Do the 'bots have what it takes?
By Chris Lawrence and Jennifer Rizzo
Most people's morning routines include checking the weather for their work commute. But for U.S. Navy scientist Gregory Scott, it's all about the weather inside his office.
Scott works at the Navy's Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research, or LASR, a new facility that can create the most extreme weather environments to test the Navy's newest robots.
Today, he is working out of a simulated desert in the middle of Washington, D.C., testing a robotic arm that digs for explosive devices in the sand. Tomorrow, he could be testing a robot in the facility's steamy rain forest.
"You have to make sure you bring the right clothes for the right day," Scott said. "But otherwise, it's a pretty rewarding experience ... especially knowing we're able to create a better product for our men and women out in the field to keep them safe and support their work."
And that's precisely the point. A robot may work just fine in an air-conditioned office. But can it handle the sand, water and fire of real-life wars and rescue operations? The multimillion-dollar facility is designed to build better robots, pumping up the severity of simulated nature to see if they can handle extreme environments.
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Robots vs. terrorists
CNN Intelligence Correspondent Suzanne Kelly shows us a new robot that has its sight set on terrorists and criminals. The one pound Recon Scout is a remote controlled robot that can be hurled through window panes and thrown down stairs without breaking. The reconnaissance tool, which is equipped with infrared and audio capabilities, is used by counterterrorism units around the country and by the U.S. military around the world.
The "whack-a-mole" strategy of pulling terrorist videos offline
By Suzanne Kelly and Pam Benson
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Surge in U.S. weapon sales overseas
By Larry Shaughnessy
American arms exporters, in the midst of a defense spending slowdown here in the U.S., are enjoying an increase in overseas sales, according to a new State Department report.
The government authorized the sale of more than $44 billion in military and other U.S. technical hardware in fiscal year 2011, a jump of more than $10 billion over the year before, according to U.S. officials.
In order for a company to sell military hardware or sophisticated non-military hardware, like satellites, it must obtain a license for each sale from the State Department.
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Obama targets technologies that abuse human rights
By Tom Cohen
The White House announced Monday that President Barack Obama signed an executive order allowing new sanctions against companies that enable Syria and Iran to use technology such as cell phone monitoring to carry out human rights abuses.
The announcement was part of a broader strategy intended to strengthen the administration's ability to prevent atrocities, including creation of an Atrocities Prevention Board. FULL POST
Intel windfall from N.Korean rocket launch
By Pam Benson
While the Obama administration is urging North Korea not to go ahead with its expected rocket launch, the launch does present one benefit: The U.S. intelligence community will get the rare opportunity to more precisely see just how far North Korea has progressed with its long-range missile technology program since its last launch three years ago.
Although North Korea says it is merely deploying an Earth observation satellite, something it has failed at doing in the past, the United States believes the secretive nation is really testing technology that would also enable it to fire a ballistic missile carrying a warhead, one that could potentially strike the United States.
But the real question is whether the rocket performs as intended, especially that third stage, which releases the satellite.
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Mystery surrounds silencing of key al Qaeda websites
By Adam Levine, with reporting from Barbara Starr, Jamie Crawford and Santiago Melli-Huber
Key al Qaeda online forums have fallen silent in the past two weeks, leaving terrorism experts to wonder the cause and whether a key communications mode of the terror group and its affiliates has been purposely undermined.
The sites, where al Qaeda posts messages and jihadists and wannabe jihadists post messages and discussions regarding their ideology and loyalty, started disappearing on March 23, said Aaron Y. Zelin, a researcher in the Department of Politics at Brandeis University. Zelin also maintains the website Jihadology.net.
The outages were first reported by the Washington Post. No entity has claimed responsibility and U.S. officials contacted by CNN would not comment.
U.S. aid to Syrian opposition includes specialized communications equipment
By Jamie Crawford
The United States is providing Syrian opposition groups specialized equipment to help the opposition organize and communicate outside of the watchful eye of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The equipment comes in addition to the increase in financial contributions that were announced this past weekend.
"The United States is going beyond humanitarian aid and providing additional assistance, including communications equipment that will help activists organize, evade attacks by the regime, and connect to the outside world - and we are discussing with our international partners how best to expand this support," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday in Istanbul at a meeting of the so-called 'Friends of Syria.'
With the uprising in Syria entering its second year, the administration said the communications assistance is needed to supplement the $25 million in humanitarian assistance already pledged.
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Questioning drones takeover of air warfare
Over at Time's Battleland blog, they are taking a close look at the Reaper and whether it is really the future of warfare. Or, as Mark Thompson puts it, "they’re not always the wonder weapons some believe." So for the next five days, weapons expert Winslow Wheeler "kicks the tires of the MQ-9 Reaper and, well, finds it lacking."
Read the beginning of the series on Battleland.
And if that doesn't satisfy your urge for all-things-drone, Foreign Policy has "10 Things You Didn't Know About Drones" including how for all the talk of military use, the civilian use is expanding even faster.
Scaling back on wars, spending elsewhere
By Larry Shaughnessy, with reporting from Elise Labott at the State Department
The Pentagon spelled out in billions of dollars on Monday precisely how it wants to save nearly half a trillion dollars in defense spending over the next five years, as the Department of Defense and other parts of the American national security apparatus sought to rebalance their books to account for new areas of concern.
Beginning this year, the military wants to spend far less on the war in Afghanistan compared with recent years as the U.S. draws down its forces, with an eye on the exit for most by the end of 2014.
In 2013, the Department of Defense expects to spend $88 billion on overseas contingency operations, almost all of it on the war in Afghanistan. That's compared with the $115 billion it expects to spend this year.
Those savings have to come from somewhere. FULL POST
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