SDFM The Business of Defense
-
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just completed a major update of the agency\'s primary education resource portal; the website Education.noaa.gov. The aim is to better connect educators and students interested in NOAA\'s education and science resources. The website serves as a portal to lesson plans, educational multi-media, data sources, career profiles, and other education content from across the agency. The content contains five themes. Teachers can find information about hurricanes, tides, climate change, the water-cycle or other earth science topics on the site. The site also provides information on professional development, academic scholarships, career exploration, and education grants. NOAA\'s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth\'s environment, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine resources.
November 15, 2010 -
It\'s the latest innovation by international drug traffickers. U.S. prosecutors say South American gangs are buying old jets and other planes, filling them with cocaine and flying them more than 3,000 miles across the ocean to Africa. At least three gangs have struck deals to fly drugs to West Africa and from there to Europe, according to U.S. indictments. Most of the cocaine flown to Africa is bound for Europe, where demand has been rising over the last decade.
November 15, 2010 -
Almost 100 years after his death, a black Union Civil War vet from South Carolina finally has a veterans marker on his grave. The Associated Press reports, the white gravestone for Henry Benjamin Noisette was dedicated Thursday during a Veterans Day ceremony at a small black cemetery near an interstate. Noisette\'s military past was not discovered until recently by a researcher with the African American Historical Alliance, a nonprofit working to increase awareness of the role of blacks in the war and Reconstruction in South Carolina. Noisette escaped slavery and joined the U.S. Navy in 1862.
November 15, 2010 -
November 17th, 2010 Listen to a discussion on key milestones or changes that have come out of the first year of President Obama\'s Open Government Directive (OGD).
November 15, 2010 -
Futurologists gather to discuss the workforce of 2020.
November 14, 2010 -
More than 60 years after world war two, Germany is still very sensitve how it deploys it\'s troops in foreign countries. The government has announced it will extend three military deployments including its contribution to an EU naval force tracking pirates off Somalia. Germany has more than 300 troops participating in the anti-piracy force. There are 120 soldiers to Bosnia, and it\'s considering sending a ship with 220 soldiers to take part in NATO\'s Active Endeavour operation patrolling in the Mediterranean. Germany also has 4,900 troops in Afghanistan.
November 10, 2010 -
Missile launches off the coast of California are commonplace --but this one was a mystery. Military officials said early on it didn\'t represent a threat to the United States. They also said it was not a launch by a foreign power. The video captured by a news helicopter showed an object shooting across the sky and leaving a large vapor trail. DoD said it wasn\'t involved, and that it might have been created by something flown by a private company. Which could lead to big trouble for that company.
November 10, 2010 -
November 17th, 2010 at 11:00AM The Internet is more than just a technology. It is a domain—similar to the domains of land, air, sea and space, but with its own distinct challenges. The cyber domain has national and international dimensions that include industry, trade, intellectual property, security, technology, culture, policy, and diplomacy. It includes all parts of the converged network, from computer networks to satellite communications, and is not bound by international borders. How can the United States shape the global cyber landscape to promote U.S. economic interests, and develop a cyber domain that considers transparency, accessibility, security, and privacy? Cyber 2020: the Future of the Internet, is part of the Booz Allen Hamilton Expert Voices panel series, moderated by Executive Vice President Mike McConnell and featuring top government and commercial experts.
November 10, 2010 -
The U.S. government says it has removed nearly 132 pounds of spent nuclear fuel from a shuttered San Diego-area reactor that conducted research for nearly 40 years. The National Nuclear Security Administration disclosed the removal Monday in a press release without revealing the name of the research facility. The agency says nearly 60 kilograms of enriched uranium was moved during three weeks in August and September in three convoys to an unspecified secure federal facility nearly 1,000 miles from San Diego.
November 09, 2010 -
The new fighter jet. What will it look like? Experts say it\'s going to have to deal with enemies equipped for electronic attack and with sophisticated air defenses, passive detection, integrated self-protection, directed energy weapons and cyber attack capabilities. The Air Force Materiel Command said in a notice to the Defense industry, the new aircraft must be able to operate in the \"anti-access/area-denial environment that will exist in the 2030-2050 timeframe.\"
November 09, 2010 -
The Air Force is planning to develop more high-tech drones that can collect intelligence and better maneuver in the combat airspace. According to the Associated Press, the Air Force has already dramatically increased the number of armed and unarmed drones over Afghanistan and Iraq. But Air Force Lt. Gen. Philip Breedlove says there are growing worries that the U.S. needs better aircraft to gather information and conduct electronic attacks in airspace.
November 09, 2010 -
-
The Army has begun the process of overhauling the energy efficiency of all of its facilities worldwide. Two policy memos will change the way the Army designs and builds permanent buildings. The new guidance focuses on water reduction, energy consumption, and specific ways to reduce the impact of Army facilities on the natural environment. Those include more efficient siting, solar water heating, and storm water management. Also, all incandescent light bulbs and older lighting technology is to be replaced within five years. The Army Corps of Engineers has issued a study that found the Army spends about $1.5 billion dollars a year to provide electricity, and air handling for its structures. The new guidelines, they say, could save as much as 45 percent of that amount in new buildings.
November 08, 2010 -
Software developed at NASA\'s Ames Research Center is enabling fuel savings for airlines while also increasing their planes\' environmental efficiency. The Ames Direct-To software is a product of NASA aeronautics research in air traffic management. It enables airlines to save fuel and reduce emissions by automatically identifying flight shortcuts that are wind-favorable and acceptable to air traffic controllers. It\'s already been adopted by the Boeing Company for commercial use. Their offering a new air traffic efficiency service that uses the software. Project directors say they\'ve estimated a potential combined savings of about 900 flying minutes per day for all aircraft using the software. That means a potential savings of tens of thousands of flight minutes per year for a medium-sized airline.
November 08, 2010 -
If smoked salmon is on the menu or being served at an upcoming holiday gathering, you can thank scientists with the Department of Agriculture for doing their part to ensure it is safe to eat. They say they\'ve developed a first-of-its-kind mathematical model that food processors can use to select the perfect combination of temperature and concentrations of salt and smoke compounds in order to reduce or eliminate the possibility of contaminated smoked salmon making its way to market. USDA researchers say smoked salmon is typically sold in packages that have a refrigerator shelf life of about three to eight weeks. Since dangerous microbes can live at refrigerator temperatures, they say it\'s important to get rid of the microbes before packages leave the processing plant.
November 08, 2010