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General Dynamics wins $100 million passport card contract
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) will allow U.S. residents to travel by land and sea to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda using a passport card rather than a traditional passport (travel by air, and travel to other countries, would still require a passport); General Dynamics wins contract to produce the cards
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GAO: More federal efforts needed to thwart threats to oil tankers
GAO publishes a detailed report on terrorist threats to tankers carrying crude oil, liquefied gases, and refined products to the U.S.; these threats pose a major challenge, since the U.S. imports 55 percent of the nation’s crude oil supply
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Thales to develop autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)
Thales, in collaboration with seven partners, will develop a fully autonomous underwater vehicle dedicated to maritime surveillance and security; specifications call for high levels of energy and decision-making autonomy
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Coast Guard demands $96.1 million Deepwater refund
The Deepwater program, aiming to replace aging vessels, is the Coast Guard’s largest acquisition program; Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin were awarded to contract, but the agency now charge the two companies with delivering defective boats that do not meet requirements; it wants some of of its money back
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Breakthrough: Acoustic cloak theoretically possible
Invisibility cloak — deflecting microwaves around a cloaked object and restoring them on the other side, as if they had passed through empty space — has already been demonstrated; Duke researcher now shows that an acoustic cloak is theoretically feasible: Sound waves would travel seamlessly around the cloaked object and emerge on the other side without distortion; submarines could be hidden from sonar
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U.S. grounds 39 Lockheed P-3C surveillance planes
The U.S. Navy says that structural fatigue has caused the grounding of 39 out of the Navy’s 161 P-3C Orion surveillance planes; Orions used heavily in post-9/11 operations, including in Iraq and Afghanistan
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A better path to container scanning
Analyst: The congressionally mandated 100 percent container screening is unworkable; it arouses opposition from U.S. trading partners and industry; a better solution would be the adoption of in-container sensing systems
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RUSI-Qatar to stage regional maritime security conference in Middle East
U.K.-based research organization opens Qatar branch; first activity: Regional maritime security in March 2008, to be held in Doha; countries in region expect to spend $17 billion over next decade on ships and maritime equipment
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DHS moves forward on data exchange project; business groups object
DHS wants to create Global Trade Exchange (GTX) — a data warehouse which would collect large volumes of commercial-transaction data from all parties involved in the production and movement of international shipments; trade groups say sharing confidential business data with foreign governments in the exchange would be a problem not only in terms of protecting U.S. competitiveness but also for national security reasons
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Philippine government buys hovercrafts for coastal security
As law enforcement authorities look for versatile machines to help them deal with changing threat environment, hovercraft manufacturers may be rewarded
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Somali pirates demand $1 million ransom for Japanese tanker
One way to make money in Somalia — perhaps the only way — is old-fashion piracy; in the latest episode, pirates demand $1 million for a Japanese tanker, threatening to kill the crew unless their demands are met
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Slow start for TWIC
More than one million workers with escorted access to 361 U.S. ports could register for the security clearance — more than four years after the program was to have started
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Maritime Security: Better tracking of small craft needed
The Coast Guard use the Port of Miami to test the Visualization Tools for Situational Awareness and Emergency Response program; the Viz Tools program enhanced security at the port, but those in charge say there is still a gap in port security, and to plug it there is a need to know more about about registered small craft in the Miami area; more than 170,000 of these small boats and craft are registered
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HAI's systems offering protection from underwater threats
Critical facilities on or near water may be attacked not only from the air and land, but also stealthily from an enemy approaching underwater; HAI offers products to defend against such attacks; its underwater ROVs may also be used for search and rescue, exploration, and research
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IMO ship identification numbering scheme celebrates twentieth birthday
They did not wait for 9/11: Twenty years ago the IMO created a unique ship identification number scheme; since then, more than 45,000 vessels have been numbered and recorded
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