Friday, March 21, 2008

Northrop Grumman UAV/DEW, Carlyle to buy Booz, Iran War Perp, + News

Northrop Crafts Multimission N-UCAS
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/NUCAS032108.xml&headline=Northrop%20Crafts%20Multimission%20N-UCAS
Northrop Grumman officials are promoting their unmanned strike aircraft being designed for the U.S. Navy as a “first-generation” unmanned combat aerial system (UCAS) with capabilities that include early missile defense intercepts.
The initial platform for a new strike fighter design is based on the company’s X-47B, but Northrop researchers are actually assembling an internal system that could fit into a variety of airframes, according to Scott Winship, vice president and program manager of Navy UCAS. The aircraft would incorporate “marinized low observability” and air-to-air refueling as well as advanced sensors, targeting and weapons.
However, Winship contends that a mix of fifth-generation Lockheed Martin F-35s and Northrop’s UCAS would be a far more powerful combination than Boeing Super Hornets teamed with the UCAS because of the F-35’s ability to penetrate foreign air defenses in combination with the unmanned aircraft.
With surprising candor, Winship identified important new capabilities for the unmanned strike aircraft including boost-phase intercept (BPI) of enemy ballistic missiles soon after launch and the carriage of new, compact, directed-energy weapons. He said options will include both laser and high-power microwave (HPM) weapons. Lasers are seen as a key BPI weapon while HPM is critical to electronic attack......

Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton http://www.alternet.org/rights/80020/

The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity funds, may soon acquire the $2 billion government contracting business of consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the biggest suppliers of technology and personnel to the U.S. government's spy agencies. Carlyle manages more than $75 billion in assets and has bought and sold a long string of military contractors since the early 1990s. But in recent years it has significantly reduced its investments in that industry. If it goes ahead with the widely reported plan to buy Booz Allen, it will re-emerge as the owner of one of America's largest private intelligence army.

Emergency Drill (FL)

http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/16908296.html

Jackson Hospital got an unexpected rush of patients today.
It might have looked like a major medical emergency, but it wasn't. Jackson County officials were conducting a health emergency response drill. Even though there are no signs of it happening anytime soon, health officials have been warning about the possibly of a widespread infection disease outbreak for years now. if Drill instructor Greg Grant says Jackson County Hospital wants to be prepared if such an event does occur.
"This is going to help us a lot. This is our first drill that we've done that has been multi-situational, so were testing every skill we have in the building."
Jackson County hospital’s Rosie Smith says the drill simulates real life scenarios with actors. "We have received in the drill information that there is a pandemic flu outbreak moving west from Tallahassee into Jackson County, so we are fully operating are incident command structure to help us prepare for this disaster."
Emergency crews are responding to the situations with their normal protocols to see what works and where they're lacking.
In addition to helping emergency responders get prepared for an epidemic community response team, Evan MCallister says this drill is also helping volunteers.
"In any major event you always have volunteers wanting to come out and help and in many times those volunteers become victims themselves."
Responding to a real life epidemic would incorporate every emergency agency in the area, from fire departments to citizen volunteer groups. That's why Jackson County Health Department’s Alice Pate says they are all taking part in the drill.
“I'm from the health department, working with the hospital, trying to mesh our programs together so we can better serve the community," she said.
Officials say making sure everyone knows what to do is a major part of containing an infectious outbreak. Officials say they will use the information they gain from the drill to help improve their response procedures.

Facing the Horrors of Distant Battlefields With a TV and Console

An image from Activision’s video game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Its creators derived some of its imagery from videos of battles in the Middle East that have been posted on YouTube
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/arts/television/19duty.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin
During the Vietnam War major television networks regularly broadcast real-life images of fighting in jungles, cities and swamps. Just as television was becoming this country’s dominant mass medium, Americans came to perceive through their screens at least a bit of the confusion and pain of the battlefield.
That’s over now. By the Gulf war, television had mostly been reduced to retransmitting officially sanctioned images of precision munition strikes. These days, it is almost impossible to find scenes of actual ground combat on television.

Hazmat exercises IL
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/photos/853602,gallery-hazmat21.photogallery
Eli Good entered the gymnasium at the College of Lake County ready to work. One by one, the Grant High School senior approached the injured men and women on the floor, assessing their medical condition and assigning care priority based on severity of their injuries. Good and her classmates in firefighter and paramedic classes at the Lake County Technology Center got the opportunity to join local fire departments and military units in a full-blown terrorism exercise that took over CLC's gymnasium for several hours Thursday morning.

Israel, U.S. commanders test 'extreme' scenarios in joint drill
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/966560.html
The Israel Defense Forces and the United States European Command (EUCOM) completed a military headquarters training exercise in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night. The exercise was part of Juniper Falcon, an ongoing series of training exercises conducted by the U.S. Air Force in Europe and Israel. The four-day exercise was held at the Aviv camp, situated near the Palmach History Museum in Ramat Aviv. Officers from the IDF General Command and from the Israel Air Force and Israel Navy participated in the exercise.

Guard prepares for deployment within 2 years (VT)http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080319/NEWS01/803190313/1009Brig. Gen. Michael Dubie, commander of the Vermont National Guard. The Vermont National Guard is planning for a "large-scale deployment" to the Middle East within the next two years, the force's commander said Tuesday. More than half the Guard's 4,000 soldiers and airmen have spent time in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East and Asia during the past five years. Most have completed their missions and returned home. Guard leadership is expecting the Pentagon to summon Vermonters to war again, said Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie. "We are preparing for a future deployment," he said. "If things continue the way they are, it's very possible we'll have a large-scale deployment in the state of Vermont in the next two years. We have indications that probably in the next two years they're going to want us to go somewhere. We need to continue to prepare to deploy."

India Runs Joint Military Drills
http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID=%7B43344D7C-B001-47DC-974F-A4CCC2AFBE9B%7D&language=EN
New Delhi, Mar 20 (Prensa Latina) Military Observers from 94 countries witnessed the military exercise Blazing Chariots by Indian infantry and air forces at Pokhran shooting range in the Rajasthan desert.










Attorneys argue anthrax libel case filed against New York Times
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--anthrax-hatfill0321mar21,0,7625415.story
* But let's not talk about Judith Miller of the NYT participating in "Dark Winter" a pre-9/11
Anthrax drill with James Woolsey.........http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=75&contentid=3523

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