By Tyler Durden

Skywatcher Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands recently snapped an impressive photo of the US Air Force’s most secretive space plane orbiting Earth.

The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic space plane, was conducting a top-secret mission in low Earth orbit when Vandenbergh recorded the image.

“When I tried to observe it again [in] mid-June, it didn’t meet the predicted time and path,” Vandebergh explained.

“It turned out to have maneuvered to another orbit. Thanks to the amateur satellite observers’ network, it was rapidly found in orbit again, and I was able to take some images on June 30 and July 2.”

The X-37B resembles a smaller version of NASA’s retired Space Shuttle orbiter.

“It is a small object, even at only 300 kilometers [186 miles] altitude, so don’t expect the detail level of ground-based images of the real space shuttle,” Vandebergh said.

Vandebergh said the newly captured images exceeded his wildest expectations.

“We can recognize a bit of the nose, payload bay and tail of this mini-shuttle, with even a sign of some smaller detail,” he said.

Vandebergh noted that he used a 10-inch F/4,8 aperture Newtonian telescope with an Astrolumina ALccd 5L-11 mono CMOS camera (both can be bought over the Internet under $10,000).

Space.com said the X-37B had achieved 666 days of flight on OTV-5 mission.

Notice how each OTV mission has a longer duration in space…

• OTV-1 launched on April 22, 2010, and ended on December 3, 2010 (224 days in space).


• OTV-2 began March 5, 2011, and landed on June 16, 2012 (468 days).


• OTV-3 launched on December 11, 2012, and came down on October 17, 2014 (675 days).


• OTV-4 lifted off on May 20, 2015, and landed May 7, 2017 (718 days).

OTV-5 began on September 2017 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with experimental cargo: electronics and oscillating heat pipes for long-duration stints in the space environment. The payload’s top science objectives are to measure the thermal performance of extended space travel to asses any lifetime degradation.

The 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron oversees OTV-5 at the Schriever Air Force Base, has sparked suspicion that the space plane’s payload could be carrying intelligence-gathering sensors to spy on China and or Russia.

By Tyler Durden | ZeroHedge.com

This article was sourced from The Mind Unleashed.

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By John Queally

(CD) — From wood batons to stun batons to water cannons to sound cannons to. . .  frickin’ plasma lasers that can “vaporize” your skin?

Recent reporting out of the Pentagon reveals that the U.S. military is working on perfecting what they called a Scalable Compact Ultra-short Pulse Laser System (SCUPLS)—or plasma gun, for short—intended for mounting on a truck or a tank.

Billed as the military’s latest “crowd control” technology, what this has typically meant is a new “non-lethal” weapon designed for use by militaries or police forces against unruly demonstrators or those standing against powerful state actors or corporate forces.

According to U.S. government documents, the aim of the ongoing project is to develop “a lightweight and energy efficient next-generation Ultra-Short Pulse Laser (USPL) system that can produce sustainable and controllable plasma at range capable of inducing a full spectrum of scalable non-lethal effects.” As a so-called “scalable” weapon, it will be able to shoot not only piercing sounds, but also “burn off” or “vaporize” human skin, and ultimately could be used to kill its target.

As the Daily Mail recently explained, the weapon will be able to “produce a range of effects”:

• At the lowest setting, the weapon can produce speech, and it will be able to warn people up to 3,200 feet (1,000m) away by delivering voice messages.


• When it gets closer, the weapon will  deliver a ‘Flash-bang effect’ by sending an ‘acoustic blast of ~ 165+ dB at minimum distance of 100 meters’.


• It will also be able to send a ‘Flash blind effects (6-8 million candela)’ momentarily blinding people at minimum distance of 100 meters


• The highest setting of the current model will let loose ‘Full scalable thermal ablative effects’ through common natural clothing (i.e., fabric, denim, leather, etc.) at minimum distance of 100 meters. This would painfully vaporize the outer layer of skin – rather than burning it will be turned into gas.

Vaporizing skin? Yes, that’s precisely what “scalable thermal ablative effects” means.

Ultimately, as the government’s program plan lays out, the weapon would “have direct application to many other U.S. Government agencies as well as civilian law enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of Justice, the Secret Service, and Customs and Border Protection also desire this full spectrum of effects capability. The ability to non-lethally interdict a threatening person or persons has utility in many security and crowd control applications to include several municipal applications.”

Of course, what this often means is using such a weapon—as has long been true with other “crowd control” technologies—in order to intimidate or put down public protest or organized demonstrations that are seen as threatening to powerful interests.

By Jon Queally / Creative Commons / Common Dreams / Report a typo

Image credit: Emma Fiala

image source

Reuters

The U.S. Air Force has blocked employees from visiting media websites carrying leaked WikiLeaks documents, including The New York Times and the Guardian, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

Major Toni Tones, a spokeswoman at Air Force Space Command in Colorado, said the command had blocked employees whose computers are connected to the Air Force network from accessing at least 25 websites that have posted WikiLeaks documents. 

The Air Force “routinely blocks Air Force network access to websites hosting inappropriate materials or malware (malicious software) and this includes any website that hosts classified materials and those that are released by WikiLeaks,” she said.

Read Full Article 

RELATED ARTICLE:
Globalists Can Win Cyber War, But Not Information War

John Brandon
Fox News

They require no food, can last for decades, willingly perform mundane tasks, and can walk in space without a spacesuit. And they’re mostly expendable — if you overlook the cost.

Humanoid robots could make deep space exploration more feasible. As NASA prepares for Endeavour’s last mission, and the final shuttle flight ever by Atlantis in June, space experts are starting to wonder if NASA should rethink its mission. Should future crafts be flown by autonomous bots we control from Earth?

The most advanced humanoid ever created is already in space aboard the International Space Station, after all — just waiting for instructions and the green “go” light from NASA.

Launched on the Discovery space shuttle in February, Robonaut 2 (or R2) is still in parts; only his torso is in space, explained Marty Linn, the GM project manager for R2. (A future mission will bring the rest of his body.)

Read Full Article

Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images — link

Peace campaigners slam secrecy over $10bn Menwith Hill project that puts UK in line of fire

Jamie Doward
London Guardian

A “star wars” inspired defence shield that will alert the US to the launch of ballistic missiles is expected to be operational from a North Yorkshire airbase before the end of the year.

The Space Based Infrared System is seen as the successor to Ronald Reagan‘s unrealised “star wars” programme, which would have detected Soviet missiles and shot them down using lasers.

The new system, which has cost more than $10bn, has taken almost two decades to build and has been subject to numerous delays and cost overruns.

The imminent completion of the project at the RAF Menwith Hill base near Harrogate has revived fears that space is in danger of becoming militarised, with Britain in the vanguard.

“I find this disturbing to say the least,” said a local Labour MP, Fabian Hamilton. “It’s as if they are saying this is a place in the US and you are foreigners. But hang on one second, this is a bit of Yorkshire. We have no idea what they are doing. If they are developing star wars we have a right to know.”

Read Full Article

KSDK

John T. Bennett
The Hill

The Pentagon released a long-promised cybersecurity plan Thursday that declares the Internet a domain of war but does not spell out how the U.S. military would use the Web for offensive strikes.

The Defense Department’s first-ever plan for cyberspace states that DOD will expand its ability to thwart attacks from other nations and groups, beef up its cybersecurity workforce and expand collaboration with the private sector.

Like major corporations and the rest of the federal government, the military “depends on cyberspace to function,” the DOD strategy states. The U.S. military uses cyberspace for everything from carrying out military operations to sharing intelligence data internally to managing personnel assignments.

“The department and the nation have vulnerabilities in cyberspace,” the document states. “Our reliance on cyberspace stands in stark contrast to the inadequacy of our cybersecurity.”

Read Full Article

Wiki image

Activist Post

The new Smart Grid program that is being rolled out across the world in the name of “saving the environment” has already come under fire on multiple fronts.

Writers such as Cassandra Anderson and Marti Oakley have addressed the documented negative health effects; the fallacy that costs will be reduced, the violation of the Commerce Clause, as well as the potential for intrusive surveillance in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

Consequently, there is mounting resistance among citizens to the implementation of Smart Grid technology, which has caused many communities to back off installations of these electric meters.  However, some stealth plans for implementation of Smart water and gas meters continues apace.

The Pentagon is evidently not bothered by much of what has been revealed by citizen investigations, and will be receiving an infrastructure upgrade from the team of behemoth military defense contractors Boeing and Siemens that promises to “improve energy access and security for the U.S. Department of Defense.”

Within this defense and energy initiative we can also see what Judy Marks, the head of Siemens U.S. Federal Business, highlights as “a vision for the United States’ energy future.”

Youtube
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL_KdmSTSNA]

Boston Dynamics

PETMAN is an anthropomorphic robot developed by Boston Dynamics for testing special clothing used by the US Army. PETMAN development is lead by Boston Dynamics, working in partnership with Measurement Technologies Northwest, Oak Ridge National Lab and MRIGlobal. The work is being done for the US Army PD-CCAT-TI.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mclbVTIYG8E]

Youtube
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so0YR8upl6E]

Madison Ruppert
Activist Post

In a new video, the Boston Dynamics-manufactured humanoid robot called “PETMAN” is shown with a flame-retardant camouflage jumpsuit and a gas mask walking, squatting, rotating and performing some other human-like actions.

This robot is part of the Pentagon’s focus on more lifelike humanoid robots which approach the efficiency of human beings. One of the Navy’s robots can even recognize gestures and throw grenades.

In addition to the human-like robots, the Pentagon is focusing on robots modeled after animals like the autonomous jellyfish drone, drones modeled after insects that are capable of killing, a bird-like drone already seen in the wild, ultra-quiet drones modeled after owls and a record-breaking robot modeled after a cheetah. 

This particular robot, shown in the Boston Dynamics video (embedded below), was manufactured for the Department of Defense’s Chemical and Biological Defense program.

According to Danger Room, a robot like this would be used to perform rescue missions that wouldn’t be safe for a human being in a chemical or biological attack situation.

“That is, if it can maneuver past rubble, navigate uneven spaces and retain its balance, all of which are difficult propositions for a robot,” writes Spencer Ackerman.

However, according to Boston Dynamics, PETMAN is actually designed to test chemical protection clothing.

“Unlike previous suit testers that had a limited repertoire of motion and had to be supported mechanically, PETMAN balances itself and moves freely; walking, bending and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents,” Boston Dynamics states.

Yet robots closely related to PETMAN are clearly aimed at going far beyond just testing suits, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Pet-Proto robot shown navigating obstacles in the video below.

A robot somewhat similar to PETMAN, called Atlas, will be used in the DARPA Robotics Challenge program in 2013, according to Boston Dynamics. 

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Nicholas West
Activist Post

The U.S. military’s pursuit of killer robots continues to make the news, despite the concerns of major international human rights groups who have launched a campaign to stop the runaway development of robots for war. Cambridge University has even launched a “Terminator” study program known officially as the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.

Nevertheless, the military-industrial complex and their partners in the Congressional “drone caucus” are reaping big profits from machine warfare. Simultaneously, the global economy is becoming increasingly robotized, with some experts predicting that humans will be completely outsourced to robots by 2045. Additionally, there is an overarching move toward humanoid robots with a goal to establish an emotional connection that current studies reveal is still lacking among the general population.

However, studies done within the military have revealed that there has been an emotional connection established, with some soldiers even mourning robots that have been “killed” in action. Now, however, one expert is going on the record to say that it is very likely that humans will be outnumbered by battlebots as soon as 2023.

Not only will soldiers be outnumbered — they will be massively outnumbered … by a factor of 10 to 1 according to robotic weapons expert, Scott Hartley:

ten years from now, there will probably be one soldier for every 10 robots. Each soldier could have one or five robots flanking him, looking for enemies, scanning for land mines. (Source)

Hartley was quick to counter talk of a purely terminator mission for the future of robotic warfare, as he states that many of the robots have the goal to save lives. It is this life-saving element that specifically has led to the emotional connection made among many troops.

An article at Army of Robots highlights some of what populates the current landscape (edited for brevity):

Daksh – Daksh is one of the most current military robots. It is an electrically powered and remote controlled robot which is used to locate, handle and destroying risky objects safely. The main role of this military robot is to recover improvised explosive devices. In short it is a vehicle for defusing bombs. The current use of military robots like Daksh has helped military organization in many ways. This robot can even climb stairs to reach risky materials. Moreover, it can also scan objects using its portable X-ray device.

Goalkeeper – This military robot is a Dutch close-in weapon system that helps to defend ships from incoming missiles as well as ballistic shells. This system generally comprises of autocannon and advanced radar that tracks incoming fires. It is an automatic system that can be also be deployed to protect airfields.

PackBot – PackBot is basically a series of military robots. The most recent base model of this robot is PackBot 510. This model utilizes a videogame-style hand controller make handier to young women and men. Configurations in this recent model include PackBot 510 with EOD bomb disposal, PackBot 510 with fast Tactical Maneuvering Kit; PackBot 510 with first responder kit, PackBot 510 with HazMat Detection Kit, PackBot 510 with Fido and PackBot 510 with REDOWL Sniper Detection Kit. (emphasis added).

MARCbot – A low-cost robotic platform that has been used in Iraq for the inspection of suspicious objects. This robot is one among the smallest and the most commonly used military robots. It looks like a small toy truck with an elevated mast on which a camera is mounted. The camera is utilized for looking behind doors. It has the capacity to run 6 hours on a set of fully charged batteries and was developed with the input of soldiers in Iraq to meet their needs.

Besides the above-mentioned military robots, there are also other kinds of military robots. These robots include Guargium, RQ-9 Predator B, RQ-1 Predator, TALON, Samsung SGR-A1 and Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle. (Source)

Scott Hartley’s company, 5D Robotics, is one of the companies answering the call from the military to increase the capabilities of combat robots. 5D Robotics is focused on the software needed to offer a more human-level decision making ability, which directly leads into what has human rights groups and Cambridge so concerned: autonomy — robots that can unilaterally decide which action to take, free of any human command:

“The DoD’s focus in this new age of austerity is to be lean, agile and flexible when it comes to robots,” said David Rowe, 5D Robotics CEO. “By focusing on interoperability, we’re addressing the joint chiefs’ concerns for cost limitations and efficiency. Plug and play software means we’re increasing maintainability and overall life cycle for existing systems while building out future systems.” 

Because unmanned systems need to be both more capable and self-sufficient, the demonstrations focused on robots that could autonomously follow soldiers, lead soldiers and detect hazards, and navigate and avoid obstacles. “Our soldiers are strong, but no one can move fast with 120 pounds on your back,” said Rowe. (emphasis added) [Source]

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We seem to be heading toward a future where “normal” humans are being phased out — if not completely by robots, then through enhancements and modifications that aim to create superhuman soldiers. We already are seeing killing at a distance from the use of remote controlled drone warfare. With new autonomous drone systems and increasing computer intelligence being created to supplant emotional human decisions (and errors, they claim), it is no longer a stretch of the imagination to see the near-future battlefield as a fully de-humanized computer game.

The reality of non-human war is already here, and apparently we won’t have too long to wait to see how it all plays out.

You can see the 5D Robotics Overview in the video below:

Recently by Nicholas West:

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Pentagon

Marines are testing new robot technology at the Rim of the Pacific Exercise underway on and around the Hawaiian Islands.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHS_RzH99mA]

By Nicholas West

Many scientists and robotics experts have sounded the alarm that the parameters for robot development and interaction with humans have not been established within a foolproof ethical framework. This has led to human rights organizations and universities like Cambridge to issue formal cautions against the inevitable rise of “Killer Robots” outfitted with the same moral capacity of the human beings that have given us modern weapons of warfare. Moreover, it has been speculated that we only have a few years remaining to resolve this potential catastrophe.

This concern has spawned an unresolved dialogue at the United Nations, and even the U.S. military is seeking ways to create moral, ethical robots. Such dialogue and warnings might give one the perception that killer robots are not already here. Wrong, they are.

The global drone arms race has spawned a range of systems that are leading toward a fully autonomous matrix of war that will unilaterally direct itself on the battlefield. The U.S. and 90 other countries already employ robots on current missions, although so far they are typically restricted to specific tasks to assist soldiers with dangers such as bomb defusing.  There are, however, Modular Advanced Armed Robotic Systems (MAARS) like the one below that are capable of launching grenades or firing weapons from a mobile unit.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yliThCy3RxY]

The danger, of course, with all military systems is that they have a way of trickling down into everyday life. This is most apparent in the military surveillance technology that has now taken over every major city and Internet connection on the planet.

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With the recent uptick in terror attacks, new systems are likely to be more widely embraced and rolled out among a fearful public. Sure enough, citing the threats of “global terror,” China has openly announced the formation of squads of weaponized attack robots that are being termed “anti-terror machines.”

By Nicholas West

One thing that can safely be said about the military-industrial complex is that they are never short of ideas. Often outlandish and costly ideas, but they do offer up a continuous stream of mind-melting possibilities. Case in point: heating the Earth’s atmosphere with lasers to create a “giant magnifying glass” for enhanced surveillance.

One of the more recent military trends is the development (and imminent implementation) of lasers and electronic warfare. The concept has appeared in new proposals for drones and anti-drones that utilize the electromagnetic spectrum for “death ray” weapons like the Falcon Shield and the High Energy Laser system.

Now, scientists at BAE Systems, one of the largest defense contractors in the world, is looking to combine the use of lasers and advanced optics to literally manipulate the atmosphere into becoming both a surveillance device and a “deflector shield” to protect against the laser weapons of the future. The system is called Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens (LDAL).

This is the nature of military conflict and one of the prime reasons why the world seems to have new security threats each and every day. As new weapons are developed, nations respond … then new weapons need to be developed. It is one endless problem-reaction-solution loop that only serves to benefit those who are invested in each of the three components. At the very end, of course, are the citizens of the Earth who are left to absorb the fallout of pervasive surveillance and an ever expanding military presence in their lives.

BAE sets their timeline for this system along a 50-year trajectory; but, according to them, their plan draws upon currently accepted science.

It works by simulating naturally occurring phenomena and temporarily – and reversibly – changes the Earth’s atmosphere into lens-like structures to magnify or change the path of electromagnetic waves such as light and radio signals.

LDAL is a complex and innovative concept that copies two existing effects in nature; the reflective properties of the ionosphere and desert mirages. The ionosphere occurs at a very high altitude and is a naturally occurring layer of the Earth’s atmosphere which can be reflective to radio waves – for example it results in listeners being able to tune in to radio stations that are many thousands of miles away. The radio signals bounce off the ionosphere allowing them to travel very long distances through the air and over the Earth’s surface. The desert mirage provides the illusion of a distant lake in the hot desert. This is because the light from the blue sky is ‘bent’ or refracted by the hot air near the surface and into the vision of the person looking into the distance.

LDAL simulates both of these effects by using a high pulsed power laser system and exploiting a physics phenomena called the ‘Kerr Effect’ to temporarily ionise or heat a small region of atmosphere in a structured way. Mirrors, glass lenses, and structures like Fresnel zone plates could all be replicated using the atmosphere, allowing the physics of refraction, reflection, and diffraction to be exploited.

Full press release here

This type of atmospheric tinkering, particularly heating the ionosophere, conjures up the controversial study/use of HAARP, as well as projects like Blue Beam that reportedly would make use of holographic projections to simulate a range of visible events.

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One can only speculate as to whether or not this technology will ever become reality, but it is a guarantee that military mad scientists will be working on it.

View their video below in order to better understand the concept.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWBAFAGwzE?feature=oembed&w=777&h=437]

Hat Tip: Technocracy.News

Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com. This article can be freely republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link.

By Scott Nicholas Romaniuk, University of Trento and Tobias Burgers, Freie Universität Berlin

Violent video games have become embedded within American culture over the past several decades and especially since 9/11. First-person shooters, in particular, have become increasingly popular.

These games – in which players are positioned behind a gun – have turned a generation of kids into digital warriors who fight terrorists and battle alien invaders. Many play first-person shooters for pure, innocent enjoyment. Some like achieving objectives and being a part of a team. And, for others, it simply feels good to eliminate an enemy – especially someone who’s trying to harm them.

For the U.S. military, the rise of first-person shooters has been a welcome development. In recent years, the military has encouraged many of its soldiers to partake in the thrill of violent video games as a way to continue combat training, even when not on active duty. (In fact, using games to teach military tactics has been a longstanding practice in the U.S. military: Before video games, troops were encouraged to play military-themed board games.)

The games allow soldiers to take their combat roles home with them and blur their on-duty responsibilities with their off-duty, noncombat routines and lives.

But what effect have these video games had on U.S. soldiers? How accurately do they depict military life? And do they actually help recruit, train and retain troops?

From battle screen to battlefield

As part of a study, we interviewed 15 current and former members of the U.S. military who were between 24 and 35 years old to understand the role violent first-person shooter games played in their recruitment and training.

The majority of interviewees told us it was important to stay in the mindset of a soldier even when not on duty. To them, first-person shooters were the perfect vehicle for doing this.

Game preferences varied among the soldiers we interviewed, but popular titles included Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and ARMA 2, which a current member of the Army said was “one of the most hardcore assault experiences in gaming.”

Meanwhile, an Iraq War veteran described Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as “the ultimate first-person shooter experiences ever” and “intensive and highly realistic approaches to tactical combat. The choice of attacking with stealth or unleashing an all-out frontal assault full of mayhem is yours. It’s violent, it’s chaotic, it’s beautiful.”

In this, the Iraq War veteran seems to say that video games can reflect real-life combat situations, an attitude that others share.

Altered realities

But it’s tough to make the case that games accurately simulate what a soldier’s life is really like. First, military tours of duty are not solely made up of hard-charging, chaotic battles, like those in first-person shooters. The majority of soldiers won’t participate in any full-frontal combat operations.

Second – and, most importantly – in the digital world there are no legal and ethical considerations. When things go wrong, when innocent people are killed, there are no ramifications. If anything, the games warp these real-world consequences in the minds of players; in 2012, psychologists Brock Bastian, Jolanda Jetten and Helena R.M. Radke were able to use brain scans to show that playing violent video games had the potential to desensitize players to real-life violence and the suffering of others.

In a 2010 article for the Brookings Institution, political scientist Peter Singer quoted a Special Forces soldier who was involved in the production of “America’s Army 360,” a video game developed to recruit and train enlistees.

“You lose an avatar; just reboot the game,” the soldier said. “In real life, you lose your guy; you’ve lost your guy. And then you’ve got to bury him, and then you’ve got to call his wife.”

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Indeed, journalist Evan Wright wrote in his book Generation Kill that solders were on “intimate terms with the culture of video games, reality TV shows and internet porn.”

Real-life combat, however, was something entirely different.

“What I saw was a lot of them discovered levels of innocence that they probably didn’t think they had,” Wright wrote. “When they actually shot people, especially innocent people, and were confronted with this, I saw guys break down. The violence in games hadn’t prepared them for this.”

Video games are unable to mimic what a soldier’s life is really like. Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

Thus video games might suck soldiers in – offering a tantalizing taste of the glory and excitement of battle. But they do little to prepare them for the types of threats that actually exist on the battlefield.

“When I really think of the government seeing that as training, I laugh,” one of our interviewees told us. “But I also feel a bit uneasy.”

Militarizing legions of gamers

Regardless of their effectiveness as training tools, violent video games can certainly act as a valuable tool for connecting the military with potential recruits. In addition to influencing the decisions of gamers to pursue military service, they can also be used to promote the geopolitical goals of the military.

Journalist Hamza Shaban, in a 2013 article for The Atlantic, described just how deep the Army’s relationship had become with the commercial gaming industry, creating what he dubbed a “military-entertainment complex.” According to Shaban, the games that emerged from this relationship – an exciting, simplified, easy-to-play version of warfare – encouraged gamers to consider a career in the military.

Meanwhile, games such as UrbanSim, Tactical Iraqi and Frontlines: Fuel of War teach players and potential recruits about the discourse of modern-day warfare. Missions include battling Islamic militants, winning over potentially hostile populations and establishing pro-Western, pro-democratic societies. They engage with the fundamentals of insurgency and counterinsurgency, present the dangers of improvised explosive devices and highlight the military usefulness of weaponized drones.

First-person shooter games can recruit civilians. RebeccaPollard/Flickr, CC BY

However, to some of the soldiers and ex-soldiers we spoke to, the value of playing first-person shooters amounted to little more than propaganda.

“The idea of us training using these games is a bit of a [disaster],” one said. “What the U.S. seeks to achieve through the use of these games is not entirely within their control. It might be a cheap way of getting us involved … but it’s hardly ‘training.’”

Another called first-person shooters “more like brainwashing than anything.”

“But you have to be pretty stupid to buy into all this,” he added.

Scott Nicholas Romaniuk, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Trento and Tobias Burgers, Doctoral Candidate, Freie Universität Berlin

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Top Image Credit: Counter-Strike has sold over 25 million units, making it one of the most popular first-person shooters of all time. Miyaoka Hitchcock/flickr, CC BY-NC

By Nicholas West

Controlling the electromagnetic spectrum constitutes the future of warfare, and defense contractors continue to rapidly develop new weapons.

Mega defense contractor, Lockheed Martin, has been leading the way in developing solid-state lasers that can be employed by a range of military vehicles including ground, sea and air-based systems. As noted by Defense One, advancements in hybrid engines and propulsion systems permit modern war vehicles to produce the needed electricity demands to increase the power of laser systems.

The videos below demonstrate the power of previous prototype systems which can be seen first as an anti-rocket laser system called ADAM, then as the ATHENA system burning through a truck engine in seconds … from more than a mile away. ADAM was a 10-kilowatt fiber laser, whereas ATHENA operates at 30 kilowatts of energy as a solid-state system.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StC9nRB_AVY?feature=oembed&w=777&h=437]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prqvTDpDNQ8?feature=oembed&w=777&h=583]

Now Lockheed is announcing that they have nearly doubled the capability of the ATHENA system into a 58-kilowatt truck-mounted system that could be ready for testing within a matter of months, and would also be adaptable to other military vehicles:

Credit: Defense One/U.S. Army

Image Credit: Sputnik News

Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com and where this article first appeared.

By Nicholas West

Lockheed Martin continues to be a leader in developing the path toward a full-fledged super-soldier military comprised of Iron Man-type enhancements.

The FORTIS exoskeleton first appeared to the public several years ago and is currently undergoing a new round of upgrades according to a recent press release. The upgraded system was built “Using licensed Dermoskeleton^TM bionic augmentation technology, the FORTIS Knee Stress Release Device (K-SRD)^TM is a computer-controlled exoskeleton that counteracts overstress on the lower back and legs and increases mobility and load-carrying capability. It boosts leg capacity for physically demanding tasks that require repetitive or continuous kneeling or squatting, or lifting, dragging, carrying or climbing with heavy loads.”

Naturally, this wouldn’t be limited to merely hefting things around, as increased strength and endurance could be applied to all areas of human fighting.

Here is a rather sappy video promo from Lockheed Martin which does, however, serve to illustrate the dual-use nature of this type of technology. It supposedly began as an application for industrial workers, and also offers potential benefits for the disabled. I would suppose the reverse is true and this actually began as military research that trickled down to these other applications.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQeLVY22PMk?feature=oembed&w=777&h=437]

Truth is, this is merely one small facet of a much greater push to merge man and machine on the battlefield. Other initiatives that we’ve covered include more wide-reaching augmentation:

iOptik – could enhance a soldier’s biology by offering simultaneous fields of vision, while enabling full data integration.

4MM Jet Pack – developed by DARPA and Arizona State University to offer even the nonathletic a 4-minute mile performance.

“Lucy” technology – This link leads to a Department of Defense video showing a skull cap outfitted with 22 electrodes that could be stimulated with ultrasound to give soldiers super-sniper abilities for a day.

T.A.L.O.S. – the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit incorporates biometrics, advanced body armor that will change a liquid to bullet-proof solid skin, an exoskeleton for improved strength and speed, as well as the latest in augmented reality computing. According to MIT, all that’s needed is a power source.

The trend bears watching, as these enhancements are introduced without much debate despite previous research that has called into question the ethics and policy dangers of such augmentation.

In 2013 a 108-page report entitled “Enhanced Warfighters: Risk, Ethics and Policy” was issued by The Greenwall Foundation, supported by California Polytechnic State University and Case Western Reserve University. Although it clearly fell on deaf ears, the researchers outlined the multi-front, multi-country mission to create “mutant powers” in war. To say that their conclusions were cautionary is an understatement. Perhaps now is the time to revisit that document and take it much more seriously as these military developments continue unhindered.

Source: Lockheed Martin

Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com. He also writes for Counter Markets agorist newsletter.

This article may be freely republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link.

By Nicholas West

The emergence of low-cost micro satellites is starting to spawn a global surveillance arms race: the familiar problem-reaction-solution paradigm upon what all other arms races are built. “Our competitors will learn to use this exploding geo-enabled capability to learn a lot of things. If we don’t use this as well as them and use our exquisite assets to be a differentiator and stay ahead, we’re going to get behind.” – Major Mike Little, U.S. Southern Command

Google has received vast criticism for its Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Streetview systems that have essentially removed the inherent right to privacy and transferred it to the whim of corporate terms and conditions. However, this pales in comparison to what has been launched by the world’s largest defense contractors as well as newer providers of commercial space imagery.

Next-generation global imaging satellites such as Lockheed Martin’s WorldView-4 was spawned from a partnership with commercial space imagery vendor, DigitalGlobe. The largest customer of DigitalGlobe is the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, also known as GEOINT.

The incredible scope and applications of GEOINT is laid out on the .mil website’s About page but their image collection from DigitalGlobe can best be described as … penetrating:

The 31-centimeter resolution images allow viewers to discern, for example, the windshield of a car and the direction the car is facing.

….offers short-wave infrared resolution that sees through dust, smog and smoke as well as things on Earth invisible to the naked eye.

DigitalGlobe executives told The Denver Post last month that its new sensors allow them to see minerals, identify tree and plant species and gather soil composition. When analyzed, this information can decipher what’s beneath the surface — insight that can then be sold to industries including mining or oil and gas exploration.

(Source)

The Denver Post also revealed that it was DigitalGlobe who successfully petitioned the U.S. government in 2014 to remove previous restrictions on the sale of higher-resolution images to non-government buyers thus opening up the aforementioned domestic and international commercial applications. While these applications that cross over between the private and government sectors could be labeled fascism, it is the specific military and surveillance capabilities that could have the widest impact.

Naturally, the military’s mission is always to move forward with more development of increasing invasiveness and control regardless of redundancy. The ability to see a stick of butter from space, after all, won’t guarantee global security – being able to track the unplanned movements of foreign militaries supposedly will.

However, if something is undisclosed, how would one know where to launch specific surveillance? Well, of course the solution is to have pervasive surveillance that blankets the planet and stores all of the images for later retrieval. The U.S. military believes that a key component of achieving this is to have micro satellites, some only “the mass of a pair toasters,” that can collect imagery and automate searches as needed. A small company appropriately called Planet Labs has become a player, according to an article by Defense One:

With a constellation of 149 microsatellites, Planet can cover a lot more territory than any single high-end satellite, so almost anywhere in the world you look, Planet can find a recent picture of it. With new imagery coming in every day, you can automate a search for changes at various locations. That means you can detect when a military begins to operate in a given area, and perhaps even deduce what kind of equipment they’re using — all at exponentially less cost than it would take to have run the same operation a decade ago.

In the era of Big Data, algorithms are assigned detection and retrieval tasks to facilitate decision making about how serious a threat may be. That analysis is done by a specialist firm called 3GIMBALS that processes the images. Venezuela apparently came under scrutiny in early 2016, providing an example of what total military surveillance looks like:

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…it enabled them to verify that the number of military vessels was unusually low during a window of time in March 2016. This meant vessels were missing from a strategically important port. Scouring for additional open-source clues, 3GIMBALS verified that Venezuela was running an unscheduled and unplanned military exercise — a response, in part, to President Obama’s March 4 re-declaration of Venezuela as a national security threat. They were even able to deduce what types of boats were engaged in the exercise and whether they were new.

“We’re able to validate and detect a boat that was being manufactured in Vietnam and shipped to Venezuela. We can then confirm or deny through Planet imagery what Venezuela publicizes on YouTube about delivery and production schedule of that vessel,” said Gerby Marks, an analyst with 3GIMBALS. “Planet’s global ‘always on’ collect can help us detect and validate movement of that vessel from that location.”

“Always on” seems to be a key phrase in how the military is planning to address the global information pool which now includes the use of sensors, biometrics like facial recognition, communications and open source data from social media and the wider Internet.

“This always-on imagery, and the automation of monitoring and knowing this was a significant blip right in the norm. We were able to go and say, what’s happening there. That’s the gist of the game-changing aspect of Planet. It’s always there, we don’t need to know where we want to go look,” said Maj. Mike Little Sr., who is part of U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Intelligence Operation Center-South,  GEOINT Division. “We didn’t know to look.When we ran an algorithm that showed a big dip in the military vessels, nobody knew that was going to happen.

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Col. Steve Butow, military lead for the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, made it quite clear what the importance is from his standpoint:

Butow also expressed optimism about how new, small satellites for intelligence would enable the military to much better monitor emerging crises. He called global threat monitoring “the ultimate big data problem. We need data from everywhere, not just particular targets.”

This is essentially the same concept that is being employed now in domestic police work as the focus is beginning to shift to a pre-crime model where people are no longer targeted based on known actions or even a series of documented suspicions, but on the predictions or connections made by an algorithm that also can retroactively analyze data. It already is leading to abuses by local law enforcement, so one can only imagine what is bound to happen on a global scale amid the mandate of an open-ended War on Terror with a stated reduction in privacy protections and human rights. Apparently, the sky is the limit…

Note: emphasis added to all quoted sources

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com and for Counter Markets agorist newsletter.

This article may be freely republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link.