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Detecting sweaty, smelly security threats
DARPA wants to be able to detect, track, and even positively identify them from a distance — and do so using nothing more than the heat and sweat that emanate from a person’s pores; DARPA envisions myriad civilian applications for the technology, including “identifying and tracking persons from the scenes of various crimes”
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Update: South Korean corvette was sunk by conventional torpedoes
On 26 March an explosion destroyed the South Korean corvette Cheonan, killing 46 of its crews of 104; the North Koreans were suspected to be behind the attack, and stories circulated about a midget submarine and “human torpedoes”; an examination of the ship wreckage leads South Korean naval investigators to conclude that it was destroyed by a conventional torpedo of advanced design — and that North Korea was indeed behind the attack; there is an outside possibility that the corvette ran into an old sea mine left floating in the water since the Korean War
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Aeronautics readies Picador UAV for May first flight
Aeronautics is moving forward — from September to May — the first autonomous flight of its Picador unmanned helicopter; the Picador is being aimed mainly for navies as a means of replacing their current, manned helicopters in delivering “over the horizon” intelligence and deploying long-range weapon systems
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Specialty bomb for fighting terrorists in dense urban areas
The war against terrorists require weapons that can destroy targets in densely populated urban areas — without causing unnecessary damage to the surrounding neighborhood; the U.S. military has developed the new FLM (Focused Lethality Munition) bomb which will use a composite (carbon fiber) casing and replace some of the normal 127.2 kg (280 pounds) of explosives with 93 kg of explosives surrounded by high density filler (fine tungsten powder)
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Al Qaeda rockets aimed at Israel hit Jordanian port city
Al Qaeda terrorists fire two Grad rockets from the Egyptian-controlled Sinai peninsula at the Israeli resort town of Eilat, at the northern tip of the Red Sea; the rocket miss Eilat — one hit the neighboring Jordanian port city of Aqaba, the second fell into the sea; in 2005 al Qaeda terrorists used the same area of the Sinai to fire Katyusha rockets at a U.S. warship docked in the port of Aqaba
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North Korea uses human kamikaze torpedoes to sink South Korean ship
The Japanese used aerial kamikaze during the Second World War in their war against the allies’ navies; it now appears that the North Koreans have embarked on a naval kamikaze tactics in its clandestine campaign against the South Korean navy and merchant marine. Not all the details are in, but here is what we know: a dozen or so North Korean special forces blew themselves up next to a South Koran ship, killing 46 of its 106 crew; the North Korean commandos approached the South Korean ship inside a midget submarine, and then blew themselves and the mini-sub when it neared the hull of the bigger ship; it is not clear yet whether the commandos activated the explosives, or whether the explosive was set off by a timer
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Risks of laser-based uranium enrichment outweigh rewards
Researchers argue that laser-based uranium enrichment is not the way to bolster nuclear power: the technique, which involves the separation of isotopes by lasers, would save U.S. households no more than about $2 per month in energy costs, while increasing dramatically the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation
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Going to South Africa for the World Cup? Stay low and keep out of the line of fire
The U.S. Department of State issues a travel advisory to Americans going to South Africa this summer for the World Cup; the Department’s discussion of crime in South Africa makes for a depressing reading; noting that “South Africa also has the highest incidence of reported rape in the world,” the Department advises victims of violent crime, especially women who were raped, “to seek immediate medical attention, including antiretroviral therapy against HIV/AIDS”
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BART police pull Tasers, will retrain officers in Taser use
A day after a sergeant fired the electric darts of his stun gun at a 13-year-old boy fleeing from police on his bicycle, the BART police instructed its police officers to surrender their Taser guns and report for retraining; the decision also comes after a recent federal court ruling that narrowed the circumstances under which police can use Tasers
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Day of portable, brief-case size X-ray machine nears
A California company is working on developing flat-panel image sensors which would enable it to make a briefcase-sized X-ray machine powered by a laptop battery; such a system might be used in the field by the military or instead of bulky bedside systems used in hospital intensive-care units
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For want of a nail: errant cat disables global control system of U.S. UAVs
A wandering cat found its way into the control room at Creech Air Force Base outside Las Vegas, Nevada; the base is the location from which U.S. Air Force Predator and Reaper UAVs are controlled during missions overseas; one of the officer explained that the cat “climbed into one of the electronic nodes and fried everything”
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Documentary offers new insights into McVeigh's path to terrorism
MSNBC is airing ‘The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist,’ tonight at 9:99pm EST; the film draws on forty-five hours of never-before-released interview audiotapes recorded during McVeigh’s prison stay; the film reveals the bomber’s descriptions of the planning and execution of the horrific attack and offers insight into how a decorated American soldier became a dangerous, anti-government terrorist
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English Premier League soccer players advised to hire bodyguards
Players in the English Premier League should consider hiring private security guards to ensure the safety of themselves and their families, according to the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA); advise came after police received reports of players forced to pay protection money to gang members — often people the players knew when they were growing up
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Private security community find lucrative opportunities in Haiti
Debate intensifies over the deployment of private security companies to earthquake-ravaged Haiti; some see these companies as a welcome alternative to the traditionally brutal, corrupt, and ineffective local security forces; others argue that aid money should not be spent on hiring outside contractors but on building a better local security force
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Questions and answers on drug-related violence in Mexico
The security situation in Mexico is spiraling out of control; the drug cartels, heretofore content to kill members of rival cartels and the occasional local politician, have now dropped all restraint in their assault on the Mexican state; the cartels are now attacking the Mexican army directly, while no longer bothering to limit collateral damage to the civilian population; the Mexican government, in desperation, has deployed the army so extensively in its anti-drug campaign because it feels the police cannot be trusted; drug cartels with massive resources at their disposal have repeatedly managed to infiltrate the underpaid police, from the grassroots level to the very top; efforts are under way to rebuild the entire structure of the Mexican police force, but the process is expected to take years
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More headlines
The long view
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.
Using Drone Swarms to Fight Forest Fires
Forest fires are becoming increasingly catastrophic across the world, accelerated by climate change. Researchers are using multiple swarms of drones to tackle natural disasters like forest fires.
Testing Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology
Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.
European Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply
States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.
How Climate Change Will Affect Conflict and U.S. Military Operations
“People talk about climate change as a threat multiplier,” said Karen Sudkamp, an associate director of the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program within the RAND Homeland Security Research Division. “But at what point do we need to start talking about the threat multiplier actually becoming a significant threat all its own?”
The Tech Apocalypse Panic is Driven by AI Boosters, Military Tacticians, and Movies
From popular films like a War Games or The Terminator to a U.S. State Department-commissioned report on the security risk of weaponized AI, there has been a tremendous amount of hand wringing and nervousness about how so-called artificial intelligence might end up destroying the world. There is one easy way to avoid a lot of this and prevent a self-inflicted doomsday: don’t give computers the capability to launch devastating weapons.