Local and provincial councils in Friesland fear the arrival of the Joint Strike Fighter airplane will mean the end of a number of villages and housing areas. The JSF fighter planes will be based at an air force base in Leeuwarden.
Russia plans to lease to India several nuclear-powered submarines of the type on which 20 people were killed last month in a gas leak, ITAR-TASS quoted a top official as saying on Monday.
Defence has awarded a 12 year contract to General Electric International Incorporated (GEII) to provide all support for the engines powering the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) F/A-18A/B Hornet and soon to be acquired F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft.
Recently, I was consulting on the development of cyber strategies that would lead the way in developing guidance on this rapidly emerging threat.
The objective of this work was to articulate new cyber concepts, doctrine, strategies and technology solutions. While using scenario-based intelligence analysis and trans-disciplinary intelligence engineering to advance current corpus of knowledge to apply toward the development of cyber attack strategies that manage this emerging risk and several interesting observations were made. A review intelligence surrounding the cyber attackers Modus Operandi (MO) lead to an interesting question
The question was: What liability should hardware and software vendors bare for vulnerabilities in their products
Our discussions brought up the legal aspect of this issue in the context of product liability. Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the harm those products cause.
The claims most commonly associated with product liability are that of negligence, strict liability and breach of warranty. A product's liability claim is usually based on one or more of the following causes of action.
A software vulnerability would clearly fall under the product defect cause of action
In the mid year report by IBM X-Force it stated that the overall number of vulnerabilities continued to rise as did the overall percentage of high risk vulnerabilities. Approximately 3500 software vulnerabilities were announced in the first six months of 2008 and on track to exceed the total number reported in 2007.
Given our critical infrastructure, our national security and our economy is dependent on generally available hardware and software.
Take the poll below to tell us what you think: Should hardware and software vendors be held accountable for flaws in their products that are exploited and used to gain access to and exploit the system?
[EDITOR: First answer should read software AND hardware...]
Old missile site poisoning Cheyenne's water supply
Why the F/A-18 failed (update: readers advise that this article "sucks")
Afghan national air force growing, growing, growing
Oh good grief...
What makes piracy work?
--John Noonan
The top US military officer raised doubts Wednesday over the future of the costly F-22 fighter jet program, noting that the economic downturn could force the Pentagon to make budget cuts.
Three Air National Guard KC-135 Stratotanker wings will become active associate units beginning this summer, Air Force officials here announced Dec. 10.
This past June, I issued a call for all AMC personnel to "return to basics," and I thank you for the renewed attention you've given to our core values and our mobility mission while restoring the Air Force's good name with your daily, outstanding mission accomplishment.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) ended its 13th session (December 2-5) in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., have successfully demonstrated an autonomous landing of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, marking the first time an F-16 has landed entirely under computer control.
More than 125 Eielson Air Force Base Airmen and 10 jets left Dec. 6 through 8 to provide adversary training and support to members of the 199th Fighter Squadron and the Hawaii Air National Guard at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.
There are 11 squadrons based at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose comprising helicopters, Hawk jets, Jetstream turboprop aircraft and, perhaps less well known, a squadron of radio-controlled target aircraft.
Blueprints for a future military are piling up fast in Washington, D.C. It seems like not a week goes by that a new report isnt released by one think tank or another with the hope of grabbing the attention of defense aides with the incoming Obama administration. While some of these reports are eminently discardable, others actually have some value, if not for their prescriptions, then at least for who wrote the report.
An example of the latter is a new report titled Building a Military for the 21st Century, put out by the Center for American Progress, a largely Democratic staffed think tank that is also pulling double duty with the Obama transition team. For that reason alone it might carry more weight than others. So lets unpack this one.
The report could be called a progressive agenda, as it aims to rein in defense spending, which it says is out of control, and calls for cutting the familiar list of gold plated weapons systems dreamed up during the Cold War. It says lack of fiscal discipline has created an environment where the services are free to spend as much as they want and buy whatever new weapon they fancy.
One of the most important ongoing debates in defense policy circles is over the types of wars the U.S. likely to fight in the future. One camp says protracted counterinsurgency campaigns in failed or failing states on the order of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will dominate. The other says the military must prepare for full scale conventional fights against a regional power, which basically comes down to one of three countries: China, Russia or Iran. The answer to that question reveals where an individual or institution is going with force structure recommendations.
The CAP report comes down squarely in the counterinsurgency and irregular warfare camp. While proficiency in conventional fire and maneuver skills, this applies to the ground forces of course, cannot be allowed to lapse, preparedness for stability operations should take precedence.
CAPs solution for bringing defense spending under control is a little fuzzy. They say pulling troops out of Iraq will save $140 billion over the next two years, although $22 billion will need to be redirected to operations in Afghanistan; much of the hoped for savings will come from cutting or slowing development of costly weapons programs.
Read the rest of this story over at DoD Buzz.
-- Greg Grant
I know it's a bit late, but I got my hands on some material that came out of the mid-November "industry day" held in the DC area to show the Army what's out there to replace the M4.
You'll remember that the service has indicated it's finally willing to explore updated options to its standard-issue service rifle...now the M4. Whether you think the M4 sucks or not, it makes sense that the Army is breaking free of its single-minded love affair with the M16 and its variants.
I missed the industry day (dumb me) but I got a write-up on the meeting from a renowned weapons expert that many of you might know. He did not send this directly to me, I obtained it through other sources, so I'm going to protect its origins and the author.
According to the expert, "19 vendors showed up at the industry day, including Polytech, KAC, Precision Reflex, POF, S&W, FN with SCAR, Superior Tooling, AAI with LSAT, LWRC, Colt Defense, Barrett, Sabre Defense, Armwest, HK, Bushmater/Remington, Robinson Armament, Troy Industries and SIG Sauer." Army secretary Pete Geren showed up as well, along with key players from PEO Soldier and PEO Soldier Weapons. According to one of my sources, fortunately some congressional staffers from top lawmakers who want to take up this issue also showed, including staffers for Salazar, Hutchison, Sessions and John Warner (though we know he's retiring soon).
The weapons expert said:
Lots of AR-based systems on display, mostly off the shelf items, many op rod guns and conversions. A few medium caliber (6.5G and 6.8 Rem SPC and 7.62x39mm R) platforms on display and a few 7.62x51mm systems as well. No bullpups (Tavor, AUG or F2000)surprisingly and no XM8. Lots of discussion about op rod upgrades to M4's versus complete new systems. Little talk that I heard anyway about user convertible (barrel, buttstock, caliber) modular family of weapons but there were one or two such systems there.
One thing my source told me -- and yes, he does have a stake in the adoption of a new rifle -- was that Geren's presence, while adding senior-level gravitas to the event, was essentially meaningless because he's probably going to leave in 60 days. And the fact that neither the service chief nor vice chief showed up at the event sent a signal the the uniformed leadership isn't on board with the idea and could recommend to the next secretary that they abandon the effort.
Here's more from the debrief:
Industry reps I spoke with were cautiously optimistic having been burned a time or two before in the last 10 years. A major difference here is the presence of a formal requirements document (CDD) as per the JCIDs process that is due to be completed and staffed by the end of CY08 and expected to be approved by summer CY09 with possible draft RFQ release to industry for comment w/i 4QFY09 (and a second Industry Day) and eventual final RFP release by Sept. 2009; all this as per COL Tamilio's (new PM-SW formerly from the REF) briefing to the attendees. Each vendor was allotted 30 minutes to present to a US Govt team in private. Lots of new faces within the "small arms system" to include a new PEO Soldier, PM-SW and PM-SW IW and USAIC reps....
This process of consulting industry in support of a real fair and open competition for the next service rifle has not occurred in more than 70 years, likely since the M1 Garand "competition" prior to WWII. This was a historic day! Lots of oversight on this one from the real end user side and at senior leadership levels. We are on the right track finally. Lets just hope it doesn't get derailed with changes in the US Govt over the next 2 months. Time will tell. Keep the pressure on!
So chew this over for a bit. Next up: What small arms threats are the services worried about?
-- Christian