Russian MiG Shoots Georgian Drone

Source: Wired Danger Room.

Messy battlefields: Space war would cause massive space junk problem

Given the amount of debris a single ASAT weapon can create,
as this illustration of last year’s Chinese ASAT test shows,
imagine the debris created by the deliberate use of ASATs. (credit: CelesTrak)

As space technology spreads, the incentives for small and medium-sized states to seek space warfare capability increases. A dictator who does not want to end the way Saddam Hussein did may seek way to hurt US warfighting capability in such a way as to impose major costs and casualties on the US early on. The destruction of a major US satellite would be both a substantive and a symbolic victory over the US. Hitting a number of satellites would increase the effect.

Such an attack would result in a major increase in the amount of debris orbiting the Earth. This would be the equivalent of a “scorched earth” policy if enough deadly debris were created. One possibility that has not been publicly examined might be to build highly- or ultra-destructive ASAT weapons that would literally pulverize the target and leave nothing behind but bits of dust. Even small particles can do some damage, but paint flakes like those that sometimes hit space shuttles have not managed to destroy an orbiter.

Source: Space Review.

DARPA Building Plane that Flies for 5 years at a Time

The Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA) will soon be awarding a contract to develop an unmanned aircraft called the Vulture that’s capable of flying for five years at a time without stopping, according to the aviation magazine Flight. Essentially, the Vulture is a satellite released into the atmosphere and not into space. But unlike satellites, the Vulture will have to maintain enough power to overcome the Earth’s gravitation pull.

Specifications for the Vulture include the ability to remain in flight for over five years at a time, while performing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communication missions. It must also be capable of carrying a 1,000-pound payload and withstand the heavy winds that occur at 60,000 to 90,000 feet - the altitude the Vulture is expected to remain in.

Source: OhMyGov.

Fly, Robot Fly

Flies have evolved complex mechanisms to regulate their flight, including performing intricate flapping and twisting wing movements, which the robotic fly does 120 times a second. A clamp holds the robot in place to keep it from escaping the camera’s lens. Photos: Robert Wood

Insects are capable of executing stunning aerial feats, including flying upside down, hovering and landing on walls and ceilings. Perhaps for this reason alone, they have inspired a whole suite of flying machines that share key properties with their arthropod forebears. But these robotic fliers are just beginning to conquer flight on the scale of insects. In March 2007, Robert Wood’s microrobotic fly proved it could generate enough thrust to lift off the ground on its own, becoming the first insect-size robot to fly.

Via IEEE Spectrum.

Sophisticated unmanned aircraft get big military bucks

The Army has awarded General Atomics an $18.6 million contract to continue developing an extended range/multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle.  The contract is but one of the extended range unmanned aircraft military planners are looking at for the next few years.  In addition, there is more than $500 million for unmanned aircraft systems in the fiscal 2008 war supplemental, which Congress has yet to act on, according to Aviation Week. 

First, the General Atomics contract is for the aircraft called the Sky Warrior.  The Sky Warrior is built upon the company’s highly successful Predator and I-GNAT ER airplanes. The aircraft, the first of which flew last year,  will perform long-endurance – over 40 hours aloft, surveillance, communications relay, and weapons delivery missions with double the weapons capacity of the Predator.

Via NetworkWorld.

UAV used to knock out cell-networks in “Palestinians Call Drones a Deadly Weapon” from AP.

China says military spending will go up 17.6 percent in 2008

Most of the increase will go to boosting salaries and to pay for higher oil prices, with moderate increased spending for armaments, said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People’s Congress.

He said spending would total $59 billion in 2008. Other countries say China vastly underestimates how much it spends on its military and the real figure could be three times as much as the publicly released figure.

China has said spending grew 17.8 percent during 2007, to nearly $45 billion. It was the largest annual increase in more than a decade.

Source: AP via IHT.

Killer robots pose latest militant threat: expert

LONDON (Reuters) - Killer robots could become the weapon of choice for militants, a British expert said on Wednesday.

Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield said he believed falling costs would soon make robots a realistic option for extremist groups.

Reuters via Wired Danger Room.

Missile-ready China warns U.S. against plan to destroy spy satellite

In response to a U.S. plan to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite, China has warned against threats to security in outer space, without mentioning its own successful anti-satellite missile test last year. The Chinese government also stopped short of linking the planned U.S. strike with Beijing’s repeated calls for a complete ban on space weapons.Security analysts have suggested that Beijing could use the planned U.S. interception to justify the Chinese military’s unannounced destruction of a defunct weather satellite in January 2007. That interception drew criticism from senior U.S. military officials, who complained that it had left a cloud of debris that was dangerous to other space traffic. Chinese experts in turn have questioned the Pentagon’s explanation that it wanted to down the spy satellite to avoid contamination from hazardous fuel on board.

Source: International Herald Tribune.

Darpa Pursues Neuroscience To Enhance Analyst, Soldier Performance

In a summary of her programs at the annual DarpaTech conference in 2005, Kruse spelled out the importance of the work: “The operational environment will continue to become more crowded with information, so it is clear that our war fighters must be able to manage complex situations with faster, more accurate and more concentrated cognitive capabilities. This means that issues such as cognitive overload, fatigue and decision-making under stress are fast becoming crucial factors in performance.”

The latest project Kruse has been working on is the Neurotechnology for Intelligence Analysts (NIA) program. This effort builds on an earlier one titled Augmentated Cognition, or AugCog. One of the leading contractors on both efforts has been Honeywell.

Source: Aviation Week.

Battlefield Earth: geoengineering as a weapon

For a variety of political and natural reasons, global warming affects some countries differently than others. Fragile economies and weak infrastructures tend to worsen the results of climate disruptions, a problem exemplified by Bangladesh’s vulnerability to monsoons, accelerating desertification in northern China, and, most visibly, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in New Orleans. At the same time, warming and altered rainfall patterns may—temporarily—improve conditions for countries in extreme latitudes, increasing harvests in Canada and Russia for a few years. Similarly, intentional changes meant to fight global warming would also have differential results.

At the same time, the resources required for geoengineering projects can vary dramatically. A start-up company called Climos and the government of India have each begun to prepare tests of “ocean iron fertilization” to boost oceanic phytoplankton blooms, in order to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, at a cost of just a few million dollars. At the other end of the spectrum, projects like the injection of megatons of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to simulate the effects of a volcano would easily cost in the tens of billions of dollars—still within the means of most developed countries.

Source: Jamais Cascio in Foreign Policy.