A county north of Houston has set the trend in American drone policing by taking delivery of a set of squat, remote-controlled helicopters called ShadowHawks. These can be weaponized to fire Tasers or beanbags at people – although the manufacturer, Van Guard Industries, claims that they’re strong enough to carry a shotgun. Which is comforting.
Philip Hammond, Liam Fox’s replacement as the UK’s Defence Secretary, announced to MPs that ground-to-air missiles would be deployed “to protect” the 2012 Olympic Games in London if deemed operationally necessary. This follows shortly after America announced intentions to send up to 1 000 security agents to provide protection for US contestants and diplomats.
Well this can only end well. The US Air Force’s unmanned combat drones in the “Predator” and “Reaper” class have been infected with computer viruses that they can’t get rid of, in case you weren’t sufficiently terrified of the world when you woke up this morning.
Boston Dynamics, a tech company working under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has released the latest in its BigDog project line – Alpha Dog, an SUV-sized, four-legged robot equipped to carry a little under 200kg in gear over a range of 32km, in harsh conditions. It’s a giant, terrifying, military robot dog. Take a look.
Awesome. Women on the Philippine island of Mindanao, growing tired of the continuing separatist warfare interfering in their everyday goings-on, decided to take matters into their own hands. And by hands, I mean pants. They organized a “sex strike”, which brought a quick end to fighting between the two villages.
Speaking at the Black Hat hacker’s conference in Vegas yesterday, former director of the CIA’s counterterrorism center Cofer Black voiced concerns about a future “code war” where hackers tamper with the technology that runs our day-to-day interactions. Then a fire alarm accidentally tripped, which was nice and thematic.
The Pentagon is due to publically release it’s first formal cyber strategy next month, and the understanding is that it’s going to be classifying some kinds of computer sabotage as acts of war; apparently, a serious enough computer attack could be interpreted as a “use of force” that would warrant physical retaliation.
Around 65 military recruits and 15 civilians were killed in the twin bombing of the military training centre in Shabqadar, Charsadda – the first attack in Pakistan since the announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death. The Pakistani Taliban claims to have carried out the attack to avenge bin Laden’s killing.
Claude Stanley Choules, the last surviving World War I combat veteran, passed away today, aged 110, in a Perth nursing home. Choules joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15, starting a military career that spanned 41 years, across both world wars. He is survived by his three children.
Which puts us behind Iran. The Global Peace Index, put together by the Institute for Economics & Peace, is apparently made up of a couple of factors – including levels of democracy and transparency, education and national wellbeing. Top three are New Zealand, Iceland and Japan, with Iraq coming in last (149th place).