prosthetic knowledge

The 10th Anniversary of the First Drone Kill 

As this piece from The Bereau Of Investigation shows, four words that changed the course of military action were “OK. Fine. Shoot Him”:

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) usually gets all the credit for the first US drone targeted killing beyond the conventional battlefield.

But it was the military which gave the final go-ahead to kill on November 3 2002.

Lt General Michael DeLong was at Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Florida when news came in that the CIA had found its target. The deputy commander made his way down to the UAV Room, showing live video feeds from a CIA Predator high above Marib province in Yemen.

The armed drone was tracking an SUV on the move. The six terrorist suspects inside were unaware that a decision had already been made to kill them.

Interviewed by PBS, DeLong later recalled speaking by phone with CIA Director George Tenet as he watched the video wall:

‘Tenet goes “You going to make the call?” And I said, “I’ll make the call.”  He says, “This SUV over here is the one that has Ali in it.”  I said, “OK, fine.” You know, “Shoot him.” They lined it up and shot it.’

Eight thousand miles away and moments later, six alleged terrorists were dead. Among them was a US citizen.

Read the whole article here

Tacocopter

Service which ‘claims’ to deliver Tacos by drone technology once ordered by phone.

If it is real, then the future of current military technology will be for delivering food!

http://tacocopter.com/

Is this real? Anyone confirm it? Or is it a great big troll / leaked April Fools?

Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet via WIRED: Danger Room

Cyber warfare has taken an interesting direction:

A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have their been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.

“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”

More Here

slabbb-blockkk-hilarious:

DON’T ASK —NOYFB

This patch is from the 22nd Military Airlift Squadron, who flew C-5 cargo aircraft out of Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. Part of the 22nd MAS’ mission was to conduct late night operations picking up classified aircraft from aerospace plants in Southern California and delivering them to classified locations for testing and evaluation.

When the 22nd MAS undertook these missions, its crews would take off their everyday heraldry and Velcro this patch to their uniforms.

The black background and crescent moon on the patch probably represent the unit’s night operations. The silver lining represents star light. The question mark signifies classified operations. The letters “NOYFB” stand for “None of Your Fucking Business.”

(via slabbb-blockkk-hilarious-deacti)

paxmachina:

Military coup underway in Libya!

(via paxmachina)

A flying Humvee? Don’t scoff, Pentagon wants one via LA Times

It may look like a toy commando truck from the G.I. Joe cartoons, but the Pentagon is serious about developing a flying Humvee.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has handed out about $9 million in contracts to develop the vehicle. The agency envisions it being capable to carry out a wide range of missions including raining down ammunition on enemies and shuttling wounded soldiers off the battlefield.

The program, dubbed Transformer, “seeks to combine the advantages of ground vehicles and helicopters into a single vehicle equipped with flexibility of movement,” the Pentagon said.

Artist’s mock-ups of the vehicle look like Marty McFly’s DeLorean on steroids. The Transformer will have folding wings that will pop out the sides and a rotor blade that churns on the roof. Also, it will be robotic, meaning there will be no pilot or driver behind the wheel.

What the …. ?!?!?!?!?

Air Force’s Cyberwarrior Badge

According to WIRED, the badge “holds significant meaning.”

The lightning bolt wings signify the cyberspace domain while the globe signifies the projection of cyber power world-wide. The globe, combined with lightning bolt wings, signifies the Air Force’s common communications heritage. The bolted wings, centered on the globe, are a design element from the Air Force Seal signifying the striking power through air, space and cyberspace. The orbits signify the space dimension of the cyberspace domain.

WIRED is not impressed with the design, and asks for submissions for its re-design

WALL-E 1 - Military de-mining robot (via Boston’s The Big Picture)

A U.S. Army soldier walks past a de-mining robot named after the computer animated character “Wall-E” at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, March 10, 2010.

More great photographs relating to robotics can be found at The Big Picture here

Hwacha - Deadly Historical Explosive-Arrow Military Weapon from Korea

Featured on MythBusters (the show is cheesy, but the demonstration is impressive for it’s ingenuity of its time).

[“An Advanced Individual Training Soldier in the Psychological Operations Specialist Course attaches a loud speaker on top of a High Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicle, or HUMVEE, at Forward Operating Base Freedom, Camp MacKall, N.C.” Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School].

via the article, ‘Sonic Warfare’ from BLDGBLOG

War games

Consumer products and video-gaming technology are boosting the performance and reducing the price of military equipment

via emergentfutures

Link to Economist article here