Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Reminder: PMC News now at Daily Dose of Terror

http://dailydoseofterror.blogspot.com/
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Saturday, October 6, 2007

PMC News at new URL

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


"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.

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Wednesday, October 3, 2007

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




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..)



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





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Tuesday, October 2, 2007

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


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..)
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Monday, October 1, 2007

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





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.




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

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..)

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)



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Sunday, September 30, 2007

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


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.



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
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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
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