• USAF chooses Missouri, Montana bases for MQ-1, MQ-9 ground control stations

    The U.S. Air Force on Monday announced its basing decision for the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper ground control stations: Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, and Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota

  • Flying-boat tilt-rotor catamaran design wins NASA rescue vehicle competition

    Engineering students from Virginia Tech won first prize in NASA’s competition aiming to promote the design of more effective rescue crafts; the winning design, dubbed the Rescue Amphibious Firefighting Tiltrotor (RAFT), is a combination airplane/helicopter/catamaran featuring two flying-boat style hulls joined by a central wing to form a catamaran for landings on water even in rough seas

  • Police chief: Cartels threaten U.S. law enforcement in Arizona

    In the first public incident of its kind, Mexican drug cartels are making direct death threats to U.S. law enforcement officials in Nogales, Arizona, the police chief there says; less publicly, the drug cartels have been targeting U.S. law enforcement personnel for intimidation and assassination for sometime now; members of the cartels have even found a new way to make the task easier: using “cloned” Border Patrol vehicles; driving a Border Patrol look-alike vehicle allows the assailants to get closer to their targets without arousing suspicion

  • Street microphones eavesdrop on crimes

    The city of Coventry has installed microphones on street at the city center; the microphones detect suspect sounds, including trigger words spoken at normal volumes as well as angry or panicked exchanges before they become violent; operators can then direct police straight to the scene

  • Landmine detector made from off-the-shelf components

    Researchers in the United States have developed a low-cost technology to detect landmines using a novel acoustic/microwave system; the system, made from off-the-shelf components, costs about $10,000. This compares to laser-based Doppler remote detection systems that sells for upwards of $1 million

  • Less-than-lethal options and riot control in maritime environment

    The Israeli soldiers who fired their weapons on board the Marmara in order to defend themselves when attacked by multiple individuals, some armed with blunt objects, edged weapons, and even firearms, cannot be criticized; the important question is why the soldiers were not equipped with less-than-lethal-options — options which are available to law enforcement and the military for use in riot-control situations; these options have their drawbacks, but their use may have prevented the loss of lives

  • Political summits should be held in remote locations

    Canadian security expert says that holding the G8 summit in Toronto makes no sense; bringing world leaders to an urban setting escalates cost — and risk; “it is overwhelmingly easier to get a device such as a powerful dirty bomb into Toronto than it would have been into Kananaskis [Alberta],” where the 2002 G8 summit was held

  • Hi-tech navies protect shipping from Somalia's pirates

    The six ship EU force and other Western-led forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden have disrupted fifty-nine pirate groups in April and May alone; some naval forces in the region concentrate on escorting convoys of their own national vessels, while the Western-led forces spread themselves across the region saying they want to protect all shipping regardless of flag

  • Researchers show that light can be bent around corners

    Israeli researchers show that small beams of light — called Airy beams — can be bent in a laboratory setting; Airy beams promise remarkable advances for engineering, and they could form the technology behind space-age “light bullets” — as effective and precise defense technologies for police and the military, but also as a new communications interface between transponders

  • RadPRO SecurPASS from Virtual Imaging

    As worries about security increase, more venues require employees, customers, and visitors to pass through security scans; the scanning machines at the growing number of security check-points must meet two criteria: they should be able to detect a wide variety of materials and objects, and should do so at the lowest radiation dose possible; Virtual Imaging, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc., says its RadPRO SecurPASS meets these two criteria

  • World Cup security strike still spreading in South Africa

    More than 1,500 South African security personnel abandoned their posts in five of the stadiums in which the World Cup soccer games are played; security guards at the stadiums in Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Soccer City, the main World Cup stadium on Johannesburg’s outskirts, appear to have been cheated by the South African security company which hired them: the contracts the company signed with them said they would be paid £130 per shift, but their first payment, which they received Monday, was only £17 per shift; the South African police pulled more than 1,000 police officers from other World Cup-related security duties to replace the striking security guards

  • Mexican army kills 15 drug gang members

    Suspected drug hit men attacked soldiers who intended to inspect a drug cartel safe house in the colonial town of Taxco southwest of Mexico City; soldiers returned fire, killing the assailants in a 40-minute gunfight; more than 23,000 people have been killed in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon launched his crackdown on the multibillion-dollar drug trade upon taking office in 2006

  • License-plate readers help police, alarm privacy advocates

    License-plate readers are becoming popular with police departments; automatic license-plate readers enable police rapidly to verify that passing motorists are not behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle or do not have outstanding warrants; opponents of excessive government intrusion warn the readers will allow law enforcement to spy on innocent people by tracking their whereabouts

  • DARPA aims to help U.S. Army snipers to, well, aim better

    DARPA wants to help the U.S. Army’s snipers; in the works: programs aiming to give snipers the power to hit a target from 2,000 meters away in winds as high as forty miles per hour; making bullets that can change course in mid-air; and a stealth sniper scope that would make shooters all but invisible