Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Aviation Week
By Amy Butler
August 31, 2010

The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is in the early stages of engaging industry on a series of projects worth billions of dollars that will shape the nation’s defense architecture, but he continues to struggle with contractors building unreliable products.

Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly is withholding a production contract worth up to $400 million for the next 48 Ter­minal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missiles because of a single part that failed qualification in June. Although a redesign is underway, he emphasizes that new systems require a “zero tolerance” for reliability shortcomings, and the delay is affecting readiness for operational units.

While struggling with some of today’s systems, new programs are essential to the emerging architecture envisioned by the Pentagon. At issue is spotty tracking of threat missiles. The goal is uninterrupted tracking of hostile weapons in order to engage them early in flight.

Among forthcoming technology demonstrations are efforts to field new midcourse tracking satellites, a long-range ICBM killer and a sensor pod for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) capable of tracking boosting ballistic missiles.

While the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense program will continue to be the mainstay to protect the U.S. from ballistic missile attack from North Korea and Iran, new systems are needed to complete the architecture and improve on the systems envisioned for protecting Europe. Among them is a 9-12-satellite Precision Tracking and Surveillance System (PTSS), which would provide ascent-phase midcourse tracking of ballistic missile targets. Today, operators lose sight of a target and are forced to reacquire it later in its flight. …

www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awst/2010/08/23/AW_08_23_2010_p24-249587.xml&headline=MDA%20Plans%20Major%20Anti-Missile%20Programs

Voice of America
By William Ide
August 26, 2010

A top U.S. defense official has revealed new details about a major cyber attack in 2008, the most significant compromise of military computers known to date. The details of the attack, published this week in the bi-monthly magazine Foreign Affairs, not only outlines government efforts to counter that attack, but ongoing efforts by the U.S. military to create a broader cyber security strategy.

According to the report, which was authored by Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn, the attack began after an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East. The malicious code on the drive spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems establishing what Lynn describes as a digital beachhead that allowed the attackers to transfer data to servers under foreign control.

The report says the intrusion served as a wake-up call and marked a turning point in U.S. cyberdefense strategy.

It was not, however, the only successful penetration.

Attacks of U.S. military networks have increased dramatically over the past 10 years, Lynn says, and U.S. military and civilian networks are probed and scanned thousands of times every day …

www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Cyber-Attacks-Againts-US-Military-Computers-Increase-Sharply-101613048.html

Xinhua
August 29, 2010

The U.S. military’s high-profile involvement in Sanaa’s operations against al-Qaida in Yemen may further fuel anti-U.S. sentiment among local population and make things worse for the Yemeni authorities, analysts say.

The U.S. open involvement is also causing embarrassment for Yemeni authorities, who have insisted Yemeni military forces alone are responsible for anti-terror operations in the country and that the U.S. military’s job is limited to intelligence and training.

U.S. officials have recently admitted that the U.S. has mounted raids on al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen and they have also indicated that the U.S. anti-terror focus is shifting to Yemen.

According to a New York Times report on Aug. 14, the U.S. launched an air raid on al-Qaida’s branch in the northeastern province of Marib in May, in its fourth onslaught on al-Qaida bases in the country since last December.

Washington had been tight-lipped about its “secret bombing raids” against al-Qaida’s affiliates.

And according to a Washington Post article on Aug. 25, for the first time since Sep. 11, 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) called al-Qaida in Yemen the top terror threat to U.S. security, as al-Qaida has been decimated by predator strikes in Pakistan.

The Obama administration officials have called for an escalation of U.S. operations, worried that Yemen may become the next training center for al-Qaida. Drone strikes were suggested. …

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-08/29/c_13468167.htm