Archive for the ‘Defense’ Category
War Robots Still in Iraq
Posted on: May 5, 2008
- In: Defense | Iraq War | National | Popular Mechanics | Robots | still | war
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The SWORDS robot, designed by Foster Mills is still deployed in Iraq, but languishes behind sandbags, dreaming of someday getting some battle action. (Source: Wired: Danger Room)
Turns out the little buggers won’t be leaving after all!
After initial reports from Popular Mechanics and other “more reliable” print news sources, that the semi-autonomous SWORDS war-robots were being “yanked” from Iraq due to their accidental targeting of human entities, it turns out that they only got the story half right.
While the robots did indeed get withdrawn from the battlefield, they’re still in Iraq being tested and may be redeployed in the near future. This is much sooner than initial quotes by the program manager, Kevin Fahey, indicated (he previously mentioned as span of 10 years or more before the program would be fully active again in case of such an event). Now, Kevin Fahey states more conservatively, “SWORD is still deployed. We continue to learn from it and will continue to expand the use of armed robots.”
Foster Miller, maker of the SWORD robot, was quick to try to dispel the hype that surrounded the announcement that the robots might be shooting at our soldiers, originally propagated by Popular Mechanics. Said spokeswoman Cynthia Black, “The whole thing is an urban legend.”
Black helpfully provided information on the specific cases in which “uncommanded movement” occurred. She stated, “One case involved a loose wire. So, now there is now redundant wiring on every circuit. One involved a solder, a connection that broke. Everything now is double-soldered.”
The third case had nothing to do with a gun. The robot was placed on a 45 degree incline and left to run for two and a half hours as part of an endurance test. Predictably, the motor burned out and overheated. She states, “When the motor started to overheat, the robot shut the motor off, that caused the robot to slide back down the incline. Those are the three uncommanded movements.”
There does seem to be some confusion between Fahey and Foster Mills, as Fahey was reported as saying the robots recently did something “very bad” (indicating a serious recent failure).
While Black and Fahey fail to mention it, one thing that makes a “killer robot” scenario unlikely is the fact that the robots really are about as green as it comes when it comes to combat. They (by all reports) are not being used very much. Furthermore, they have not notched even one kill of an enemy combatant.
Stew Magnuson, a reporter for National Defense, was at the same news conference as Popular Mechanics, and helped to offer a bit more clarity as to what is really going on. The real scenario he offered is that the robots are languishing in under-deployment to the frustration of Foster Mills and the conference was largely an effort by Foster Mills to express their disappointment in this situation.
Robert Quinn, vice president of Talon operations at Foster-Miller, stated at the news conference that the three robots sent to Iraq were stuck in stationary positions behind sandbags and not out patrolling the streets as its designers planned. Army leadership was fearful the “through an interface” targeting of the robots via human operators in combat situations would produce dangerous results, and thus refused to deploy them.
Quinn complained, “If you have a mobile weapons platform that can’t be mobile, and it becomes nothing more than a fixed position, then why not just put it on a tripod.”
- In: Adwords | American | Defense | Foreign | Google Public Policy Blog | in | of | units
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Not content to leave Tom Cruise alone in a self promotional Adwords Campaign, the American Government is buying Adwords units in defense of American Foreign Policy.
The ad (pictured right) reads “Peace & Security, Creating security through improved relations and cooperation” and links through to a page on America.gov
with a motto of “Telling America’s Story.” The page includes stories on Syria and Nuclear Reactors, Terrorists and other Bush Administration foreign policy news.
It’s not clear whether this ad is being displayed within the United States itself, or simply to the rest of the world. Tax payer money well spent, or waste of money propaganda via Adsense units? You can be the judge.
- In: 15794701 | Adwords | American | Defense | Foreign | Google Public Policy Blog | in | of
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Not content to leave Tom Cruise alone in a self promotional Adwords Campaign, the American Government is buying Adwords units in defense of American Foreign Policy.
The ad (pictured right) reads “Peace & Security, Creating security through improved relations and cooperation” and links through to a page on America.gov with a motto of “Telling America’s Story.” The page includes stories on Syria and Nuclear Reactors, Terrorists and other Bush Administration foreign policy news.
It’s not clear whether this ad is being displayed within the United States itself, or simply to the rest of the world. Tax payer money well spent, or waste of money propaganda via Adsense units? You can be the judge.
- In: Blogs | Defense | girlfriend | jessica simpson | John Mayer | MTV | news | Paris Hilton | performance | pictures | Pregnant | premiere | reality star | sexy | together
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Aw, is John Mayer scoring points with ex-girlfriend and former MTV reality star Jessica Simpson or what? While Jessica Simpson is taking lots o’ flak for boyfriend Tony Romo’s poor football performance, John Mayer is sticking up for the pop (or is it country?) singer/actress.
Jessica Simpson has been rumored to put a “Jessica Jinx” on Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys, but John Mayer comes to her defense, writing in his blog:
“I don’t really follow sports, but I have played some of my biggest and best concerts in your state, and having witnessed how dynamic the spirit there is, I’m betting emotions are running high right about now.
All witty barbs, blogs, and fashion policing aside, that girl loves Texas more than you know. It’s one of her most defining traits as a person. So please don’t try and take that away from her. (You probably wouldn’t be able to, but it’s less work for all involved.)
I just thought it would mean something coming from the guy who has the absolute least to gain from this. And if I’m out of line in having written it, too bad. I can spare a Wednesday’s worth of bad press if it means sticking up for a good soul.”
- In: Agencies | America’s | Defense | First Line | Google | Intelligence | Powering | SF Chronicle
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Google has been selling search servers to America’s Intelligence Agencies to assist them in defending America.
According to the SF Chronicle, the Google powered search appliances are used for storing and searching internal documents, with Agencies able to use the devices “to create their own mini-Googles on intranets made up entirely of government data.”
The Google servers are being used to power Intellipedia, a Wikipedia like service for spooks that offers a cross departmental database of national intelligence.
There was no mention of Google powering A-Space, the MySpace network for spooks we wrote about in August. They might also want to do work on some of their search results: according to Google Osama’s Cave is at 1133 21st St NW, Washington, DC
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered a complete inventory of the nation’s nuclear arsenal and all associated components after the discovery last week that four secret nuclear missile parts had been mistakenly sent to Taiwan, an error that went unnoticed for more than 18 months.
Gates had already ordered a high-level investigation into how the four nose-cone fuse assemblies for U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles were shipped overseas in place of common helicopter batteries — the military’s second major nuclear-related incident in less than a year.
Senior Pentagon officials have called the episode “extremely embarrassing,” and it has both strained relations with China and called into question the U.S. military’s ability to maintain its arsenal of catastrophic weapons.
“This is about the trust and confidence of the American people and our stewardship of the most dangerous weapons in the world,” said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon’s press secretary.
“Getting to the bottom of this incident and ensuring our nuclear arsenal and associated components are properly safeguarded must be a top priority of this department. Secretary Gates believes this situation is totally and completely unacceptable.”
Gates has ordered the Air Force, the Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency to take inventory of and assess control measures for all nuclear weapons and their associated parts within 60 days “to verify positive control and accountability of all such materials,” according to a memo released Thursday.
Though the United States has tight control procedures for such devices and equipment, those measures did not prevent the nose cones from being shipped overseas without anyone noticing.
The measures also failed last August, when the Air Force unknowingly flew nuclear warheads between North Dakota and Louisiana, losing track of them for 36 hours.
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