• To ensure success, Mexican drug cartels emulate corporate business model

    When the subject of Mexican drug cartels come up, most people think of bloody violence, pounds of cocaine or marijuana, and so much money people have to weight it instead of counting it; what people do not think about is the business models the cartels emulate – and they emulate the models and management charts of typical American corporations

  • New approach to identifying remains allows reopening of cold cases

    In an effort to identify the thousands of John/Jane Doe cold cases in the United States, researchers have found a multidisciplinary approach to identifying the remains of missing persons; using the new method, the researchers were able to identify the remains of a missing child forty-one years after the discovery of the body

  • New study challenges assumptions on wartime sexual violence

    A new study, released the other day at the UN headquarters in New York, finds that there is no compelling evidence to support a host of widely held beliefs regarding wartime sexual violence

  • GOP lawmakers advise defense contractors to issue sequestration-related layoff notices

    The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires that an employer who employs more than 100 employees must provide a 60-day advanced notice to employees of mass layoffs or the closing of a plant; if the act is not followed, employees can sue for back pay and benefits for up to sixty days; the Obama administration advised defense contractors that they should not comply with the act, even in the face of the 2 January 2013 $500 billion cut in the defense budget which would go into effect if no deficit reduction agreement is reached; if contracts are cancelled and mass lay-offs ensue, the administration said it would cover the defense contractors’ non-compliance-related legal costs; Republican lawmakers say they would block any payments to cover such non-compliance, and advised defense contractors that they should follow the law

  • U.S. Navy tests the second of two railgun prototypes

    The EM Railgun launcher is a long-range naval weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of traditional gun propellants such as explosive chemicals; magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500-5,600 mph; the Office of Naval Research’s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program is evaluating the second of two industry railgun prototype launchers at a facility in Dahlgren, Virginia

  • Green laser pointer identifies traces of dangerous chemicals in real time

    By using an ordinary green laser pointer, the kind commonly found in offices and college lecture halls, an Israeli research team has developed a new and portable Raman spectrometer which can detect minute traces of hazardous chemicals in real time; the new sensor’s compact design makes it a candidate for rapid field deployment to disaster zones and areas with security concerns

  • New launch and recovery system for the Scan Eagle UAV

    A shipboard-capable system designed to support both the launch and recovery of the Scan Eagle UAV successfully completed final demonstration flight testing on 27 September at a testing range in eastern Oregon

  • Defense firms growing anxious about sequestration-related defense cuts

    Defense contractors are growing anxious as they still do not know whether $500 billion in defense cuts will take place on 1 January 2013 as a result of sequestration; many firms are hoping that the administration and Congress will come to a budget agreement once the election is over, but at the same time, it is something contractors cannot rely on; what complicates the issue is the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), which requires employers with more than 100 employees to give employees a 60-day notice before mass lay-offs or plant closure

  • Fueling UAVs in flight

    DARPA completes close-proximity flight tests of two modified RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles, demonstrating technology enabling autonomous aerial refueling

  • Hezbollah drone shot down over Israel

    The Israel Air Force (IAF) planes shot down a UAV over the north Negev; the UAV entered Israeli air space from the west, but Israeli intelligence says the drone was launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon, then made its way south over the Mediterranean, then turned east when it reached the water off the Gaza Strip

  • Jewish Community Homeland Security Primer distributed to law enforcement agencies

    Amidst the Jewish High Holidays, the Secure Community Network (SCN), the national homeland security initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents, distributed what SCN described as “a first ever” homeland security briefing primer for American law enforcement and homeland security agencies and national security partners across the United States

  • Oshkosh Defense unveils new light vehicle for unconventional missions

    Using the occasion of the Modern Day Marine 2012 exposition, held 25-27 September in Quantico, Virginia, Oshkosh Defense unveiled its new Special Purpose All-Terrain Vehicle (S-ATV) designed for unconventional and reconnaissance missions, and also showed its Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle (L-ATV), which was selected for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase; the joint services are expected to replace tens of thousands of HMMWVs with the JLTV

  • U.K. military’s drone spending keep rising

    In an effort to boost its military, the United Kingdom, over the past five years, has spent more than two billion euros buying and developing unmanned drones; the U.K. has no intention of slowing down, as it is committed to spending another two billion euros on new unmanned aircraft

  • Motorola Solutions invests in SST, provider of ShotSpotter gunfire location and analysis technology

    Motorola Solutions Venture Capital joins major existing investors in a $12 million new investment round in SST, Inc., developer of the ShotSpotter acoustic gunfire location and analysis system; the strategic investment aims to help expand the usage of ShotSpotter by law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and globally in advancing next-generation 911 (NG911) capabilities and initiatives

  • Imagining first responders’ high-tech future

    What kinds of gear will be needed by future firefighters, EMTs, and police officers? DHS Science and Technology Directorate researchers asked the experts, then applied sophisticated math to discover unlikely patterns