Israeli startups make global plans after key role in war

Reuters 31.01.25

If innovation relies on murdering women and children, we have a seriously bleak future ahead of us:

‘The drone that tracked Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and filmed him as he lay dying in footage beamed around the world last October was made by Israeli startup Xtend, according to media reports, one of many such firms to get a boost from Israel's war needs. Xtend's co-founder and CEO Aviv Shapira declined to comment on the unsourced reports, but told Reuters his company provides indoor drones to the Israeli army, which has looked beyond just major manufacturers for a cutting edge in its assault on Gaza that followed Hamas' deadly attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Xtend drones integrate artificial intelligence to conduct high-precision strikes, and can be operated from 9,000 kilometres (5,600 miles) away with minimal human intervention. "We're actually re-learning how to fight with robots," Shapira said in an interview.’

Israel’s use of AI in Gaza is a terrifying model coming to a country near you

Middle-East Eye 28.01.25

Huge tech companies go for profit, not ethics:

‘While it’s widely known that countless Israeli defence and surveillance companies are integral to the country’s military, from Elbit Systems to Israel Aerospace Industries, fewer people know that some of the world’s biggest tech companies - including Google, Microsoft and Amazon - are deeply enmeshed with the Israeli army. In a recent investigation, The Washington Post revealed that Google “rushed to sell” artificial intelligence (AI) tools to Israel soon after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 because it feared losing business to its rival, Amazon… Another story published this month by +972 Magazine details the extensive collaboration between Microsoft and the Israeli military, both before and after 7 October 2023. It outlines how the corporation’s cloud services were used by units in the naval, ground and air forces, along with the intelligence gathering branch, Unit 8200 - all as Israel was committing genocide and war crimes on an unprecedented scale… Big tech is happy to assist, both out of a desire to make money and ideological affinities with Israel’s cause. The second reason is perhaps the most disturbing, with far-reaching ramifications. During the research for my book, podcast and new film with Al Jazeera English, The Palestine Laboratory, I uncovered that Israel’s military-industrial complex views its occupation as a vital testing ground for the latest forms of killing and surveillance.  Palestinians are guinea pigs - but this ideology and work doesn’t stay in Palestine. Silicon Valley has taken note, and the new Trump era is heralding an ever-tighter alliance among big tech, Israel and the defence sector. There’s money to be made, as AI currently operates in a regulation-free zone globally.’

EU rewards Israel for genocide by approving new drone deal

Electronic Intifada 31.01.25

What gets tested in war, finds a cozy niche in civilian infrastructure:

‘In December, two weapons makers – Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Airbus – announced they had signed a “follow-on” contract with Frontex, the EU’s border guard agency. Such announcements are intended to impress shareholders and potential clients, rather than to inform the public. Frontex itself did not promote the deal. The announcement gave the impression that Frontex had renewed a contract, worth more than $50 million when it was originally clinched in 2020. The firms announced that IAI’s Heron drone would be used to track refugees on perilous Mediterranean voyages for another four years. Asked for a comment, a Frontex spokesperson stated that the contract “is based on a new open tender” rather than being an extension of a prior deal. The new contract is worth $192 million over a two year period. The admission from Frontex actually makes matters worse. It shows that an EU agency approved a new deal involving Israel’s weapons industry in December – while Gaza was still being subjected to a genocide.’

Pentagon Official Boasts That AI Is Helping The Military Kill People Faster Than Ever Before

Futurism 22.01.25

AI has greatly contributed to the genocide in Gaza, and now that it’s battle-tested, it will serve the military in ‘efficient’ ways:

‘In an interview with TechCrunch, the Pentagon's chief digital and AI officer, Radha Plumb, admitted in a mask-off moment that the technology is helping to expedite the way the military kills. "We obviously are increasing the ways in which we can speed up the execution of kill chain," Plumb told the website in an interview, "so that our commanders can respond in the right time to protect our forces.” According to a Mitchell Institute white paper from 2023, "kill chain" is militaryspeak for "the process militaries use to attack targets in the battlespace.” "The kill chain can be broken down into specific steps — find, fix, track, target, engage, and assess — that enable planners to build and task forces for combat operations," the paper explains.’

With Gaza war and Trump’s return, Silicon Valley embraces a military renaissance

+972 Magazine 31.12.24

A horrific reality is being shaped by genocidal freaks with no moral compass:

’On Dec. 10, Israeli military officials, weapons manufacturers, and American venture capitalists gathered at Tel Aviv University for the first ever DefenseTech Summit. The two day affair featured panels on “The Future of Global Conflict,” “Challenges of Iron Swords” (the IDF’s name for the war in Gaza) and “Exploring Innovation in Drone Technology.” Representatives from Palantir, Sequoia Capital, and Elbit shared the stage with the Director General of the IDF and the head of LOTEM, the army unit devoted to big data and AI… Officially, the DefenseTech Summit was meant to showcase “Israel’s cutting edge technologies and strategies for addressing global security.” But the event felt more like a celebration of a new and unrestrained era of techno-militarization inaugurated by Donald Trump’s reelection…

The optimism buoying these war industries is not tempered by the ongoing devastation in Gaza, one of the most fatal conflicts for civilians in recent history. Charges of war crimes at the ICC and of genocide at the ICJ have done little to deter Israel’s far-right government, and at the conference — as in Israeli public discourse writ large — the official line continued to bend, obstinately, toward righteous victory… Palantir’s company vision was distilled by CEO Alex Karp at the Ronald Reagan Defense Forum, held in Simi Valley California just a few days before the Tel Aviv summit. “People want to live in peace, they want to go home — they do not want to hear your woke pagan ideology,” he exclaimed. “They want to know they are safe and safe means that the other person is scared: that’s how you make someone safe.”… Today, American tech founders view themselves as a new warrior class, proudly remaking their country in the image of Israel’s “warrior nation.” Israel’s far-right government and Silicon Valley’s royalty adhere to a “peace through strength” security doctrine, touting lethal displays of force as the only way to shore up national security — or what Palantir’s Alex Karp describes as “scaring your enemy shitless.”’

Israel using AI weapons system co-produced with Indian firm in war on Gaza

Middle-East Eye 20.11.24

The entry of AI killing instruments in Palestine will be touted as ‘battle-tested’ and sold all over the world:

‘According to documents and news reports seen by MEE, Israeli forces have been using the Arbel weapons system in Gaza following their devastating invasion of the enclave after the 7 October attacks on southern Israel. Touted as a "revolutionary game changer that improves operator lethality and survivability," the Arbel system enhances machine guns and assault weapons - such as the Israeli-produced Tavor, Carmel and Negev - into a weapon that uses algorithms to boost soldiers chances of hitting targets more accurately and efficiently. The past 13 months has seen Israeli forces engage in a catalogue of massacres - from bombing schools and refugee camps and hospitals to conducting executions on the streets of Gaza. More women and children have been killed by Israeli firepower than in any other conflict over the past 20 years while close to 1,000 entire families have been erased… Originally unveiled as a co-venture between Israeli Weapons Industries (IWI) and the Indian company Adani Defence & Aerospace, Arbel was announced at a defence expo in Gandhinagar in Gujarat in October 2022. IWI was an Israeli state-owned company between 1933 and 2005. At the time, several Indian media sites hailed the weapon, describing it as "India's first AI-based firing system". However in April 2024, six months into the war on Gaza, IWI introduced the weapon as "the first computerized weapon system". IWI said the weapon "increases the lethality, accuracy and survivability of the operator by up to three times."'

Biden, Xi agree that humans, not AI, should control nuclear arms

Reuters 16.11.24

It’s inconceivable that there had initially been a premise that AI could control nuclear weapons!:

'U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on Saturday that human beings and not artificial intelligence should make decisions over the use of nuclear weapons, according to the White House. "The two leaders affirmed the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons," the White House said in a statement. "The two leaders also stressed the need to consider carefully the potential risks and develop AI technology in the military field in a prudent and responsible manner.” An official Chinese government summary of the meeting echoed this point. The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment… The U.S. defense department estimated last year that Beijing has 500 operational nuclear warheads and will probably field more than 1,000 by 2030. That compares to 1,770 and 1,710 operational warheads deployed by the United States and Russia, respectively. The Pentagon said that by 2030, much of Beijing's weapons would probably be held at higher levels of readiness.'

Lebanon pager blasts: Israel's cyberterrorism signals a new warfare strategy

Middle-East Eye 19.09.24

If you forget about the war crime enacted by this despicable move on the part of the Israeli regime, then concentrate on the dwindling global sales of ‘Western’ technology moving forward:

‘The explosion of hundreds of communication devices belonging to members of Hezbollah, including pagers and handheld radios, has resulted in at least 30 deaths and 4,500 injuries, including more than 400 in critical condition in two waves of attack, according to Lebanon's health ministry. The blasts took place nearly simultaneously on Tuesday over a wide geographic area in the Lebanese capital, its suburbs, and in Syria. They were followed by a new wave of explosions on Wednesday, including at a funeral procession for victims of the initial pager explosions.’

The Crowdfunding Campaign for Deadly Israeli Military Drones

The Intercept 01.08.24

A system used to shred babies and children in Gaza seeks charitable status:

‘On the webpage soliciting donations for its drones, XTEND listed AlmaLinks, a nonprofit network headquartered in Tel Aviv that connects business leaders with a focus on Jewish and Israeli communities, as the organization that would process donations.  “All donations will be used for the immediate production and deployment of life saving systems for our IDF troops on the frontlines,” the site read. “All donations are kindly processed through the ALMA LINKS non-profit organization. www.almalinks.org We kindly request that you fill out the information here and at the dedicated donation page for tracking purposes.”’

Devastation Into Dollars: Israeli Startups Are Making a Killing in Gaza

MintPress News 11.06.24

Wars are being used to make certain countries prosperous:

‘A number of these successful startups have participated in Israel’s ongoing war on the besieged Gaza Strip, suggesting genocide is a lucrative marketing tool for business. Products like suicide drones, smart guns, and robot dogs have all been deployed on the battlefield since October 2023, with some startups even exploiting the war to their advantage and touting their technologies’ use in the war as an advertising boost… Israel touts its “battle-tested” technology and the revolving door relationship of its military, tech, and education sectors. Roughly 80% of Israeli cyber tech firms were founded by graduates of Shin Bet’s (Israeli security agency) Unit 8200, an intelligence corps infamous for its clandestine spying operations against Palestinians…

Xtend secured $40 billion in funding after touting its success in the war against Gaza, where its drones have dropped grenades, surveyed tunnels, and attacked Palestinians. The Israeli military is using its signature Wolverine combat drone in Gaza to gather intelligence on buildings. Equated to operating a video game, the drone is equipped with a robotic arm and virtual reality goggles. According to monitoring groups, Statewatch and Informationsstelle Militarisierung, Xtend received a multi-billion research and innovation grant from the European Union to study the optimizing capabilities of its Skylord Xtender drone system and find suitable partners for producing and commercializing the technology… Known for developing an AI-powered gun installed at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), SmartShooter has now developed the Smash system in Gaza, which utilizes “smart sight” to precisely track moving targets. In November, an Israeli special forces unit used the system to target homes near a school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza…

Spear UAV: This Israeli startup developed a Viper suicide drone that can be launched from a portable capsule by a soldier or armored vehicle and is intended to locate, track, and attack targets by crashing into them and self-destructing. Since the war, the company says it has accelerated development to meet the demands of the Israeli military… NextVision: This Israeli startup manufactures cameras for weapons systems, specifically on drones made by Israel’s top arms companies like Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems — all used in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The Israeli military also uses its cameras. With NextVision’s CEO stating, “Wars are good for business,” the startup has experienced an increase in sales since the war on Gaza began in 2023. In the war’s first month, NextVision’s sales rate doubled…

Animal-like robots are being deployed in the war on Gaza. The Rooster, jointly developed by Israeli startup Robotican and the Israeli Defense Ministry, is a drone inside a wheeled cage. The Rooster drones are attached to Vision 60 robot dogs made by the Philadelphia-based Ghost Robotics. The Israeli reserves organization Brother in Arms donated the first three devices to the Israeli military. Not in any way friendly, the robodogs are equipped to shoot and are primarily used to surveil buildings and tunnels inside Gaza.’

Investigation must be opened into Israel’s potential use of banned thermal weapons, which cause victims’ bodies to melt or evaporate

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor 30.04.24

Nightmarish evidence from the genocide in Gaza indicates that bodies are simply disappeared and evaporated. I’d bet my house that these nightmarish weapons would find their ways onto the international market within a few months, labelled battle-tested:

‘Testimonies received by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reveal a horrific new level of killing in the Strip: victims whose bodies appear to have evaporated or melted as a result of Israel’s bombing of residential homes.

The Israeli army’s use of massive destruction in entire residential squares during its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has resulted in a shockingly high number of casualties. This raises fears about the potential use of “thermal weapons”, or what are known as “vacuum bombs”, which are well-known in military circles for their efficacy in demolishing caves and underground tunnel complexes… An international investigation must be launched into Israel’s probable use of internationally banned weapons, including thermobaric bombs, which operate by first using small conventional explosives to create a cloud of highly flammable particles or droplets. A second explosive device then ignites the cloud of combustible materials, producing extremely high temperatures of up to 2500 degrees Celsius, which cause severe burning of skin and internal body parts, charring corpses to the point of complete melting or evaporation, particularly in areas where the explosion cloud is denser. Investigators must determine the precise type(s) of weapon used; preliminary estimates indicate that certain bodies may also have begun to decompose into ash sometime after death—a result of conditions brought on by thermal bombs. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and international humanitarian law all forbid the use of thermal bombs against civilians in populated civilian areas. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court also classifies the use of thermal bombs as a war crime.’

‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza

+972 Magazine 03.04.24

Israel will soon be selling this ‘battle-tested’ killing tech and will strive to absolve itself from genocidal indictments:

‘In 2021, a book titled “The Human-Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human and Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionize Our World” was released in English under the pen name “Brigadier General Y.S.” In it, the author — a man who we confirmed to be the current commander of the elite Israeli intelligence unit 8200 — makes the case for designing a special machine that could rapidly process massive amounts of data to generate thousands of potential “targets” for military strikes in the heat of a war. Such technology, he writes, would resolve what he described as a “human bottleneck for both locating the new targets and decision-making to approve the targets.”…

“We were not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they were in a military building or engaged in a military activity,” A., an intelligence officer, told +972 and Local Call. “On the contrary, the IDF bombed them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It’s much easier to bomb a family’s home. The system is built to look for them in these situations.”… The sources said that the approval to automatically adopt Lavender’s kill lists, which had previously been used only as an auxiliary tool, was granted about two weeks into the war, after intelligence personnel “manually” checked the accuracy of a random sample of several hundred targets selected by the AI system. When that sample found that Lavender’s results had reached 90 percent accuracy in identifying an individual’s affiliation with Hamas, the army authorized the sweeping use of the system. From that moment, sources said that if Lavender decided an individual was a militant in Hamas, they were essentially asked to treat that as an order, with no requirement to independently check why the machine made that choice or to examine the raw intelligence data on which it is based.’

Gaza: the world's first AI-powered, robot-enabled genocide

Thomas Fazi 08.04.24

Each criminal assault by Israel on Gaza leads to ‘battle-tested- weaponry tech which gets sold worldwide. Deeply repulsive:

'Over the past five months, the Palestinian enclave hasn’t just been the site of one of the deadliest and most destructive bombing campaigns in history; it has also been a testing ground, a live laboratory, for the next generation of Israeli and Western high-tech weapons and technology — and a window into the disturbing reality of 21st-century warfare. Just a few days ago, Haaretz reported that “[i]n an effort to avoid harming soldiers and dogs, the IDF has been experimenting with the use of robots and remote-controlled dogs in the Gaza War”. It’s nothing new for the IDF to use robots and unmanned ground vehicles; however, Gaza has seen a steep increase in the use of these technologies. As the author writes, “defense establishment officials confirm that there has been a leap in the use and sophistication of robots on the battlefield”… Indeed, the IDF is currently using Gaza as a testing ground for a similar technology: small quadcopter drones, similar to the off-the-shelf commercial drones that have become commonplace in households, but with machine guns mounted underneath. Unlike traditional Reaper-like military drones that fire missiles from high above the clouds, these drones can fly very low and get very close to the target, even inside buildings. Gaza is the first war in which these remote-controlled drones have been deployed on a large scale against enemy combatants — and civilians.’

Military know-how gleaned from Gaza war to help Israeli business, says minister

Reuters 27.02.24

One wonders whether a genocide is a springboard to tech advances and if it is needed to propel the Israeli economy. It certainly happens frequently:

‘Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, Israel's Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat said the war's domestic impact on Israel was "not something Israel cannot bear mid to long term”. He estimated the total cost at 150-200 billion shekels, or roughly $50 billion, regardless of the war's duration. "You should always realise in the wars Israel had we had a dip in the economy but immediately after we had a huge spike back of innovation. And the knowledge and the experience Israel is gathering in this round of violence is second to none," said Barkat, who is a member of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and widely seen as his potential successor.’

US weapons sales abroad hit record high in 2023, boosted by Ukraine war

BBC 30.01.24

No wonder the US instigates and promotes endless wars:

‘US weapons sales overseas rose sharply last year, reaching a record total of $238bn (£187bn), as Russia's invasion of Ukraine stoked demand. The US government directly negotiated $81bn in sales, a 56% increase from 2022, the state department reported. The rest were direct sales by US defence companies to foreign nations.’

UK Ministry of Defense Says High-Powered DragonFire Combat Laser Successfully Downed Aerial Target

The Debrief 24.01.24

The UK seems to be hell-bent on following the US’ war economy model:

‘Now, it appears that the UK is joining the march toward adding lasers and other directed energy weapons that include powerful microwave emitters that can fry the electronics of a drone or missile to their arsenal. Along with the accuracy of these systems, the MoD is also hoping that laser systems can dramatically reduce costs… “The DragonFire trials at the Hebrides demonstrated that our world-leading technology can track and engage high-end effects at range,” added Shimon Fhima, Director of Strategic Programmes for the MOD. “In a world of evolving threats, we know that our focus must be on getting capability to the warfighter, and we will look to accelerate this next phase of activity.”’

Israel Shutting Down Gaza Human Lab

Consortium News 20.11.23

Chris Hedges on how Israel has produced the most in-demand global weapons, too numerous to mention here:

‘Israel is the 10th biggest arms dealer on the planet and has sold its technology and weapons to an estimated 130 nations, including military dictatorships in Asia and Latin America. Israeli weapons sales totalled $12.5 billion last year.  Its close relationship with these military, internal security, surveillance, intelligence-gathering and law enforcement agencies, explains the fulsome support Israel’s allies give to its genocidal campaign in Gaza… Israel, which is not a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, has long supplied some of the most heinous regimes on the planet with weaponry, including the apartheid government of South Africa and Myanmar.  India is Israel’s largest purchaser of military drones. Israel provided UAVs, missiles and mortars to Azerbaijan for its invasion and occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, which displaced 100,000 people, more than 80 percent of the enclave’s ethnic Armenians.’

When it comes to the Israeli-led ‘war on terror’, follow the money

Al-Jazeera 19.11.23

Until the fascist and apartheid regime of Israel gets a slap in the face from the world, military companies carry on testing their products on Palestinians:

‘With resounding approval from the general public, the Israeli army has undertaken systematic carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip, dropping in a month more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives, the equivalent of two nuclear bombs. The bombardment of the small enclave mirrors the US air campaigns that used an extraordinary amount of ordnance on Iraq and Afghanistan over two decades, leaving behind immense devastation. There are already reports that Israel is also stepping up the use of torture against detainees. Since October 7, its forces have rounded up thousands of Palestinians, including children, in the occupied West Bank. Many allege serious physical abuse and arbitrary detention. Palestinians from Gaza, who had worked in Israel, were also arrested and tortured before being released back to Gaza… The Israeli arms industry has been thriving in recent years, with a record $12.5bn in sales in 2022, double the figure from one decade ago. In the last year, 24 percent of arms went to Arab states, including Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. According to the Israeli Defence Ministry’s own figures, the number of countries buying Israeli drones has jumped 40 percent in the last three years, munitions have grown by 45 percent and spyware and related cyber-equipment soared from 67 to 83 countries in 2022… As I write in my book, The Palestine Laboratory, Israel has used both the endless occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, along with the siege on Gaza, to “battle-test” ever-evolving new forms of repression and surveillance. These offensive tools are then marketed and sold to the majority of nations on the planet. In this context, the current war on Gaza will certainly be good for business. The Israeli army’s social media team is already proudly promoting the first time in battle use of the Elbit-made Iron Sling, a mortar designed to hit Hamas rocket launching sites. This is a war for a local and global public audience as well as potential foreign buyers looking to build up their arsenal. Israel is also likely hoping to expand the sale of its high-tech military and intelligence tools. Even Israeli spyware company, NSO Group, mired in scandals for years, is looking to get in on the action, pitching themselves to Washington as an essential part of this new “war on terror”’.

As the Death Toll Rises, So Does the Profits of Arms Manufacturers

Counterpunch 14.11.23

The merchants of death will never have an opposition in the US as their industry is a great contributor to America’s wealth:

‘Hayes made a similar point recently in response to a question from a researcher at Morgan Stanley on a call with Wall Street analysts. The researcher noted that President Biden’s proposed multi-billion-dollar package of military aid for Israel and Ukraine “seems to fit quite nicely with Raytheon’s defense portfolio.” Hayes responded that “across the entire Raytheon portfolio you’re going to see a benefit of this restocking on top of what we think will be an increase in the DoD topline as we continue to replenish these stocks.” Supplying Ukraine alone, he suggested, would yield billions in revenues over the coming few years with profit margins of 10% to 12%… Praising the U.S. arms industry as the “arsenal of democracy” obscures the numerous ways it undermines our security and wastes our tax dollars. Rather than romanticizing the military-industrial complex, isn’t it time to place it under greater democratic control? After all, so many lives depend on it.’

Arms dealers toast ‘very buoyant’ profits in London

Declassified 19.09.23

The arms industry has always been profitable, but at present, it’s experiencing a real bonanza:

'“The war in Ukraine has driven an increase in sales across the portfolio for sure,” says Matthew Bragoni, a representative of Ensign-Bickford Aerospace and Defense (EBAD)... “It’s going to be more insecure going forward…the near term is very dangerous. I think we’re seeing it across the globe,” he says. “There’s a strong pivot back to entrenchment from a Cold War mentality. And we’re going to see a rebuild of inventory in stock.” He pauses then adds: “I think that’s going to cause a ten year boom in manufacturing and EBAD will certainly be a beneficiary.”… Bragoni’s enthusiasm is shared by another American firm whose stand we find further inside the sprawling ExCel exhibition centre, after navigating past an AI-powered robotic dog. “Business is great,” Trevor Schriver from Curtiss Wright confirms. “In spite of the last two or three years of economic downturn resulting from the Covid issues and so forth. But military spending is continuing to increase from my perspective. So business has been good.”’

Record numbers expected as Europe’s biggest arms fair opens in London

The Guardian 12.09.23

Big business outlook with big money for weapons in the present and near future:

‘Grant Shapps is due to make his first public speech as defence secretary on Thursday at an event not just fully supported by the Ministry of Defence but also protected by a Met police operation. The policing cost £3m the last time event was held, two years ago… Arms exports data is only gradually being published but there is growing confirmation that 2022 was a year of rapid growth amid a wider rearmament prompted by the invasion of Ukraine as well the shift from Russian to western exports.’

In U.S.-China AI contest, the race is on to deploy killer robots

Reuters 08.09.23

We seem to be on the verge of annihilation due to the rise of moronic thinking by competing superpowers:

‘An intensifying military-technology arms race is heightening the sense of urgency. On one side are the United States and its allies, who want to preserve a world order long shaped by America’s economic and military dominance. On the other is China, which rankles at U.S. ascendancy in the region and is challenging America’s military dominance in the Asia-Pacific. Ukraine’s innovative use of technologies to resist Russia’s invasion is heating up this competition… Some leading military strategists say AI will herald a turning point in military power as dramatic as the introduction of nuclear weapons. Others warn of profound dangersif AI-driven robots begin making lethal decisions independently, and have called for a pause in AI research until agreement is reached on regulation related to the military application of AI. Despite such misgivings, both sides are scrambling to field uncrewed machines that will exploit AI to operate autonomously: subs, warships, fighter jets, swarming aerial drones and ground combat vehicles. These programs amount to the development of killer robots to fight in tandem with human decision makers. Such robots – some designed to operate in teams with conventional ships, aircraft and ground troops – already have the potential to deliver sharp increases in firepower and change how battles are fought, according to military analysts… Conflict may also be on the verge of turning very personal. The capacity of AI systems to analyze surveillance imagery, medical records, social media behavior and even online shopping habits will allow for what technologists call “micro-targeting” – attacks with drones or precision weapons on key combatants or commanders, even if they are nowhere near the front lines. Kiev’s successful targeting of senior Russian military leaders in the Ukraine conflict is an early example. AI could also be used to target non-combatants. Scientists have warned that swarms of small, lethal drones could target big groups of people, such as the entire population of military-aged males from a certain town, region or ethnic group.’

Making Science Fiction a Reality: Future Directed Energy Weapons

UK Gov 17.08.23

UK joins the bandwagon to invest in and deploy this horrific weapon capability. To look into this further, check the Military section in this report:

'The vision of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) is to make Directed Energy Weapons a realistic choice for our armed forces, which can contribute a decisive edge and sustain strategic advantage. The MOD is currently investing in several high-value demonstrators, including DragonFire and several projects integrating both RF and laser-based systems onto military platforms. DASA is supporting the department’s efforts to understand the next steps necessary to develop and introduce Directed Energy Weapons into service across Land, Sea and Air domains.’

REVEALED: Pentagon’s $70 Million Chemical & Biological Program at Porton Down in UK

21st Century Wire 28.03.18

Sinister and criminal endeavours operate at this ‘weapons’ facility. Will the world never understand the need to obliterate gain-of-function experiments?:

‘The UK government never informed the British public of the military experiment on the London Underground. Thousands of people were exposed to chemical gas without their knowledge. Nor did the Ministry of Defence ask for their consent to participate in such military experiments. Information about the project can be obtained from a 2016 US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document entitled Environmental Assessment of Proposed NYC Subway Tracer Particle and Gas Releases for the Underground Transport Restoration Project… Porton Down is just one of the Pentagon-funded military laboratories in 25 countries across the world, where the US Army produces and tests man-made viruses, bacteria and toxins in direct violation of the UN convention. These US bio-laboratories are funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under a $ 2.1 billion military program– Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP), and are located in former Soviet Union countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. The Pentagon-funded military facilities are not under the direct control of the host state as the US military and civilian personnel is working under diplomatic cover. As the local governments and communities are prohibited from public disclosure of sensitive information about the foreign military program running on their own territory – the full extent of the public risk will always remain unknown. Consequently, without being under the direct control of the host state, these Pentagon bio-laboratories put the health of the local population at risk and must be closed.’

Why business is booming for military AI startups

Technology Review 07.07.23

Ethical considerations go out the window when new lethal toys appear:

‘Exactly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Alexander Karp, the CEO of data analytics company Palantir, made his pitch to European leaders. With war on their doorstep, Europeans ought to modernize their arsenals with Silicon Valley’s help, he argued in an open letter... Militaries are responding to the call. NATO announced on June 30 that it is creating a $1 billion innovation fund that will invest in early-stage startups and venture capital funds developing “priority” technologies such as artificial intelligence, big-data processing, and automation… The US is working with startups to develop autonomous military vehicles. In the future, swarms of hundreds or even thousands of autonomous drones that the US and British militaries are developing could prove to be powerful and lethal weapons… In a piece for Prospect magazine co-written with Lucy Suchman, a sociology professor at Lancaster University, she argued that AI boosters are stoking Cold War rhetoric and trying to create a narrative that positions Big Tech as “critical national infrastructure,” too big and important to break up or regulate. They warn that AI adoption by the military is being presented as an inevitability rather than what it really is: an active choice that involves ethical complexities and trade-offs.’

The First-Ever International Killer Robots Summit Was a Human Rights Flop

Gizmodo 18.02.23

Autonomous weapons get the all-clear from competing giants in the warfare arena:

‘After two days of in-depth talks, panels, and presentations produced by around 2,500 AI experts and industry leaders, the REAIM (get it?) summit ended in a non-legally binding “call to action” over the responsible development, deployment and use of military AI. The attendees also agreed to establish a “Global Commission on AI.” That might sound lofty, but in reality, those initiatives are limited to “raise awareness” about how the technology can be manufactured responsibly. Meaningful talks of actually reducing or limiting AI weapons were essentially off the table.  Stop Killer Robots Campaign, one of the leading rights groups advocating against AI in warfare, told Gizmodo the call action offered a “vague and incorrect vision” of military use of AI without any reason for clarity on rules or limitations. Safe Ground, an Australian rights group, called the entire summit a “missed opportunity.”…  “This Declaration falls drastically short of the international framework that the majority of states within UN discussions have called for,” Stop Killer Robots said in a statement. “It does not see the need for legally binding rules, and instead permits the development and use of Autonomous Weapons Systems, absent lines of acceptability.”’

Lockheed Martin gets U.S. Navy contract worth up to $2 billion

Reuters 17.02.23

Western global economies may be sinking, but the military industrial complex is thriving:

'The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) a contract worth up to $2 billion related to hypersonic weapon systems, the defense firm said on Friday, amid a global uptick in demand for arms and ammunitions…  The contract comes as the United States and its global rivals have been developing several hypersonic weapons, which travel in the upper atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound.’

New Report Unpacks Dangers of Emerging Military Tech, From AI Nukes to Killer Robots

Common Dreams 07.02.23

In their race to pursue a total annihilation scenario, the perfect idiots at world governments’ militaries sign off on our death sentence:

‘The Arms Control Association report—entitled Assessing the Dangers: Emerging Military Technologies and Nuclear (In)Stability—"unpacks the concept of 'emerging technologies' and summarizes the debate over their utilization for military purposes and their impact on strategic stability.”  The publication notes that the world's military powers "have sought to exploit advanced technologies—artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber, and hypersonics, among others—to gain battlefield advantages" but warns too little has been said about the dangers these weapons represent…  "An increased reliance on AI could lead to new types of catastrophic mistakes," a 2018 report by the Rand Corporation warned. "There may be pressure to use it before it is technologically mature; it may be susceptible to adversarial subversion; or adversaries may believe that the AI is more capable than it is, leading them to make catastrophic mistakes.”  While the Pentagon in 2020 adopted five principles for what it calls the "ethical" use of AI, many ethicists argue the only safe course of action is a total ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems.’

White House Refuses to Say Whether Ukraine Will Receive Toxic Depleted Uranium Ammo

The Intercept 30.01.23

Let’s hope they don’t act that stupidly, as Putin had declared that any depleted uranium found in missiles will be the start of a ‘dirty’ war:

'Depleted uranium is a common byproduct of manufacturing nuclear fuel and weaponry, and, owing to its extreme density, ammunition made from the stuff is a fantastic way of punching through the thick armor of a tank and igniting everyone inside. But these anti-tank rounds also happen to be radioactive, extremely toxic, and have been linked with a variety of birth defects, cancers, and other illness, most dramatically in Iraq, where doctors reported a spike in birth defects and cancers since the Gulf War, when the U.S. fired nearly a million depleted uranium rounds, and the 2003 invasion of that country.  “[Uranium] binds avidly to bio-molecules including DNA,” according to Keith Baverstock, a radiobiologist at the University of Eastern Finland, former World Health Organization researcher, and longtime scholar of depleted uranium arms and their effects. “Where [uranium] is used in munitions (bullets and bombs) to penetrate hardened targets (using its high density) the munition may shatter and since [uranium] is pyrophoric, catch fire and burn, producing oxide particles which are partially soluble and, thus, potentially a source of systemic [uranium] if inhaled.” Uranium particles may remain embedded in the land where these rounds were fired, too, presenting a possible environmental hazard years later.'

What killer robots mean for the future of war

The Conversation 10.01.23

Killer robots should be banned, period:

‘We will almost certainly see more AI enabled weapons in the future. But this doesn’t mean we have to look the other way. More specific and nuanced prohibitions would help keep our politicians, data scientists and engineers accountable.  For example, by banning:  black box AI: systems where the user has no information about the algorithm beyond inputs and outputs [and] unreliable AI: systems that have been poorly tested (such as in the military blockade example mentioned previously).  And you don’t have to be an expert in AI to have a view on LAWs. Stay aware of new military AI developments. When you read or hear about AI being used in combat, ask yourself: is it justified? Is it preserving civilian life? If not, engage with the communities that are working to control these systems. Together, we stand a chance at preventing AI from doing more harm than good.'

Global arms sales rise for 7th year despite supply chain issues

Al Jazeera 05.03.22

The weapons industry remain a mainstay market for the US economy, a depressing reality which favours never-ending conflicts over diplomacy:

‘Sales of arms and military services by the world’s 100 biggest defence companies rose 1.9 percent to $592BN in 2021 despite supply chain issues that held up shipments of critical components, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).  The increase, accelerating from 1.1 percent in 2019-2020, marked the seventh consecutive year of rising global arms sales, SIPRI said in its Arms Industry Database released Monday…  Continuing a pattern established in 2018, the five firms at the top of the list were all based in the US: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics.’

Decarbonize the military — mandate emissions reporting

Nature 02.11.22

With one year’s US military endeavours in jet fuel alone, emitting up to 6 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas, why not make all wars illegal?  

‘For instance, the US military is the world’s largest in terms of expenditure. If they were a nation, US forces would have the highest per-capita emissions in the world, at 42 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) per staff member (see ‘Military emissions’). For each 100 nautical miles flown, the US Air Force’s signature F-35 fighter jet emits as much CO2 (2.3 metric tonnes of CO2eq)2 as an average UK petrol car driven for one year. Each year, jet-fuel use by the US military alone generates emissions equivalent to six million US passenger cars2...  One estimate suggests that activities of the US Department of Defense (DOD) — including all branches of the US armed forces and their civilian support staff — released 55.4 million metric tonnes of CO2eq in 2018 (see go.nature.com/3waw9), roughly equivalent to the emissions of 12 million US cars. Greenhouse-gas emissions from the US military exceed those of many countries, including Switzerland, Ghana and New Zealand. Were the US DOD a nation, it would be the 54th highest emitter globally (see Supplementary Information)…  Analyses of fossil-fuel consumption suggest that the world’s militaries could emit around 0.45 billion to 2.2 billion metric tonnes of CO2eq annually5. The true total might be even higher: factoring in other emissions from energy supplies, raw materials, supply chains and equipment manufacturing could more than triple estimates6. Emissions from warfare would add more5, but are difficult to measure. Fuel consumption during the Iraq war might have released more than 250 million metric tonnes of CO2eq between 2003 and 2011, more than the annual emissions of many countries5.'

The race to stop weaponized robots

Vox 13.10.22

A tad late for that hypocritical statement no? 

‘A Twitter post featuring a video of a robot dog firing a gun that’s racked up nearly 120,000 likes since July. Videos of Ukrainian soldiers apparently modifying off-the-shelf drones to airdrop weapons. An art project featuring Spot, the Boston Dynamics robot most known for viral dancing videos, outfitted with a paintball gun.  These kinds of videos are all over the internet. They demonstrate the kind of scary scenarios that six top robot manufacturers, including Boston Dynamics, probably had in mind when they published a letter last week promising not to weaponize their products. While robots are becoming increasingly accessible to consumers, these companies warned, people might try to turn them into weapons meant to harm people. To prevent this from happening, the companies promised to review what customers want to do with their commercial robots before selling them (“when possible”) and to look into developing technologies that might reduce the risk of this happening in the first place…  The robots available to the general public are still somewhat expensive, and they’re not as common as the other kinds of commercial technologies that people can buy (namely, drones). Still, this letter serves as a reminder that the risk of weaponization isn’t exactly zero, and that it’s an issue that robot makers are already worried about. At the same time, though, these companies left plenty of caveats in their declaration, and they’ve kept the door open to continue selling robots to law enforcement and the military. They’re also far from the only manufacturers making these kinds of technologies, which are slowly entering the mainstream…  And there’s the biggest caveat of all: These companies limited their pledge to “general-purpose” robots, but noted that “we are not taking issue with existing technologies that nations and their government agencies use to defend themselves and uphold their laws.”’

Axon halts Taser drone work as most of its ethics panel said to resign

Reuters 06.06.22

America’s answer to combatting school massacres is to provide more tech weapons.  One such proposal was turned down:

‘Taser-maker Axon Enterprise Inc (AXON.O) said on Sunday it was halting work on a project to equip drones with stun guns to combat mass shootings, a prospect that a member of its AI ethics board told Reuters was prompting an exodus from the panel…  Axon, which also sells body-worn cameras and policing software, said in February that its clients include about 17,000 out of the roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States.  It has explored the idea of a Taser-equipped drone for police since at least 2016, and Smith depicted how one could stop an active shooter in a graphic novel he wrote...  In response to questions on the social media service Reddit on Friday, Smith wrote that drones could be stationed in hallways and move into rooms through special vents.’

‘Gods of War’: How the US weaponized Ukraine against Russia

The Grayzone 01.04.22

For anyone accepting the narrative that Russia has invaded Ukraine suddenly and with no reason, this is a good read:

'The US Army says: “Ukraine has been a military partner of the U.S. dating back to the mid 1990s.” In 1998, America’s Special Operations Command Europe hosted a Special Operations Forces (SOF) conference in Stuttgart, Germany. The US Army reports: “This benchmark even brought military personnel from Moldova, Georgia, and the Ukraine together to view U.S. SOF demonstrations and discuss opportunities for future Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) and Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP) events.”  In June 2000, the US Marines reported that the Navy’s amphibious warship, the USS Trenton, had sailed from the Aegean to the Black Sea and had docked in Odessa (Ukraine). The 24th Marine   Expeditionary Unit (MEU) “got to experience some of Odessa’s history first hand when they climbed the Prymorsky, or ‘Maritime’, Stairs.” In addition to the pleasantries, “the focus for MEU personnel and USS Trenton crew [was] NATO’s next exercise – Cooperative Partner 2000 (CP00) – of which Ukraine is the host nation.”  In addition to Ukraine’s participation in the US-led NATO training and exercises, Ukrainian soldiers fought in American-led wars. After 9/11, they participated in the occupation of Afghanistan via NATO’s so-called International Security Assistance Force. Ukrainian troops also aided the US-British-occupation of Iraq. In 2008, the Army lauded their comrades: “More than 5,000 Ukrainian troops have served in Iraq during Ukraine’s five years of service in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.”…  

The report says that the trainers: “taught their Ukrainian counterparts sniper techniques; how to operate U.S.-supplied Javelin anti-tank missiles and other equipment; how to evade digital tracking the Russians used to pinpoint the location of Ukrainian troops, which had left them vulnerable to attacks by artillery; how to use covert communications tools; and how to remain undetected in the war zone while also drawing out Russian and insurgent forces from their positions, among other skills, according to former officials.”  In addition, one former senior source said (paraphrased by the reporter): “The agency needed to determine the ‘backbone’ of the Ukrainians … The question was, ‘Are they going to get rolled, or are going to stand up and fight?”  So who tends to have “backbone,” i.e., a ruthless and psychopathic fighting spirit? Fascists and ultra-nationalists. Indeed, it has been widely reported by even US corporate media that the Ukrainian Armed Forces and paramilitary units were infested with Nazis. Today, the same media refer to the Nazis as mere nationalists.’

Elite Ukrainian Drone Pilots Are Reportedly Making All the Difference

Futurism 19.03.22

Ukraine becomes the testing ground for new toys.  Toys which are deemed bad when used by Russia but are totally justified when utilised by the ‘good guys’:

‘A group of expert Ukrainian drone pilots called the Aerorozvidka are reportedly helping slow down advancing Russian troops by striking when the invading forces sleep — a show of force that demonstrates the power of using drones in 21st century warfare…  The Biden administration announced this week that the US will include “100 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems” in an upcoming aid package.  According to NBC, those aerial systems are likely one of two types of drones known as Switchblades, which can remotely hit targets miles away with deadly accuracy. Putting Switchblades, which are essentially single-use “kamikaze” bombs, in Aerorozvidka hands will arguably only help the country defend itself.  There’s just one problem. Experts have been outraged at Russia’s use of similar killer drones that use artificial intelligence to decide who lives or dies. So far, there’s been no significant backlash against the US for sending Switchblades to Ukraine, but some experts are concerned about the possibility of inciting a nuclear war.'

Greenwald Slays 'Fact Checkers' After Nuland's Ukraine Biolab Bombshell

Zerohedge 10.03.22

US Under Secretary of State admits to having worked with Ukrainian ‘biolabs’:

‘Nuland not only worked for both the Obama and Biden State Departments to run Ukraine policy (and, in many ways, Ukraine itself), but she also was Vice President Dick Cheney's deputy national security adviser and then President Bush's Ambassador to NATO. She comes from one of America's most prestigious neocon royal families; her husband, Robert Kagan, was a co-founder of the notorious neocon war-mongering group Project for the New American Century, which advocated regime change in Iraq long before 9/11. It was Kagan, along with liberal icon Bill Kristol, who (along with current editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg), was most responsible for the lie that Saddam was working hand-in-hand with Al Qaeda, a lie that played a key role in convincing Americans to believe that Saddam was personally involved in the planning of 9/11.  That a neocon like Nuland is admired and empowered regardless of the outcome of elections illustrates how unified and in lockstep the establishment wings of both parties are when it comes to questions of war, militarism and foreign policy. Indeed, Nuland's husband, Robert Kagan, was signaling that neocons would likely support Hillary Clinton for president — doing so in 2014, long before anyone imagined Trump as her opponent — based on the recognition that the Democratic Party was now more hospitable to neocon ideology than the GOP, where Ron Paul and then Trump's neo-isolationism was growing.  You can vote against neocons all you want, but they never go away. The fact that a member of one of the most powerful neocon families in the U.S. has been running Ukraine policy for the U.S. for years — having gone from Dick Cheney to Hillary Clinton and Obama and now to Biden — underscores how little dissent there is in Washington on such questions. It is Nuland's extensive experience in wielding power in Washington that makes her confession yesterday so startling: it is the sort of thing people like her lie about and conceal, not admit. But now that she did admit it, it is crucial that this revelation not be buried and forgotten.’

Private military firms see demand in Ukraine war 

BBC 09.03.22

Mercs are cashing it in again:

‘At the height of the Iraq war, tens of thousands of private contractors, such as Blackwater, were operating there. Tasks ranged from armed missions such as convoy protection to feeding and housing troops at military bases. Blackwater became notorious after a number of high-profile incidents, including the death of 14 Iraqi civilians shot dead by its contractors in Baghdad in 2007.  In Eastern Europe, private firms have long been used to protect wealthy people and corporations…  A report from Aerospace & Defense News found that the global private military and security industry will be worth over $457bn (£348bn) in 2030, up from about $224bn in 2020…  "It's the same kind of work that you see in the United States and elsewhere," Mr Mayer said. "The difference is that in areas of conflict, the likelihood of having to use lethal force is much, much higher”.  In practice, though, the line is blurry.  "If you have the skillset to be a private contractor, you have the skillset to be a mercenary. There's no bright line between the two," said Sean McFate, an-ex US paratrooper who later served as a contractor in Africa and elsewhere. "It comes down to market circumstances and the decision of the individual person.”  "People talk about legitimacy and who the client is. None of that matters," he added. "If you can do one, you can do the other”.  The proliferation of PMCs may lead to as much "chaos and mayhem" as good, he warned.  "Mercenaries historically elongate conflict for profit," he added. "It could get to a point in the mid-century where super-rich people have private armies, and I don't know how that looks.”’

Moscow calls for strengthening bioweapons treaty

RT 09.03.22

Victoria Nuland (US Under Secretary of State) has been a key player in Ukraine for a long time now:

‘The Russian military reported this week that Ukrainian authorities had ordered the destruction of highly pathogenic samples that were stored at US-backed biological labs throughout the country.  The purported documents indicate that both Ukraine and the US breached the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which both nations signed and ratified, the Russian foreign ministry alleged on Wednesday. The order to destroy the samples was an attempt to cover up the violations of the treaty, it said…  Russia has been voicing concerns for years over US military-funded labs hosted by some nations in its proximity, most notably Georgia. Moscow believes that Washington is conducting military research there that may pose a threat to Russia. The foreign ministry statement said activities held on foreign soil should be subjected to reporting under the BWC, just like domestic programs.  The proposed measures “would allow subjecting military-biological activities of the US and its allies … to international control and ensure full verifiable compliance with the BWC by member states,” Moscow said.  Following Russia’s claims about labs in Ukraine, China called on the Pentagon to publicly comment on bio research conducted in foreign nations with its funding. Beijing claimed the US military controlled “336 biological laboratories in 30 countries around the world.”  The US denies that anything nefarious is being done in the labs, claiming they are used to monitor possible emerging infection threats around the world. US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland confirmed on Tuesday that her country was involved in Ukraine’s effort to destroy research materials so that Russia would not seize them.’

I, cyborg: How the UK wants to make its soldiers ‘superhuman’

RT 25.02.22

When ‘enhancing’ soldiers’ abilities becomes a point of proud and imperative focus for a country:

‘RT investigative unit The Detail has reviewed the disturbing dimensions of a report on human augmentation recently issued by the UK Ministry of Defence’s Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre.   Drawn up in conjunction with Germany’s Bundeswehr Office for Defence Planning, the document starts by noting that while “significant thought” has been given to the implications of “advances in life sciences” for “artificial intelligence, automation and robotics,” comparatively little has been dedicated to “what this means from a human perspective.”  The MoD considers this a grave shortcoming, for “our potential adversaries will not be governed by the same ethical and legal considerations that we are,” and are allegedly “already developing human augmentation capabilities.” As such, “establishing advantage in this field” is of paramount urgency.  “Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomy mean that human processing power, speed of action and endurance are being rapidly outpaced by machines,” the report states. “People are defence’s most valuable asset but also a key vulnerability; people get hungry, tired, scared and confused. Machines on the other hand are incapable of these things…The role of people is being challenged in three key areas: data, complexity and speed…Human augmentation is the missing part of this puzzle.”  The implication of this view of people is that the legal and ethical considerations apparently holding back the MoD’s vital work should be scrapped. People are just too weak to deserve the protections of legal rights preventing the military from implanting tech in their bodies to ‘augment’ them…  National regulations dictating the pace and scope of scientific research reflect societal views, particularly in democracies that are more sensitive to public opinion. The future of human augmentation should not, however, be decided by ethicists or public opinion,” the paper ominously states.’ 

What a Waste! $778 Billion for the Pentagon and Still Counting

Counterpunch 04.02.22

The Pentagon’s ridiculous money pit is astounding:

‘2021 was another banner year for the military-industrial complex, as Congress signed off on a near-record $778 billion in spending for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy. That was $25 billion more than the Pentagon had even asked for.  It can’t be emphasized enough just how many taxpayer dollars are now being showered on the Pentagon. That department’s astronomical budget adds up, for instance, to more than four times the cost of the most recent version of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, which sparked such horrified opposition from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and other alleged fiscal conservatives. Naturally, they didn’t blink when it came to lavishing ever more taxpayer dollars on the military-industrial complex…  

You only need to look at the human and economic costs of America’s post-9/11 wars to grasp the utter folly of such a strategy. According to Brown University’s Costs of War Project, the conflicts waged by the United States in this century have cost $8 trillion and counting, with hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties, thousands of U.S. troops killed, and hundreds of thousands more suffering from traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. And for what? In Iraq, the U.S. cleared the way for a sectarian regime that then helped create the conditions for ISIS to sweep in and conquer significant parts of the country, only to be repelled (but not thoroughly defeated) at great cost in lives and treasure. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, after a conflict doomed as soon as it morphed into an exercise in nation-building and large-scale counterinsurgency, the Taliban is now in power. It’s hard to imagine a more ringing indictment of the policy of endless war.’

Chinese scientists develop 6G technology that may be used for hypersonic weapon communications

The Independent 28.01.22

Applicability in weapons design would propel the next race for electromagnetic r&d.  If 6G can penetrate the plasma sheath, I wonder what they could penetrate in humans and the natural habitat:

‘Chinese scientists have demonstrated that next-generation terahertz technology could be used for hypersonic vehicle detection and tracking, an advance that can lead to new 6G communication applications for hypersonic missiles.  The new technology, described in the Journal of National University of Defence Technology on Tuesday, could solve some blackout problems that occur when attempting to establish communications with missiles or space vehicles traveling at five times the speed of sound or faster.  Typically, when a near-space hypersonic vehicle – either a spacecraft or a missile – travels through the atmosphere at speeds much faster than the speed of sound, the friction between its surface and the surrounding air forms a plasma sheath, according to scientists.  They said this layer of hot, ionised gas around the vehicle could lead to a communication blackout that may last up to 10 minutes – a problem known as the “black barrier.”  

“Plasma sheath formed during the reentry of near-space hypersonic vehicle will interfere [with] the electromagnetic wave detection,” the scientists explain in the study.  In the new research, scientists, including Yao Jianquan from the School of Precision Instruments and Opto-electronics Engineering in China’s Tianjin University, built a laser device that could generate a continuous beam of electromagnetic waves in the terahertz band. This frequency range between microwave and infrared is also used for next-generation 6G technology, which is expected to revolutionise communications.  Such communications systems get updated almost every decade and are also known as a generation or simply “G.”…  Scientists could confirm using imaging experiments in the laboratory environment that high-frequency terahertz waves can penetrate plasma sheath effectively.  The terahertz waves could easily penetrate the plasma sheath produced by a hypersonic weapon at 10 times the speed of sound or even faster “as if the black barrier does not exist,” South China Morning Post reported.’

Israeli firm unveils armed robot to patrol volatile borders

The Independent 13.01.22

A despicable evolution in technology which should be globally stamped on, especially in a country with trigger-happy tendencies:

‘An Israeli defense contractor on Monday unveiled a remote-controlled armed robot it says can patrol battle zones, track infiltrators and open fire. The unmanned vehicle is the latest addition to the world of drone technology, which is rapidly reshaping the modern battlefield…  The robot can gather intelligence for ground troops, carry injured soldiers and supplies in and out of battle, and strike nearby targets.  It is the most advanced of more than half a dozen unmanned vehicles developed by Aerospace Industries' subsidiary, ELTA Systems, over the past 15 years…  Unmanned ground vehicles are being increasingly used by other armies, including those of the United States, Britain and Russia. Their tasks include logistical support, the removal of mines and firing weapons.  The tablet can control the vehicle manually. But many of its functions, including its movement and surveillance system, can also run autonomously…  Bonnie Docherty, a senior researcher from the arms division of Human Rights Watch, said such weapons are worrisome because they can’t be trusted to distinguish between combatants and civilians or make proper calls about the harm attacks may do to nearby civilians.  “Machines cannot understand the value of human life, which in essence undermines human dignity and violates human rights laws,” Docherty said. In a 2012 report, Docherty, a lecturer at Harvard Law School, called for fully automated weapons to be banned by international law.’

Twenty years on Guantanamo and the War on Terror remain a stain on the US

RT 11.01.22

The report is well-worth a read as it depicts a certain US agency as a rogue fanatic:

‘To mark the occasion, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs has published an extensive report, ‘Legacy of the “Dark Side”’, which tracks the devastating impact of systematic abuses carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency and US military the world over.’

US air wars in Middle East ‘deeply flawed’: Report

Al Jazeera 19.12.21

When will a certain superpower be called a ‘terrorist state’? Never, I suspect:

‘Newly obtained Pentagon documents show the United States’ air wars in the Middle East have been marked by “deeply flawed intelligence” and “faulty targeting” that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians over the last decade, according to a New York Times investigation. The report, based on a trove of confidential Pentagon documents covering more than 1,300 reports of civilian casualties, undercuts the US government’s portrayal of a war fought with precision bombs, the publication said… While several of the cases mentioned by the Times have been previously reported, it said its investigation showed that the number of civilian deaths had been “drastically undercounted,” by at least several hundred.’

UN talks fail to open negotiations on ‘killer robots’

Al Jazeera 18.12.21

Opposing countries should be shamed and hit with sanctions:

‘The regulation of the industry has taken on new urgency since a UN panel report in March said the first autonomous drone attack may have occurred in Libya. This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres encouraged the 125 parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) to come up with an “ambitious plan” on new rules. But on Friday, the Sixth Review Conference of the CCW failed to schedule further talks around the development and use of the Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems, or LAWS. Countries already investing heavily in the development of LAWS attended the five-day meeting in Geneva, blocking a majority from agreeing on steps to establish legally-binding rules on machine-operated weapons. Sources following the talks told Reuters news agency that Russia, India and the United States were among the countries that pushed back against a new LAWS treaty. The US has pointed to the benefits of LAWS, including precision.’

Startup Pitched Tasing Migrants From Drones, Video Reveals

The Intercept 13.12.21

What an ugly world this is turning out to be:

‘The 21-year-old Resnick, a Thiel fellow and a new inductee to the prestigious Forbes “30 Under 30” list in the category of social impact, told Fox Business’s Stuart Varney that Brinc’s quadcopter drones are helping police defuse dangerous hostage situations on a near-daily basis. Resnick repeated his longtime claim that the company had been founded “in large part” as a lifesaving response to the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, an inspirational story that’s made its way into press coverage of the startup. With increased scrutiny paid to the moral and bodily harms posed by autonomous militarized robots, Brinc’s “Values & Ethics” webpage offers a salve, asserting a “duty to bring these technologies into the world responsibly” and a commitment to “never build technologies designed to hurt or kill.”… In the video demonstration, a Latino actor referred to as “José” is walking in the middle of the desert when he is approached by the Brinc drone. José then refuses to show identification to the drone, points a gun at it, and walks away, whereupon the drone is depicted firing a Taser into his back and shooting an electrical current through him. José crumples into the dirt… The artificial intelligence-powered hunting and tasing of a wandering migrant isn’t a scene that’s immediately easy to reconcile with Brinc’s corporate vow: “Be mindful of the implications of our work — we won’t build a dystopia.”’

Report: Bit by Bit, the Noose Is Tightening Around the Nuclear Weapons Industry

The Intercept 05.12.21

By exerting pressure on how money is invested, change is possible:

‘PAX explains that 25 companies around the world are particularly involved in the production, manufacture, and development of nuclear weapons. America’s Northrop Grumman makes the most money off nukes, with at least $24 billion in current nuclear contracts. Other U.S. firms such as Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin are close behind. But it is a worldwide industry, with companies in Europe (Airbus), India (Larsen & Toubro), Russia (Rostec), and China (China Aerospace Science and Technology) profiting from the potential end of the world. The report also closely examines the financial infrastructure that undergirds the physical production of nuclear weapons. At least 338 companies are investors in or facilitators of the nuclear industry. They may own stock in nuclear corporations, hold their bonds, or underwrite their debt offerings. In any case, the system can’t function without them. The largest investor in the nuclear industry is Vanguard, with $51 billion, followed a few paces behind by BlackRock, with $41 billion

These cases do not involve a few individuals with huge investments in nuclear weapons, but rather millions of people who’ve invested in Vanguard and BlackRock mutual funds and hence own small amounts of many companies, including ones like Northrop Grumman. It is here where the PAX report identifies genuine leverage that regular people can wield over the nuclear behemoth. While the facts and figures are all interesting enough on their own, PAX’s work is not aimed at encouraging its audience to engage in the passive consumption of information. Its goal is to provide tools for everyone to take action, with a rational hope that we can in fact, slowly but surely, consign nuclear weapons to history’s scrap heap. PAX is part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its role in the promotion of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted that year at the United Nations.'

US rejects calls for regulating or banning ‘killer robots’

The Guardian 02.12.21

The US, as the world’s law enforcer, is becoming increasingly dangerous as its policies convey lethal ramifications:

'The US has rejected calls for a binding agreement regulating or banning the use of “killer robots”, instead proposing a “code of conduct” at the United Nations.  Speaking at a meeting in Geneva focused on finding common ground on the use of such so-called lethal autonomous weapons, a US official balked at the idea of regulating their use through a “legally-binding instrument”…  “In our view, the best way to make progress ... would be through the development of a non-binding code of conduct,” US official Josh Dorosin told the meeting…  Activists and a number of countries have called for an all-out ban on any weapons that could use lethal force without a human overseeing the process and making the final kill order.  In November 2018, the UN chief, António Guterres, joined the call for a ban, but so far countries do not even agree on whether there is a need to regulate the weapons.  During Thursday’s debate, a number of countries, including India and the United States, criticised the idea of a legally binding agreement.’

FBI Investigation of Failed Mercenary Plot Delves Into Role of Erik Prince

The Intercept 30.10.21

The murky world of the infamous mercenary and former owner of Blackwater, Erik Prince, is truly revolting:

‘Federal investigators last summer began probing Prince’s involvement in the attempted sale of Jordanian military helicopters and arms as part of the 2019 plan to help self-declared Libyan leader Khalifa Hifter overthrow the country’s United Nations-backed government, according to four of the people familiar with the investigation.’

Robot dog with weapon on its back brings Black Mirror into terrifying reality (video)

The Independent 14.10.21

Spot the dog is now an official killer:

'A robot dog armed with a weapon on its back has been unveiled at the US Army trade show, bringing terrifying concepts from Black Mirror to life.  Footage shared on social media by journalist Haley Britzky shows three robots - complete with what appear to be green lights for eyes - patrolling the grounds outside the convention.  A number of Special Purpose “Unmanned Rifle” (SPUR) bots have been developed by Ghost Robotics and arms manufacturer SWORD.  One robot has been armed with a 6.5mm sniper rifle capable of precisely hitting targets from 3,940 feet away.’

How Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft wage a domestic War on Terror, and make billions

RT 16.09.21

Embedded in all US tech giants is a one-way service agreement to the military.  Neither Kit Klarenberg nor the report mentions Musk’s satellites, but you get the idea:

‘A new report has laid bare the relationship between Silicon Valley and the American state, and the trillions of dollars they have made since 9/11.  The War on Terror was a veritable feeding frenzy for defense contractors, with the sector profiting to the collective tune of trillions. However, it wasn’t the only industry cashing in – as a new report produced by three US campaign groups reveals, “household names in tech like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have respectively reaped billions from selling tech to the war machine.”’

Australia to build eight nuclear-powered submarines under new Indo-Pacific pact

Reuters 16.09.21

The drums of war are being oiled and re-skinned:

‘Australia will build eight nuclear-powered submarines under a new Indo-Pacific security partnership with the United States and Britain that analysts say will likely rile China, which will see the pact as an attempt to contain it.  Australia will be only the second country after Britain in 1958 to be given access to U.S. nuclear technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.’

Russia unveils combat robots that can take down tanks without putting soldiers in harm's way, as part of massive Zapad war games

RT 14.09.21

Robotic weaponry is a growth sector for Russia:

‘In footage released by the country's Ministry of Defense, two models of unmanned fighting vehicles showed off their capabilities and armaments, practicing turning fire on a simulated enemy during the Zapad-2021 joint exercises.  Among the two is the Uran-9 armored fighting vehicle, built like a conventional tank but driven remotely. It can be armed with both cannons and rocket systems, and is equipped with high-tech infrared and laser sensors to find and hit its targets. While little has been seen of the Uran-9 until the latest drills, early models are understood to have seen action during the Syrian Civil War. The fighting vehicle even has flamethrowers designed to scorch enemy infantry and clear out fortified positions.’

‘Havana syndrome ’ and the mystery of the microwaves

BBC 09.09.21

When authorities say that wireless or pulsed microwave radiation present no weaponised capabilities, don’t believe them.  These experiments have been going on for a while:

‘The country's interest in weaponising microwaves extended beyond the end of the Cold War. Reports say from the 1990s, the US Air Force had a project codenamed "Hello" to see if microwaves could create disturbing sounds in people's heads, one called "Goodbye" to test their use for crowd control, and one codenamed "Goodnight" to see if they could be used to kill people. Reports from a decade ago suggested these had not proved successful...  Five years on, some US officials say little more is known other than when Havana syndrome started. But others disagree. They say the evidence for microwaves is much stronger now, if not yet conclusive. The BBC has learnt that new evidence is arriving as data is collected and analysed more systematically for the first time. Some of the cases this year showed specific markers in the blood, indicating brain injury.’

Caitlin Johnstone: How long before we humans are being policed by robots?

RT 02.08.21

Autonomous killing machines are cheaper in the long run:

‘Hawaii police are defending their use of pandemic relief funds for a robotic “police dog” made by Boston Dynamics which scans homeless people’s eyes to see if they have a fever…  “The Winnipeg Police Service is set to acquire a pricey dog-shaped robot, to be used in hostage situations, that’s already been ditched by police in New York City.  “‘Spot’ is made by Boston Dynamics, which sells the device for US$74,500. Winnipeg police are spending $257,000 to acquire and use Spot. The 32-kilogram robot ‘has the ability to navigate obstacles, uneven terrain (and) situations where our traditional robot platforms can’t go into,’ said Insp. Brian Miln at a news conference Wednesday.”…  On-the-ground robot policing is becoming normalized today under the justification of Covid-19 precautions in the same way police around the world have normalized the use of drones to police coronavirus restrictions, at the same time police departments are rolling out dystopian systems for predicting future criminality using computer programs and databases.  This is all happening as the French Army is testing these ‘Spot’ robots for use in combat situations, years after the Pentagon requested the development of a “Multi-Robot Pursuit System” which can “search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject” like a pack of dogs. New Scientist’s Paul Marks reported on the latter development back in 2008:  “Steve Wright of Leeds Metropolitan University is an expert on police and military technologies, and last year correctly predicted this pack-hunting mode of operation would happen. ‘The giveaway here is the phrase “a non-cooperative human subject,”’ he told me:  “What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack of dogs. Once the software is perfected we can reasonably anticipate that they will become autonomous and become armed.  “We can also expect such systems to be equipped with human detection and tracking devices including sensors which detect human breath and the radio waves associated with a human heart beat. These are technologies already developed.”’

Greece aims long-range sound cannons at migrants across its border

Coda 28.07.21

Long Range Acoustic Devices (Lrads), a disputed weapon which causes hearing loss, is gaining popularity:

‘In May, Greek police staged a press call near the border town of Feres to proudly show off their latest technological acquisition. Mounted on a vehicle, it looked like a large, grey tannoy — a little bigger than a megaphone, equipped with dials and colored buttons. Wearing earplugs, a police officer grabbed its handles and moved the device in different directions as it emitted a piercing alarm sound.   “Our task is to prevent migrants from entering the country illegally. We need modern equipment and tools to do that,” said Police Maj. Dimosthenis Kamargios, head of the region’s border guard authority.  The model on show — the LRAD 450XL — is produced by Genasys, a leading U.S. company that has been developing long-range sonic devices, or sound cannons, for three decades. The 450XL is capable of emitting sound levels up to 150 decibels. Equivalent to having a shotgun blasted directly beside your ear, sounds of that volume are capable of causing permanent hearing loss.’

Analysis: Caught between China and the U.S., Asian countries stockpile missiles

Reuters 20.07.21

In this age of suspicions, divisions and sanctions, a proliferation of arms signals a deteriorating global landscape, profiting none other than weapons’ manufacturers:

'Before the decade is out, Asia will be bristling with conventional missiles that fly farther and faster, hit harder, and are more sophisticated than ever before - a stark and dangerous change from recent years, analysts, diplomats, and military officials say.  "The missile landscape is changing in Asia, and it’s changing fast," said David Santoro, president of the Pacific Forum.  Such weapons are increasingly affordable and accurate, and as some countries acquire them, their neighbours don't want to be left behind, analysts said. Missiles provide strategic benefits such as deterring enemies and boosting leverage with allies, and can be a lucrative export…  

Japan has spent millions on long range air-launched weapons, and is developing a new version of a truck-mounted anti-ship missile, the Type 12, with an expected range of 1,000 kilometres.  Among U.S. allies, South Korea fields the most robust domestic ballistic missile programme, which got a boost from a recent agreement with Washington to drop bilateral limits on its capabilities. Its Hyunmoo-4 has an 800-kilometre range, giving it a reach well inside China.  "When the U.S. allies' conventional long-range-strike capabilities grow, the chances of their employment in the event of a regional conflict also increase," Zhao Tong, a strategic security expert in Beijing, wrote in a recent report.  Despite the concerns, Washington "will continue to encourage its allies and partners to invest in defence capabilities that are compatible with coordinated operations," U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, told Reuters.’

New semi-autonomous robot to be deployed to Gaza border 

Jerusalem Post 28.06.21

The most morally heinous army in the world is deploying robots to kill humans.  Reducing the risk of human life by favouring one race over another.  Despicable:

‘By using the robot instead of soldiers, it “thus reduces the risk to human life,” the IDF said in a statement, adding that “the Jaguar is one of the most innovative ground robots of the ‘smart and deadly’ border project in the northern division of the Gaza Strip.”  During  Operation Guardian of the Walls, last month, the IDF relied heavily on robots and machine learning, calling the fighting the first “Artificial Intelligence War.”  “For the first time, artificial intelligence was a key component and power multiplier in fighting the enemy,” a senior IDF officer told reporters in May. “This is a first-of-its-kind campaign for the IDF – we implemented new methods of operation and used technological developments that were a force multiplier for the entire IDF.”’

Human Augmentation – The Dawn of a New Paradigm

Ministry of Defence 13.05.21

This report was included in the UK government website although it is stated that it is not part of government policy. It strongly recommends developing super soldiers and makes for a fascinating read. As excerpts cannot be taken without permission, you will have to look at it.

Lethal Autonomous Weapons Exist; They Must Be Banned

IEEE 16.06.21

That goes without saying:

‘To the best of our knowledge, this official United Nations reporting marks the first documented use case of a lethal autonomous weapon system akin to what has elsewhere been called a “Slaughterbot.” We believe this is a landmark moment. Civil society organizations, such as ours, have previously advocated for a preemptive treaty prohibiting the development and use of lethal autonomous weapons, much as blinding weapons were preemptively banned in 1998. The window for preemption has now passed, but the need for a treaty is more urgent than ever…  The UN report notes: “Logistics convoys and retreating [Haftar Affiliated Forces] were subsequently hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2 (see Annex 30) and other loitering munitions. The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition.” Annex 30 of the report depicts photographic evidence of the downed STM Kargu-2 system…  A recent position statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross on autonomous weapons systems concurs. It states that “use of autonomous weapon systems to target human beings should be ruled out. This would best be achieved through a prohibition on autonomous weapon systems that are designed or used to apply force against persons.” This sentiment is shared by many civil society organizations, such as the UK-based advocacy organization Article 36, which recommends that “An effective structure for international legal regulation would prohibit certain configurations—such as systems that target people.”’

MoD report urges embrace of human augmentation to fully exploit drones and AI for warfighting

Drone Wars 09.06.21

When trans-humanism is the weapon career of choice:

‘Suggested human augmentation to explore for military purposes includes the use of brain interfaces, pharmaceuticals and gene therapy.  Humans, argues the report, should be seen as a ‘platform’ in the same way as vehicles, aircraft and ships, with three elements of ‘the human platform’ to be developed: the physical, the psychological and the social…  he report defines human augmentation as ‘the application of science and technologies to temporarily or permanently improve human performance.’ It then differentiates between human optimisation which can “improve human performance up to the limit of biological capabilities without adding new capabilities” and human enhancement which can take the humans “beyond the limits of biological potential”…  

In a sign of how it is going to make its argument in the debate, it likens opposition to human augmentation to the opposition by some to vaccines, saying that the discovery of smallpox saved millions of lives but was condemned at the time by some of the world’s leading thinkers.  “We cannot assume human augmentation will be automatically effective or accepted in its intended use, no matter how beneficial its effects may be. Human augmentation may be resisted by elements in society that do not trust the effectiveness and motive of augmentation.  At the same time, the authors of the report make clear that military developments in this area should not wait for public agreement or ethical debate but be “based on the national interest in terms of prosperity, safety and security…  “  Human augmentation – as the report acknowledges – could change our understanding of what it means to be human. But using human augmentation to eliminate so-called weaknesses in order to increase our aptitude for organised violence also threatens our humanity. The notion that humanity  is a weak link to be eradicated in order to be more lethal is simply appalling.”

Not Even Covid-19 Could Slow Down Nuclear Spending

The Intercept 07.06.21

Despite the condemnations, nuclear weaponry, as well as nuclear energy, is soaring and is not going away any time soon:

‘A new report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons released Monday examines in detail just who’s getting all the radioactive cash and why. ICAN received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 in recognition for its work “to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons…”  There are currently nine countries that possess nuclear weapons: the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea. ICAN calculated that they collectively spent $72.6 billion in 2020 on nukes…  ICAN was a key force behind the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted in 2017 at the United Nations. It makes illegal any activities related to nuclear weapons and has been signed by 86 countries and ratified by 54. It entered into force this past January.  None of the nuclear powers are signatories.’

IDF brags of waging 'first AI war,' lending credence to view that Gaza serves as testing ground for Israel's fighting techniques

RT 28.05.21

Israel callously boasts of its ‘export-ready’ AI destructive capabilities which it has thoroughly tested against Palestinians:

‘"For the first time, artificial intelligence (AI) was a key component and power multiplier in fighting the enemy," a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Intelligence Corps said, as cited by Israeli media. The elite intelligence Unit 8200 used programs called "Alchemist," "Gospel" and "Depth of Wisdom," to further boost an already overwhelming superiority that IDF has over militants in the blockaded Gaza enclave. AI-powered analysis was applied to vast amounts of data collected through satellite imaging, surveillance cameras, interception of communications and human intelligence, according to the Israeli military. The volume of intelligence was staggering. The IDF said, for example, that any given point in Gaza was imaged at least 10 times each day during the conflict. The military appears to be happy with what it got out of the algorithms. The "Gospel" program, for example, flagged in real time hundreds of targets for the Israeli Air Force to strike, while the "Alchemist" system warned Israeli troops of possible attacks on their positions, according to the reports… Not only weapons systems but also information-collection technologies, which provided the fodder for the IDF's analytical algorithms, are also rooted to a large degree in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Public concerns about terrorist attacks by radicalized members of the population in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories allowed for justification and for resources to pour into many policing tools. These include mass surveillance through street cameras, bulk harvesting of communication metadata, real-time monitoring of social media, and others.’

The U.S. is alarmingly close to an autonomous weapons arms race

Fast Company 27.05.21

With no enforceable international regulations, we will be entering into a new ‘cold AI’ war:

'We may enter a period of escalation that recalls the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. “There’s an AI arms race where I’m worried about your development of this technology and you’re worried about my development of this technology, and neither of us communicates that we’re aware of the limitations,” said Chris Meserole, director of research and policy for the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative at the Brookings Institution. He spoke during a Defense One/Nextgov panel discussion on AI ethics and policy… This mutual paranoia might be even worse with autonomous weapons systems. The development of such systems is moving faster than that of nuclear weapons, and it’s accelerating. Many in U.S. defense circles believe China already has an advantage. The centralized Chinese government, they say, can move faster than the U.S. government to leverage private-sector development of AI and autonomous technology and turn it to use in military applications… The side with the best data and quickest means of processing it may have the edge. The fear of yielding that advantage might force a state actor to accelerate its development of autonomous systems, perhaps without addressing reliability or ethics questions.’

Teaching artificial intelligence to control navy submarines

BBC 21.05.21

An autonomous submarine is birthed in the UK. What could go wrong?:

‘In the future Cdr Ramsey believes submarines will be equipped with the ability to launch their own autonomous vessels. The next generation of surface warships entering service are already planned to feature mission-bays for launching uncrewed vessels. And autonomous submarines can be deployed by transport aircraft, giving the batteries a rest and the XLUUV a global reach. The longer-term prospect for AI-controlled submarines is rosy, says Cdr Ramsey. "I can see a way to do a Perisher for AI. Get the right people to recreate their experiences in a simulator and let the AI learn from that, including human decisions that might be wrong. Give it ten years' worth of data and it will be able to build its own rules." This simulator-based course for computer code promises another big benefit. "The AI can test out its own rules without any risk. My worry with autonomous submarines is the political impact if the vessel does something wrong or gets caught in hostile waters," he says.’

‘The Skunk’: Another Israeli weapon for collective punishment

Al Jazeera 12.05.21

A long-used weapon in the occupied territories, the ‘skunk’ is finding favour abroad:

‘Skunk water is a liquid compound with an overpowering odour that has been described by those who have experienced it as the smell of sewage mixed with rotting corpses. In reality, it is a concoction of chemicals that causes intense nausea, obstructing normal breathing, causing violent gagging and vomiting. The company’s safety sheet also indicates that it can cause skin irritation, eye and abdominal pain. Palestinians have also reported that it causes hair loss. Security forces that use skunk water claim that it is non-lethal and non-toxic. Yet high doses can have a lethal effect, and when it is fired from a water cannon, it is sprayed at extremely high pressure, which can cause serious injury… Apart from selling skunk water to the Israeli government to use on Palestinians, Odortec also exports it. In the United States, it is supplied by the company Mistral Security, which recommends its usage at “border crossings, correctional facilities, demonstrations and sit-ins”. Several police departments have already bought it, including the one in Ferguson, Missouri, following the 2015 protests against police brutality and institutional racism. The fact that this weapon developed by an Israeli company is gaining popularity abroad is unsurprising. Israel is the largest per capita exporter of arms in the world and it uses Palestinians as its guinea pigs to demonstrate their “efficacy” and “deadliness”. Odortec and other Israeli arms manufacturers do not even have to invest in marketing their weapons; news channels running footage of brutal attacks by the Israeli army do the job for them.’

Keep Weapons Out of Space — ‘The New War-Fighting Domain’

Strategic Culture 11.05.21

In its paranoid belligerence, the US is a pro-war candidate:

‘Unconditional U.S. opposition to peace in space was exemplified by its 2014 rejection of a UN General Assembly resolution on the prevention of an arms race in that domain. It is extremely difficult to see how any government could object to a proposal that calls “on all states, in particular those with major space capabilities, to contribute actively to the peaceful use of outer space, prevent an arms race there, and refrain from actions contrary to that objective.” But sure enough, although 178 countries consider this to be a good thing for the future of the world, and voted for the resolution, the United States and Israel abstained. It is verging on the incredible that these countries would not endorse a proposal that there should be peaceful use of outer space. There was worse to come in the saga of space militarisation, for in November 2020 the First Committee of the UN General Assembly received no support from the U.S. for further initiatives that could guide the world away from the disaster that will befall us if there is no check on movement to “war-fighting” in space. Five resolutions were put forward concerning the furtherance of peace in space, and the U.S. voted against four of them, including the one that specified there should be “No first placement of weapons in outer space.” It seemed that the then U.S. administration actually favoured placement of weapons in space, and it is woeful that the Biden administration has not made it policy to cease militarisation of Trump’s “war-fighting domain”… Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s space policy by stating “We consistently believe that only guaranteed prevention of an arms race in space will make it possible to use it for creative purposes, for the benefit of the entire mankind. We call for negotiations on the development of an international legally binding instrument that would prohibit the deployment of any types of weapons there, as well as the use of force or the threat of force.” The policy could not be clearer. And it was followed by a similar declaration by China’s Zhao Lijian that “We are calling on the international community to start negotiations and reach agreement on arms control in order to ensure space safety as soon as possible. China has always been in favour of preventing an arms race in space; it has been actively promoting negotiations on a legally binding agreement on space arms control jointly with Russia.”’

From bioweapons to super soldiers: how the UK is joining the genomic technology arms race

The Conversation 29.04.21

Super soldiers on the rise and accountability by the exit door:

‘There are signs that the UK will be bolder and less accountable in its genetic defence research than many other countries. For example, Aria won’t be subject to freedom of information requests, in contrasts with Darpa… In 2015, a UK national defence review highlighted the influence that advances in genetic engineering can have for “security and prosperity”. In the recent 2021 Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy review the UK government once again stressed its significance for “defence and national security”. The proposed lack of accountability of Aria, combined with the government’s general mission for genome technology to be expanded into security and defence applications, will create a hotpot of debate and discussion. In recent years, British scientists have received Darpa funding for controversial genomic research, such as genetic extinction of invasive species such as mosquitoes or rodents. Despite its promise, this could have disastrous potential to damage food security and threaten the wider ecosystems of nations. Genome technology deployment needs to be managed in a universally, ethically and scientifically robust manner. If it isn’t, the potential for a new arms race for advances in this research will only lead to more radical and potentially dangerous solutions. There are many unanswered questions about how Aria will help genome research within the military sphere. The pathway the UK chooses will have lasting consequences on how we perceive genome tech in the public space.’

Project Force: Who will win the underwater arms race?

Al Jazeera 20.04.21

Submarines are refining their evasive techniques:

‘Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) is a technology which solves that problem and allows a submarine to remain submerged and relatively safe for extended periods – weeks instead of days… With enhanced weapons like hypersonic missiles being developed, submarines are growing deadlier with each new generation. While major powers are sticking with nuclear propulsion, other countries are investing in cheaper, yet capable alternatives. New advances in fuel cells mean that these new, non-nuclear subs can stay underwater for weeks if not months. Developments in sensor technology and design allow them to run with far smaller crews while still increasing the range of missions they can undertake. In short, subs are here to stay and underwater warfare is about to enter a new and important phase.’

Mobile Weapon System Kills Entire Drone Swarms Using Microwaves

Futurism 14.04.21

Can someone please refute that 5G tech (pulsed radio wave technology) is way more dangerous than the public is led to believe?

‘Los Angeles-based startup Epirus has an idea to take out enemy drone swarms: a weapon that blasts out beams of high-power microwaves. The weapon, dubbed Leonidas, is small enough to fit on the back of a pickup truck and can emit powerful microwaves that force target drones out of the sky, New Scientist reports. “Our systems allow us the capability to widen or narrow the beam and put a null in any direction to disable enemy targets and nothing else,” CEO Leigh Madden told New Scientist.… Leonidas uses an array of solid-state gallium nitride emitters, similar to those found in contemporary 5G communications equipment.’

Outcry as Video Shows Robodog Patrolling With NYPD

Futurism 13.04.21

Yuck:

'A new video going viral on Twitter shows a robot police dog patrolling with cops from the New York City police department… The decision to deploy the robots was met with widespread criticism and raised privacy concerns among many earlier this year. In February, the robot was used during a Bronx home invasion to reportedly ensure that there was nobody inside, as The New York Times reported at the time. The police have maintained that they are using the robots to save lives. “The NYPD has been using robots since the 1970s to save lives in hostage situations and hazmat incidents,” the department tweeted in February. “This model of robot is being tested to evaluate its capabilities against other models in use by our Emergency Service Unit and Bomb Squad.” Boston Dynamics has attempted to distance itself from its products being used by not only police departments around the world, but military armed forces as well.’

Biden’s $715 Billion Pentagon Plan Stirs Debate Over Size, Focus

Bloomberg 08.04.21

No matter which president is in place, the Pentagon is always winning:

‘President Joe Biden plans to request $715 billion for his first Pentagon budget, quickly generating a vigorous debate in Congress over how much to spend on defense and how to spend it…  The proposal, announced Friday as part of the president’s broader budget plan for the next fiscal year, signals efforts to deter China and Russia by advancing hypersonic weapons and bolstering the U.S. Navy fleet with ballistic missile submarines and unmanned ships.’

The French Army Is Testing Spot the Robot on the Battlefield

Gizmodo 07.04.21

French army sees clear use for Spot the Dog:

‘As reported by news outlet Ouest-France, Spot and some robot friends are supplying intelligence and support for ground troops. The other robots included the French-made pack robot called the Nexter ULTRO and Shark Robotics Barakuda, a wheeled drone that carries a heavy blast shield to protect the students…  The test in France, however, seems to be the first time Spot has been seen in a true military setting. Luckily, the French haven’t armed this little fellow yet although it’s not like people haven’t tried.'

Microsoft to sell augmented reality goggles to army

BBC 01.04.21

Microsoft seem to have rebounded after the Solar Wind hack and is cozying up to the Pentagon:

‘US tech giant Microsoft is to sell augmented reality headsets to the US army in a bumper deal worth up to $21.9bn (£15.9bn) over 10 years.   The headsets are based on its HoloLens product, which allows users to see holograms laid over their actual environment… The company said that the Army had moved into the production phase of the project.  In a blog post, Microsoft said the headsets "will keep soldiers safer and make them more effective".   "The program delivers enhanced situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios," the post said.  After Microsoft announced the $480m IVAS contract in 2018, at least 94 workers petitioned the company to cancel the deal and stop developing "any and all weapons technologies". ‘

Combat Drones Made in China Are Coming to a Conflict Near You

Bloomberg 17.03.21

The US is still gung-ho about dropping bombs and replenishing its war industry efforts, the UK is building more nuclear missiles and China is exporting deadly technology, doing what it’s best at, providing competitively priced deadly drones.  The future is not bright:

‘The deal is one of a growing number of sales by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), which has exported scores of the aircraft. The United Arab Emirates has used AVIC drones in Libya’s civil war, Egypt has attacked rebels in Sinai with them, and Saudi-led troops have deployed them in Yemen. The company’s drones “are now battle-tested,” says Heather Penney, a fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, a think tank in Arlington, Va. “They’ve been able to feed lessons learned back into their manufacturing”…  AVIC’s drones have two big selling points: They’re cheaper than comparable aircraft from producers in the U.S. or Israel—the other primary manufacturers—and China doesn’t much care how they’re used, says Ulrike Franke, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “China is willing to export armed drones to almost anyone,” she says. AVIC didn’t respond to requests for comment.’

Project Force: Hypersonic weapons and the new space race

Al Jazeera 09.03.21

As more satellite mushroom in space, so does disabling weaponry:

‘These new classes of weapon – ultra-fast hypersonic missiles that can hit any target on the planet within an hour as well as killer satellites that can sabotage and destroy other satellites – and the advent of increasingly sophisticated military spacecraft are all helping to reshape the way future wars will be fought…  An intense race is on between the world’s powers for control of these new technologies and for mastery of orbital space. This is spurred on by the tantalising prospect that possession of these new weapons will give a country the boost it needs to prevail over the United States, currently the pre-eminent military power on earth. The United States, for its part, wishes to keep its number one slot.’

The toxic legacy of nuclear weapons testing serves as a stark warning of the danger these weapons pose

RT 11.03.21

It’s unfathomable that nuclear arms are still being considered:

‘The Saharan radioactive dust cloud is but the most recent visible phenomenon of a plague that has infected much of the world. Cancer and birth defects can be linked to hundreds of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted by the five so-called “nuclear powers” (the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom). The secrecy that these states attached–and still attach–to these tests has complicated efforts to obtain a true and accurate account of the human cost associated with nuclear weapons testing. Even the horrific numbers put out by a 1991 study by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which estimated that the radiation and radioactive materials from atmospheric testing taken in by people caused 430,000 cancer deaths by the year 2000, and predicted that roughly 2.4 million people could eventually die from cancer because of atmospheric testing, is just a guess…  While the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons is a thing of the past, the continued utility of nuclear weapons as a so-called “weapon of deterrence” should send alarm bells off around the world. The fact that nations continue to incorporate these weapons into their respective arsenals, and develop a doctrine that envisions their possible use, underscores the fact that people and politicians have lost touch with how utterly awful these weapons are, and why they must never be used again.’

The Army’s New Goggles Let Soldiers See Right Through Walls

Popular Mechanics 08.03.21

Army goggles go digital:

‘The Army is developing its Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) goggles for close-combat forces, including mounted and dismounted troops, particularly infantry. The service hopes to field tens of thousands of the goggles, which can also help soldiers see in the dark, check around corners, and even project digital maps and other data onto the lenses.  Because these goggles access feeds from the omnidirectional cameras mounted on the outside of armored vehicles, a squad of six soldiers, nestled safely in the back of a Bradley or Stryker infantry vehicle, can “see” through the walls of the car, getting a clear picture of the scene.’

Biden urged to back AI weapons to counter China and Russia threats

BBC 02.03.21

So the race for geopolitical dominance must have autonomous weapons in its fabric.  Interestingly, this viewpoint is firmly backed by tech giants which would monstrously gain  from its development:

‘The US and its allies should reject calls for a global ban on AI-powered autonomous weapons systems, according to an official report commissioned for the American President and Congress.  It says that artificial intelligence will "compress decision time frames" and require military responses humans cannot make quickly enough alone.  And it warns Russia and China would be unlikely to keep to any such treaty.  But critics claim the proposals risk driving an "irresponsible" arms race.  "This is a shocking and frightening report that could lead to the proliferation of AI weapons making decisions about who to kill," said Prof Noel Sharkey, spokesman for the Campaign To Stop Killer Robots.  "The most senior AI scientists on the planet have warned them about the consequences, and yet they continue. "This will lead to grave violations of international law.”  The report counters that if autonomous weapons systems have been properly tested and are authorised for use by a human commander, then they should be consistent with International Humanitarian Law. The recommendations were made by the National Security Commission on AI - a body headed by ex-Google chief Eric Schmidt and ex-Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, who served under Presidents Obama and Trump.   Other members include Andy Jassy, Amazon's next chief executive, Google and Microsoft AI chiefs Dr Andrew Moore and Dr Eric Horvitz, and Oracle chief executive Safra Catz.’

The Pentagon Sent a Pizza Box-Sized Solar Panel Into Space, But I'm Sure Everything Is Fine

Gizmodo 25.02.21

A free hand for the military complex to do what the heck it wants:

‘The scientists want to send dozens of these panels to orbit the Earth, and they say if they scale up the project, it could produce enough electricity to fuel a whole city. But as far as I can tell, no one has been clamoring for space power. Myself and the other 99.9% of humanity would be perfectly happy with solar, wind, and other clean energy generated right here on Earth.  If these Defense Department scientists successfully get more of these panels into orbit, there’s no telling what horrors the nation will use them for. After all, the Pentagon is the least-regulated part of the federal government, and the agency says they can supply energy to any part of Earth. The scientists in charge of the program have said it could be used to help in places struck by natural disasters. And the Department of Defense has developed or helped developed some things with civilian applications, notably the internet...  The Department of Defense has been behind research into direct energy weapons, spying plants, “spacetime modification weapon” that would “make the Hydrogen bomb seem more like a firecracker, in comparison.” So forgive if I’m a little skeptical. But hey, maybe I’m wrong, and this is all a ploy to bring free power to countries where the U.S. military destroyed the power grid. Or maybe we’ll do another forever war but make it green! Great! One way the technology won’t likely be used: as a space laser because it would be “exceedingly difficult” to assemble, particularly in a discreet manner, according to what the scientists told CNN. So at least we can put that conspiracy to bed for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.’

MSCHF’s latest drop lets you control a Boston Dynamics robot with a paintball gun on its back 

The Verge 22.02.21

It’s up to an art collective to showcase Spot’s targeting and killing capabilities, in stark contrast to Boston Dynamics wishing us to view it as a smooth dancer:

‘Quoth MSCHF’s latest manifesto:   When killer robots come to America they will be wrapped in fur, carrying a ball. Spot is Rob Rhinehart’s ideal pet: it never shits.  Good Boy, Spot! Everyone in this world takes one look at cute little Spot and knows: this thing will definitely be used by police and the military to murder people. And what do police departments have? Strong unions! Spot is employee of the month. You never need to union bust a robot - but a robot can union bust you…  “There is a danger that that Boston Dynamics might just shut it off,” says programmer Matthew Rayfield. “Just based on some of the documentation and policies, you have to sign to use this and get this, it seems that there are certain uses, including violent type stuff, that they don’t want it used for,” he continues. “And it does seem like reading that they have a kill switch that they might just flip.”’

UAE unveils $1.36bn in arms deals at Abu Dhabi weapons show

Al Jazeera 22.02.21

An arms exhibition is a sure way to keep economic engines running because, well, there’s no shortage of wars:

‘The flow of weapons in the Middle East has increased by 61 percent over the past five years, according to a recent report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, amid grinding proxy wars in Libya, Syria and Yemen…  At the pavilion for Saudi Arabia, ranked the world’s largest weapons importer over the last five years, officials were trying to promote the kingdom as an emerging defence giant under its “Vision 2030”.  The programme, pushed by de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aims to break the country’s import addiction, diversify its economy away from oil, and localise more than half of its military spending.’

The US Army is building the most powerful laser weapon in the world

Futurism 19.02.21

For those interested in the capabilities of pulse-driven weapons, please consult my research on 5G technology:

‘The United States Army is developing a powerful new laser weapon capable of rapidly firing metal-vaporizing pulses, much like a machine gun.  The new weapon, called the Tactical Ultrashort Pulsed Laser for Army Platforms, is expected to be about a million times stronger than any other laser weapon out there, New Scientist reports. Based on the military’s plans for the weapon, the laser will more closely resemble the sorts of laser rifles in science fiction movies than anything engineers have built in the past.  The new weapon, by contrast, is powerful enough to vaporize rather than melt metal, making it a far more effective armament, according to New Scientist. It fires incredibly short pulses — between 20 and 50 each second — that are shaped in a way that allows them to self-focus as they travel, not unlike the bullet-like “blaster” shots depicted in the “Star Wars” films, which allows the new laser to hit much more distant targets without dissipating.  Aside from building a more powerful laser in its own right, the military is leaning even further into sci-fi tropes and trying to give the weapon an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effect as well. When the lasers strike metal, the plan is that they rapidly accelerate electrons that are strong enough to disrupt nearby electronics.’

US Military to Have 3D-Printing Factories in Shipping Containers

Interesting Engineering 17.02.21

3D printers are being increasingly used by the military:

‘The 3D-printing pods will be housed in regular shipping containers up to 40 feet (12 meters) long, will be easy and quick to deploy, and won't require a huge amount of technical knowledge to maneuver. In order to do so, ExOne is developing a "military edition" of its binder jet 3D-printing technology.’

And guns are more easily produced with such printers.

Rex Tillerson Screwed Up Investigation Into Cuba 'Sonic Weapon' Attacks, New Report Says

Gizmodo 12.02.21

Can’t help but wonder whether less secrecy surrounding the investigation would have shed light onto similar weaponry used by the US:

‘A previously undisclosed report from the State Department’s Accountability Review Board paints a picture of dysfunction, miscommunication and excessive secrecy during Tillerson’s tenure as Secretary of State, the likes of which prevented a thorough investigation into the rash of weird incidents that has left more than a dozen bureaucrats with brain injuries. The report was published Wednesday by the National Security Archive.  The disturbing incidents, first publicized in 2017, have seen foreign officials—mostly CIA agents—afflicted with a range of bizarre symptoms consistent with significant brain trauma. The symptoms were initially attributed to pesticide exposure and crickets, but the conversation has evolved to suggest the injuries resulted from an attack via some sort of “sonic weapon,” likely involving concentrated microwave radiation. Though the first incidents occurred in Cuba, similar episodes have since been reported in China and Uzbekistan, among other places.'

Humans must retain control of military AI systems, MEPs say

SiliconRepublic 21.01.21

Good move by the EU:

‘MP Giles Lebreton said there needs to be legal responses to the challenges posed by AI development.  “To prepare the Commission’s legislative proposal on this subject, this report aims to put in place a framework which essentially recalls that, in any area, especially in the military field and in those managed by the state such as justice and health, AI must always remain a tool used only to assist decision-making or help when taking action. It must never replace or relieve humans of their responsibility,” he said.’

Xi Jinping orders China’s military to be ready for war ‘at any second’

South China Morning Post 05.01.21

2021 looks set to be a real downer:

'Xi, who also chairs China’s  Central Military Commission (CMC), the top command body, said the PLA must be ready to “act at any second” as the country’s armed forces kicked off the year’s military training and exercises on Monday.  He also ordered the PLA to “substantially increase” the use of technology in its exercises, and to keep up with the latest developments in military and hi-tech knowledge. These included the use of computer simulations and online combat in drills, as well as exploration of more opportunities to add hi-tech and the internet – known as tech+ and web+ – in training. “[The PLA must] increase the integration of new equipment, new forces and new combat realms into training and combat systems,” he said.’

France gets go-ahead to develop bionic soldiers

The Independent 10.12.20

Like a déjà-vu of ‘the race for 5G’.  Seriously pathetic:

‘“Augmented” soldiers are a step closer to becoming a reality in France, after the country’s military ethics committee gave the go-ahead for research into new enhancing technologies.   In a report released to the public on Tuesday, the committee, which is made up of 18 professionals from different fields, said it was “imperative not to inhibit research into the enhanced soldier”.   Potential areas to be explored include implants to increase soldiers’ “cerebral capacity” and to make them immune to stress.   Drugs to improve service member’s mental resilience in the event they were captured are also being considered.  Without enabling research into technologies such as these, the French armed forces would be at a disadvantage compared to other countries’ militaries, the report added.’

Meet The Army’s Future Family Of Robot Tanks: RCV

Breaking Defense 09.11.20

A lot of new toys for the warmongering creeps:

‘On a future battlefield, seven-ton tracked robots scout the enemy. Some of these Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) Light variants sweep paths through minefields. Others pop smoke to conceal the advance. Still others jam enemy transmissions and take potshots with anti-tank missiles...  This vision is years from reality, but the Army is experimenting with  surrogate unmanned vehicles. Contractor Qinetiq has already delivered the first of four experimental RCV-Lights; Textron is making four Mediums. Building a prototype Heavy awaits progress on Active Protection Systems, miniaturized missile defenses meant to make a modestly armored 30-ton vehicle as survivable in battle as a 70-ton main battle tank…’

'Robot soldiers could make up quarter of British army by 2030s’

The Guardian 08.11.20

Wars and assaults are becoming easier by the day.  What will the scenario be for taking an AI to court for murder?:

‘The MoD says its policy is that only human beings will be able to fire weapons, although there is growing concern about the potential danger of unrestricted robot warfare, led by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.  Technology under development includes the i9 drone, which is powered by six rotors and carries two shotguns. Remotely operated, it is intended to be used to storm buildings, typically an urban warfare situation that generates some of the highest casualties.’

EU accused of abandoning migrants to the sea with shift to drone surveillance

The Guardian 28.10.20

Israeli military tech is being used for detecting desperate migrants trying to live elsewhere.  What have we become?:

‘German MEP Özlem Demirel, who has repeatedly questioned the EU commission since the tender was issued a year ago, said it was “scandalous” to be equipping Europe’s border forces with the technology. “The EU’s external border is increasingly militarised, because surveillance drones are primarily military technology,” she said.  Demirel also criticised the EU’s partnership with the Libyan coastguard, which it has funded and trained, despite criticism of its connection to militias and accusations of involvement in trafficking.  Frontex’s budget increased to €460m this year, up from €333m last year and €142m in 2015, as Europe focuses more on policing its borders.  It issued tenders last year for mobile surveillance systems with infrared cameras and radars that could be mounted on pickup vehicles and vans to detect cross-border movement.’

The threat of ‘killer robots’ is real and closer than you might think

The Conversation 15.10.20

‘Weaponised AI features heavily in the security strategies of the US, China and Russia. And some existing weapons systems already include autonomous capabilities based on AI, developing weaponised AI further means machines could potentially make decisions to harm and kill people based on their programming, without human intervention…  Unlike machines, human decisions to use force cannot be pre-programmed. Indeed, the brunt of international humanitarian law obligations apply to actual, specific battlefield decisions to use force, rather than to earlier stages of a weapons system’s lifecycle. This was highlighted by a member of the Brazilian delegation at the recent UN meetings.   Adhering to international humanitarian law in the fast-changing context of warfare also requires constant human assessment. This cannot simply be done with an algorithm. This is especially the case in urban warfare, where civilians and combatants are in the same space.   Ultimately, to have machines that are able to make the decision to end people’s lives violates human dignity by reducing people to objects. As Peter Asaro, a philosopher of science and technology, argues: “Distinguishing a ‘target’ in a field of data is not recognising a human person as someone with rights.” Indeed, a machine cannot be programmed to appreciate the value of human life...  Though the uncertainty surrounding what meaningful human control actually is shows that more clarity in the form of new international law is needed.   This must focus on the essential qualities that make human control meaningful, while retaining human judgement in the context of specific use-of-force decisions. Without it, there’s a risk of undercutting the value of new international law aimed at curbing weaponised AI.'

Cockpit Electromagnetic Fields May Be Harming Pilots, The U.S. Military Fear

Forbes 14.09.20

Tech wizardry entails health consequences:

‘DARPA’s Impact of Cockpit Electro-Magnetics on Aircrew Neurology (ICEMAN) is a two-year project that aims to determine whether radio waves and magnetic fields are harming pilots. Previous DARPA research has found that “human brains sense magnetic fields, like those used by animals for navigation, and that this process is ‘jammed’ (i.e., disrupted) by radio waves (RF), impacting brainwaves and behavior. Furthermore, recent findings were the first to show that even weak RF fields and ‘earth strength’ magnetic fields have measurable, reproducible effects on human brainwaves and unconscious behavior in a controlled environment”… To give an idea of just powerful cockpit electronics have become, DARPA notes that “current tactical audio headsets project magnetic fields up to 10 times earth strength.”  Phase I of ICEMAN will determine how much radio frequency and electromagnetic field noise are present in cockpits. Phase II will examine the effects of RF and EM noise on the human body. Researchers will be asked to design sensors to measure these effects, and to find ways to mitigate them.  

DARPA expressly states that this problem affect commercial as well as military pilots. “If this research and development effort reveals negative impacts of cockpit EM/RF environments on human cognitive function or physiological sensor performance, it is expected to generate interest from the commercial airline industry as well as other industries in which humans are exposed to similar EM/RF conditions,” the agency says…  But what’s significant about DARPA’s new project is that the suspected culprit isn’t just high-powered radar anymore. Pilots of cutting-edge aircraft, such as the F-35 stealth fighter, are encased in an electronic cocoon of powerful sensors, audiovisual displays, and special high-tech helmets. And it’s not just U.S. pilots: European, Russia, Israeli and other pilots of advanced aircraft also use this technology – and faced potential exposure to hazardous radiation.  Equally significant is that the Pentagon is admitting a disturbing possibility: that cockpit radiation may be affecting the mental judgment of pilots so badly that it’s causing them to crash their aircraft.'

Anduril’s New Drone Offers to Inject More AI Into Warfare

WIRED 10.09.20

Sky robots to ‘help us out’:

‘The new drone, the Ghost 4, shows the potential for AI in military systems. Luckey says it is the first generation that can perform various reconnaissance missions, including searching an area for enemy hardware or soldiers, under the control of a single person on the ground. The vehicle uses machine learning (the method behind most modern AI) to analyze imagery and identify targets, but it also relies on more conventional rules-based software for critical control and decisionmaking among swarm teammates… Luckey says the drones can carry a range of payloads, including systems capable of jamming enemy communications or an infrared laser to direct weapons at a target. In theory the drone could be fitted with its own weapons. “It would be possible,” he says. “But nobody’s done it yet.”… Anduril was founded by Luckey and several veterans of Palantir, which sells analytics software to the intelligence industry, and which last month filed for an IPO that could value it at $20 billion. Both Anduril and Palantir are backed by Peter Thiel, a prominent tech investor and Trump adviser.’

India successfully tests hypersonic scramjet demonstrator, moving forward with superfast cruise missiles (VIDEO)

RT 07.09.20

India develops a quicker way to kill:

‘India’s military research agency DRDO has successfully tested a scramjet-equipped flight demonstrator designed for cruising at Mach-6 speeds and aimed towards developing technology for future cruise missiles… Scramjet technology is being explored by countries like the US, Russia and China, for military purposes. Potentially it may become the go-to propulsion system for future multistage long-range cruise missiles that would be difficult to intercept due to high speeds. It was also proposed for low-orbit space launches, though such a vehicle would require additional rocket propulsion to make the final leg of a trip.’

Air Force moving Project Maven into Advanced Battle Management System portfolio

FedScoop 10.08.20

Earlier criticism of the killer drone project has been for nought:

'The Air Force is working to fold Project Maven into its ABMS tech stack to use the program’s AI capabilities to analyze and link data from the vast array of sensors used in battle. ABMS is the technical backbone of the joint force’s concept of Join All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) — a network-of-networks that aims to link “every sensor to every shooter” across air, land, sea, space and cyber…  The plan is that AI-enabled systems will process raw data collected from battle, turn it into actionable insights and push it to the people in the chain of command who need it.’

China is eyeing high-tech ‘surprise PEARL HARBOR’ attack on US electric grid… using ‘stolen’ American technology, report claims

RT 20.06.20

Electromagnetic pulse weapons (EMPs) are proving to be a better deterrent than nuclear ones in an accelerating space war scenario:

‘Beijing might be plotting a first strike attack on the US, which would target the country’s electric grid with a large electromagnetic pulse (EMP), sending it into a massive blackout, a new report warns…  According to the report, Beijing plans to hit the US with EMP weapons which would fry the country’s electric grid, sending it into chaos and facilitating an all-out attack. The “Super-EMP” weaponry was developed in China “based on design information stolen from the US nuclear weapon labs,” Pry alleged. The US, as well as the USSR, tested such devices back in the 1960s.  EMPs use low-yield nuclear warheads, designed specifically to maximise electromagnetic emissions rather than physical destructive power, but China classifies them as cyber weapons, the report claims.’

Corporations Are Bankrolling US Police Foundations Without Public Oversight

Truthout 19.06.20

When law institutions bypass regulations and go straight to tech companies for weaponry purchase:

‘Police foundations across the country are partnering with corporations to raise money to supplement police budgets by funding programs and purchasing tech and weaponry for law enforcement with little public oversight…  First, these foundations can purchase equipment and weapons with little public input or oversight. The Houston Police Foundation has an entire page on its website showcasing the equipment it purchased for the police department, including SWAT equipment, LRAD sound equipment, and dogs for the K-9 unit. The Philadelphia Police Foundation purchased long guns, drones, and ballistic helmets. The Atlanta Police Foundation helped fund a major surveillance network of over 12,000 cameras.  In Los Angeles, the police used foundation funding to purchase controversial surveillance software from Palantir. If the LAPD purchased this technology through its public budget, it would have been required to hold public meetings and gain approval from the city council. By having the foundation purchase it for them, the LAPD was able to bypass that oversight…  Police foundations are a key space for orchestrating, normalizing, and celebrating the collaboration between corporate power and the police.’

How to Dodge and Disarm the Sonic Weapon Used by Police

Popular Mechanics 17.06.20

Weaponry used to disperse and maim you:

'The first LRADs were developed as military weapons in response to the bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000. Military officials asked the LRAD Corporation (now Genasys) for a device with two functions: to communicate at a distance with potential threats, and to disperse them with an unbearable alarm-like sound… Protesters have reported LRAD attacks by police at the NODAPL protests at Standing Rock, during the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C., and in dozens of other cities and demonstrations around the world… This “directional” sound wave packs the typically diffuse kinetic energy into a tight space, bombarding those in its vicinity with a powerful tone that’s an annoyance at a distance … and a serious medical threat up close...  In 2017, a group of New Yorkers sued the NYPD for damages resulting from sonic attacks during the protests that followed the non-indictment of Daniel Pantaleo, one of the officers who murdered Eric Garner in 2014. The department argued loud sounds can’t constitute a use of force, which the judge rejected, allowing the case to proceed. An earlier suit in Pittsburgh awarded $72,000 to a bystander who suffered permanent hearing loss from an LRAD attack in 2009.’

Military’s AI hub is ready to think about war, Gen. Shanahan says on last day at Pentagon

FedScoop 29.05.20

Oh goodie, can’t wait for AI to be used as a killing medium:

‘The Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is ready to focus its efforts on bringing AI to warfare, Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan said Friday during his last day leading the office…  Earlier in May, the center inked an $800 million task order with Booz Allen Hamilton to kickstart its work with industry on the initiative. Booz Allen will serve as the prime “integrator” and bring smaller subcontractors into the fold.’

US Navy touts high-powered LASER WEAPON & shoots down drone in first at-sea demonstration

RT 22.05.20

New tech weapons in the military:

‘In addition to disabling drones and small boats, the LWSD can function as a “dazzler,” meaning it can blind enemy sensors, while integrated video cameras used for targeting can also act as a surveillance system, according to the Drive.  The Navy is also developing a medium-strength laser, the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS), which is expected to reach 60 kilowatts and could be installed on a wider variety of ships, including destroyers.’

Russia’s newest radar can track 1,000+ fast-moving & HYPERSONIC weapons, and is now available to foreign buyers

RT 21.05.20

The arms race between US and Russia is commercially hot:

‘Having unbeatable offensive weapons – for example hypersonic missiles – could be a game-changer in the age of modern, fast-paced warfare. But it’s equally crucial to have something that shields you from those designed or deployed by an adversary. And Russia’s newest radar station is able to fit the bill, Rosoboronexport, the government agency in charge of arms trade, said this Wednesday. The radar, which is the latest addition to the Protivnik (Adversary) family, is likely to turn a few heads abroad due to its capability to “efficiently detect a wide range of existing and future flying objects, including hypersonic targets.”’

More than one company could get cash to build the Air Force’s AI-equipped Skyborg drone

DefenseNews 21.05.20

And here I was, thinking that autonomous weapons were being scrapped:

‘The U.S. Air Force has kicked off a competition for one of its most highly anticipated tech programs, a drone known as Skyborg that will use artificial intelligence to make decisions in battle…  Last year, Roper told Defense News that the service was exploring the possibility of teaming Skyborg both with the Lockheed Martin F-35 and the Boeing F-15EX aircraft. The ability to team manned fighter jets with smart, autonomous drones could “open up the door for an entirely different way to do aerial combat,” he said in May 2019.  “We can take risk with some systems to keep others safer,” he said at the time. “We can separate the sensor and the shooter. Right now they’re collocated on a single platform with a person in it. In the future, we can separate them out, put sensors ahead of shooters, put our manned systems behind the unmanned.”’

The Air Force Mobilizes Its Laser and Microwave Weapons Abroad

Popular Mechanics 09.04.20

Beam threats to oblivion:

‘The Air Force has shipped three of its latest directed energy weapons overseas.  The weapons, HELWS, PHASER, and THOR will protect air bases from drone attack…  HELWS, developed by defense contractor Raytheon, is a laser weapon system mounted on a Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicle. The laser is coupled with an advanced electro-optical/infrared sensor designed to detect, identify, and track drones.   Once the command is given, HELWS fires a laser at the target, destroying it. Raytheon touts the system as being able to operate from a standard 220 volt outlet, firing dozens of shots before recharging. The Multi-Spectral Targeting System is the same surveillance and tracking system installed on MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones…  

The next weapon is PHASER, a microwave energy weapon. Also developed by Raytheon, PHASER is a microwave radar transmitter mounted on top of a shipping container. As Popular Mechanics described the weapon last year: “PHASER is high-powered microwaves cannon that emits radio frequencies in a conical beam. It doesn’t cook a drone with heat. Instead, the weapon disrupts or destroys their circuits with a burst of overwhelming energy.”   

The third weapon is the Tactical High Power Operational Responder, or THOR. THOR was developed by the Air Force Research Lab as a “counter-swarm electromagnetic weapon”…  The three weapon systems will serve abroad after one year, returning to the U.S. in 2021.’ 

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt claims he can link tech & defense, but he’s just a civilian dilettante who doesn't get reality of war

RT 05.05.20

AI falls short in predicting human actions and has no important place in the military, despite tons of investment trying to incorporate it within the industry:

‘The US military – like its counterparts in China, Russia, India and elsewhere – has, over the course of the past decade, invested heavily in research and development projects designed to bring AI to the battlefield in support of intelligence collection and analysis, logistical support, autonomous warfighting capabilities, healthcare, and cybersecurity. Indeed, in this computer-driven age, there isn’t an aspect of military operations where AI hasn’t been investigated as a potential enhancement… 

No algorithm can ever be written which captures the visceral gut-driven realities of decision-making during times of war. The key to military victory, according to the tenets of Boyd’s OODA loop, is to get inside the opponent’s decision-making cycle, catching them responding to situations that have already changed because of actions already taken. Against an AI-driven opponent, one will always be able to make the car drive into oncoming traffic, or the computer to see a turtle as a rifle. By the time the algorithm adapts, it will be too late; the sensors collecting the data the AI needs will have been destroyed or spoofed, the power sources to the computers cut, and a bayonet driven into the heart of the operator by an opponent driven more by human sense, mental perspective, and physical action.'

US successfully tests hypersonic weapon in Hawaii

The Independent 20.03.20

Well, one industry is thriving in the age of global pandemic:

‘The US Missile Defence Agency (MDA) "monitored and gathered tracking data from the flight experiment that will inform its ongoing development of systems designed to defend against adversary hypersonic weapons,” it said in a statement.

"Information gathered from this and future experiments will further inform DOD’s hypersonic technology development, and this event is a major milestone towards the department’s goal of fielding hypersonic warfighting capabilities in the early- to mid-2020s,” it added.’

Space Force’s Second-in-Command Explains What the Hell It Actually Does

Medium 25.02.20

GEN talks to Lt. Gen. David Thompson, the Space Force’s second-in-command:

‘We already work pretty closely with Elon Musk and SpaceX. We’re working on some contract things with Jeff Bezos [the owner of Blue Origin aerospace]. It’s not just the launch companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, but a lot of the large [satellite] constellations that are in development. We’re working with the owners and operators of those companies to see their capability and their technologies…
The best thing to do if you want to be an astronaut is go talk to NASA. But the rest of the world is going in the direction of the Space Force. We’re talking about remotely piloted aircraft, drones, artificial intelligence, vehicles that operate by remote control or autonomous control — that’s Space Force.’

Pentagon to Adopt Detailed Principles for Using AI

DefenseOne 18.02.20

The Pentagon will be laying down some ethical guidelines for using AI.  Will they get watered down before they are published?:

‘The draft recommendations emphasized human control of AI systems. “Human beings should exercise appropriate levels of judgment and remain responsible for the development, deployment, use, and outcomes of DoD AI systems,” it reads… 

The DIB [Defense Innovation Board] guidelines and the accompanying implementation documentation, go well beyond the brief and largely superficial vision statements on AI issued by tech giants like Google, Facebook and Microsoft. For instance, the recommendations describe key dangers and pitfalls in AI development, like bias in datasets, that commercial players have only begun to grapple with… 

Frank Sauer, a member of the International Panel on the Regulation of Autonomous Weapons and the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, called DoD’s adoption of principles a good step, but said that adding automation to warfare could yet have destabilizing effects. “The DIB report is a very well thought-out document. But what has people like myself and the arms control community in general very concerned is the uncontrollable risk of escalation accompanying fully automated kill chains,” he said — meaning AI and automation creeping into the processes by which the military collects information on a target, dispatches a weapon to attack and ultimately kills it.’ 

Good at StarCraft? DARPA wants to train military robots with your brain waves

Digital Trends 05.02.20

DARPA gets data from gamers to train swarms of AI:

‘Some researchers in swarm robotics try and create swarms that can carry out complex procedures by hand-crafting the actions of every agent involved; the way you might coach each member of a dance troop so they can master a complex routine. Put them all together and you’ll get something that looks like emergent collaboration, although it’s actually a collection of individuals doing their own thing. The idea of using modern machine learning artificial intelligence is that it could give robot swarms the ability to more autonomously function as a meaningful collective… 

If Chowdhury and his team get their way, the robot swarms of tomorrow will be a whole lot smarter. And they’ll have gamers to thank for it.’

Make no mistake: Military robots are not there to preserve human life, they are there to allow even more endless wars

RT 05.01.20

US military and killer robots:

‘The Fort Benning experiment already hints at a dystopian future of endless war, but the tech used to win those simulated skirmishes is positively quaint compared to other technology in the pipeline. Autonomous killer robots – bots that select and kill their own targets using artificial intelligence – are the logical endpoint of the mission to dehumanize war completely, filling the ranks with soldiers that won’t ask questions, won’t talk back, and won’t hesitate to shoot whoever they’re told to shoot. The pitfalls to such a technology are obvious. If AI can’t be trained to distinguish between sarcasm and normal speech, or between a convicted felon and a congressman, how can it be trusted to reliably distinguish between civilian and soldier? Or even between friend and foe?’

Google, Facebook, Neuralink Sued for Weaponized AI Tech Transfer, Complicity to Genocide in China and Endangering Humanity with Misuse of AI

The AI Organisation 19.12.19

Tech companies sued for misuse of powers.

Inside Anduril, the startup that is building AI-powered military technology

NBC News 03.10.19

Anduril, a company that sells surveillance tech to the US military:

‘Anduril’s founding mission is to give military and government personnel technology-based capabilities with the help of AI that would allow a single person to keep watch over hundreds of miles of terrain.’

Not the bees! Pentagon wants to use swarms of AI-powered drones for ‘rescue’ missions

RT 01.01.20

Killer AI bees:

‘The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) issued a request (RFI) late in December seeking the latest and greatest in AI and drone swarm tech – and looking for clever ideas on how to combine the two. The resulting smart-swarm, the agency said, should be self-directing, able to find and track humans (“and manmade objects,” the RFI specifies) on its own, capable of streaming video of its activities, and willing to nudge its minders (who won’t be minding it most of the time, since it’s primarily AI-powered) when it has latched on to something interesting. The swarm will have to be able to move at least 50 knots (93 km/h), stay in the air for at least 2 hours, and cover 100 square nautical miles (343 square km).’ 

Are drone swarms the future of aerial warfare?

The Guardian 04.12.19

The rise of autonomous military drones:

‘For now, military drone use is dominated by lightweight surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and larger attack UAVs. This situation is unlikely to change in the near future: according to defence experts at the information group Jane’s, orders for both types of device are expected to increase dramatically in the decade ahead.’ 

How suspicions of spying threaten cross-border science

Technology Review 02.12.19

Quantum and military:

‘Strider’s conclusion—that China is effectively using European and American funding and cooperation to develop military applications for quantum tech—mirrors in some ways a Senate report from earlier this month.  But the scientists, including Pan and Matthias Weidemüller, dean of the department of physics at the University of Heidelberg, dispute the accusations and warn against closing off the international scientific relationships they have spent their entire careers building. In a series of emails to MIT Technology Review, Pan denied working directly with the Chinese military or the nation’s defense contractors on quantum-related military technology.’

The US Army is creating robots that can follow orders

Technology Review 06.11.19

Killer robots get better:

‘That is now a step closer. The Army’s research lab has developed software that lets robots understand verbal instructions, carry out a task, and report back. The potential rewards are tremendous. A robot that can understand commands and has a degree of machine intelligence would one day be able to go ahead of troops and check for IEDs or ambushes. It could also reduce the number of human soldiers needed on the ground.  “Even self-driving cars don’t have a high enough level of understanding to be able to follow instructions from another person and carry out a complex mission,” says Nicholas Roy of MIT, who was part of the team behind the project. “But our robot can do exactly that.”’

Killer robots: why do so many people think they are a good idea?

The Guardian 19.09.19

‘In January, the group revealed that 61% of people oppose killer robots. That means that 39% of people – people who have presumably seen The Terminator and Westworld and that one Black Mirror episode and Age of Ultron – still think we should give killer robots a break.  I think I’m done. I know there are two sides to every argument and that our differences are what make us unique, but if we can’t even agree about a subject as nightmarish as the prospect of being murdered in our beds by a legion of grinning automata, we’re screwed. Let the robots come for us. We deserve it’.’

Gene editing to protect US military: How the US could create a race of super soldiers

RT 03.10.19

‘According to the Defense Department, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is currently advancing a notion known as gene editing (or genome editing) with a view of it benefiting US military personnel. Gene editing is essentially a group of technologies that allow scientists to change an organism’s DNA, by adding, removing or altering genetic material at particular locations in the genome… As publicly announced by the director of DARPA, Steven H Walker, the agency is actively seeking to use this technology to protect soldiers from disease and chemical or biological warfare agents by modifying a soldier’s genetics to enable them to resist. DARPA has thus far invested $65 million in gene-editing research.’ 

Pentagon looks to exoskeletons to build ‘super-soldiers'

Reuters 29.11.19

‘The U.S. Army is investing millions of dollars in experimental exoskeleton technology to make soldiers stronger and more resilient, in what experts say is part of a broader push into advanced gear to equip a new generation of “super-soldiers.”’

CHINA’S NEW WEAPON: A SONIC GUN THAT VIBRATES YOUR BRAIN

Futurism 24.09.19

Sonic guns:

‘All the wielder of the device has to do is point it at a crowd and shoot — and focused waves of sound will cause the targets’ eardrums, eyeballs, and brains to vibrate painfully.’ 

Ex-Google worker fears 'killer robots' could cause mass atrocities

The Guardian 15.09.19

Killer Robots:

‘How does the killing machine out there on its own flying about distinguish between the 18-year-old combatant and the 18-year-old who is hunting for rabbits?’

Coming Soon to a Battlefield: Robots That Can Kill

The Atlantic 03.09.19

Autonomous killers:

‘But with the development of AI-infused systems, the military is now on the verge of fielding machines capable of going on the offensive, picking out targets and taking lethal action without direct human input.’

Champagne, shotguns, and surveillance at spyware’s grand bazaar

Technology Review 25.11.19

Military surveillance conference:

‘The big question facing these increasingly powerful companies is whether there is anything they should or even could do to prevent abuse of their powerful surveillance technologies by the governments that pay them millions. The tech has targeted terrorists and criminals but also opposition politicians, human rights activists, journalists, and many others.  NSO Group is said to have declined or canceled multiple contracts because of abuse concerns, although there is no specific information on those cases. The employee is unaware of any team within the company paid specifically to find and prevent abuse by government customers, a common tool in many big tech companies.’

The Military-Industrial Complex Gets Away With Murder in Contract After Contract

Truthout 21.01.10

The military costs and the revolving door which benefits the players:

‘For too long Congress has largely abdicated its responsibilities when it comes to holding the Pentagon accountable. You won’t be surprised to learn that most of the “acquisition reforms” it’s passed in recent years, which affect how the Department of Defense buys goods and services, have placed just about all real negotiating power in the hands of the big defense contractors. To add insult to injury, both parties of Congress continue to vote in near unanimity for increases in the Pentagon budget, despite 18-plus years of losing wars, the never-ending gross mismanagement of weapons programs, and a continued failure to pass a basic audit. If any other federal agency (or the contractors it dealt with) had a similar track record, you can only begin to imagine the hubbub that would ensue. But not the Pentagon. Never the Pentagon.’

US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries – shrinking this war machine is a must

The Conversation 24.06.19

US military biggest polluter:

‘In 2017, the US military bought about 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels. The US Air Force purchased US$4.9 billion worth of fuel, and the navy US$2.8 billion, followed by the army at US$947m and the Marines at US$36m.’ 

Six Paths to the Nonsurgical Future of Brain-Machine Interfaces

DARPA 20.05.19

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been the most proactive enabler of such specialised research.  The aim is to get smarter soldiers.  Dr. Al Emondi, DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office says in 2018 that:

‘Smart systems will significantly impact how our troops operate in the future, and now is the time to be thinking about what human-machine teaming will actually look like and how it might be accomplished.  If we put the best scientists on this problem, we will disrupt current neural interface approaches and open the door to practical, high-performance interfaces.’ 

One year later, it publishes its research endeavours through various scientific bodies.  

Active Denial System FAQs

DoD (US)

In their Q&A, the US Department of Defense defines what the system is and answers questions:  

‘The Active Denial System is an advanced, long-range non-lethal, directed energy, counter-personnel capability that projects a man-sized (1.5 m) beam of millimeter waves (not microwaves) at a range up to 1,000 meters. It will have the same compelling non-lethal effect on all human targets, regardless of size, age and gender. 

Q7. Is Active Denial System a laser?

A7. The Active Denial System is not a laser and does not employ a laser as its source of directed energy… The Active Denial System generates a focused and very directional millimeter-wave radio frequency beam. There is an eye-safe laser range finder associated with the system for range determination.

Q9. Does this system work like a microwave oven?

A9.  No. The ADS, a non-lethal directed-energy weapon, projects a very short duration (on the order of a few seconds) focused beam of millimeter waves at a frequency of 95 gigahertz (GHz). A microwave oven operates at 2.45 GHz. At the much higher frequency of 95 GHz, the associated directed energy wavelength is very short and only physically capable of reaching a skin depth of about 1/64 of an inch.

The ADS creates a “… large spot size on target, covering potentially the whole body size.” The energy “…penetrates approximately 1/64th of an inch into the skin, quickly heating up the skinʼs surface. Within seconds, an individual feels an intense heating sensation that stops when the transmitter is shut off or when the individual moves out of the beam (i.e., is repelled).’