Search

From an Intelligence perspective the first two weeks of May have been quite startling, but few seem to have noticed. On May 2nd we experienced the failed Time Square car bombing; on May 6th machines took over stock trading resulting a near 1000 point crash of the Dow Jones Average; and on May 8th Secretary Gates warned that the current level of defense spending is unsustainable. As backdrop to all of this an oil rig exploded on April 20th killing eleven and has been spewing 5000 barrels of crude a day into the Gulf of Mexico ever since threatening an environmental disaster of epic proportions. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence (SSCI) and the House Permanent Select Committee for Intelligence (HPSCI) for no apparent reason have reengaged on passing an FY 2010 Intelligence Authorization Bill so either the President can veto it or it can be become law just in time to have no impact on IC activities!

"At the end of the day, it's about the warfighter."--Lt. Gen. Dennis Vis, USA, director, C4 systems, Joint Staff

Rear Adm. Scott R. Van Buskirk, USN, has been nominated for appointment to the rank of vice admiral and assignment as commander, Seventh Fleet, Yokosuka, Japan.

Northrop Grumman Corporation, Bethpage, New York, has named Steven L. Enewold vice president of its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System Program.

Experts pondered the implications and challenges for sharing data between military and civilian organizations within the U.S. government.

Two U.S. Air Force captains at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) have developed a BlackBerry app to assist forces in Afghanistan. MobiAFG, short for mobile Afghanistan, enables warfighters to access the Program for Culture & Conflict Studies (CCS) Web site's geographical, cultural and other information about the country.

This year’s event occurs in mid-June, but plans for NEXT year’s event have already started, and leaders have identified some priorities.

A package of sensors, software and navigation equipment will soon permit U.S. Army ground robots, trucks and armored vehicles to move around a battlefield with minimal human supervision. The Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) allows robots to perceive and follow paths and other vehicles. The system recently completed its critical design review and is now moving on to the prototype fabrication stage.