Protecting Their Prosperity
Aaron Cynic writes at Diatribe Media:
Even though the U.S. military spends more than 6 times that of our next competitor (China), the GOP is still pushing the narrative that any more cuts in spending to the Pentagon’s budget would be “disastrous” and spell “doomsday” for the military. The Hill reports House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif) said he’d even be willing to support tax increases before more cuts to the military’s budget. Predictably, 13 freshmen Republicans on McKeon’s panel, many of which are Tea Party darlings, feel “enough is enough” and believe federal spending cuts need to come from entitlement programs.
McKeon said “It’s time to focus our fiscal restraint on the driver of our debt, not the protector of our prosperity.”
In addition to McKeon’s doomsday forecasting, Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) also voiced concerns earlier this month regarding proposed defense spending cuts. In a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta,…
Miniature Drones Spray Enemies With ‘Tracking Dust’
Nano Air Vehicle developed by AeroVironment
Adam Rawnsley writes for Wired:
Here’s how the U.S. Air Force wants to hunt the next generation of its enemies: A tiny drone sneaks up to a suspect, paints him with an unnoticed powder or goo that allows American forces to follow him everywhere he goes — until they train a missile on him.
On Tuesday, the Air Force issued a call for help making a miniature drone that could covertly drop a mysterious and unspecified tracking “dust” onto people, allowing them to be tracked from a distance. The proposal says its useful for all kinds of random things, from identifying friendly forces and civilians to tracking wildlife. But the motive behind a covert drone tagger likely has less to do with sneaking up on spotted owls and more to do with painting a target on the backs of tomorrow’s terrorists.
Effectively tracking foes has become a high priority…
Why Is the Military Creating an Army of Fake People on the Internet?
Adrian Chen commenting on a pretty amazing Daily Kos story on Gizmodo:
Here’s a slight glimpse into the Air Force’s cyber warfare efforts: a request for bids from last summer for “Persona Management Software,” which would allow one person to command an army of fake online people.
From the request, posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website:
Software will allow 10 personas per user, replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent. Individual applications will enable an operator to exercise a number of different online persons from the same workstation and without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries. Personas must be able to appear to originate in nearly any part of the world and can interact through conventional online services and social media platforms.
The request was for 50 licenses, which means the Air Force hoped to create up to 500 fake Internet people. The request…
USAF Legal Office: Family Members Could Be Prosecuted For Accessing WikiLeaks
Who ever thought nothing bad could come from reading has never been part of the US Air Force. Or related to someone who is. A recent document from the Air Force Material Command issued that “if a family member of an Air Force employee accesses WikiLeaks on a home computer, the family member may be subject to prosecution for espionage under U.S. Code Title 18 Section 793.” Via Raw Story:
Almost anyone in the United States, and especially soldiers or the families of US Air Force members, could be under the threat of prosecution by the military, according to a recent “guidance” document issued by the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) public affairs office.
The advisory took on new significance Monday as Julian Assange, founder of the secrets peddling website, was in a British court to argue against his extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning in relation to allegations…
Air Force’s Mysterious Space Plane Lands As Twin Prepares For Launch
Via Wired’s Danger Room:
After 225 days in orbit the Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane touched down today at 1:16 am local time at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was only the second fully-automated re-entry and runway landing in the history of space flight. The Soviets achieved the first in 1988 with the robotic prototype of their Buran Space Shuttle clone.
Space plane program manager Lt. Col. Troy Giese says that “today’s landing culminates a successful mission” which “completed all the on-orbit objectives.” But the Air Force has been consistently vague about what that mission really was; for a while, military personnel claimed they didn’t even know when the X-37B was coming back to Earth.
With a payload bay roughly the size of a pickup-truck bed, the 29-foot-long robot could carry sensors or even weapons. Its maneuverability — amateur skywatchers tracked the X-37 making four major course-changes — means it could sneak up on and…
Air Force Academy Finally Accepting Spell-Casters
Noah Shachtman writes on the always interesting WIRED’s Danger Room:
Just a few years ago, the Air Force Academy was considered such an evangelical hothouse that the place got sued for its alleged discrimination against non-Christians. Today, the Academy is boasting of its thriving pagan community — and its friendliness towards spell-casters.
In a press release issued [on Oct. 21st], the Academy features Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, “the lay leader for the Academy’s Earth-Centered Spirituality community, which includes Wiccans and Pagans from various traditions.” (It’s part of a larger effort by the school to promote an image of tolerance.)
During an inter-faith discussion group, the release notes, one cadet asked Longcrier “whether Wiccans or Pagans practiced ‘black magic.’”
Sergeant Longcrier responded by citing the Wiccan credo, or Rede: “An it harm none, do what ye will.” That would seem to preclude harmful spellcraft.
USAF: Aliens Still Controlling Nuclear Arsenal
On Monday The National Press Club will be hosting several retired USAF and RAF officers who will be testifying to the intervention and active monitoring of ICBMs by unidentified flying objects while they were stationed at missile facilities:
“I was on duty when an object came over and hovered directly over the site,” Salas said, regarding the March 16, 1967, event at Malmstrom AFB in Montana. “The missiles shut down, 10 Minuteman missiles. And the same thing happened at another site a week later,” he said.
While this story has been picked up by the illustrious Fox network here, there are other more detailed accounts of these events here, which include scans of the “declassified” documents. Salas has also penned a book about the events at Malmstron AFB in 1967 entitled Faded Giant.
Hypersonic Scramjet Sets New Speed Record
More than Mach 5 – not bad! CNET reports on the U.S. Air Force’s latest toy:
The X-51A Waverider flew today, and it flew fast.
The scramjet engine in the experimental aircraft burned for a little over three minutes at around 10 a.m. PDT Wednesday in a test range over the Pacific Ocean, pushing the X-51A to the hypersonic speed of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound…
Mystery Military Space Plane
An Air Force plane prompts concerns about space-based military operations. CNN’s Barbara Starr reports.
