Technology Is Now Enabling Military Pilots To See Through Smoke, Dust, Mist & Smog

In recent wars, poor visibility has claimed more U.S. helicopters than enemy gunfire. DVIDS Images

Forbes: Fog Of War: How Clever Technology Enables Military Pilots To See Through Smoke, Dust, Mist & Smog

Across time and cultures, the one great constant of warfare is confusion. Since the dawn of man, warriors on all sides have often lacked the situational awareness they needed to survive and succeed in battle.

In recent years, this metaphorical “fog of war” has begun to lift as new technologies became available to maintain communications and coordinate force movements even in the harshest circumstances.

However, fog isn’t just a metaphor for warfighters. It is a real problem on any battlefield where smoke, mist, clouds, dust, snow and other obscurants are present.

The Pentagon figures that 58% of the rotorcraft it lost during the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq were traceable to mishaps caused by what professionals call “degraded visual environments” or DVE.

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WNU Editor: This is going to avoid a lot of accidents, and save a lot of lives.

The U.S. Army Wants To Use Avatars In Their Training

A Stryker vehicle commander interacts in real time with a soldier avatar that is operated remotely from a collective trainer. (U.S. Army photo)

Military.com: The Army Is Building Avatars that Can Fight Infantry Soldiers

Infantry squads will soon experience combat training simulations that feature an enemy capable of learning soldiers' tactics and habits, so the battle is never the same twice.

Army modernization officials are counting on this type of realism from the Microsoft-built Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), which is scheduled to be ready for fielding in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.

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WNU Editor: This will definitely make the combat experience more realistic (at least in theory).

Pushback Against Tech Employees Who Do Not Want To Work With The U.S. Military

Jerry Boyles, Diginomica: US military to tech protestors – ‘We’re at war; pick a side’

The revolt by thousands of Google workers against working with the Pentagon is drawing fierce pushback from the military, rival companies like Amazon and Microsoft, and even some fellow workers.

Microsoft has been awarded a $480 million contract to supply prototypes for Halogens, its augmented reality systems, to the Army for use in training and on combat missions. It’s a win that seems likely to further inflame the passions of thousands of tech workers who have taken the position that Big Tech “should not be in the business of war.”

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WNU Editor: These tech protestors better read up on history .... and fast. The world is not .... and historically speaking never has been .... a safe place.

Is The U.S. Military Losing Its Innovation Edge To China?

Wikipedia

Gareth Evans, Army-Technology: Is the US military machine losing its innovation edge to China?

America has far outstripped its rivals when it comes to defence innovation, but there are signs that this seems to be slowing and could possibly be in danger of stalling altogether, a situation that could open the door to China.

Innovation has been central to the US war machine since the end of WWII, and, by implication, to the success of the rules-based system that has governed international relations over the same period too. American advances in nuclear weapons technology in the 1950s made possible the ‘first offset strategy’ nullifying the Soviet superiority in conventional numbers, and when Moscow narrowed the gap, heavy ‘second offset’ investment in emerging stealth and smart weapons technologies ensured the US lead remained through the 80s and 90s.

But what of the decades since?

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WNU Editor: I do not see the Chinese stepping in and becoming the world's leader in developing innovative military technology .... at least in the next decade or two.

Is The U.S. Military About To Lose Its Technological Edge To China?

Aircraft CF-02, an F-35 Lightning II Carrier Variant attached to the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force (ITF) assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 completes a flyover of the guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000). US Navy Photo

Defense News: The next Sputnik: Here's why US stands to lose technological edge to China

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — As defense companies struggle to balance the interests of the military customers with those of shareholders, the Pentagon needs to rethink how it buys or else risk sacrificing its technological edge.

The Pentagon can’t shut its eyes to the fact that a healthy bottom line for defense companies is in the best interest of the military and essential to ensure future capabilities, said Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, speaking on a panel at the Reagan National Defense Forum Saturday.

“I am an unapologetic capitalist and free marketeer,” said Spencer, who worked on Wall Street for 16 years. “One thing we need to be responsible for is the health of the industrial base. It’s a dance that has to be done. You’re out there with a fiduciary responsibility to buy the best gear in the most efficient, best way you can. Now you add in, ‘I have to help an industry in a certain area,’ or ‘I have to make the capital investments myself’ — it flies in the face of full and open competition. But we have to live with that to get gear.”

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WNU Editor: The U.S. is still the world's leader when it comes to military R&D .... U.S. Is Still The World Leader When It Comes To Military R&D (November 15, 2017). But I can see the day when China will be on par with the U.S. .... China is catching up to the US on science and engineering spending, report finds (The Verge).

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: US Military Needs Game-Changing Military Innovations To Stay Ahead of China And Russia

Chuck Hagel Lays Out Weapons Plan -- WSJ

Pentagon Needs to Look Outside Traditional Industry to Find Affordable Emerging Technologies, Hagel Says

SIMI VALLEY, Calif.—U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Saturday outlined a series of reforms designed to tackle what he views as the military’s declining prowess as China, Russia and others field new weapons technologies.

Mr. Hagel said the Pentagon needed to look outside the traditional defense industry to target emerging technologies that could be developed within budget constraints, a move that some leaders believe could reshape the weapons business over the next decade.

The so-called third offset strategy mimics the resetting of U.S. military priorities in the 1950s and then the 1970s. Nuclear weapons and then a combination of stealthy, radar-evading platforms with precision-guided bombs and missiles allowed the U.S. to maintain a technological edge over adversaries that often had far larger numbers of troops and conventional weapons.

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More News On U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Stating That The US Military Needs Game-Changing Military Innovations To Stay Ahead of China And Russia

Hagel Announces New Technology Initiative to Stay Ahead of China, Russia -- DoD Buzz
Hagel Announces New Defense Innovation, Reform Efforts -- US Department of Defense
Hagel announces strategy of innovation to thwart risks to U.S. military superiority -- Washington Post
Hagel announces push to boost U.S. military's technological edge -- Reuters
Hagel: US Needs Game-Changing Military Innovation -- Military.com/AP
US Defense Secretary Announces New Innovation Initiative -- VOA
Hagel: DoD Will Invest in 'Game Changing' Technologies -- National Defense
Hagel launches plan to maintain high-tech military -- Military Times
Hagel Lists Key Technologies For US Military; Launches ‘Offset Strategy’ -- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense

The U.S. Is No Longer The Leader In Military Tech

Why The World’s Armies Don’t Want U.S. Tech Anymore -- Bill Sweetman, Daily Beast

America used to be the global leader in war gear. But now, many of our weapons are second rate.

Boeing briefed reporters on the Army-led Joint Multi Role rotorcraft project—intended as a high-tech replacement for most of the thousands of helicopters in the Pentagon’s fleets—in Mesa, Arizona, late last month.

“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot twice,” I said, “and we are all out of feet.” My comment was not exactly diplomatic, but the JMR vision of a one-size-fits-all, fast and efficient rotorcraft technology platform that would leave the rest of the world in the dust gave me double flashbacks: to the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor and the LHX/Comanche, which had similar goals and fell far short of them. (Although the V-22 was not cancelled outright, as the Army killed Comanche in 2004, the objective was something that cost little more than a helicopter, without the Osprey’s fighter-like price tag.)

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My Comment: I cannot argue with much of this report. The U.S. was a leader for a long time .... but hubris, politics, little if any competition among U.S. defense industrial giants .... the world has caught up and is now surpassing what the U.S. can develop and manufacture .... and in some cases they can surpass it.

Update: It  should also be noted that industrial espionage and spying has hurt the U.S. defense industry. The U.S. spends the tens of billions of dollars on necessary R&D .... and other nations steal/take the best of what is discovered to help their own industries.

Predicting Future Wars And Conflicts

Hoss Cartwright Heralds New Era In Warfare: 'No Longer Do We Troll For Trouble; We Predict It' -- Aol Defense

WASHINGTON: A combat patrol is four soldiers walking, under orders to look for trouble and react to it. For most of modern history, infantry squads have been the military's principal sensors, forcing an enemy to respond, allowing American forces to judge the situation and respond. But that is an always risky, often bloody way to generate intelligence.

"Essentially, you are asking them to troll for trouble," the retired vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Hoss Cartwright, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies today.

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My Comment: When you read stories like this one .... that is when you know that a fundamental shift is now occurring within the military on how to fight future wars effectively and efficiently.

Pentagon And State Support Lifting Some Controls On U.S. Satellite Exports

The Star Fighters -- Washington Free Beacon

Administration report warns that loosening exports on space technology could boost China’s space warfare capabilities.

China is building space weapons designed to defeat U.S. and allied long-range missiles, and U.S. plans to loosen controls on satellite exports likely will boost Beijing’s space warfare programs, according to a Obama administration report made public on Wednesday.

The report warned that if the U.S. government relaxes controls on satellite exports and related items, “China would purchase and acquire more of these items, and in turn, further reduce the technological edge of the United States’ and its allies’ space assets,” the report said.

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Update: DoD, State Want Easier Satellite Exports; PRC Still Banned From Launching US Birds -- Aol Defense

My Comment: My prediction .... the White House will proceed with lifting the many controls that are in place to limit critical technology transfers .... and then a a few years from now .... we will be writing and reading stories on how did China get access to US space tech and info.

The Army's Giant Tablet Computer Is Huge

State of the art: The tablets could collect surveillance information to show a map of structures, terrain and troop positions

The Army's Giant Tablet Computer For Controlling Battles At The Touch Of A Finger -- Daily Mail

Video game enthusiasts playing combat games are used to moving their troops around at the touch of a finger.

And now a giant touch-screen tablet could give real army commanders an almost identical experience.

The army is considering whether or not to invest in two feet by three feet tablets that could give orders to troops on the ground.

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My Comment: My iPad2 definitely looks puny when compared to this Army Tablet .... and i ma not going to talk about my old Kindle.

iPads And Technological Warfare

Techno warfare: An Apache assault helicopter lands near U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Pilots in the U.S. military have been using iPads to help pinpoint missing locations faster

Technological Warfare: U.S. Military Pilots Using iPads In The Cockpit To Pinpoint Mission Targets -- Daily Mail

They're the latest must-have gadget on the high street, but it seems iPads are also finding a role on the battlefields.

Pilots in the U.S. military have been using the portable device to pinpoint the locations of missions while in the cockpit and cut down the time it takes to reach targets.

Instead of flipping through dozens of maps inside their aircraft, they have been able to load the documents on to personal iPads and change the way the military operates in the field.

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My Comment: I personally love the Facetime option.

Spies Will Soon be Able To Pinpoint Where In The World A Picture Was Taken

Remote: Bin Laden and three Al Qaeda members sit among rocks - the kind of features that the automatic computer system would match on a database

Super Spies: U.S. Is Developing System That Can Identify Where In The World A Photo Was Taken -- Daily Mail

U.S. spies are developing technology that would allow computers to pinpoint where in the world a picture was taken.

The system would be used by the military to track down terrorists who are in hiding in remote regions, experts said.

Pictures of the targets would be simply scanned into a computer that would within seconds return an exact match for the terrorist hideout. Troops would then be deployed to the area to capture the target.

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My Comment: Shouldn't this information be classified?

How Fake Chinese Microchips Could Have Disarmed U.S. Missiles

The Navy Bought Fake Chinese Microchips That Could Have Disarmed U.S. Missiles -- Business Insider

Last year, the U.S. Navy bought 59,000 microchips for use in everything from missiles to transponders and all of them turned out to be counterfeits from China.

Wired reports the chips weren't only low-quality fakes, they had been made with a "back-door" and could have been remotely shut down at any time.

If left undiscovered the result could have rendered useless U.S. missiles and killed the signal from aircraft that tells everyone whether it's friend or foe.

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More News On Fake Chinese Microchips Purchased For The U.S. military

Hacker alert: How the Pentagon almost blew it over fake chips from China -- Global Post
U.S. Spies Can't Stop Buying Fake Microchips from China -- Atlantic Wire
US Navy gets punked by Chinese microchips -- Pajamas Media
Fishy Chips: Spies Want to Hack-Proof Circuits -- Danger Room
Fishy chips: spies want to hack-proof circuits -- Wired (Updated)

A Look At Some U.S. Military Inventions

Image: Conceptual art of a "Transformer" produced by AAI, a subsidiary of Textron Systems. (Courtesy of Textron Systems)

Top US Military Inventions -- The Telegraph

The Jet Pack – the idea of strapping rockets to the back of soldiers, enabling them to sail into the air, had been the stuff of science fiction even before the Nazis came up with the "Himmelstürmer" or Heaven stormer.

The US Army went on to test variants, but ditched them all eventually as too heavy for pilots to land safely. Only ever used in anger by James Bond

The Long Range Acoustic Device – originally developed after the attack on the USS Cole, the LRAD was designed to warn off unidentified boats approaching warships first with audio messages – and then with huge bursts of unbearable noise.

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My Comment: A tongue in cheek look at some U.S. military inventions.

US Technology Is The Tech Of Choice For Corrupt Governments And Terrorists

This video uses Adobe SWF technology for playing an animation on the Web. It's a recruitment tool used by extremist groups to find new members. Jeff Bardin, Treadstone 71

Corrupt Governments, Terror Groups Rely On US Technology -- FOX News

Jihadist groups, corrupt Middle Eastern governments, Al-Qaeda and even the anti-American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan regularly use U.S. technology to repress citizens and conduct terror campaigns -- and there's little we can do about it.

Californian company Internet Brands makes the group-discussion service vBulletin. Security consult Jeff Bardin told FoxNews.com that over 10,000 jihad groups around the world use it to plan strategies and recruit members.

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My Comment: Osama Bin laden was once asked .... is there anything that he liked about the U.S.? His response .... he liked American technology and weapons. Apparently .... he is not the only one.

Is The U.S. Giving Away It's Sensitive Technology

Report: U.S. Might be Giving Away Sensitive Military Technology -- Global Security Newswire

Sensitive military technology might be slipping into enemy hands, in part because of a dramatic decline in the number of foreign workers that the Commerce Department screens, federal auditors have found (see GSN, June 8, 2009).

For national security purposes, the United States controls the export of so-called dual-use technologies -- items that have both civilian and military uses, including computer security tools -- to countries of concern, including Iran and North Korea.

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My Comment: When you read stories like this one, it makes you wonder if the safeguards are in place to prevent even more transfers of military tech that the U.S. taxpayer has paid for (probably) through the nose.

Military Should Rely Less On Technology: Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis

Image from The Daily Mail

From Marine Times:

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The military relies too much on technology, and soldiers need to practice more “with the radios turned off,” a key general said.

“We must be able to operate when systems go down,” Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, head of Joint Forces Command, told a luncheon audience Thursday at a joint war-fighting conference. “It is much more important for officers to get comfortable operating with uncertainty rather than to keep grasping for more certainty.”

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My Comment: Rules of engagement make it very difficult for today's soldiers to operate independently. The brass always wants their hand in on what is happening .... having the radios "turned off" and technology "suspended" is not going to happen.

Augmented Reality Goggles Make Marine Mechanics More Efficient

AR Goggles Seeing the world differently through augmented reality, and becoming more efficient to boot Steven Feiner and Steven Henderson

From Popular Science:

Jarheads work almost 50 percent faster wearing heads-up display goggles that replace technical manuals.

New augmented reality goggles are helping Marine mechanics perform maintenance on vehicles in about half the usual time. The futuristic headgear displays precise instructions on top of real-world settings, and shows how to complete certain tasks, such as wiring up an ignition coil.

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My Comment: Something tells me that this headgear must cost a fortune.

Obama Loosens Missile Technology Controls To China

A missile launch in California. Photo from The Daily Mail

From Washington Times:

President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department -- a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.

The president issued a little-noticed "presidential determination" Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

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My Comment: The Commerce Department says that nothing is going to change .... but I have my doubts. When the White House was responsible, we had the President accountable if things went wrong. This accountability gave a clear message to everyone that this is an important issue, and that the full weight of the U.S. Federal Government will come to bear on anyone who decides to take advantage in exporting prohibited goods.

I guess this is President Obama's way to insure that he will not be responsible if something does go wrong .... and to flub this accountability onto a lesser department.

Marines Order Body Armor Modifications

From Military.com

BAGHDAD - Acting on widespread complaints from its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps has ordered major modifications to its body armor to improve comfort, mobility and safety, The Associated Press has learned.

The decision results from a survey of more than 1,000 Marines, many of whom reported that their flak jackets, which cost the Marine Corps more than $100 million, were too heavy and restrictive.

"The Marine Corps is developing an Improved Modular Tactical Vest to address the problem areas uncovered by the survey results," Capt. Geraldine Carey, a Marine spokeswoman, told the AP by e-mail last week.

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