strategic region.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russia's Vladimir Putin, together with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, gathered near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek for the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Speaking in a new conference centre built by Chinese contractors under the shining backdrop of the snow-covered Tien Shan mountains, the Russian president described the SCO as a budding force. (Cont..)

Real deal for simulators
http://www.azstarnet.com/business/196605

A Tucson company that specializes in creating simulation software for military training is joining forces with other software specialists under its Canadian parent.
Montreal-based CAE Inc. acquired Terrain Experts Inc., 5151 E. Broadway, Suite 1000, for $10 million in May 2005. Now CAE is spinning Terrain Experts and two other acquisitions into Presagis, a new subsidiary dealing in modeling and simulation software. (Cont..)

"Reliant Mermaid"

Turkey, USA, Israel to perform joint exercise
http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-28283.html

MN

Nicollet County conducts outbreak drill
http://www.mankatofreepress.com/features/local_story_228004520.html?keyword=topstory

Photos:
http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/mankatofreepress/flashpromo/slideshows/81407mds/index.html
For a moment, the drill became a test of a real-life emergency response, rather than a planned exercise to help health workers prepare for a disease outbreak. (Cont)

IL

Homeland Security drill in Decatur plays out well
http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=6938019&nav=0hBE

Local, state, and federal agencies conducted a drill today in Decatur to test their readiness.
This is the scene.
At 9:18 a.m., a dignitary and full entourage arrive for a speech. Under the watchful eye of law enforcement, the speech begins and suddenly an assassin emerges from the crowd and shoots.
(cont..)

US, African and European forces in military exercise ahead of AFRICOM operation
http://www.echoroukonline.com/english/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7224

"Medusa" DEW, BAE/FCS, DHS, Drills etc

2007-08-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Meet the MEDUSA Ray Gun
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/meet-the-medusa.html

Are you disillusioned with
Ionatronand all those other far-fetched weapons that just don't seem to go anywhere? Are you looking for a new ray gun that will blast missiles out of the air? Well, earlier this week I heard from Dr. Robert Adams, CEO Optima Technology Group, which produces the MEDUSA Mobile Energy Device. Dr. Adams is angry because some time back, he wrote to Ionatron offering to cooperate: "Like your company, we own patented DE technology that works. We further feel that your company's position in Directed Energy Weapons as well as your stock price would drastically improve by acquiring and/or taking the exclusive rights through a partnership with our company of our patented technology," he wrote.
Ionatron gave him the brushoff.
What do I think of MEDUSA? One website describes the company's founders as consisting of an "ex-US Navy seal, the man who invented holographic storage, a games software programmer and [sic] a matter/anti-matter ray-gun which, had it been in existence on September 11, might have prevented at least some of the devastation………." Apparently, inspiration for MEDUSA came to its inventor from a combination of crop circles and an article in Aviation Week & Space Technology (which, I swear, is probably where most weapons ideas come from). (cont..)

Teams Practice Anti-Terror Drills
http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=f0cd0b53-76d4-4fb8-baf0-60a377868fb6

The record heat in Memphis did not deter several National Guard teams from their mission to be prepared to handle a terrorist attack.
The Memphis-Shelby County Emergency Management Agency organized the effort at various locations, including the Shelby Farms Agri Center, Wednesday, August 15, 2007.
Civil Support Teams, specializing in Weapons of Mass Destruction and hazardous materials, from Tennessee and neighboring states took part in the drill. They were given a scenario of a major terrorism event and asked to develop plans to improve communication between teams.

BAE Systems Unveils Hybrid Electric Drive System for Future Combat Systems
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070815005658&newsLang=en

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems demonstrated the first hybrid electric drive system for ground combat vehicles as part of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.
Creation of the hybrid electric drive system, led by BAE Systems, is a joint development with General Dynamics Land Systems in partnership with the Army and the FCS Lead Systems Integrator team of Boeing and Science Applications International Corp.
The FCS Manned Ground Vehicles (MGV) family of eight vehicles is the first ever planned operational Army suite of ground combat vehicles to use hybrid electric technology. The first use of the hybrid electric drive technology will be in the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) — the lead FCS ground combat vehicle slated to begin initial production in 2008. The NLOS-C, designed and built by BAE Systems – in partnership with General Dynamics Land Systems -- is a fully automated, 155mm self-propelled howitzer.
FCS is the U.S. Army's principle modernization program, which is made up of a family of manned and unmanned ground and air systems, and sensors connected by a common network.
(Cont..)

Homeland Security exploring mass-scanning system
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-usterr155332662aug15,0,7332097.story

WASHINGTON - Can technology identify someone thinking about committing a terrorist attack? The Department of Homeland Security is exploring that possibility.Last month, it queried researchers about designing a system that would detect deceptive behavior by flagging physiological and behavioral cues such as heartbeat, respiration and facial expression, using thermal imaging, infrared cameras and audio and eye-tracking, among other techniques. A related program, Project Hostile Intent, is exploring the use of involuntary facial and speech signals captured on video to identify people "involved in possible malicious or deceitful acts" - before they ever commit the crime. (Cont..)

U.S. to ExpandDomestic Use Of Spy Satellites
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118714764716998275.html?mod=blog

The U.S.'s top intelligence official has greatly expanded the range of federal and local authorities who can get access to information from the nation's vast network of spy satellites in the U.S.
The decision, made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, places for the first time some of the U.S.'s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials. The move was authorized in a May 25 memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking his department to facilitate access to the spy network on behalf of civilian agencies and law enforcement
Until now, only a handful of federal civilian agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, have had access to the most basic spy-satellite imagery, and only for the purpose of scientific and environmental study.
According to officials, one of the department's first objectives will be to use the network to enhance border security, determine how best to secure critical infrastructure and help emergency responders after natural disasters. Sometime next year, officials will examine how the satellites can aid federal and local law-enforcement agencies, covering both criminal and civil law. The department is still working on determining how it will engage law enforcement officials and what kind of support it will give them.
Access to the high-tech surveillance tools would, for the first time, allow Homeland Security and law-enforcement officials to see real-time, high-resolution images and data, which would allow them, for example, to identify smuggler staging areas, a gang safehouse, or possibly even a building being used by would-be terrorists to manufacture chemical weapons.
Overseas -- the traditional realm of spy satellites -- the system was used to monitor tank movements during the Cold War. Today, it's used to monitor suspected terrorist hideouts, smuggling routes for weapons in Iraq, nuclear tests and the movement of nuclear materials, as well as to make detailed maps for U.S. soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Plans to provide DHS with significantly expanded access have been on the drawing board for over two years. The idea was first talked about as a possibility by the Central Intelligence Agency after 9/11 as a way to help better secure the country. "It is an idea whose time has arrived," says Charles Allen, the DHS's chief intelligence officer, who will be in charge of the new program. DHS officials say the program has been granted a budget by Congress and has the approval of the relevant committees in both chambers.
Wiretap Legislation
Coming on the back of legislation that upgraded the administration's ability to wiretap terrorist suspects without warrants, the development is likely to heat up debate about the balance between civil liberties and national security.

Access to the satellite surveillance will be controlled by a new Homeland Security branch -- the National Applications Office -- which will be up and running in October. Homeland Security officials say the new office will build on the efforts of its predecessor, the Civil Applications Committee. Under the direction of the Geological Survey, the Civil Applications Committee vets requests from civilian agencies wanting spy data for environmental or scientific study. The Geological Survey has been one of the biggest domestic users of spy-satellite information, to make topographic maps

GE's security division awarded large explosives detection systems contract
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/08/14/afx4016989.html

Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration program (AARD)
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/aerial-refueling-look-ma-no-hands-03605/?camp=newsletter&src=did&type=textlink

DARPA does some quietly interesting things. The latest is an autopilot that lets an aircraft perform air-air refueling – one of the most challenging routine flight tasks outside of carrier landings – without pilot intervention. While impressive on its own, such systems have special relevance because they offer the promise of unmanned fighters that can remain aloft far longer than aircraft which require human pilots. The result would be far longer strike reach and persistence, two areas that will be critical to the US Navy's ability to
keep its carrier force relevant and effectivethrough the next 3 decades. It's no coincidence that the J-UCAS program, which is now the Navy's UCAS-D, was a DARPA initiative as well.

(cont..)

Flu pandemic simulation tests Manchester's emergency plan
http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18705673&amp;BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=569429&rfi=6

MANCHESTER - It was a disturbing sight Tuesday in Town Hall, a body on the floor of the Manchester Room.
It was a reminder that otherwise healthy individuals could drop at any moment due to a virus that could drown victims as their lungs fill with fluid.This was why officials planned the town and state's first full-scale drill - it did not affect the Police and Fire departments - to open Manchester's emergency operations center and cut the number of town staffers, sending half to training at Manchester Community College. (cont..)

CACI hires former Navy vice admiral
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Briefing/2007/08/14/caci_hires_former_navy_vice_admiral/2802/

Casey: Army Must Upgrade For 'Decades' Of War

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/CASEY081507.xml&headline=Casey:

More Clues?:PMC WWIV with Russia+China +Misc Drills

2007-08-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

*Please see Ewing2001's:http://www.team8plus.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1515

US military sees looming China threat to satellites
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070814214301.e6ccp77g&show_article=1&image=large

China may be just three years away from being able to disrupt
US militarysatellites in a regional conflict, a senior US military leader said Tuesday, citing a recent anti-satellite test and other advances.
The warning came amid calls at a conference in Alabama for intensified efforts to ensure US "space superiority" in the wake of China's shoot down January 11 of one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile.
"It is not inconceivable that within about three years we can be challenged at a near peer level in a region," said Lieutenant General Kevin Campbell, head of the US Army's Space and Missile Defense Command.
"That means taking out a number of communications capabilities over a theater of war," he added in a speech to an audience of defense contractors in Huntsville, Alabama.
Campbell later told reporters that while a number of countries have some capabilities to interfere with satellite communications, China is the country he is most worried about.
Its anti-satellite test in January was a clear demonstration of its ability to destroy an orbiting satellite, he said.
But its development of jamming capabilities and advances in computer network attack point to a comprehensive approach to denying the US military access to space in a conflict, he said.
"It starts to add up that they'll have multi-dimensional capabilities to attack various systems that are in orbit today," he said.
"A lot of countries have pieces of what I've described, but I would say I'm more concerned about China than any of them," he said.
Satellites are vital to US military operations, enabling the flow of torrents of communications, imagery, and navigational data for the kind of high tech precision warfare that the United States excels at.
But US reliance on satellites also has created vulnerabilities that though long understood had not taken concrete form until the Chinese test.
Campbell said it has spurred the military to think about how to counter the threat, including ways to track and surveil objects in space to know what they are up to.
He said his command has devised a "space alert" system patterned on "air alerts" that would key the military's responses to a threat to a friendly satellite.
The military also is thinking about offensive counter-measures, he said.
"I'm not free to talk about specifics, but the bottom line is we're thinking about and taking steps to ensure we have a capability... that shows we have freedom of action in space," he said.

A Giant 'Golfball' for Missile Defense
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1652780,00.html

Last Friday morning, Colonel John R. Fellows watched from his Honolulu hotel room as what appeared to be a giant golf ball pulled into Pearl Harbor. The white dome, encasing the powerful military radar of which Fellows is in charge, was returning from a week at sea. "It just came in while I was sitting here," said Fellows, who works for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The Sea-Based X-Band radar was, you could say, right on time.

Or, you could say it was about two years late. Designed to keep an eye out for rogue missiles flying toward the United States, the SBX had been scheduled to report for duty in Alaska in early 2006, but a series of structural repairs and upgrades have kept it in warmer waters. For over a year, the nine-story radar that sits atop a self-propelled Norwegian oil platform has been coming and going from Pearl Harbor for fixes and tests — a delay critics see as symptomatic of an agency under pressure to deliver a national missile defense system that is still more fiction than fact.
The SBX certainly looks like something out of a 1960s precursor to Transformers, its round, white head ready to make a mechanical turn, sprout legs and stand up, streaming seawater and begin terrorizing the good people of Honolulu. But the 280-foot high, $900 million gizmo will soon be scanning the horizon for enemy threats, joining the growing suite of land-, sea- and space-based technologies that the MDA claims is the nation's first functional national missile defense system. Since President Ronald Reagan initiated his Star Wars program, about $100 billion has been spent on U.S. missile defense. We don't have an invisible shield protecting us, but we do have two ground-based interceptor batteries in California and Alaska aimed roughly in the direction of North Korea, and plans to build more in central Europe aimed at Iran (cont..)

Russian nuclear bombers hold exercises over North Pole

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Rest_of_World/Russian_nuclear_bombers_hold_exercises_over_North_Pole/articleshow/2281387.cms

MOSCOW: Russian strategic bombers on Tuesday began five days of exercises over the North Pole, marking the latest in a series of displays of Moscow's military muscle. The nuclear-capable bombers will practice firing cruise missiles, navigation in the polar region and aerial refuelling manoeuvres, the Russian air force said in a statement. The exercises come barely a week after Russian strategic Tu-95 bombers flew over the Pacific to within a few hundred kilometres (miles) of the US military base on the island of Guam - and, according to a Russian general, exchanged grins with US fighter pilots sent to intercept. They also follow recent attempts by Moscow to bolster Russia's territorial claims in the Arctic region. One Russian air force officer, who asked not to be identified, told agencies he expected US interceptors would once again make their presence felt during this week's exercises. (cont..)

Exercise Northern Viking 2007

Icelandic defense exercise kicks off
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123064426

/14/2007 - KEFLAVIK, Iceland (AFPN) -- Leaders from the United States and Iceland joined NATO partners Aug. 13 to kick off an exercise to demonstrate U.S. commitment to the 1951 bilateral U.S.-Iceland defense agreement and reinvigorate air defense command and control capabilities of joint and coalition forces in Iceland. Exercise Northern Viking 2007 provides a basis for continued U.S. presence and points out the critical nature of the Icelandic Air Defense System to NATO's control and security of air space, said Gen. William T. Hobbins, U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander. "This exercise is an integral part of the efforts by the United States and other NATO allies to work with Iceland to modernize its defense strategy to meet the threats of the 21st century," said General Hobbins.

Emergency Drill Tests Topeka Hospitals
http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/9157336.html

Dozens of people injured by a suicide bomber -- and possibly contaminated by radiation.
That was the scenario area hospitals ran through today in a mock drill.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment wanted to see if Topeka hospitals could take in patients after a potential radiological disaster.
The call goes out, and emergency workers prepare to save the lives of the injured.
Thankfully, the disaster was just a drill, The blood and bruises, just make-up.
The victims, just volunteer actors -- prepared with a script.
In this scenario, a radical activist detonated a "dirty" bomb in a state office building.
And the hospitals had to contain the radioactivity before being able to treat patients. Everyone gets cleaned off.
Nothing is like the real thing.

Emergency drill planned at post office
http://www.post-trib.com/news/508942,gdrillbrief.article

GeoEye Appoints Retired NGA Executive Roberta E. ('Bobbi') Lenczowski to Board of Directors
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/LATU03914082007-1.htm

BAE Systems widens weapon sites as profits echo the Iraq ‘surge’

http://www.financeweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=5418&d=11&amp;amp;amp;h=24&f=254

Europe’s biggest defence group has shrugged off slush-fund accusations to boost profits, expand its US business and diversify onto land and sea, while strengthening its balance sheet for a return to more peaceful times. BAE Systems has confirmed its status as Europe’s largest defence company with a 27% rise in first-half net profit, to £515m ($1bn). Arm,s sales on both sides of the Atlantic have been boosted by ongoing engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, with US sales up 12% y-o-y and overall turnover up 8% to £6.9bn. The Farnborough-based company has taken advantage of the war dividend to pay down its pension fund deficit (to £3.2bn from £5.2bn over the past year), and of the weak dollar to step up its acquisitions in the US. The £2bn takeover of vehicle maker Armor Holdings was completed at the start of this month, and CEO Mike Turner says more are on the way. (cont..)

Robot Surge, SeaHawk '07, NGA +China Space War

2007-08-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

Unmanned "Surge": 3000 More Robots for War
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/3000-more-bomb-.html

U.S. military robots ran 30,000 missions in 2006 -- hunting for, and getting rid of, improvised explosives. Now, the military has launched a crash project to radically increase its unmanned ground forces. Call it the robotic equivalent of the "surge."
The first batch of 'bots is due September 24, Defense News' Kris Osborn reports. 1000 machines are supposed to be enlisted by the end of the year, with two thousand more in five years.

Word of the robot recruitment comes just weeks after the military revealed it had deployed armed robots to Iraq.
In contrast, these smallish robots, weighing fifty pounds or less, will be used mostly for reconnaissance duty -- looking out for insurgents, and their bombs. A government solicitation to robot-makers asks for a machine that can both "look into the window of a vehicle" and peek "under a vehicle undercarriage."
That July 17 solicitation kicked off a break-neck competition to award the bot-building contract. "The victor will be crowned Sept. 14 with a contract for 101 robots. The first must be delivered within 10 days," says Defense News

"Seahawk 2007"

Maritime security exercise begins
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070813-0241-maritime.html

SAN DIEGO – A two-week maritime security exercise involving more than 900 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard personnel will begin Monday on San Diego Bay, according to the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command.
The exercise, called "Seahawk 2007," is intended to enhance interoperability between the Navy and Coast Guard and improve capabilities along inshore areas, according to the Navy.

U.S. Admiral: No Russians Near War Games
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Aug10/0,4670,GuamWarGames,00.html

DigitalGlobe Announces Launch Date for WorldView-1 (update)
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/LAM04513082007-1.htm

Satellite Delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base
LONGMONT and BOULDER, Colo. and WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., ITT Corporation and DigitalGlobe, the provider of the world's highest-resolution imagery and geospatial information products, today announced delivery of its WorldView-1 satellite to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for its scheduled launch on Tuesday, September 18, 2007. WorldView-1 is the first of two new next-generation satellites DigitalGlobe plans to launch.

Upon launch on September 18, WorldView-1 will undergo a calibration and check out period and will deliver imagery soon after. First imagery from WorldView-1 is expected to be available prior to October 18, the sixth anniversary of the launch of QuickBird, DigitalGlobe's current satellite. WorldView-1 will have an average revisit time of 1.7 days and will be capable of collecting up to 750,000 square kilometers (290,000 square miles) per day of half-meter imagery. The satellite will also be equipped with state-of-the- art geo-location accuracy capabilities and will exhibit stunning agility with rapid targeting and efficient in-track stereo collection.
"This is a momentous milestone that brings us one step closer to the launch of our next-generation satellite system," said Jill Smith, CEO of DigitalGlobe. "The addition of WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 in the coming months will bring the total number of satellites DigitalGlobe has in orbit to three, completing a constellation of spacecraft that will offer the highest collection capacity, more than 1 million square kilometers per day."
WorldView-1 is part of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)'s NextView program. The NextView program is designed to ensure that the NGA has access to commercial imagery in support of its mission to provide timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security. The majority of the imagery captured by WorldView-1 for the NGA will also be available for sale through DigitalGlobe's archive. Additionally, the launch of WorldView-1 immediately frees up capacity on DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite to meet the growing commercial demand for multi-spectral geospatial imagery

Chinese intentions and American preparedness
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/930/1

The AST test that destroyed a Chinese weather satellite is considered an "enigma" by some, but open source literature offers a glimpse into Chinese military space planning. (credit: CNSA)

by Christopher StoneMonday, August 13, 2007
"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack , we must seem unable: when using our forces, we must seem inactive: when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Holdout baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder and crush him."– Sun Tzu
On January 11, 2007 the Chinese launched a missile from a mobile transporter-erector launcher (TEL) armed with a kinetic kill vehicle and destroyed the Fengyun-1C weather satellite. This satellite was orbiting the earth in a low, polar orbit. This missile was launched with no advanced warning from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and they didn’t respond to the test until much later. According to Air Force Space Command, 700 spacecraft in low Earth orbit are now at risk due to the debris cloud created. I would say in addition to the debris cloud, all of our satellites and manned spacecraft, within range of these weapons, are endangered and the Chinese ASAT interceptor program should be taken seriously (cont..)

Biosurveillance, Intelligence and Bugs
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2007/08/biosurveillance_intelligence_a_1.html

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has decided to investigate the creation of the National Biosurveillance Integration System at the Department of Homeland Security.
The operation was mandated by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 10. Its mission is to "to provide early detection and situational awareness of biological events of potential national consequence by acquiring, integrating, analyzing, and disseminating existing human, animal, plant, and environmental biosurveillance system data into a common operating picture," according to the DHS.
The idea for the biosurveillance shop was apparently proposed in a study by Science Applications International Corp. When DHS decided to follow up and outsource the operation, SAIC won the contract. In an Aug. 7 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the committee seems quite focused on the procurement angle. Among other things, it asks for details about the request for proposal, the companies that responded and the process used to selected SAIC.

Khaan Quest 07, CS&T + SCO & New "Cold War"

2007-08-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

Khaan Quest 07

Command post exercise draws to a close
http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/CDE7ED3D5A5FA30985257334000787D2?opendocument

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia - Approximately 120 officers conduct an after-action review at the conclusion of a command post exercise here Aug. 10. The CPX was part of exercise Khaan Quest 07 and brought officers from 19 countries together in a simulated United Nations force headquarters which aimed to improve Global Peace Operations Initiative Peace Support Operations core competencies, enhance multinational interoperability, enhance military-to-military relationships, and improve teamwork and multinational cooperation.
Approximately 120 officers from 19 countries bid adieu to each other and the command post exercise which brought them together here.This training evolution simulated establishing a United Nations force headquarters in a deployed location in response to a regional peace operation and included both classroom-type briefings as well as practical application.The exercise participants conducted an after action review to look back at the lessons learned as well as provide feedback for future training."Obviously, the problem we’ve got here is every [noncommissioned officer’s] nightmare," joked Maj. Lee Smart, British Army’s assistant military attaché and the assistant watch keeper for exercise Khaan Quest 07. "Any NCO in any army in the world would panic at the thought of 100 officers conducting a plan completely unsupervised by NCOs!"Though Smart joked, he was but one of many officers who offered up valid points, both good and bad, on how the exercise went.One participant spoke of having five "bosses" to answer to while another touched on the dreaded e-mail leadership. But Smart points out, "We have done all this unsupervised without the assistance of the people we would normally have around to help us."Robert N. Sweeney, the Global Peace Operations Initiative program manager for the U. S. Pacific Command, acknowledged the challenges inherent in an exercise of this magnitude."In a training environment where you pull 19 nations together and try to make it happen, it’s extremely difficult, because everyone comes from a different environment, a different planning process."The chief of staff at the exercise had a unique view to see those differences."If I was running the command post exercise in the Mongolian way," said Col. Bayarsaikhan Dashdoudog, the Mongolian Armed Forces chief of staff at the exercise, "it would be very easy to [just] give an order. In an international environment, it is very different."All in all, the exercise was deemed a success for the individual participants, their native countries and peacekeeping as a whole.

Cognitive Revolution: Integrating Computing, Nanotech, Simulation And You
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070811213026.htm

Sandia researcher Rob Abbott uses a joystick and plays the role of a student in a training exercise driving an amphibious assault vehicle simulator used by the Navy and Marines. The second monitor is an instructor/operator application called CDMTS. In the background is a thermal image of a student's face used for investigating biometrics to monitor the student in various ways including the level of engagement and focus of attention. (Credit: Photo by Randy Montoya)

Science Daily — Imagine a world where a machine creates a "virtual you" by modeling how you think and your expertise on a subject. Or one where your car’s computer appreciates your driving skills and compensates for your limitations.
Thaat’s the world Sandia National Laboratories has entered full throttle through its Cognitive Science and Technology Program (CS&T).
A revolution is at hand, says Chris Forsythe, member of the Labs’ cognition research team. It’s not one of just better guns and weapons for national security. Instead, "it’s a revolution of the mind — of how people think and how machines can help people work better."
Focus on individual
A large portion of Sandia’s program today focuses on the uniqueness of the individual interacting with others and with machines. It involves using machines to help humans perform more efficiently and embedding cognitive models in machines so they interact with users more like people interact with one another. The result is the ability for researchers to take advantage of the basic strengths of humans and machines while mitigating the weaknesses of each.
Cognitive projects and research at Sandia span a whole gamut of areas, ranging from student training to assisting with Yucca Mountain licensing, from designing "smart" cars to using video-like games to train military personnel, and from determining how neurons give rise to memory to global terrorist threat detection.
The initial decision for Sandia to develop cognitive technologies is based on the belief that "there are numerous positive impacts cognitive systems technologies can have on our national security," says Russ Skocypec, senior manager of Sandia’s Human, Systems, and Simulation Technologies Department.
Today’s conflicts, he says, are unlike others over the past century. Although all wars are driven by humans, major influences on the outcomes have differed. World War I was a chemists’ war, World War II a physicists’ war, and the Cold War an economic war. Today, he believes, "we are engaged in a human war that is influenced primarily by individual human beings rather than technology or bureaucracy."
That is why he considers it appropriate for Sandia, a laboratory with national security as its mission, to use its resources to better understand the minds of this country’s adversaries, as well as to use machines to enhance the Labs’ abilities to recognize patterns, deal with massive amounts of data, solve perplexing problems, and perform complex activities.
While Sandia dipped its toes in cognitive research in the late 1990s, the Labs’ real effort in the area started in 2002 when the program won an internally funded LDRD grand challenge. Based in part on the success and path set by the grand challenge in 2005, the former Mission Council — a group that consisted of senior Sandia vice presidents — selected cognitive science and technology (CS&T) as a research focus area for the Labs.
Strategic planning for cognitive science and technology
During the spring and summer of 2006, the cognition team conducted two investigations. The first looked at what cognitive capabilities exist at Sandia.
The second examined opportunities involving the convergence of Sandia’s initiatives in the areas of cognition, biotechnologies, and nanotechnologies. This led to a Cognitive Science and Technology Plan with three technical objectives — a basic science understanding of the human brain, mind, and behavior; improved human performance; and advanced human-machine systems at all scales.
"The plan is at the level of ‘send a man to the moon’ — beyond the scope of what any one institution can possibly do," Forsythe says. "It’s a synthesis of ideas. Now, our intent is to home in on a few areas in which the labs can make a unique and profound contribution."
Forsythe says there are two elements to Sandia’s strategic planning for cognition.
"What makes most sense is for Sandia to select areas where we have unique, collective technical strengths, areas that few others in the world can do as well," Forsythe says. "These include such capabilities as high performance computing, nanotech, physics-based modeling and simulation, and surety." That is the first element. (Surety is an engineering discipline that emphasizes methods and technologies enabling assessment and technical solutions for the combined safety, security, and reliability of systems.)
The second involves a focus on opportunities where specific national security problems have a human factor.
John Wagner, manager of Sandia’s Cognitive and Exploratory Systems and Simulations Department, says the new area of research means "profound opportunities exist for the Labs."
"CS&T’s ambitious direction may not be realized for many decades, but the information required for progress is emerging today," he says. "It is reasonable to expect future discoveries will become the Nobel-class achievements for the cognitive and neuroscience communities at large in the years to come."
What is a cognitive system?
The term "cognitive systems" has been used worldwide to identify a variety of programs, initiatives, and technologies. However, so many varied uses have led to ambiguity of meaning. Sandia has established its own definition of cognitive systems: "Cognitive systems consist of technologies that utilize as an essential component one or more computational models of human cognitive processes or the knowledge of specific experts, users, or other individuals."
Wagner says that cognitive research at Sandia — like most worldwide — is in its infancy. He anticipates that within the next decade research that seems like science fiction today will be a daily part of everyone’s lives. The cognitive revolution will be in full bloom.
"Once that happens, the best of both worlds can happen," Wagner says. "If we understand human cognition better, we can work together as a nation to reduce tension, find problems before they turn into armed conflict, and to work toward actions that establish and maintain peace worldwide."
Funding for the research has come from the Office of Naval Research, Sandia’s internal Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program, Department of Energy, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other government agencies. The CS&T program also benefits from collaborations with the University of New Mexico, the MIND Imaging Center in Albuquerque, and most recently the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratory. It is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

SCO military forces start 2nd phase of anti-terror joint drill
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/11/content_6514853.htm

Chinese troops march during a parade at a military base near Chelyabinsk of Russia Aug. 11, 2007. About 2,000 troops from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members held a joint field exercise in Chelyabinsk on Saturday, starting the second phase of the "Peace Mission 2007" anti-terror drill. (Xinhua Photo/Li Gang)
CHELYABINSK, Russia, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- About 2,000 troops from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members held a joint field exercise here on Saturday, starting the second phase of the "Peace Mission 2007" anti-terror drill.

Those troops, from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, staged a parade at a military base near Russia's Ural Mountains city of Chelyabinsk.
Commanders from the six countries agreed that since the SCO was forged in June 2001, it has abided by the "Shanghai Spirit," which embodies mutual trust and benefit, equality, respect for cultural diversity and a desire for common development.
The organization has established a new model of defense and security cooperation under the principles of openness, transparency and non-targeting at the third party, they noted.
In the first phase of the drill, chiefs of staff of the six military forces held strategic negotiations and gave orders in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Thursday.

Weapons of mass destruction: Red Dragon Army exercise
http://www.tomahjournal.com/articles/2007/08/10/news/01news.txt

The Fort McCoy Red Dragon training exercise will simulate reacting to weapons of mass destruction over the next two weeks. Local firefighters and volunteer groups will participate in the training on and off base. (Cont..)

Arctic War Games: The New Cold War?
http://worldnews.about.com/b/a/257595.htm

US doles out millions for street cameras
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/08/12/us_doles_out_millions_for_street_cameras/

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security is funneling millions of dollars to local governments nationwide for purchasing high-tech video camera networks, accelerating the rise of a "surveillance society" in which the sense of freedom that stems from being anonymous in public will be lost, privacy rights advocates warn.
Since 2003, the department has handed out some $23 billion in federal grants to local governments for equipment and training to help combat terrorism. Most of the money paid for emergency drills and upgrades to basic items, from radios to fences. But the department also has doled out millions on surveillance cameras, transforming city streets and parks into places under constant observation. (Cont..)

* this openly transparent BS sickens me, Ny'ers sicken me, this city should be up in arms, they watched the perps implode the WTC., they bought the TV fakery hook line and sinker....
New York alert for 'dirty bomb'
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22230796-5005961,00.html

Russia vs US? FCS +Drills, DARPA

2007-08-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

A Cold War relic returns
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=3e41d966-03e9-4c29-87a0-06bdedf1229d&k=0

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2851460.ece

From the vast expanses of the Pacific to the icy reaches of the Arctic, the Russian bear is back and playing its Cold War game of aerial cat and mouse with U.S., British and Canadian fighter aircraft.NATO officials have noted a growing number of long-range missions by Russian Tupolev-95 bombers - the lumbering, turboprop aircraft known by the NATO code name "Bear" - including a flight over the U.S. Navy base on the Pacific island of Guam this week and a probe of British airspace over the North Sea last month.
In the Canadian Arctic and off the ice-bound northern coast of Alaska, meanwhile, Russian bombers never really stopped flying up to the edge of Canadian and U.S. airspace to test the radar and fighter responses of NORAD - the North American Air Defence system jointly run by the Canadian and U.S. air forces.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, those flights dwindled to once or twice a year as the Russian armed forces were starved of funding, trained aircrew and mechanics and new equipment. But with the Russian military getting an infusion of resources and an apparent mandate to revive Russian power and prestige, NORAD pilots and ground controllers are bracing for more visits from the powerful four-engine bombers, which can carry nuclear weapons and air-launched cruise missiles.While the resumption of the long-range flights up to - and occasionally into - NATO airspace is causing concern in allied circles, Russian generals are boasting openly about the latest flexing of their country's growing military muscle.
A Bear bomber flew over a U.S. military base on the Pacific island of Guam *this week and "exchanged smiles" with U.S. pilots who had scrambled to track it, said Major-General Pavel Androsov, head of long-range aviation in the Russian air force. (Cont..)
*Guam is the site of the TOPOFF exercise

College Students Help With Combat Training Program
http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/13859567/detail.html

Fort Bliss is set to unveil the Future Combat Systems, a multibillion-dollar weapons program, in mid-September. Fort Bliss will be the first installation to have this type of training available to soldiers.
The two buildings that will house the FCS have undergone renovation at a cost of about $6.5 million, said Mike McCarthy, with the Future Force Integration Division.
In order to get the system running, FFID has subcontracted 24 students from Western Technical College. The group is installing more than 550 network drops in the buildings. It has been stringing more than 120,000 feet of wire for almost a month.
"It definitely helps us later put it on our resumes. It's a big project. What we've learned in school we're putting to use here," said Frank Silva, one of the students participating in the partnership.
Silva and the others will receive college credit for their work through an internship, and they're getting paid.
"For the government, it brings the operating cost down. This also lets these young folks participate in something that's good for the nation because we're going to train the next generation of soldiers using this type of facility," said McCarthy.
The Army already uses virtual-type training with simulators that look a lot like video games. However, soldiers said FCS will be unlike anything they've used before.
"These Future Combat Systems (future combat system) vehicles have not been built. So, these are going to be computer-generated, mock simulators that will allow us to practice what our jobs will be in like in the future," said Maj. Patrick Chavez, who will manage the new facility.
The FCS will allow soldiers to be in settings that they have yet to experience, such as irregular urban warfare. (cont..)

Agencies practice for terror attack

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/NEWS01/708100323/1002

Mock accident victim Michael Frank takes a smoke break while waiting to be rescued by firefighters during a disaster training exercise at the fairgrounds in Great Falls on Thursday. Representatives from local military, fire, medical and law enforcement took part in the exercise

ChoicePoint(R) Helps Department of Homeland Security Validate First Responder Credentials
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/CLTH01909082007-1.htm

ALPHARETTA, Ga., Aug. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ChoicePoint , through its iMapData service, played a key role in a recent multi- jurisdictional demonstration to test processes and operations at Emergency Operations Centers nationwide in the event of a terrorist attack or an "all hazards" event. The day-long effort, named Summer Breeze, was conducted at several locations around the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security Office of National Capital Region Coordination and the Department of Defense Pentagon Force Protection Agency.
ChoicePoint's iMapData delivered critical infrastructure data, interactive mapping tools and powerful reporting capabilities to provide DHS and other senior government officials with real-time situational awareness throughout the demonstration. Participants were able to quickly access critical information and to generate intuitive maps and reports to enhance decision making and information sharing (cont..)

Exclusive: DARPA's New Tools for Net Defenders, Cyber-Snoops
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/we-all-know-abo.html

DARPA Vision: "Unblinking" Spy Drones, Veggie-Powered Killer Bots
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/the-pentagons-f.html

Space/ War Defense: MEADS,G5, BioTerror foot in mouth?

2007-08-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

Beyond Patriot: The MEADS Program SD&D Phase
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/34b-development-contract-signed-for-meads-0639/

The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS program aims to replace Patriot missiles in the United States, the older Hawk system in Germany, and Italy's even older Nike Hercules missiles. Similar to the MBDA SAMP/T project, but representing next-generation technology and deployability, MEADS will be designed to kill enemy aircraft, cruise missiles and UAVs within its reach, while providing next-generation point defense capabilities against ballistic missiles.
The German government finally gave their clearance in April 2005, and in June 2005 MEADS International (MI) formally signed a definitized contract worth approximately $3.4 billion to design and develop the tri-national MEADS system. This DID FOCUS Article covers that program, which has just progressed to detailed design
MEADS is being designed to be effective against enemy aircraft over the next 30 years, cruise missiles, UAVs, and ballistic missiles. The system will incorporate its own 3-radar set, along with networked communications for use as a stand-alone system or in MEADS/Patriot clusters.
The broader goal, however, is an open architecture system that can plug into larger defensive systems along with shorter-range systems like the USA's SLAMRAAM/CLAWS vehicle-mounted AMRAAMs, Italy's Spada 2000, et. al., wider surveillance systems like the JLENS tethered blimps, and longer range theater-defense systems like the Lockheed/ Raytheon/ Northrop-Grumman THAAD, IAI/Boeing's Arrow-2, or even Raytheon's naval SM-3 missiles netted via Co-operative Engagement Capability or the equivalent.
The idea is to have MEADS elements or other air defense systems "plug and fight," joining in or breaking off from a common-picture air defense network as needed to move or protect themselves. This was identified as an important capacbility during Operation Iraqi Freedom, as the Patriot system's heavy HEMTT trucks and other large equipment found themselves hard-pressed to keep up with the rate of advance of US forces.

Russia’s G5 System of Air Defense Able to Counter Space Attack

http://www.kommersant.com/p-11195/Space_attack_G5/

Russia’s G5 system of missile defense leaves far behind the S-400 systems that are coming into operation today. It is able to counter space attacks, said Russia’s Air Force Commander-in-Chief Col.-Gen. Alexander Zelin.
"When creating S-400 air defense systems, we have begun to understand the air defense systems of next generation, the so-called fifth generation, [which are] more compact, of better mobility and, certainly, with better specification to counter weapons of air attacks," Zelin told reporters on Wednesday. According to Zelin, a new weapon won’t be based on some crucially innovative solutions. Its specification will improve on better elementary base. When speaking about other novelties to be launched into operation in the near term, Zelin mentioned a middle air carrier currently created in tandem with India. The work for light Il-112 is also at full blast now, the commander-in-chief pointed out. The G5 system of aircraft and missile defense will include missile defense, air defense and space defense components, Vladimir Mikhailov, now the former commander-in-chief of Russia’s Air Forces, said in March. The facilities are said to be developed by Almaz-Antei Design Bureau.

Bio-terror link to foot-and-mouth disease?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/UK/Bio-terror_link_to_foot-and-mouth_disease/articleshow/2266589.cms

LONDON: Britain's health and safety executive has revealed that bio-terrorists may be responsible for the spread of foot-and-mouth disease from an animal health laboratory. But the research laboratory at the centre of the investigation said on Wednesday it had complete confidence in its biosecurity measures. The virus could have been deliberately leaked from a hi-tech complex at Pirbright, Surrey, the Daily Express quoted officials, as saying. The inference follows an investigation launched after the disease was discovered in cattle on a farm less the three miles away from the site. (cont..)

Meggitt looks to revenues of up to $800m from FCS
http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jdi/jdi070808_1_n.shtml

SAIC Airship Gets Federal Government’s OK
http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=96907468.8681704.1510899.67466402.7159765.620&aID2=116214

SAIC of San Diego has received Federal Aviation Administration experimental approval for its Skybus 30K airship, the company said Aug. 6.
Also known as Science Applications International Corp., SAIC was the lead systems integrator under contract to the Naval Air Systems Command. Telford Aviation Services of Bangor, Maine, worked with SAIC to develop and test the prototype airship.
The airship has a targeted usage for security, intelligence, border patrol and search operations

India, China troops to hold military exercise
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070021970

Indian and Chinese troops will come face to face for the first time since 1962 but this time its not war.The two Asian giants will hold a joint military exercise in November in China's Chengdu region. That is just beyond Aksai Chin, the scene of the 1962 war.In another development, a contingent of Britain's Royal Marine Corps will hold a joint exercise with India's 7 Para battalion in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir towards end of September. In the past India has held a joint exercise with US forces in the northeast.

China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/07/bcnchina107a.xml

Bird flu drill prepares hospitals for the real thing
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/aug/07/bird_flu_drill_prepares_hospitals_real_thing/?breaking_news