Wall Street Journal – Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.
Wall Street Journal – Officers Warned of Flaw in U.S. Drones in 2004
BBC – Vietnam orders submarines and warplanes from Russia
Vietnam has signed billion-dollar contracts to buy submarines and fighter jets from Russia, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has announced in Moscow.
The Atlantic – The Bear Still Has Teeth
Robert D. Kaplan writes that as the Obama administration’s recent scrapping of plans for an Eastern European missile defense system makes clear, while Poland and the Czech Republic may be our allies, it is mighty Russia to whom we are wise to defer.
New York Review of Books – Who’s in Big Brother’s Database?
James Bamford reviews a history of the National Security Agency. The most interesting part:
“…Instead, what the agency needs most, Aid says, is more power. But the type of power to which he is referring is the kind that comes from electrical substations, not statutes. “As strange as it may sound,” he writes, “one of the most urgent problems facing NSA is a severe shortage of electrical power.” With supercomputers measured by the acre and estimated $70 million annual electricity bills for its headquarters, the agency has begun browning out, which is the reason for locating its new data centers in Utah and Texas. And as it pleads for more money to construct newer and bigger power generators, Aid notes, Congress is balking.
The issue is critical because at the NSA, electrical power is political power. In its top-secret world, the coin of the realm is the kilowatt. More electrical power ensures bigger data centers. Bigger data centers, in turn, generate a need for more access to phone calls and e-mail and, conversely, less privacy. The more data that comes in, the more reports flow out. And the more reports that flow out, the more political power for the agency.
Rather than give the NSA more money for more power—electrical and political—some have instead suggested just pulling the plug…”
New York Times – In Shift, U.S. Talks to Russia on Internet Security
The United States has begun talks with Russia and a United Nations arms control committee about strengthening Internet security and limiting military use of cyberspace.
The Atlantic – Wipeout
Guam’s surfers fret about the impact of a $15 billion defense buildup on their island.
Economist – The military-consumer complex
Military technology used to filter down to consumers. Now it’s going the other way.
Economist – War games
Consumer products and video-gaming technology are boosting the performance and reducing the price of military equipment.
BBC – Navy patrols may extend as Somali pirates widen attacks
The British admiral in charge of the EU flotilla carrying out anti-piracy patrols off Somalia is considering extending the area which they patrol.
BBC – Russian missile test launch fails
A Russian test launch of the Bulava intercontinental missile has failed, resulting in a white light seen over parts of Norway.
BBC – India to ‘fence’ naval harbours
India is planning to secure its naval harbours with electronic fences.
US Naval Institute Proceedings – Afghanistan: Connecting Assumptions and Strategy
Three well-known military thinkers re-evaluate what we’ve assumed to know-that just wasn’t so-about a country where we’ve been fighting for eight years.
Press Trust of India – Navy ship thwarts pirate attack on US tanker in Gulf
An Indian Navy warship today successfully repulsed a pirate attack on a US-owned tanker in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia coast.
US Naval Institute Proceedings – Where’s the Special Trust and Confidence?
Marines stand in harm’s way and make tough, split-second decisions in battle. Back home, they face seminars about liberty conduct and fastening seatbelts. Is this smart training for “strategic corporals”?
The Atlantic – What Obama’s Nobel Really Means
Robert D. Kaplan writes that a growing contingent wants Obama to lead a post-nationalist global society. If he does things right, the U.S. could become history’s first truly international nation.
Der Spiegel – The Marines’ Factory of War
Every year, 21,000 fresh recruits are transformed into warriors at the Marine Corps boot camp Parris Island. With US President Barack Obama now boosting troop levels in Afghanistan, many of them will be on a plane within just a few months.
BBC – Dutch navy arrests Somali pirates
The Dutch navy has arrested 13 Somali pirates who attempted to hijack a cargo ship south of Oman.
Associated Press – Admiral: Sea too large to stop all pirate attacks
International naval forces will never be able to completely secure the vast area of ocean where Somali pirates are hijacking ships off East Africa, the commander of the EU Naval Force’s counter-piracy efforts said Tuesday.
Defense Technology International – Second Russian Stealth Frigate In Works
The Severnaya Verf shipyard in St Petersburg officially laid down the second Project 22350 frigate for the Russian Navy on November 26. The ship was named Admiral Flota Kasatonov. The first frigate of the class – Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Gorshkov – has been under construction at Severnaya Verf since 2006.
PTI – Russian shipyard launches Indian stealth frigates ‘Teg’
Russia’s defence shipyard “Yantar” has launched first of the three Indian stealth frigates – INS Teg (Sabre) – at a colourful ceremony in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
(Thanks to Harry for the link…)
Newsweek – An Empire at Risk
We won the cold war and weathered 9/11. But now, Niall Ferguson says, economic weakness is endangering our global power.
Washington Post – Newly deployed Marines to target Taliban bastion
Days after President Obama outlines his new war strategy in a speech Tuesday, as many as 9,000 Marines will begin final preparations to deploy to southern Afghanistan and renew an assault on a Taliban stronghold that slowed this year amid a troop shortage and political pressure from the Afghan government.
Los Angeles Times – Marines plow ahead with anti-poppy campaign in Afghan district
The U.S. troops emphasize persuasion in trying to get farmers to change to other crops to keep drug money out of the Taliban’s hands. They’re also planning an assault on an insurgent stronghold.
Wall Street Journal – Soviets’ Afghan Ordeal Vexed Gates on Troop-Surge Plan
The future of the war in Afghanistan was on the line as Gen. Stanley McChrystal met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a secret rendezvous at a Belgian airbase in August. Gen. McChrystal, the top Western commander in Afghanistan, pushed for more U.S. troops to roll back the spreading Taliban-led insurgency. Mr. Gates, officials say, was skeptical. A quarter-century ago, he was a top Central Intelligence Agency officer aiding the anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan, and he remembered how a 1985 decision by the Soviet Union to widen that earlier war had failed to turn the tide.
Washington Post – Holiday in Afghanistan
Some troops get turkey, others get MREs, but everyone gets a tiny taste of Thanksgiving. With the Marines in Afghanistan.
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