Archive for the 'War' Category
France-UAE Satellite Deal Shaky After U.S. Spy Tech Discovered Onboard
January 8th, 2014Via: Space War: The sale of two intelligence satellites to the UAE by France for nearly a billion dollars could go south after they were found to contain American technology designed to intercept data transmitted to the ground station. The equipment, costing 3.4 billion dirhams ($930 million), constitutes two high-resolution Pleiades-type Falcon Eye military intelligence […]
Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton
January 7th, 2014Via: Wired: A new drone with the mammoth wingspan of a Boeing 757 is set to give the U.S. Navy some serious surveillance power. Northrop Grumman and the Navy say they’ve just completed the ninth flight trial of the Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS), an improvement upon its predecessor in the Air Force, the Global […]
RAF Jets Fly with 3D Printed Parts
January 7th, 2014Via: BBC: RAF Tornado fighter jets have flown with parts made using 3D printing technology for the first time, defence company BAE Systems has said. The metal components were used in test flights from the firm’s airfield at Warton, Lancashire, late last month. The parts include protective covers for cockpit radios and guards for power […]
From the Pentagon to Life in a Van
January 7th, 2014Alternate headline: How Someone with Retirement Benefits of $40,000 Per Year Winds Up Homeless. Via: The Philadelphia Inquirer: After a 30-year military career in which he earned three graduate degrees, rose to the rank of colonel, and served as an aide to Pentagon brass, Robert Freniere can guess what people might say when they learn […]
Kerry: U.S. Can Fight al Qaeda in Iraq without Troops
January 5th, 2014Mercenaries and drones? Via: Reuters: The United States will support the Iraqi government and tribes fighting al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim militants in Anbar province but will not send U.S. troops back to Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday. Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and tribal fighters have taken control of […]
The Business of War: SOFEX
January 4th, 2014Via: VICE:
U.S. Waived Laws to Keep F-35 on Track with Parts Made in China
January 4th, 2014Via: Reuters: The Pentagon repeatedly waived laws banning Chinese-built components on U.S. weapons in order to keep the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program on track in 2012 and 2013, even as U.S. officials were voicing concern about China’s espionage and military buildup. According to Pentagon documents reviewed by Reuters, chief U.S. arms […]
U.S. Dumped Tens of Thousands of Steel Drums Containing Atomic Waste Off Coastlines
January 2nd, 2014Via: Wall Street Journal (Mirror): More than four decades after the U.S. halted a controversial ocean dumping program, the country is facing a mostly forgotten Cold War legacy in its waters: tens of thousands of steel drums of atomic waste. From 1946 to 1970, federal records show, 55-gallon drums and other containers of nuclear waste […]
Russia: Second Bombing in Two Days ; 32 Dead in the Two Attacks
December 30th, 2013Via: Washington Post: The southern Russian city of Volgograd was hit with the second deadly suicide bombing in two days on Monday, rattling security officials as the country prepares for next month’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, about 400 miles to the southwest. The bombers targeted a crowded trolley bus on Monday and a railroad station […]
NSA: Office of Tailored Access Operations
December 29th, 2013I always thought that this was called Special Collection Service. Maybe this TAO thing is Double Plus Special. Via: Spiegel: The NSA’s TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency’s top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors […]
