• Milestone for MQ-1 Predator deployment

    Predators’ combat air patrols over Iraq has reached new, well, heights, two years ahead of schedule; new operational concept — remote split operations – enhances operational effectiveness

  • Plasma-powered flying saucer for surveillance

    Passing a current of magnetic field through a conducting fluid generates force; a new patent application shows how this phenomenon — magnetohydridynamics — may be used as a form of propulsion

  • Secret wiretap warrants double since 9/11

    A Justice Department report shows FISA warrants for counterterrorism, espionage cases up

  • Developing miniature robots to increase situational awareness

    The military wants to increase the situational awareness of of its officers and soldiers, and an alliance of industry and academia is set up to develop advanced robotic equipment for use in urban environments and complex terrain, such as mountains and caves

  • Peace of mind at an affordable price

    An HSDW conversation on thermal cameras with Bill Klink, vice president of security business development, FLIR Systems

  • Hamas developing UAVs

    UAVs are serving militaries and law enforcement in advanced countries, but the benefits of using them have not escaped terrorist groups, and Egyptian authorities arrest Muslim Brotherhood operatives smuggling UAV components to Hamas

  • UAVs, UGVs operate and communicate with each other

    BAE Systems show how several unmanned air and ground vehicles operate simultaneously while communicating with each other and with their controllers

  • Europeans conduct final test of Galileo

    The EU wants to compete in the lucrative positioning market, and wants its Galileo system to compete with the U.S. GPS system; project has been hobbled by delays and shortfall of funds, but the EU soldiers on

  • UAVs on display at the Smithsonian

    As the scope and breadth of UAV deployments grow, so is the public interest in them; the Smithsonian put some of them on display; “UAVs are the future of combat air forces,” says the curator, himself a retired Air Force pilot

  • FLIR acquires Ifara

    Ifara’s Nexus is a turnkey product that allows users to connect and control a variety of different sensors; FLIR hopes that Nexus will ultimately become a standard feature in many products within its commercial vision systems and government systems divisions

  • Canadian government blocks sale of MDA space division

    For the first time in the 23-year history of the Investment Canada Act, the federal government blocked a foreign takeover because of a failure of the “net benefit” test; during this period, successive governments have approved 1,587 foreign takeovers; another 11,214 foreign acquisitions required notification under the Act, but not a formal review

  • Stolen military items available for sale online

    GAO investigators buy dozens of prohibited military items on eBay and Craigslist; some of the time would be of direct help to terrorists and insurgents

  • U.K. to set up massive national drivers' surveillance scheme

    Hundreds of monitoring stations would be used to track cars every five seconds — with daily itemized accounts of all trips made by Britain’s thirty million drivers; move is part of a national pay-as-you-drive road pricing plan; government says plan will reduce congestion and pollution

  • Lockheed Martin in £100 million U.K. situational awareness contract

    Lockheed Martin will merge several technologies — its own and other companies’ — in a £100 million MoD contract to increase soldiers’ situational awareness

  • Orsus Situator to be deployed at water supplier facilities

    The new approach to critical infrastructure security is “holistic”: Planning, training, positioning information gathering equipment, imposing intelligence on video streams and other information coming in, presenting all information in accessible fashion, offering a menu of responses when an incident occurs; Orsus offers a situation management solution to critical infrastructure operators