Following the lead of other countries, the former Soviet republic of Georgia has established a cyber-crime unit within its internal affairs ministry, according to a government official in Tbilisi. The move reflects increasing concerns about cyber-security in the region. In 2007, organized Russian hacker attacks against Estonia’s computer network turned worldwide attention to the threat of cyber-warfare, and in 2008, during the Georgia-Russia conflict over South Ossetia, Georgia was targeted by Russian hackers.
Sea trials are getting underway for an innovative landing craft commissioned by the U.K. Defense Ministry. Based on the Pascat (Partial Air Cushion Supported Catamaran) concept developed for high-speed freight transit on inland waterways, the Defense Ministry wants to learn if the hullform and propulsion system will provide higher speed and greater payload capacity for over-the-horizon launches than current landing craft, and what measures will be necessary to optimize the design. The Innovative Solution Demonstrator Craft (ISDC) was developed in a program led by Qinetiq.
Iranian researchers report development of a technique to hinder crack formation in stainless steel. Nastaran Barati and Mohammad Ali Faghihi Sani, of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, say that by applying a nanocoating of titanium dioxide (TiO2) in an anatase phase to 316L, a common stainless grade, a uniform film is formed that prevents cracks. The researchers say the application will improve the durability of 316L in ships, submarines, floating structures and docks, storage vessels and pipelines.
The Joint Strike Fighter and other major defense programs are targets of cyber-espionage by criminal groups working on behalf of state intelligence agencies, according to cyber-security experts. In some cases defense programs operate with protection that would not be considered state-of-the-art by many businesses. The problem came to light in May when The Wall Street Journal reported a major breach in the JSF program, in which “terabytes” of data were believed compromised.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will decide whether France should sell a Mistral-class multimission ship to Russia. If so, it would be Russia’s first purchase of Western military equipment since World War II. Defense Minister Herve Morin supports a sale, but voices are being raised in France against it, especially after Russia’s navy chief, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky, said a Mistral ship would have allowed the navy to mount a more efficient action in the Black Sea during the 2008 Georgia-Russia war.
Sitting in his room at Camp Wilderness, a small outpost shared by soldiers from the U.S. Army and Afghan National Army (ANA) tucked away in Afghanistan’s mountainous Khost province, Capt. Gada Mohamad of the ANA’s 2/1 Kandak (battalion), talked about what his troops bring to the fight against the Taliban. “We know how to act with the people,” he says. “The Afghan people are uneducated. We can explain to them that we’re here for their security. Most importantly, we can read the people” in ways the Americans cannot.
Russia is finalizing its first arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Moscow’s Interfax news agency reports that the package could total $2 billion, which would make Saudi Arabia one of the largest importers of Russian weapons. The deal will reportedly include delivery of up to 150 helicopters—30 Mi-35 attack rotorcraft (see photo) and up to 120 Mi-17 transports—more than 150 T-90S tanks, about 250 BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and several dozen air-defense systems.
A few years ago, when Inferno, an acoustic device developed in Sweden, was being presented in Johannesburg, the potential customer asked if the company had any documented proof that it worked as a “sound barrier.” The answer from the makers of Inferno was no, they didn’t have any studies, but they offered to demonstrate it to the customer’s satisfaction. Maurice Goldman, North American managing director for Inferno, says the potential customer offered two employees a month’s salary if they would stay in the room while the device went off.
DTI returned to Afghanistan last month, as Senior North American Editor Paul McLeary embedded with the 48th BCT of the Georgia National Guard. One stop was Shinkarin, a village in Khost, which provided a photo op. McLeary’s reports are on pages 16 and 42.
Researchers at Charles University of Prague and Princeton University maintain there is a relationship between how people in one country think about the leadership of another country and the likelihood of terrorists from the former country attacking the latter. According to a paper in the Sept. 18 issue of Science, researchers studied data from 2004-08 Gallup World Polls of residents in 19 Middle Eastern and North African countries. Residents were asked how they rated the leadership of nine world powers. The U.S. and U.K. had the highest average disapproval rating—71%.
Saab had its biggest presence ever at the Assn. of the U.S. Army (AUSA) show in Washington last month (see p. 18). It was indicative of the company’s determination to concentrate its efforts in key markets—as a company executive pointed out, Saab is actually well-placed in the U.S., but so far only as a group of separate programs. A new U.S. sales and marketing organization will stand up in 2010. The new focus has been strongly associated with Lena Olving, the company’s recently named chief operating officer and second in command to CEO Ake Svensson.
Think tanks, pressure groups and other quasi-independent analysts play an important part in the defense debate, saying things that politicians are not expert enough to say, that are not career-enhancing for officers or civilian officials and are customer-unfriendly for industry. Even when they have sponsors, they’re often outlets for views too controversial for the sponsors to address on the record. In this new section, DTI highlights recent key reports. Tank: Center for Strategic and International Studies Location: Washington
South Africa’s Denel Aviation hopes to conclude by year-end the sale of a dozen Cheetah fighter aircraft to Ecuador for an undisclosed amount. The Ecuadorian air force named Denel a preferred bidder in September. The South African Air Force (SAAF) decommissioned its fleet of Cheetah C and D aircraft, variants of the Dassault Mirage III, in April 2008, after taking delivery of its first Gripen fighters from Saab. Denel says the numbers of C and D aircraft in the deal will be announced when negotiations are complete.
What does the president of the world’s fifth-biggest economy, who stands 5 ft. 6 in. on a good day and is married to a stunning ex-model who does a mean job on some of Georges Brassens’ foulest lyrics, do for fun? The answer is: become the world’s greatest weapons salesman. The idea that politics intrudes in arms sales has about as much news value as an assertion that Jenna Jameson’s virtue may not be intact. Mais sacre bleu, Sarko, there’s got to be a limit somewhere.
Israel Military Industries (IMI) has developed a portable antimissile defense called Shock Absorber, to protect infantry and operating bases exposed to missile attack in urban areas. The active protection system (APS) uses a laser-based effector with an electro-optical infrared directional jammer and threat-detection elements that were developed for vehicle-based APS such as Iron Fist. Controlled by a handler who navigates ordnance to a target, the system is programmed to hit precisely where aimed, without collateral damage.
In 2007, U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq made Fallujah, then a hotbed of the insurgency, the first biometrically controlled city, where to enter or exit, you had to provide fingerprints, facial pictures and an iris scan. The U.S. military now takes biometrics from detainees and is helping the Iraqi government create its own biometric database, merging new data with those from pre-war records.
Governments have recognized for some time that major events are targets of opportunity for terrorists, political groups and others seeking media attention. The attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics ushered in the modern era of overwhelming event security and prompted the establishment of dedicated antiterrorist military and police units around the world.
There has been a significant increase in the number of cyber-attacks in recent years that threaten U.S. government, military and civilian computers. Nevertheless, the development of coordinated countermeasures by authorities in these areas remains in flux.
Satellite circuitry is exposed to two types of space radiation: ionizing, to which circuits are inherently resistant; and heavy ions that call for bulky shielding, triple-redundant design and hardening, each of which adds to fabrication cost. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working on shielding commercial electronics from heavy ions by combining a conventional fabrication material, silicon-germanium (Si-Ge), with new transistor designs. Prof.
U.S. lawmakers appear to have put the last nail in the coffin on the $10-billion, 30-year-old Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project, passing a bill forbidding radioactive waste disposal at the Nevada site. The Energy Dept. is left with a very expensive hollow mountain. And from a security perspective, decades of nuclear fuel is still scattered across the country. At least 25 reactors have “temporary” storage on-site. Two decades ago officials had decided to store those fuel rods at Yucca Mountain. That option is now closed.
Maryland health officials say the state will be the first in the U.S. to have full front-line participation in an early-warning data network that alerts authorities to bioterror attacks and disease outbreaks.
One of the most important innovations in the FBI’s post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts consists of a portable workstation and a miniaturesatellite dish. Called the Quick Capture Platform (QCP), it electronically scans fingerprints and beams them to a database here.
The largest and most advanced deployment of antiballistic-missile assets in the region was the central feature of Operation Juniper Cobra, the biennial military exercise conducted by Israel and the U.S. Experts say this year’s operation, which ran from Oct. 12-16, was designed to test the countries’ joint ballistic missile defense (BMD) capabilities and send a message of deterrence to Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. Iran, in fact, held war games of its own shortly before Juniper Cobra, which included firing missiles that could reportedly hit Israel.
