U.S. moving submersibles to Persian Gulf to oppose Iran

WASHINGTON — The Navy is rushing dozens of unmanned underwater craft to the Persian Gulf to help detect and destroy mines in a major military buildup aimed at preventing Iran from closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a crisis, U.S. officials said.

The tiny SeaFox submersibles each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge. The Navy bought them in May after an urgent request by Marine Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.

Each submersible is about 4 feet long and weighs less than 100 pounds. The craft are intended to boost U.S. military capabilities as negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program appear to have stalled. Three rounds of talks since April between Iran and the five countries in the United Nations Security Council plus Germany have made little progress.

Some U.S. officials are wary that Iran may respond to tightening sanctions on its banking and energy sectors, including a European Union oil embargo, by launching or sponsoring attacks on oil tankers or platforms in the Persian Gulf. Some officials in Tehran have threatened to close the narrow waterway, a choke point for a fifth of the oil traded worldwide.

The first of the SeaFox submersibles arrived in the Gulf in recent weeks, officials said, along with four MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters and four minesweeping ships, part of a larger buildup of U.S. naval, air and ground forces in the region aimed at Iran.

The U.S. already has sent two aircraft carriers and a squadron of F-22 fighters to the Persian Gulf, and is keeping two U.S. army brigades in Kuwait. Though much of the buildup has been publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon, the deployment of the submersibles has not been publicly disclosed, apparently to avoid alerting Iran.

The SeaFox is small enough to be deployed from helicopters and even small rubber boats, but it also can be dropped off the back of a minesweeper. It is controlled by a fiber optic cable and sends live video back to a camera operator.

It can be used against floating or drifting mines, which Iran has used in the past. It operates up to 300 meters deep, and moves at speeds of up to six knots. But the $100,000 weapon is on a what amounts to a suicide mission. The “built-in, large caliber shaped charge” it carries destroys the mine but also the vehicle itself.

Chicago Tribune

Re-Education Camps Coming Sooner Than You Think

The IDF’s future tank: Electromagnetic cannon

Imagine a tank that can shoot a laser or an electromagnetic pulse. How about one that can drive on a hybrid engine – partly powered by electricity – instead of the loud diesel engines used today? These technologies and others are under consideration for integration into Israel’s future tank which the IDF hopes will be operational by 2020.

Last year, the IDF Ground Forces Command set up a team of combat and technical officers – from the Armored Corps, the Weapons Development Branch in the Ground Forces Command and the Defense Ministry’s Merkava Program Office – to begin planning Israel’s future tank, the successor to the Merkava.

Development and construction of the Merkava began in the 1970s, and the most advanced model, the Merkava Mk 4, entered service in 2003.

Currently, two brigades are equipped with the Merkava Mk 4, purported to be one of the best-protected tanks in the world and capable of superior speeds and maneuverability.

The rest of the IDF’s armored brigades operate older versions of the Merkava or M60 Pattons.

“When we look at what the future tank will look like, we need to look broadly at all technology that exists,” Brig.-Gen. Yigal Slovik, outgoing commander of the Armored Corps, said this week. “There are such things as electromagnetic or laser cannons, but right now they are too big and not applicable. They might however be in the future.”

For power, Slovik said that the tank could potentially operate on a hybrid engine that burns fuel to charge batteries that can then independently power the tank for extended periods.

Slovik said that the crew of the future tank would also likely be smaller than today, and as few as two soldiers could operate it.

“The future tank will ultimately be faster, better protected, more interoperable and more lethal,” he said.

The decision to begin developing a new tank was sparked by the entry of active-protection systems such as the Trophy, which has been installed on an entire brigade of tanks and successfully intercepted a rocket-propelled grenade along the Gaza border last year.

The thinking in the defense establishment is that tanks no longer require thick layers of armor – which slow down the vehicle, and raise fuel and production costs – and could suffice with less armor and more systems like Trophy.

Jerusalem Post

SWAT team invades Occupy Seattle

Tehran gives ‘increasingly sophisticated’ weapons to Hezbollah

While the world focuses on Iran’s nuclear program, the Islamic Republic is also continuously improving and expanding its regular armed forces, including its arsenal of missiles that could strike Israel and other Western targets. According to a new Pentagon report, Tehran will be able to test intercontinental ballistic missiles within three years.

The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Times of Israel, also calls Iran an “active sponsor of terrorism” that continues to support groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah — which receives from Iran “increasingly sophisticated” arms.

Israeli leaders repeatedly call Iran the world’s greatest exporter of terrorism, blaming it for several attacks on Israeli and other Western targets.

“Iran’s conventional military capabilities continue to improve,” according to the Pentagon’s “Annual Report on Military Power of Iran.” “Beyond steady growth in its missile and rocket inventories, Iran has boosted the lethality and effectiveness of existing systems with accuracy improvements and new submunitions payloads,” the report states. “Iran may be technically capable of flight-testing an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015.”

THe Times of Israel

New executive order hands the president too much control over the web

Barack Obama has signed an executive order that could hand control of the internet to the U.S. Government, in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

The order lays out guidelines government agencies should follow if there's a serious emergency, so they can maintain levels of communication.

But critics are concerned by a section of the order they claim gives the president and the secretary of homeland security control of 'the on/off switch to the Web'.

The order, signed by President Obama last week, stated that 'The Federal Government must have the ability to communicate at all times and under all circumstances to carry out its most critical and time sensitive missions.'

It explained: 'Survivable, resilient, enduring, and effective communications, both domestic and international, are essential to enable the executive branch to communicate within itself and with: the legislative and judicial branches; State, local, territorial, and tribal governments; private sector entities; and the public, allies, and other nations. Such communications must be possible under all circumstances to ensure national security, effectively manage emergencies, and improve national resilience.'

The section explained how the secretary of homeland security - currently Janet Napolitano - will 'satisfy priority communications requirements through the use of commercial, Government, and privately owned communications resources, when appropriate.'

According to The Verge, sceptics fear the clause gives Mr Obama and Ms Napolitano 'control over the internet' over and above the needs of the nation in extreme cases, like natural disasters.

White House officials have acted quickly to ease concern, insisting the order is just an update of an existing authority dating back to 1984 . The claim the government has been granted no extra powers.

A spokesman told CNBC in an email: 'The Internet is an international network of networks; no one person, organization or country can control or shut down the Internet.

'The United States relies on the Internet to perform essential functions including to operate critical infrastructure and to maintain essential national security capabilities. That is why the President has designated our digital infrastructure as a strategic national asset.

'This Order is about communications resilience — the Administration's goal is to maintain this connected environment during the worst disasters, even in circumstances when our adversaries may wish to deprive us of their use.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172350/Can-president-switch-internet-Critics-fear-new-executive-order-hands-Obama-control-web.html#ixzz20Pv6gsFY

aliens 'might come here for holidays

Documents from the Ministry of Defence classified archives show staff believed aliens could visit for “military reconnaissance”, “scientific” research or “tourism”.

In a 1995 briefing now published by the National Archives, a desk officer said the purpose of reported alien craft sightings “needs to be established as a matter of priority”, adding there did not appear to be “hostile intent”.

The unnamed official said it was “essential that we start with open minds”, explaining “what is scientific ‘fact’ today may not be true tomorrow”.

Clarifying he did not “talk to little green men every night”, he said: “We have a remit that we have never satisfied. That is, we do not now (sic) if UFOs exist.

“If they do exist, we do not know what they are, their purpose or if they pose a threat to the UK.

“If the sightings are of devices not of the earth then their purpose needs to be established as a matter of priority. There has been no apparent hostile intent and other possibilities are: 1) Military reconnaissance; 2) Scientific; 3) Tourism.”

He added that “if reports are taken at face value” they showed extraterrestrial vehicles had “a very wide range of speeds and are stealthy”.

Thus, he suggested, “we could use this technology, if it exists”.

His briefing document lists possible reasons for UFO sightings, including mass hallucinations, US aircraft, “atmospheric events” and hoaxes, but indicated none provide a fully convincing explanation.

It adds there are “some indications that the reported incidents are only the tip of an iceberg and many people do not wish to risk embarrassment and so do not report sightings”.

He also noted that the number of reports of “strange objects in the skies” increased dramatically after the Second World War, with most sightings coming from “farmers, policemen, doctors and lovers”.

“Most people think that UFOs are a recent phenomena (sic) but they are not,” he said. “There are reasonably reliable reports of strange objects in the skies dating back hundreds of years.”

In 1979, an official briefing written by the MoD in preparation for a House of Lords debate on UFOs questioned why aliens would want to visit the Earth.

An unnamed intelligence officer said it would be prudent to consider the number of stars in the universe, the number which might have inhabitable planets and a list of interesting places in the universe that an intelligent community might wish to visit".

He said: “A visit to an insignificant planet (the earth) of an uninteresting star (the sun) would probably not occur more than once in a thousand years or so, even if one assumes that every intelligent community made say 10 launches a year.”

Thus, he concluded, “claims of thousands of visits in the last decade or so are far too large to be credible”.

Telegraph