pentagon

DARPA wants to build 100Gbps wireless military network

Defense researchers are looking to update the wireless platform currently used for military communications to deliver 100Gbps connections.

While fiber-optic cables provide the long-haul backbone for most data and voice communications networks without issue, radio signals often face electronic interference and degradation over long distances, resulting in reduced communications efficiency to soldiers in the field.

The current Common Data Link, the U.S. military's secure communications protocol created in 1991, operates at data rates of up to 274Mbps. To boost that speed, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is inviting input on creation of a new wireless communications platform … Read more

Obama reportedly signs secretive cybersecurity policy directive

President Obama has long said cybersecurity is one of his priorities and it appears he is now acting on his words.

According to the Washington Post, he is said to have signed a secret policy directive last month that will give the military and other government authorities the ability to act quickly if the country comes under cyberattack.

Dubbed the "Presidential Policy Directive 20," this classified document allegedly outlines the rules of how federal agencies are allowed to react when it comes to online breaches of security, hacking, cyberthreats, and attacks.

One of the major elements of the … Read more

Defense Department drops exclusive contract for BlackBerry

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has been dealt another blow by the U.S. government. The U.S. Defense Department recently announced that it is opening its exclusive contract with the company to other device makers, including Apple and Google.

According to Reuters, the Pentagon said it would still use "large numbers" of BlackBerry smartphones but that it was also asking other companies to apply for a government contract to provide software that is capable of monitoring, managing, and enforcing U.S. military security requirements.

A Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters that it was broadening its reach with device … Read more

Drone dogfights by 2015? U.S. Navy preps for futuristic combat

MONTEREY, Calif.--Imagine an aerial dogfight of epic proportions: Fifty aircraft on a side, each prowling the sky for advantage over dozens of adversaries.

If Timothy Chung has his way, such a battle could take place over Southern California by 2015. But before you worry that war is coming to American soil, you should know that Chung's vision is really about a high-tech game of Capture the Flag played by as many as a hundred small, lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles playing their role in a grand challenge of an experiment.

Chung is an assistant professor in the Systems Engineering … Read more

U-2 spy plane pilot Powers honored with Silver Star

Capt. Francis Gary Powers, the Air Force pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, was posthumously honored Friday in a medal ceremony at the Pentagon.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz presented the Silver Star Medal to Capt. Powers' children, Gary Powers Jr. and Dee Powers, in the Hall of Heroes, in tribute to Powers' "heroic action and his loyalty to the United States of America during a pivotal time in our nation's history."

"My sister, myself, my wife, my son, aunts and uncles, cousins, the … Read more

Lockheed to head up Pentagon's Cyber Crime Center

Lockheed Martin announced today it received millions of dollars to begin heading up the Pentagon's Cyber Crime Center. According to Reuters, the company won a $454 million contract from the government to help the military facility investigate the increasing number of cyber threats.

"Because of its size and importance, the [Department of Defense] is targeted by cyber criminals ranging from terrorists to spies to identity thieves," Lockheed told Reuters.

The security company's team of experts plans to assist the government in dealing with cyberattacks and crime by providing technical, functional, and managerial support to the center. … Read more

The technology of the 9/11 Memorial

NEW YORK -- The new 9/11 Memorial is stunningly beautiful and extremely visitor-friendly, but the names of the 2,983 people who died in the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing aren't listed alphabetically, meaning that visitors may need help finding specific names.

Yes, there's an app for that. Two, actually.

The memorial, which opened on September 11, 2011 -- the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania -- has already had more than 2 million visitors, and thousands … Read more

Google hires DARPA Director Regina Dugan

One of the Pentagon's most tech-forward leaders is heading to a new job at Google. Regina Dugan has been the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which works on military technology for the U.S. Department of Defense, for the past three years.

"Regina is a technical pioneer who brought the future of technology to the military during her time at DARPA," a spokesperson for Google told CNET. "She will be a real asset to Google, and we are thrilled she is joining the team."

Although Google confirmed Dugan's hire, it … Read more

Air Force's U-2 aircraft get new lease on life

Score one for old-school aircraft against the upstart drones.

Perhaps it's just a brief respite from the seemingly inevitable winds of change propelling unmanned aircraft ever higher in the Pentagon's airpower depth charts, but the venerable U-2 spy plane has won a key vote of confidence over the unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk. That victory came not in a head-to-head aerial dogfight, but in a more bureaucratic conveyance: the draft of the federal budget for the U.S. government's fiscal 2013.

"The Administration proposes to end production of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle," says … Read more