Espionage Files: The Brave New World of Drone Hacking

The Israel Police and Shin Bet security service arrested a Gaza resident suspected of hacking into the feeds from Air Force drones and collecting information on troop movements and civilian flights for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, police said Wednesday.

A police statement named the suspect as Majd Ouida, 22, describing him as an “electronics engineer” from the Gaza Strip.

Ouida, who also held the position of chairman of the “Palestinian talents society,” was arrested on February 23 while en route to a meeting with young candidates on a television singing contest, the statement said but did not detail where or how he was arrested.

A police spokesperson for the Israel Police clarified that Ouida was not arrested inside the Gaza Strip, implying he was en route from the coastal enclave to the West Bank when security forces scooped him up.

According to the indictment, he was recruited by Islamic Jihad in 2011 while working as a radio broadcaster and was made their “computer administrator.”

“He carried out tasks that he received from his handlers, including coding a computer program that enabled the viewing of road cameras, hacking into the computers of the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza, and more,” police said.

According to the indictment filed against the suspect, he was asked by the Islamic Jihad in 2012 to hack into the IDF’s network of drones in operation above the Gaza Strip.

He purchased the requisite equipment from dealers in the United States and created a computer program that could intercept the broadcast feed, the prosecutor claimed.

His first two attempts at intercepting the feed failed, according to the indictment, but on his third try he was successful, allowing his handlers to see some of the footage captured by the IDF drone cameras.

“While watching the broadcasts, the defendant realized the drone was collecting intelligence on terrorist operatives working on launching and storing missiles in the Gaza Strip,” according to the indictment.

Ouida also succeeded in accessing footage from highway cameras inside Israel, obtaining for his organization information on the movement of Israeli security forces and civilians during wars in the Strip and rocket strikes, the indictment said.

Further, the man allegedly developed an application that compiled information on the movement of planes at Israel’s Ben Gurion international airport, as well as gaining access to passenger manifestos, plane weights and makes, and takeoff and landing times.

Ouida faces a litany of charges for his actions, including espionage, conspiracy to commit a crime, computer hacking and transferring information to an enemy with the intent to harm national security.

Read the Original Article at Times of Israel

Military Defense News: “Railgun” Projectiles That Can Travel at Mach 6

New “bullets” for military railguns, which could strike enemy targets traveling at a whopping six times the speed of sound, are being tested.

Electromagnetic railguns and lasers are two technologies the military is harnessing as an alternative to gunpowder. The U.S. Navy is pioneering the futuristic weapons that could play a vital role in future combat.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems announced Wednesday that its Blitzer railgun hypersonic projectiles successfully passed tests at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah between 7 and 9 March 2016.

Both General Atomics and BAE Systems have created cutting-edge Electromagnetic Railguns. In 2012, the Office of Naval Research began testing them.

Ultimately, the plan is for railguns to unleash projectiles will strike targets at speeds faster than Mach 6.

To put this into context, the average bullet travels about 1,700 miles per hour. Mach 1 is about 767 miles per hour. A railgun projectile will travel at Mach 6 – that’s nearly three times faster than the typical bullet.

And the railguns will be able to strike threats more than 100 nautical miles away in approximately six minutes. They could be deployed against a range of threats for precision strikes against land, water surface or air targets.

Research and development continues to provide the U.S. military with even more velocity and further range.

The projectiles

Inside the General Atomics projectile, there are navigation sensors and processors for guidance, navigation and control.

Within the launcher, the projectiles withstood a multi-Tesla magnetic field, then launched and performed successfully, according to General Atomics.

The three-mega joule Blitzer electromagnetic railgun system fired five test projectiles at accelerations greater than 30,000 times that of gravity.

How does a railgun work?

Railguns launch projectiles using electromagnetic forces. The projectiles harness the kinetic energy from the extreme velocity unleashed by the rail gun.

The muzzle velocity of a railgun can be more than twice that of conventional weapons.

In a naval setting, for example, a ship would generate electricity and store it in a pulsed power system. An electric pulse is sent to it the railgun where an electromagnetic force is created. The force accelerates the projectile and launches it between two conductive rails up to Mach six. By adjusting the electromagnetic pulse, the range can be varied.

Once unleashed, the projectile harvests extreme speed for maximum impact.

Advantage U.S. Navy

In addition to reducing cost and enhancing precision strikes, railguns offer a number of other advantages. The magazine, for example, will only be limited by factors like the ship’s power and cooling capacity.

Since it reduces the amount of high explosives necessary for gunpowder-based munitions on ships, railguns will also improve safety for sailors and marines. Downrange, rail guns will reduce the amount of unexploded ordnance in the battlespace.

Rather than multi-million-dollar missiles, railgun projectiles can tackle the same threats at the same range but at a tiny fraction of the cost.

What’s next?

The Navy continues to pioneer railguns making the futuristic weapon a reality. Both General Atomics and BAE Systems have been working on next generation prototype EM Railguns.

In September 2014, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) fired a high velocity projectile during a test held at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division.

In a big leap forward railguns development, the Navy will be testing the technology at sea this year.

Read the Original Article at Fox News

STRATFOR Founder Warns: “Be Ready for War”

Interstate warfare is a thankfully unusual occurrence in the present day.

State-assisted nonstate groups frequently fight governments, a scenario currently unfolding in Syria, Eastern Ukraine, and a host of other places.

But you’d have to go back to the US-led invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003, or the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict of the late 1990s for an example of two nations fighting a full-scale ground war against one another.

The two world wars were catastrophic proof of the inherent instability of an international system that allowed for frequent interstate conflicts and that considered warfare to be a legitimate foreign policy option, rather than an absolute last resort.

Since World War II, many of the world’s political and legal systems have been built around preventing states from going to war with one another — with a fairly impressive record of success.

But could that ever change? Last month, Business Insider sat down with George Friedman, the founder of Geopolitical Futures, which is the only place where it’s possible to read Friedman’s latest original work. Friedman is also the author of “The Next 100 Years” and founder of STRATFOR, the influential geopolitical forecasting firm.

He warned that destructive interstate warfare has been a recurring characteristic of global politics and he said it could make a comeback.

Friedman noted that there have been earlier periods in which international observers have been deluded into believing nations would no longer go to war.

“From 1815 to 1871 there was not an interstate war of any substance in Europe,” said Friedman. “Then came World War I, a biggie.”

Friedman warned that in the modern era, every period of peace has been a built-up towards a violent reckoning. “There has never been a century that has not had a systemic war — a systemic war, meaning when the entire system convulses,” Friedman continued, citing the Seven Years War, the Napoleonic Wars, and the world wars. “Do you want to bet this will be the only century that doesn’t have one? I’ll take that bet.”

Friedman’s analysis assumes that any international system, whether it’s the alliance of conservative forces in Europe that kept the peace after the Napoleonic Wars or the US-led post-Cold War order, has inherently fatal weaknesses. In his mind, the current international system contains the seeds of its own destruction.

At the very least, the current world order still allows for crises that the system itself is incapable of solving.

Friedman thinks that the decline of certain global powers could create just such a crisis.

“When you have the countries like Germany, China, and Russia decline, and be replaced by others, that’s when systemic wars start,” Friedman explains. “That’s when it gets dangerous, because they haven’t yet reached a balance. So Germany united in 1871 and all hell broke loose. Japan rose in the early 20th century, and then you had chaos. So we’re looking at a systemic shift. Be ready for war.”

Here’s Friedman’s entire answer when asked about the possibility of a return of interstate warfare, edited for length and clarity:

BI: In this day and age it’s relatively unusual for nations to go to war against one another.  Do you see that changing? Do you see interstate warfare making a comeback?

GF: From 1815 to 1871 there was not an interstate war of any substance in Europe. Then came World War I, a biggie.

I’ll give you another statistic. There has never been a century that has not had a systemic war — a systemic war, meaning when the entire system convulses. From the Seven Years’ War in Europe to the Napoleonic Wars of the 19th century to the World Wars, every century has one.

Do you want to bet this will be the only century that doesn’t have one? I’ll take that bet …

When you have the countries like Germany, China, and Russia decline, and be replaced by others, that’s when systemic wars start. That’s when it gets dangerous, because they haven’t yet reached a balance. So Germany united in 1871 and all hell broke loose. Japan rose in the early 20th century, and then you had chaos. So we’re looking at a systemic shift. Be ready for war.

BI: Any predictions on where it could be?

GF: Well the most likely emerging countries are Japan, Turkey, and Poland. So I would say Eastern Europe, the Middle East and a maritime war by Japan with the United States enjoying its own pleasures.

But every time new powers emerge they have to find their balance. New powers are emerging, old powers are declining. It’s not that process that’s dangerous, it’s the emerging position that’s dangerous.

Read the Original Article at Business Insider