Showing posts with label drones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drones. Show all posts

Saturday, 8 October 2011

VIRUS HITS US DRONE FLEET: REPORT

A computer virus has hit the US Predator and Reaper drone fleet that Washington deploys to hunt down militants © AFP/Getty Images/File Gary Williams


It is so lovely to start the day on a positive note.

From the category of "YES! YES! YES! Do it again and again and again." Next time have this virus just blow the entire fleet up the moment someone breathes near their controls. Knock the bastards out of the air! 
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October 8, 2011

A computer virus has hit the US Predator and Reaper drone fleet that Washington deploys to hunt down militants, logging the keystrokes of pilots remotely flying missions, Wired magazine reported.
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ED: The ideal virus would have the drones, once enacted, turn back on those who set them into action so America could see what is being done to innocents abroad.
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The virus was first detected about two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, but it had not halted missions flown remotely over Afghanistan and other warzones from Nevada's Creech Air Force Base, Wired said Friday.

No classified information was believed to have been lost or sent outside the network, though the resilient virus resisted several attempts to remove it.

"We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back," a source familiar with the network infection told the US magazine. "We think it's benign. But we just don't know."

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ED: As benign as those foul predator drones?
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Military network security specialists said it remained unclear whether the virus was intentional and how far it had spread, but they were certain it had infected Creech's classified and unclassified machines. Secret data may thus have leaked out and reached someone outside military officials.
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ED: one can only hope MORE data escapes!
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The US military does not hide its own drone flights in Libya or the war in Afghanistan, in contrast to the CIA's covert missions to take out Al-Qaeda extremists in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

The drones have become a critical weapon of choice for the United States in fighting militants abroad.
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ED: The over–priced weapon of cowards and killers.
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In Pakistan alone, around 30 drone strikes have been reported since elite US forces killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on May 2 near the country's main military academy in Abbottabad, close to the capital.
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ED: Puhleeze, regard that reference to the long deceased bogeyman as total BS. My readers know the truth about that farce and although the rest of the article carries  a delightful degree of credibility.
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The virus is believed to have spread at Creech through removable hard drives used to load map updates and transfer mission videos from one computer to another, Wired said.

Drone units at other US Air Force bases around the world have now been told to stop using them.

"It's getting a lot of attention," the source told Wired. "But no one's panicking. Yet."

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

THE MAD MUSIC OF MACHINE WARFARE


A drone  is a programmed killing machine. By definition it is self-propelled, semi-autonomous, and capable of negotiating difficult local environments. Remote handlers guide it towards an assigned target. A drone does not need to know why it must kill, only who and how. They have drenched countries in blood, primarily that of civilians.

In my humble opinion, drones are not only absolutely dreadful, they are also proof of the cowardliness of those who utilize them. 

What bothers me about the video below is how these lovely young people who "man" them from distances treat it like just another job and seem to not relate in the least to the destruction that these "innovative high tech miracles" wreak upon their victims. Just the name "predator" says it all. Their words indicate that they see this work as playing a glorified video. There is no compassion, just apple-cheeked smiling and pride in these destructive things.

September 21, 2011

The symphony of destruction continues to get louder, as an unabashed war project has been named MUSIC.

We have been discussing drones almost ad nauseam as of late, because a dystopian science fiction plot has entered our reality whereby machines have not only supplanted humans on the battlefield, but they have become autonomous -- they can work together and make decisions on their own.

If the use of drones to unilaterally bomb six countries from thousands of miles away doesn't get people's attention, then perhaps fleets of weaponized surveillance drones with the ability to communicate amongst themselves and wage war independently will.

The MUSIC project officially integrates unmanned and manned aircraft in combat, and was put on display with the largest showcase of "aircraft interoperability" to date: showcase of "aircraft interoperability" to date:

"...all have the capability to shoot and stream live video. These aircraft also possess the ability to exchange and use the information as needed, whether it is to conduct surveillance or reconnaissance of a given area."


This interoperability creates a Universal Ground Control Station, or network of drones and their payloads.  In addition to the dangers presented by this technology and its use in undeclared wars, a single operator can orchestrate movements on the platform.  This would seem to greatly increase the negative effects of operator error or abuse.

A single operator is then able to take control of a given payload, or sensor, on the aviation platform by using the One System Remote Video Terminal. The operator can steer the aircraft's payload in any direction to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance of an area.

This fusion of multiple platforms is also slated to extend across the different branches of the military and can thus potentially play a concert of war between the aerial and ground drones of the Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy:
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Not only is MUSIC helping shape the future of CAB units and the Army but its creating connections across joint boundaries to include the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, said Maj. Gen. William T. Crosby, the Program Executive Office, Aviation.

The capabilities reported in the ASD press release are echoed in an article from the Washington Post today entitled A Future for Drones: Automated Killing.  

This is where things begin to get creepy.  The drone network that is being set up is designed to conduct its mission without the need for human direction:

One afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base in search of an orange, green and blue tarp.
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The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on any control.
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As we reported last week, an additional capability is being added to keep the drone network aloft indefinitely using lasers to convert power from multiple sources.  Therefore, in the near future an unblinking, unfeeling, permanent matrix of war will confirm its target independently by data supplied to its sensors, orchestrate the attack plan between its member drones and robots, and execute the mission.

This successful exercise in autonomous robotics could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans.

Whoever said that machines can't surpass humanity's ability to make music?

Perhaps the better question is whether or not humanity will be around to hear the final note.