Doesn't this scare the Hell out of you? F- 35 Helmet

The above picture is of the new helmet designed for use with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Scares the poop right out of me. Yikes. Star Wars meets Riot Cop..scary.

Anyway. "The Helmet", is "a vision into the future"...and the future is NOW. (Special note, the helmet is for the next generation aircraft, not the f 22, but the f 35),

Unlike modern fast jet aircraft the Joint Strike Fighter, which is planned to replace the famous Harrier, does not have a ‘traditional’ head-up display – instead the computerized symbology (not a word) is displayed directly onto the pilot’s visors.

This Helmet Mounted Display System provides the pilot with cues for flying, navigating and fighting the aircraft. It will even superimpose infra-red imagery onto the visor which allows the pilot to ‘look through’ the cockpit floor at night and see the world below. (pretty cool)
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The highly advanced Joint Strike Fighter, which is being built by Lockheed Martin, is planned to replace the RAF and RN’s Harriers. UK MoD, Defense News

From a different source,

The headgear being developed for the new, American-built F35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will display navigation and targeting information on the inside of the pilot’s visor.

Precision head tracking software will allow pilots to "see through" the cockpit floor, with infra-red images of the ground below, during day or night time, being beamed in front of their eyes.
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The helmet mounted display system is being developed by California-based Vision Systems International and British company Helmet Integrated Systems Limited.
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"It even will superimpose infra-red imagery on to the visor to allow the pilot to look through the cockpit floor at night and see the world below.

"This is absolutely the cutting edge of technology. No other helmet will be able to do this.", a stated spokesman for the MoD Telegraph

Boo! Hehehee. Folks, the future is now..and this is what is in the pipeline. Kucinich and his UFO speak doesn't sound so crazy anymore. Does it? The "Defense" industry is moving into the "star wars" age.

Gizmodo says it best,

"The British Ministry of Defence has eliminated missiles and other projectile weapons in favor of a more open, glass covered cockpit offensive. Why? Their new tactic is to fly as close to enemy aircraft as possible while wearing this prototype helmet to make the opposition shit themselves to death. Victims won't be reincarnated as anything good either, but that's just a side effect."

Same Players. Different Scandal.

V-22 Osprey debacle continues...Osprey burst into flames

If you don't know about the Osprey yet, you should. The plane that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane or as I call it..."the pseudo flying transformer of death". Luckily this time it didn't kill anyone, it just burst into "manageable" flames.

According to Reuters,

The military is investigating an engine fire aboard a MV-22 tilt-rotor Osprey this week, but said on Friday it was too soon to discuss any possible impact on V-22s deployed in Iraq.
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The Marine Corp said an MV-22 assigned to a training squadron at Marine Corps Air Station New River, near Jacksonville, North Carolina, had to land unexpectedly on Tuesday after a fire in the housing of its left engine.

The five-member crew activated on-board fire suppression systems, landed safely at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, and evacuated the aircraft. There were no injuries, but the fire caused significant damage to the engine, Darcy said.

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Darcy said Tuesday's mishap involved a Block A aircraft, while the aircraft deployed in Iraq were a more advanced Block B version that included safety upgrades.

Safety upgrades...hmm. I wonder how that's working out.

The Marine Corps has been tight-lipped about the performance of the 10 Ospreys that arrived in Iraq last month.

Get that piece of crap out of Iraq now. This "transformer" is a deathtrap and will continue to be.

Same Players. Different Scandal.

Independent panel cites U.S. Army as a procurer of needless debt

"The Iraq-Kuwait-Afghanistan contracting problems have created a crisis"

It must be nice to be a government contractor. No bid contracts, limited oversight, unlimited profit potential...all is great. Not so according to a new report by six independent members on a panel to review the U.S. Army 'procurement process'.

From an article in the IHT. ...According the the six member panel,

In a wide-ranging report to be made public on Thursday, the panel said these and other shortcomings had contributed to an environment in Iraq and Kuwait that allowed waste, fraud and other corruption to take hold and flourish.
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the six-member panel, appointed in August by Army Secretary Pete Geren, levels a stinging indictment of how the army oversees $4 billion a year in contracts for food, water, shelter and other supplies to sustain United States forces in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. The panel also blames senior army leaders for not responding more swiftly to the problems, despite warning signs like severe shortages of contracting officers in the field. "The Iraq-Kuwait-Afghanistan contracting problems have created a crisis," the report states.

Got that...a 'crisis'. These guys are spending not only our current funds, but those of our children as well. How hard is it to employ people to 'review' these shady contracts? How hard can it actually be? From the time I was little..I've always heard, " pay for what you can afford. Don't purchase anything you can't pay for up front. Anything else will lead to debt" The message appears true.

...the panel's examination of the problem is the broadest to date and offers potentially the most far-reaching recommendations for fixing the shortcomings plaguing the supply system for a military that is increasingly conducting combat and stability operations around the globe. (nowadays, War is everywhere)

and those recommendations are....

increasing the number of army contracting officers by about 25 percent, or 1,400, in coming years. (Years? try NOW!) It urges the department to improve training and to start young officers in the procurement corps soon after they join the army, not after seven or eight years of other duties, as is common now.
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any increases in financing or changes in authority, would require congressional approval, officials said. But several others will be up to Geren, the army secretary, and senior army leaders to carry out. ( In short, they still get what they want.)

The recommendations haven't came without grief, though. Many 'top lawmakers' view the 'recommendations' as too little too late,

These and other changes, the officials say, are long in coming, and if they had been put in place immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, they could have curbed much of the corruption that has surfaced since then.

"If you had had more personnel, who were better trained, on longer tours with more supervision, could you have cut the number of fraud, waste and corruption cases in half?" asked Raymond DuBois, a former senior army official. "Yes."

Yet the corruption still continues,

As of Oct. 24, the army reported that it had 83 criminal inquiries related to contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, according to Christopher Grey, an army spokesman. He said that 23 military and civilian staff members faced criminal charges, and that over $15 million in bribes had been uncovered. (The "#" is most likely far higher)
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One of the largest cases involves Major John Cockerham of the army, who is accused of bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction. Prosecutors have accused Cockerham, with his wife and sister, of taking at least $9.6 million in bribes in 2004 and 2005, when he was a contracting officer in Kuwait. ( these people should be tried for TREASON)

and how does the military 'attack' the problem? They've created another panel of course..

A second army review, led by Lieutenant General N. Ross Thompson III and Kathryn Condon, two army contracting specialists, is examining current contracting operations, particularly in Kuwait.

We don't need anymore 'studies' or 'investigations' . The contract 'procurement' system is in shambles. Our hard earned tax payer dollars are being diverted into 'programs, systems, and weapons' which the American tax payer would never approve. We're getting a lot of 'bang', but it's not worth the 'buck'.

Until we change the monetary equation...war will always come first and diplomacy second. The Department of State NEEDS to receive more funds...not the Department of Defense. Change that equation..you change the fate of the world.

Same Players. Different Scandal.

Not a Contractor left out..State Department spends Bush's Money, no strings attached

“We always saw it as a growth area because of the conflicts in the world,” Steve Cannon, former DynCorp executive.

It's nice to be in Bush America...as long as your a Defense Contractor. Little oversight, same overhead, and ever increasing profit margins, not a bad deal.

On Tuesday, the State Department released two reports: An audit on DynCorp and the other on the State Department's use of private contractors in general. Here are a few revelations from the reports courtesy of the NYT,

Over the past four years, the amount of money the State Department pays to private security and law enforcement contractors has soared to nearly $4 billion a year from $1 billion, but they said that the department had added few new officials to oversee the contracts.
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there were too few American officials in Iraq to enforce the rules that apply to Blackwater and other security contractors. It also found that the conduct of the contractors had undermined the broader mission of ending the insurgency and establishing a democratic government in Iraq.
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according to former employees, members of Congress and outside experts..."the office has grown too reliant on, and too close to, the 1,200 private soldiers who now guard American officials overseas."
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“The lack of competition does concern us a great deal,” said a senior State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We want as many companies as possible.”

And now for DynCorp's swindle on the American people. Remember these next quotes when Bush asks the 'House of Pelosi' to give him more money for waging his "war on drugs",

the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, has issued more than $2.2 billion in contracts for police training and drug eradication in Iraq, Afghanistan, Latin America and elsewhere, according to State Department records. Ninety-four percent of that money has gone to DynCorp.
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State Department officials viewed it as an interim measure. DynCorp viewed it as an opportunity. “We always saw it as a growth area because of the conflicts in the world,” said Steve Cannon, a former DynCorp executive.

Mr. "boom boom" Cannon was right. Capitalize they did,

Over the next several years, the two small State Department offices issued more than $250 million in police training and diplomatic security contracts to DynCorp for work in Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo.After the 2001 American invasion of Afghanistan, contracts grew again, eventually bringing the company $400 million a year. The law enforcement office had DynCorp dispatch dozens, then hundreds, of police trainers to Afghanistan. The diplomatic security office had DynCorp send employees to guard the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

Former State Department officials and Afghan officials said the DynCorp guards were far too aggressive in their tactics, and their conduct alienated Afghan and European officials, as well as Afghan citizens. Gregory Lagana, a DynCorp spokesman, said the company agreed there was a problem and replaced the guards. “The demeanor, the swagger, was wrong,” he said. “We put a stop to that.” Read the full article here

So let me get this straight. From what it sounds like...the U.S. military is not losing the wars, the sub 'machine gun' contractors are. The military can do the job, that's not the problem. Never has been. The problem lies within the 'contracted work'. All they are doing is causing problems and making US pay dearly for it.

Blackwater is losing the hearts in minds of the Iraqis and DynCorp is losing them in Afghanistan. It's the damn contractors and always has been. Bush's dad employed mercenaries in Latin America and so has his son. Worse, he is moving them into the Sudan.

Wake up America, George 'dubya' Bush and crew are swindling US all.

Same Players. Different Scandal.

Remember The Roomba® Vacuum?...well now they've packed 150 lbs of Guns and Ammo on it

The Roomba® Vacuum has guns and it's going into battle soon.

Who would have thought?..the friendly little "robot" vacuum cleaner, The Roomba® would be in combat. That's right. The compact autonomous vacuum cleaner that "cleans routinely so you don't have to" has evolved. Whereas the commercial version of the Roomba® is weak and non threatening, the military version,the iRobot Warrior X700, is the polar opposite.

Packing....

..a Metal Storm 4 barrel, 40mm cannon attracted more than a little attention on the show floor. Metal Storm is known for its stacked electronic small arms firing system that allows their weapons to fire LOADS of bullets/grenades in milliseconds. Combine this with iRobot's latest 200+ lbs, 15 mph beast and you get the the grandfather of The Terminator. militarytimes
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The robot-mounted weapons shoot as far as 800 meters, according to officials at Metal Storm, the Brisbane, Australia-based company that makes the firing system.

According to Metal Storm, to understand how to shoot a million bullets a minute it's "necessary to look in an unlikely place, the ink jet printer. This print head distributes its ink very quickly, precisely, and efficiently from a large number of barrels [video]"

Sure. Except this isn't an ordinary inkjet 'printer'...it's the "new" iRobot Warrior X700....

“It is the largest vehicle that can still go into a building. We’re looking at urban warfare and going into lots of different types of buildings with it,” said Helen Greiner, iRobot chairman and co-founder. “We really think of it as a multimission platform. It can be deploying weapons systems. It can be doing re-supply operations, taking ammo or water to troops who are pinned down, perimeter security and building clearing. ” armytimes

The 250 lb weapons toting robot can move faster than you can run...

"Right now, it can go 10 miles per hour. When we finish the development, it will be able to do a four-minute mile,” said retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Joe Dyer, iRobot’s president of the government and industrial division. “You are starting to see the first robot that can really haul your pack and be not only a partner but be a stronger and faster partner.” armytimes

Hell..the vacuum of autonomous death can now 'rove' around on it's own and can 'call home' when necessary...

the Warrior and PackBot are being engineered with advanced software, giving them the ability to perform some battlefield functions autonomously. “The software says, ‘Hey, robot, get back up yourself.’ If you lose [communications], right now you have to go get the robot,” Dyer said. “A capability they are building into PackBot is if you lose comms, go back to where you could talk last and re-establish comms on your own.” armytimes

Great...autonomous robot killer vacuums.. Save US all. The funny thing is, if one takes Moore's law into consideration..the multimillion dollar X700 will be out of commission in 4 months.

Come on U.S. military. The enemy that we are fighting are committing their "ied" crimes with unsophisticated methods. Nothing more than a cell phone and a few lines of code, a little solder here a little there. Taadaa..X700 is now useless. The Pentagon can spend millions upon billions..the robot "electronic weapons" systems will always be fraught with Moore's Law. Every battlefield "tech wonder" will have met his/her nemesis in less than 4 months after deployed into the battlefield. Come on, military.."keep up with the Jones'

I guess that means we'll be seeing X800 soon, too.

the beauty of "planned obsolescence".

Same Players. Different Scandal.

Remembering History: Sept. 10, 2001 The Last Day of Our Nation

This is a repost of mine that I believe deserves another posting. Especially today.

Now that the Administration and the US mainstream press have calmed down over touting of the new multi billion-dollar military sales package for Arab nations and Israel, its time to take a step back and realize what we've just done. This unique video mash up is of former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld lambasting the previous spending and accounting practices at the Pentagon. He states.."Its 'terrifying'.". .. and that the Department of Defense and the Pentagon will need a complete restructuring with the cooperation of Congress to provide proper oversight and manage the financial aspects of the institution.

It's amazing, just one day before the events of 9/11, Congress and the media were beginning to ramp up their coverage on a report that the Defense Department 'misplaced' 2.3 Trillion dollars of taxpayers money. Six years later.. an estimated 40 cents of every dollar spent on the war on terror goes to secretive sub 'machine gun' contractors and outsourced intelligence agencies with absolutely no oversight. Worse yet, we are now publicly arming the enemies of our enemies...again. Prepare for the impending 'blowback'.

9/10/2001 was the end of an era. It changed everything. It was, as Francis Fukuyama had previously written , The End of History, without the cheery ending with liberal western democracies winning out. 9/12/2001 was the first day of our NeWhOmeland. A place where military spending is abundant, lucrative contracts secretive, wiretapping legal, torture allowed, renditions abound, the constitution trampled, our rights subverted, Free speech denied, censorship applied....What have we done? All in the name of 'national security'..WHY?

We're not protecting our NATION, but defending the Bush Cabal fear mongering, militaristic, state. Don't let our NATION slip into the annals history and emerge as this crazed Homeland based on fear...it's TYRANNY

Watch the video and listen to what our Senators WERE saying. Listen to their disgust of military spending.

Same Players. Different Scandal.

Remembering History: Donald Rumsfeld on 9/10/2001

Now that the Administration and the US mainstream press have calmed down over touting of the new multi billion-dollar military sales package for Arab nations and Israel, its time to take a step back and realize what we've just done. This unique video mash up is of former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld lambasting the previous spending and accounting practices at the Pentagon. He states.."Its 'terrifying'.". .. and that the Department of Defense and the Pentagon will need a complete restructuring with the cooperation of Congress to provide proper oversight and manage the financial aspects of the institution.

It's amazing, just one day before the events of 9/11, Congress and the media were beginning to ramp up their coverage on a report that the Defense Department 'misplaced' 2.3 Trillion dollars of taxpayers money. Six years later.. an estimated 40 cents of every dollar spent on the war on terror goes to secretive sub 'machine gun' contractors and outsourced intelligence agencies with absolutely no oversight. Worse yet, we are now publicly arming the enemies of our enemies...again. Prepare for the impending 'blowback'.

9/10/2001 was the end of an era. It changed everything. It was, as Francis Fukuyama had previously written , The End of History, without the cheery ending with liberal western democracies winning out. 9/12/2001 was the first day of our NeWhOmeland. A place where military spending is abundant, lucrative contracts secretive, wiretapping legal, torture allowed, renditions abound, the constitution trampled, our rights subverted, Free speech denied, censorship applied....What have we done? All in the name of 'national security'..WHY?

We're not protecting our NATION, but defending the Bush Cabal fear mongering, militaristic, state. Don't let our NATION slip into the annals history and emerge as this crazed Homeland based on fear...it's TYRANNY

Watch the video and listen to what our Senators WERE saying. Listen to their disgust of military spending.

Same Players. Different Scandal.