The great Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu observed, “If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”
This appears to the thinking behind the US Defense Advanced Research Agency’s (DARPA) new National Cyber Range (NCR) program.
DARPA is teaming with industry to develop technologies that will enable US personnel to simulate attacks on the USA’s cyber networks, which include most IT and computer systems as well as the infrastructure that depends on those systems, and devise strategies to thwart those attacks. By constructing advanced simulations, DARPA hopes the NCR will enable US defenders to anticipate attackers moves and outthink the enemy.
DARPA began the program in January 2009 with the award of 7 contracts for phase I NCR development; the agency recently awarded contracts for phase II…
AGM-129A loaded on a B-52 at Minot Air Force Base, ND
In 2007, a B-52 carried 6 unsecured nuclear-tipped AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. The nuclear warheads were supposed to have been removed before the aircraft took off, but they remained on the aircraft unsecured at both Minot and Barksdale for 36 hours.
As a result of the incident, 4 USAF commanders were relieved of their commands; it also contributed to the resignation of top USAF officials. A Blue Ribbon Panel chaired by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger recommended that the USAF and the US Department of Defense (DoD) overhaul its handling of nuclear weapons security. In response, the USAF set up an Air Force Global Strike Command to oversee all bomber- and missile-based nuclear weapons.
The incident also prompted the US Navy to beef up its nuclear weapons security, which is overseen by the Strategic Systems Program…
Bristol Construction Services in Anchorage, AK received a $17.5 million construction contract modification to provide labor, materials and equipment to repair/upgrade the access rail line and on-post rail system (to increase turning radiuses and track gauges) at the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point (MOTSU), Southport, NC. The original contract [pdf] (W912HN-08-C-0072) awarded Sept 27/08, is for $30 million.
The Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point facility is the largest ammunition port in the United States, and the US Army’s primary East Coast deep-water port. It is operated by the 597th Transportation Group on a 16,000-acre site in Southport, NC…
