News
News Round-up: April 2007
Olton have been incredibly busy of late (we expect to be able to make an announcement regarding these developments in the near future) – Consequently our news section has not been updated as frequently as we would have liked. Below is a selection of articles from Janes news alerts which have been the subject of much debate in and around the Olton offices:
Intelligence Analysis
US embraces open source intelligence
Since September 2001, the US intelligence community has undertaken a sustained effort to expand the use of open source intelligence (OSINT) the collection, processing and analysis of publicly available and unclassified information. This initiative has made US OSINT capabilities more robust, but several problems continue to impede the optimal exploitation of OSINT
[Jane’s Intelligence Digest – first posted to http://jid.janes.com – 11 April 2007]
Thales and Fujitsu ready for Joint Operations Picture demo
The latest version of the Web-based Secure Situation Awareness Tool (WebS2AT) from Thales UK’s Air Operations facility in Wells will be demonstrated at the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID 07) in June.Fujitsu will use WebS2AT for the display of the Common Operating Picture on its openJOP.
[Jane’s International Defence Review – first posted to http://idr.janes.com – 24 April 2007]
US rapid crisis-response remains flawed
At the beginning of 2007, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its Tactical Interoperable Communications Scorecards: Summary Report and Findings. The report assessed the emergency communications resiliency of 75 US urban and metropolitan areas (large cities and their surrounding regions) to major disasters
[Jane’s Intelligence Digest – first posted to http://jid.janes.com – 26 April 2007]
Super Events
Fortress Olympics – Counting the cost of major event security
High-profile events such as the summer and winter Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup and Asian Games, have become among the pre-eminent global spectacles of our time as television, the internet and other communications technologies have brought coverage of them to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. However, this coverage ensures that the attraction of a non-state attack at such an event remains high for any group wishing to publicise its cause.Indeed, major events have been on the target list of terrorist groups since the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, when 11 Israeli athletes were killed
[Jane’s Intelligence Review – first posted to http://jir.janes.com – 04 April 2007]
Drones
USAF seeks ‘hunter-killer’ UAS technologies
The US Air Force (USAF) has issued a contract notice seeking technologies for a new multirole ‘hunter-killer’ unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).The Air Force Research Laboratory – the branch of the USAF in charge of the project – declined to enlarge on the details of the 19 April notice, adding that it was too early in the development process to do so.
[Jane’s Defence Industry – first posted to http://jdin.janes.com – 23 April 2007]
Widening UAS usage forces NATO to seek standards
NATO’s use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) “is an exploding, proliferating area of interest”, according to Colonel Daniel Lewandowski of NATO’s Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC).He was speaking at the late March Defence IQ Air Surveillance and Reconnaissance conference in London following the publication of the JAPCC’s ‘Flight Plan for UAS in NATO’ earlier that month.According to the JAPCC study, there are more than 3,700 operational unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) within NATO, more than 1,000 ground control segments and some 25 operational types of UAV.
[Jane’s International Defence Review – first posted to http://idr.janes.com – 12 April 2007]
QinetiQ aims for multiple UCAV control architecture
QinetiQ is developing an architecture that can provide control of unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) from a single-seat fighter.The UK defence technology company is continuing tests using a Tornado to control a number of UCAVs and simulated UCAVs.This work is underway as one of the proposed solutions for a future deep target attack capability for the UK Royal Air Force (RAF), expected to emerge in 2011.
[Jane’s International Defence Review – first posted to http://idr.janes.com – 19 April 2007]
Loitering with intent: armed aerial vehicles provide fire on demand
Loitering munitions have once more caught the military imagination, given their potential for providing a precision strike capability against time-sensitive targets in both deep and close battles. The concept of having armed sacrificial aerial vehicles orbiting over the battlefield under remote or autonomous control in wait for opportunistic targets is not entirely new, there being forerunners already in service, notably in the air force domain
[Jane’s International Defence Review – first posted to http://idr.janes.com – 10 April 2007]
Black Sea
Caucasian networks – Concerns mount over radiological smuggling
At the end of January, Georgian authorities and the CIA undertook a successful sting operation to seize 79.5 g of highly enriched uranium. The case highlights concerns that the Caucasus remains a source of orphan and unsecured radiological materials
[Jane’s Intelligence Review – first posted to http://jir.janes.com – 17 April 2007]
Georgia’s drug trafficking challenge
Georgian government officials have recently announced what they describe as a new string of initiatives aimed at eradicating the abuse and trafficking of narcotics in their country. Yet, there is hardly anything innovative in the proposed measures
[Jane’s Intelligence Digest – first posted to http://jid.janes.com – 11 April 2007]
Ukraine’s president pushes the panic button
On 2 April, President Viktor Yushchenko issued a decree disbanding parliament and calling for parliamentary elections, previously due in 2011, to be held on 27 May. The announcement follows months of political crisis that have seen the president’s position steadily undermined by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the Anti-Crisis Coalition he leads.A key demand from Yushchenko and the radical wing of the Orange Revolution, represented by the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, was an end to the alleged bribing and poaching of parliamentary deputies from the opposition, represented by the Tymoshenko bloc and the pro-Yushchenko Our Ukraine, to the Anti-Crisis Coalition
[Jane’s Foreign Report – first posted to http://frp.janes.com – 12 April 2007]
Money laundering in Ukraine
The February raids by the Ukrainian Security Service’s (Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny: SBU) organised crime directorate have closed down large-scale money laundering operations in the Dnipropetrovsk region of the country and in the Crimea. An SBU report from the same month claims that the Dnipropetrovsk operation laundered more than USD1 billion from January 2006 to February 2007 before it was shut down.
[Jane’s Intelligence Digest – first posted to http://jid.janes.com – 03 April 2007]
Romania’s Machiavellian moment
At first sight, Romania seems to be following a similar path to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, where the attainment of EU membership seemed to trigger the evaporation of political discipline and focus. Suddenly without a common goal, the political elites succumbed to demagoguery and infighting, to the point where the Czech Republic failed to produce a government for six months.
[Jane’s Foreign Report – first posted to http://frp.janes.com – 14 December 2006]
Middle East
Fatah al-Islam, Lebanon’s new jihadists
Anew radical Sunni group has emerged in Lebanon. Led by the Palestinian Shakir al-Absi, Fatah al-Islam is based in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli
[Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor – first posted to http://jtsm.janes.com – 29 March 2007]
US indicates Israeli Raptor access to compensate for Saudi JDAM deal
US officials have indicated that Israel could be granted access to the F-22 Raptor air-superiority fighter project if the Senate clears the aircraft for export, Israeli defence sources have told Jane’s. At the same time, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has rejected Israeli objections to a major sale of Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
[Jane’s Defence Weekly – first posted to http://jdw.janes.com – 25 April 2007]
France discusses Rafale fighter sale to Morocco
France and Morocco are in advanced talks about the sale of up to 20 Rafale multirole fighters for the Moroccan Air Force.The deal would give Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation its long-awaited first export order for the fourth-generation French combat aircraft.
[Jane’s Defence Industry – first posted to http://jdin.janes.com – 26 April 2007]
Far East
Chinese ASAT test prompts US strategic rethink
China’s test of an anti-satellite weapon in January was a “strategically dislocating” event as significant as the Russian launch of Sputnik in 1957, US Air Force (USAF) Chief of Staff General Michael Moseley said on 24 April. Gen Moseley said it had spurred the USAF to evaluate its defensive options in outer space and added that the strategic stakes are higher than ever in outer space.
[Jane’s Defence Weekly – first posted to http://jdw.janes.com – 25 April 2007]
Southeast Asia’s tri-border black spot
Western diplomatic officials are increasingly concerned about Islamist militant activity in the east Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo. Sabah has porous and poorly policed land and maritime borders with Indonesia and the Philippines, both countries grappling with Islamist insurgencies
[Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor – first posted to http://jtsm.janes.com – 23 April 2007]
The polarising force of Islam in Malaysia
Malaysia has long been noted for its liberal and tolerant interpretation of Islam and hailed by the West as a model for modern Islamic society. However, a series of controversial incidents involving Islamic hardliners has heightened concerns about the creeping Islamisation of the country’s multi-racial and multi-faith society
[Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst – first posted to http://jiaa.janes.com – 12 April 2007]
Monday, 30 April 2007 | Permanent link to this article | ← Back to news archive
I agree with the super events post, Media is always behind this spectacle in which they put a spotlight on you. Beijing Olympics Complete Medal Tally 2008
By Vina Armada at 02:10 GMT on Wednesday, 13 August 2008