Pentagon
Latest
US military tries using small electric jolts to keep soldiers awake
Soldiers don't have many options for overcoming sleep deprivation outside of a good cup of coffee. If the Air Force Research Laboratory's experiments prove successful, though, troops may rely on tiny jolts of electricity to stay alert. By using a mild current to stimulate key parts of the brain, the military's scientists can keep people awake and focused for long periods -- up to 30 hours in recent trials. The existing technique produces modest side effects like skin irritation and short headaches, and it's unlikely to reach civilians any time soon. However, a refined version could eventually prove crucial to drone pilots and other warriors who can't afford to take naps during crucial missions. [Image credit: John Kricfalusi]
US Defense Department offers key spectrum to cellular carriers
The US Department of Defense values its wireless spectrum more than many government agencies, and it has been reluctant to lose those airwaves to private providers through government auctions. It just had a change of heart, however: the Pentagon tells the NTIA that it's now willing to free up spectrum in the 1,755MHz to 1,780MHz range. The proposal would have the military shift much of its wireless use into nearby 1,780MHz to 1,850 MHz bands, while moving other tasks into frequencies between 2,025MHz and 2,110MHz. Problem solved? Not quite, unfortunately -- NAB members use the 2GHz range for TV, and they're more than a little worried about interference. The military's suggestion should kickstart negotiations, though, and carriers are optimistic that there will eventually be a deal that gives them the bandwidth they crave.
Pentagon report: Chinese hackers accessed F-35B and other advanced US weapons systems
Many of the Pentagon's most advanced weapon systems -- including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and PAC-3 Patriot missile system -- were compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a classified document obtained by the Washington Post. The list of weapons was part of an earlier DoD report condemning Chinese cyber-espionage activities, but had been confidential until now. Other systems hacked are said to include the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the Navy's Aegis ballistic-missile defense system, the F/A-18 fighter, V-22 Osprey and the Littoral Combat Ship used for shore patrol. Many of these form the foundation of defense systems from Europe to the Persian Gulf -- and their breach goes a long way toward explaining Washington's unprecedented dressing-down of China.
iOS 6 approved for use on American military networks
The Defense Department has officially given the thumbs up to Apple devices running iOS 6 -- paving the way for iPhones and iPads to become standard issue around the Pentagon. The move was hardly shocking. In fact, the Wall Street Journal had it on good authority weeks ago that the DoD was planning to give iOS its seal of approval. With Samsung devices running the Knox security suite and BlackBerry 10 already trickling into the hands of Pentagon employees, the decision sets the stage for a three-way bout for military market supremacy. And we're sure the government drones can't pick sides fast enough. After all, who wants to live under the tyranny of BlackBerry 7 any longer than necessary?
Pentagon report marks first direct accusations of Chinese cyber-espionage
The US Department of Defense has taken the unusual step of singling out China's cyber-spying activities in its annual report. Though the government has tacitly chided such deeds before and even threatened sanctions, yesterday's document marks the DoD's first direct allegation of Chinese espionage. It said that hacks directed toward government and business "appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military" for the purpose of "exfiltrating information" to benefit its defense and industry. The paper also highlighted China's "lack of transparency" with regard to its military, saying that expenditures on cyber-military operations and other defense spending were likely far in excess of the $114 billion it reported. Meanwhile, China denied the accusations, saying it was equally the victim of similar breaches, and suggested that the two nations work together to resolve the problem.
WSJ: Samsung Galaxy and iOS devices to be approved by US Defense Department
Our armed forces began embracing Android and iOS some time ago, and now it appears that the US Department of Defense is finally jumping on the bandwagon, too. The Wall Street Journal reports that the DoD will be announcing security approvals for Samsung Galaxy handsets, iPhones and iPads in the next couple weeks -- allowing them to join BlackBerry in the government's secure smartphone stable. Apparently, Samsung's approval was facilitated by its Knox security platform, which has been deemed secure enough to allow it to be used to send and receive internal emails, and Apple devices running iOS 6 and up are also expected to get the go-ahead for nonclassified communications. So, people of the Pentagon, it looks like it's only a matter of time before you can put down your BB7 handset and pick up a smartphone with a more modern OS.
DARPA to hold one-day cyberwarfare workshop, attendance not mandatory
Oh, the fruits of the global village are many: connecting strangers with fetishes, fostering culture through memes and engendering cyber attacks via remote since the late 20th century. It's the advanced decomposition of that latter rotten apple, however, that has DARPA -- the government's far-out research arm -- taking a proactive stance and casting an agency-wide intelligence net to shore up on future defense protocol. To do this, the DoD offshoot's holding a one-time workshop next month, dubbed Plan X Proposers' Day, with the aim of bringing personnel together to brainstorm and implement infrastructure specifically centered around cyberwarfare analysis and research. One area the project, which just received $110 million in funding, will specifically avoid is the creation of actual cyberweapons. So, yeah, while this effort's less Goldeneye and more of a strategic think tank initiative, it still warms the heart to know our nation's best, brightest and most secretive are hard at work protecting our digital butts.
EEG headware probes your neurons, shows interrogators your cranial contact list
You might pride yourself on your poker face, but there would be no way to hide from a skull-probing EEG helmet being developed by Veritas Scientific. The device takes advantage of a well-known medical response called P300, which causes your brain's voltage to drop a split-second after you put a name to a face or object. Simply by showing you a slideshow of different images, interrogators could tell whether or not you recognize a particular individual -- or maybe that LTE-connected railgun hidden in your trunk. The company is pursuing military contracts and hopes to have a prototype ready in time for this year's war game exercises, but meanwhile you might want to start thinking of a way to install that tinfoil hat inside your skull.
Android Army: US soldiers to leverage portable battlefield network and smartphones
Smartphones: the future of wartime communication? That is the goal of the US Army through the development of its portable wireless network, dubbed Warfighter Information Network-Tactical or WIN-T. The Army hopes to leverage WIN-T to bring near-instant digital communication to the battlefield by outfitting soldiers with Motorola Atrix handsets running a heavily modified version of Android. An exposé by Wired explains that the system's main goal is information and intelligence sharing; between both soldiers and central command. Friendly troop positions, suspicious vehicles or persons and surveillance video from unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs) can all be mapped and shared with servicemen and women in the field. It's been a dream of the Pentagon since the mid-nineties, but has only recently become monetarily and technologically feasible due to advances in smartphone processing power. It's nerdy, it's fascinating... and this is the stuff the Army is willing to talk about. Hit the source link for the full write-up.
Pentagon starts Phoenix trial to harvest defunct satellites, MacGyver new ones from orbit
The Phoenix Frankenprogram to harvest the corpses of expired satellites and cobble together new ones seemed like one of DARPA's more daft ideas, but this one has actually kicked off its first phase of development. The plan is to first launch a service craft -- replete with robotic arms and enough processing horsepower to work independently if needed -- followed by the tiny base-unit skeleton satlets. The service mothership would dip into an orbital area called the "graveyard", grabbing pre-chosen cadavers and picking off usable parts, especially valuable antenna arrays, with its robo-limbs. Those parts would be jury-rigged to the bare-bones units, creating usable Pentagon satellites and saving the $10,000 per pound launch cost. So far, a $2.5 million contract to develop the needed technology has been put in place, and bids for the no-frills satlets went out last week. Plenty of dirty work is still needed, so check the video after the break to see if the overly-elaborate plan can un-moot $300 billion of orbiting cold metal.
US military looking to create a 'universal remote' for drone fleets
When you've got as many different drone models as the US military, it can be hard to manage things. That's why a group inside the Pentagon is looking to help cut down on unmanned aerial fragmentation, attempting to develop a way to manage all of the different models with a universal drone controller. It's something the military has tried and failed to accomplish in the past, but this time it's taking a more smartphone-esque approach to the matter, according to Wired. The key would be to create an underlying software architecture that allows pilots to control fleets of unmanned vehicles. On top of that would be specific applications that are "down-loaded to suit individual user taste and productivity," a Pentagon official told the site. The approach would make it possible to control different models with differing functionality as a connected fleet.
Navy looks into UV cloak for stealth aircraft
The Navy's invested good money in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which obscures radar waves and redirects engine heat to evade recognition by infrared sensors. But that stealth flier is still vulnerable to another type of detection: UV sensors. The Pentagon recently began soliciting proposals to develop a device that cloaks aircraft from ultra-violet detection systems. The hope is that such a technology could shield aircraft from missile seekers that scan the sky for telltale "UV silhouettes." According to the call for research, the solution could involve a device that disperses a cloud of quantum dots or other materials to veil jet fighters in a shapeless mass of UV shadow. Given that this is a rather daunting task, it's not surprising that the development timeframe and projected cost are still up in the air.
DARPA envisions disposable SeeMe satellites for on-demand reconnaissance
A new project from DARPA could successfully bring satellites to the same throwaway status as paper cups and Charlie Sheen's income (#winning). At $500,000 a pop, the orbitals would hardly be chump change, but the Pentagon insists these airborne systems could provide reconnaissance within 90 minutes of deployment and would deliver valuable tactical information to areas not covered by current satellites. Known as SeeMe, the systems would be launched in groups of 24 -- which equates to a $12 million cluster -- and would remain in orbit for 60 to 90 days, at which point they'd burn up upon atmospheric re-entry. Currently, DARPA is seeking contractors that can manufacture the systems rapidly at low costs, which can also "develop advanced technologies for optics, power, propulsion and communications to keep size and weight down." It's said to further discuss the project at a March 27th event known as Proposers' Day. In the meantime, we're going to hit the junkyard and see what we can cobble together.
Pain Gun vs. Reporter round two, reporter left feelin' hot, hot, hot (video)
You may not recall when 60 Minutes' David Martin took a shot at the Pain Gun, but it didn't end well for the fleshy anchorman. Now Wired's Spencer Ackerman's having a go, with similarly one-sided results. The Pentagon's sanguinely-named Active Denial System turns electricity into millimeter-wave radio frequency, silently pumping out 95GHz of searing hot agony from distances of 2,500 feet. The project's still got a few issues, namely that it takes 16 hours to boot up, uses a heck of a lot of energy and stops working if it's raining, snowing or dusty. But, you know, it'll be back when the air clears up, and you probably don't want to be around when it arrives. If you'd like to see the score go 2-0 to the weaponized microwave, head on past the break.
DARPA director exits agency for Google, assumes mysterious role
Not even the federal government's factory of scifi dreams can hold off the likes of Google's recruiters. According to Wired, Regina Dugan, DARPA's current director, will be moving on from the Department of Defense's fantastical research arm for an unspecified "senior executive position" with the folks from Mountain View. Dugan's served in her role for the past three years, winning over the likes of the Pentagon by shifting her agency's focus from out-there R&D experiments to more practical military applications, while also ruffling a few feathers with her brazen statements. No word was given on when exactly she'll officially join the search giant's ranks other than a vague mention of "sometime in the next few weeks." Look out Uncle Sam, the Google brain drain's got its sights set on you. Now, no government sector is safe.
Cornell scientists perform optical illusion, herald invisibility through bending of light (video)
Taken at face value, you'd almost think that Cornell scientists had successfully bent the fabric of time. With gobs of fiber optics at their disposal, the researchers have devised a method to distort light in a way that makes events in time undetectable to observers. Initial success in this Pentagon-backed invisibility project has cloaked an event for 40 trillionths of a second, leading Cornell scientists to tout, "You kind of create a hole in time where an event takes place. You just don't know that anything ever happened." The feat is performed by separating light into more fundamental wavelengths, first by slowing the red and speeding the blue. A resultant gap forms in the beam, which leaves a small window for subterfuge. Then, as the light passes through another set of fibers -- which slow the blue and speed the red -- light reaches the observer as if no disturbance had taken place at all. While the brilliant researchers ultimately imagine art thieves being able to pass undetected through museums with this method, the immediate challenge will be in prolonging the light gap. This could prove frustrating, however, due to the scattering and dispersion effects of light. As Cornell scientists dream of their ultimate heist, visual learners will most certainly want to check the video after the break.
DARPA to develop biometric sensor capable of seeing through walls, pulling your heartstrings
The feds may soon know the way to your heart. Literally. Earlier this month, the forward-thinkers over at DARPA announced plans to develop new technologies capable of identifying human life through walls. The program, known as "Biometrics-at-a-distance," would essentially combine two pre-existing Pentagon projects: the Radar Scope, a device that can see through walls, and 2009's LifeReader, a system that uses Doppler radar to detect heartbeats. Though the military already employs a handful of devices to help soldiers see humans from behind walls, DARPA apparently thinks there's room for improvement. Most contemporary technologies, for example, only work from a maximum distance of eight meters, and aren't as accurate within more densely populated areas. DARPA wants its next project to extend this range beyond ten meters, while sharpening its ability to penetrate thicker obstructions. The agency also wants its sensor to identify individual humans using electrocardiography, which traces the heart's electrical activity. According to DARPA, this could allow users to pinpoint up to ten people at the same time, which could pay dividends during disaster rescue efforts, military operations, or your next Eyes Wide Shut party.
DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 hypersonic aircraft launches today, does New York to LA in 12 minutes (update: lost in flight)
All eyes are on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California today, where DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 unmanned aircraft is scheduled to launch into space at hypersonic speeds, as part of a critical test flight. Measuring just 12 feet in length, the HTV-2 maxes out at a speed of about 1300 16,700 miles per hour (Mach 22), theoretically allowing it to jet from New York to Los Angeles in just 12 minutes and to reach anywhere in the world in less than an hour. The main obstacle, however, has been transitioning from theory to practice. During its first test flight back in April, the craft lasted just nine minutes before intentionally crashing, due to technical failures. DARPA still doesn't know what went wrong during that fateful test, though the agency speculates that the Falcon may have simply overheated. This time around, engineers have adjusted plane's center of gravity and angle of descent, in the hopes that their creation will fare better when it launches on the back of a Minotaur IV rocket, later today. If the test proves successful, it may help fuel similarly inter-galactic defense projects that the Pentagon is exploring as a means to combat terrorism and enemy states. We'll have to wait a little longer to find out whether this initiative actually takes off, but in the meantime, head past the break for a demo video from DARPA. Update: Sadly, while the Minotaur IV rocket launch and separation were successful, the Falcon HTV-2 itself was lost nine minutes into its flight this morning just as its predecessor was. DARPA did manage to collect data up until the crash (somewhere in the Pacific Ocean), however, and says that it plans to review it over the coming weeks. Third time's the charm, maybe?
Cam-wielding RC car used to investigate roadside bomb, saves lives in Afghanistan
The US military spends billions of dollars each year beefing up wartime tech, but a low-budget hacked RC car recently served as an unlikely hero, saving six soliders' lives in Afghanistan. The home-built rig, which included a wireless security camera mounted on a Traxxas Stampede remote-controlled truck, cost about $500 when it was built in 2007. Since then, Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Fessenden has used it to locate roadside bombs, until it tripped a detonation sensor during a patrol last month, in turn saving Fessenden and fellow troops from coming head-to-head with 500 pounds of explosives. Unfortunately the RC cam didn't survive the attack, so Ernie, the solider's brother who built the first model, is currently working on a replacement. Sure, a half-grand may seem like a laughable sum compared to the Pentagon's annual budget, but if the proven gadget gets enough attention, perhaps Chinese-made toys will play a role in entertaining our kids, and protecting our troops.
Military lightning gun parts sold on eBay, probably built in someone's garage
We're not sure where to start with this one. It's, in a word, unbelievable. Technologist Cody Oliver was digging through eBay for parts to build a robot car that Elon Musk could drive around Burning Man, when he came across surplus equipment from defense contractors Omnitech Robotics and Ionatron. The components were originally from the military's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Neutralizers, or JINs -- remote-controlled lightning guns designed to disable IEDs. But, the story quickly goes from interesting to terrifying. Oliver soon discovered the weapons were cobbled together largely from off-the-shelf parts, including a Linksys router with the serial numbers scraped off, and lacked even basic security. The now retired JINs were controlled over a standard 802.11 WiFi signal, with the encryption turned off -- leaving the multimillion dollar devices vulnerable to insurgents. Ultimately the parts were deemed unfit for even Musk's RC art car. You can read all of the horrifying details at the source link. [Thanks, Chris] [Image credit: Cody Oliver]
