On September 27, DARPA will hold a workshop to flesh out the government cyberwar strategy called “Plan X.” The one day workshop consists of a general access session for government employees and contractors, along with a Secret-clearance and above closed session to draw a roadmap for the future of America’s cyberwar forces.
While the next great virus won’t be proposed at the Plan X workshop, the Defense Department’s cyberarmy infrastructure development plans (and the sweet government contracts that go with it) will. According to the Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima, Plan X has received $110 million in funding for the next five years.
A giant defense contractor and a special effects giant have launched a virtual world where players can even feel when they’re shot.
Participants also feel pain when injured; two muscle stimulators attached to the triceps administer electric shocks when a user is “shot.” Users can continue to play with non-fatal injuries, but head or chest shots immediately remove them from the training exercise. The electric shock is comparable to one encountered in physical therapy, says Raytheon’s Ellen Houlihan.
These are some of my favorite images from the new book Soldier Dogs. There are more pictures in our slideshow today.
Military Working Dogs play a crucial part in America’s armed services. The best known “Soldier Dog,” Cairo, put crucial canine skills to work in the SEAL Team Six operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. Other Military Working Dogs serve as everything from bomb sniffers to troop companions to search and rescue dogs (and also serve in darker roles, such as duty at Guantanamo Bay). Their handlers and trainers, devoted dog lovers down to a man, form an unusually close-knit fraternity within the military.
DigitalGlobe, the firm that provides much of the imagery for Google Earth, is launching a next-generation satellite in 2014. However, the super-sharp images of the WorldView-3 aren’t for Google and Bing Maps: They’re going straight to the military and intelligence agencies.
With the American military presence in Afghanistan continuing indefinitely, more and more troops have been missing the birth of their children back home. So the Defense Department is quietly setting up Skype birthing rooms for troops.
