One thing those tricked-out helicopters didn’t originally include: State-of-the-art protection against missile attacks, a real and immediate threat to Afghanistan’s president.

It’s the latest tragically comic episode in a long saga as the American military has tried to supply its allies with secondhand, former Soviet bloc gear. Over $500 million in no-bid and limited-competition contracts have been steered to companies with limited experience in the field; few of the helos have been delivered on time, on spec, or within budget.

Karzai’s aircraft did have a flare and chaff dispensing system. However, it was “not tied to any automatic triggering system, but will only be outfitted for manual triggering by the pilot and co-pilot,” according to a copy of the contract released by the U.S. Army under the Freedom of Information Act.

I’m trying to imagine the staff meeting in Huntsville, Alabama where someone decided that yes, Karzai really needed an onboard refrigerator for some chilly drinks, but no, he could hold off on the advanced missile detection system.

Anyhow, all those onboard perks created a bit of a problem for the three Russian-built Mi-17 helicopters, purchased about two years ago. The aircraft ended up being too heavy to operate effectively and had to be sent back — at U.S. government expense — to the company in Slovakia responsible for the VIP overhauls.

As previously reported, the U.S. Army’s Threat Systems Management Office managed the no-bid contract, which was awarded to General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. The helicopters, however, were actually bought from Air Transport Europe (ATE), a Slovak company best known as an ambulance service.

ATE did not respond to request for comments. (However, company representative Michael Kvaka previously disputed the characterization of his business as an ambulance firm in Danger Room’s comments section.) General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems also declined comment, referring questions to the Army, which has also declined to comment.

In addition to the three VIP helos, the $88.7 million deal covered another seven overhauled Mi-17s, engines, and other spare parts and equipment. All of it was purchased through ATE under the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems contract. The weight reduction on the overweight helos appeared to account for about $6 million of those costs.

Shedding those pounds meant both bad news and good. The bad news (other than the additional expense to the U.S. government): Karzai lost his toilet, end tables, and some armoring. But the awesomely good news? He can still watch Blackhawk Down on his DVD player (but only on one flat panel TV; the second one was removed).

Oh, and more importantly, the Army also had the good sense to add the AN/AAR-60 Missile Launch Detection System on all three helicopters.

Here’s the full list of extras included on the VIP helos:

Main VIP cabin

Two each leather high-back exeuctive chairs (include seat belts)

1 each leather sofa with seating for 4 people (include seat belts)

2 each end tables

1 each center table

2 each 17 inch flat panel TV monitors

1 each DVD player (connected to both monitors)

1 each sound system (connected to DVD player & monitors)

1 each small refrigerator

set of shelves for storing glasses/plates, etc.

carpeting throughout

wood paneling throughout

wood paneled door dividing the forward seating area

1 each toilet, dry chemical

Forward Seating Area (behind cockpit but in front of VIP area)

5 each leather, high backed passenger seats (include seat belts)

1 each fire extinguisher

carpeting throughout.

[Photo: asiatradingonline.com]

[I've been a little out of the loop on Russian helicopters lately, but the recent news about the United States rushing four used Mi-17 helicopters to Pakistan got me wondering what company(ies) got the contract for that work... I think I'll ask the Army and get back on this!]

ALSO:

• How to Get a No-Bid Contract for Russian Choppers
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• Helo Fiasco: U.S. Pays $322 Million, Still No Choppers
• U.S. Army Looks to Russian Copters for Afghanistan
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• How to Do Business With a Blacklisted Russian Weapons Company
• Did the U.S. Army Arrange a ‘Sweetheart’ Deal to Sell Russian Gear
  
• The New Arms Bazaar: From Russia, With No Love

Earlier this week, an unnamed Pentagon official told American Forces Press Service that North Korea’s launch of four short-range missiles on July 2 were, in part, a bid for international attention. “I think that North Korea is looking for attention, and this is one of the ways that they seek to get attention,” the defense official said.

The same strategy seems to be at work today. In this case, the launch of seven missiles looks deliberately timed to coincide with U.S. Independence Day celebrations. It’s reminiscent of the 2006 launch of a Taepodong-2, which also appeared timed to disrupt the Fourth of July.

But never mind the Scuds: The North Koreans were not able to pull off a more dramatic publicity stunt, like launching a long-range missile that could (theoretically) reach Hawaii. While there has been speculation about a possible long-range missile test, the Christian Science Monitor notes that there are no reports of new activity around the launch facilities where the North Koreans set up their long-range missiles.

[PHOTO: Ki4u.com]

See Also:

• Meet North Korea’s New Top Cop
• North Korea Threatens ‘Shower of Nuclear Retaliation’
• Inside America’s (Mock) Attack on North Korea
• How To: Measure North Korea’s Nuclear Blast
• Is North Korea Prepping Fourth of July Fireworks?
• North Korea’s Possibly Itty-Bitty Nuke (Updated)
• North Korea’s Satellite Launch: Fail?
• North Korea Preps for New Missile Launch? (Updated)

Could China wipe out an American military advantage with a simple black box? Joshua Cooper Ramo’s thought-provoking book The Age of the Unthinkable challenges all kinds of conventional thinking about everything from venture capital to military strategy. One section caught my eye in particular, about how the Chinese might neutralize American air superiority, using a type of weapon known an “Assassin’s Mace.” The specific device in question is an unassuming little case; how worried should we be?

U.S. airpower depends on the ability to overcome surface-to-air missile (SAM) defenses, and one of the key weapons for this role is the AGM-88 High Speed Anti-radiation Missile (HARM), which homes in on radar emissions. (You can see them, under the F/A-18’s wings in the picture, above.) The defenders can either turn off their radar, thus blinding themselves, or have it destroyed. This is where the black box that Ramo found at a military trade show in Zhuhai in 2002 comes in:

“…packed inside were several thousand microtransmitters and when you plugged the device in and turned it on, it broadcast signals - 10,000 of them - on the frequency of a SAM site. From the perspective of an American pilot - or , more precisely, the perspective of his HARM missile looking for a ‘lock’ on a SAM radar signal - this meant an air-to-ground picture that looked like 10,001 SAM signals, only one of which was real…”

Ramo suggests that if defenders have these black boxes then the U.S. aircraft would be helpless against enemy SAMs, and air superiority would be lost at stroke.

This is just one example of Beijing’s “Assassin’s Mace” family of weaponry that’s been much discussed in both Chinese and American military circles. The Pentagon defines the Maces as technologies that might afford an inferior military an advantage in a conflict with a superior power. In this view, an Assassin’s Mace is anything which provides a cheap means of countering an expensive weapon. Other examples might include Chinese anti-satellite weapons, which might instantly knock out U.S. space assets, or a conventional ballistic missile, designed to take out a supercarrier and all its aircraft in one hit. It’s an interesting contrast to the perspective of the American arms industry, which can end up spending vast amounts countering low-tech, low-cost threats like mines and IEDs.

Why “Assassin’s Mace?” A club-type weapon sounds like a rather unsuitable weapon for an assassin. The actual Chinese term is Sha Shou Jian (literally “killing hand club”), which refers to a pair of short wooden or metal rods used as a martial arts weapon. “Jian” normally denotes a long Chinese sword but Sha Shou Jian are blunt and heavy. They could be concealed in the long sleeves of court robes and used to make surprise attacks — hence the association with assassins.

And although some Western commentators like the New Atlantis claim that the meaning of the assassin’s mace “remains elusive, ” it’s no mystery to Mandarin speakers. Sha Shou Jian a popular expression used by sports commentators, businessmen and even in romantic advice columns. Alastair Johnston of Harvard University criticizes the way Washington pundits want to make the Assassin’s Mace “mysterious and exotic”: it’s simply the decisive, winning quality. In sports, the Assassin’s Mace may be the key goal-scorer; in business, it’s any quality that puts you ahead of the competition; in love, it might be the subtle smile that wins over the object of your affections. Johnston suggests that a fairly idiomatic translation would be “silver bullet” and that the concept behind it is less fiendishly oriental than is often supposed.

Ramo (who speaks Mandarin) — is more concerned with the potential threat from these devices. But is the black box intended to stop HARM so dangerous? I was not so sure: Danger Room covered new HARM upgrades a few months back and the makers seemed relaxed about dealing with countermeasures. So I asked Ramo if he really thought the Chinese were ready to take on the Air Force.

“I have to say I did ask some people about U.S. HARM technology and the general answer was that they are pretty confident that the sort of ECM [electronic countermeasure] system on sale at Zhuhai they have now found a solution for – which the Chinese probably know and that’s why they were selling it,” said Ramo. “And I think frankly that the box I saw was probably an early attempt that has now been passed by not only by better anti-HARM spoofs but also by a much more sophisticated integrated air-denial operational plan that includes a wide variety of tactics where ECM is complemented by space weapons, cyber, and other system-level attacks. ”

So the box itself may not be a HARM-killer. However, Ramo sticks very much to his original thesis about the Chinese approach to warfare.

“The point I was trying to make with the box was the way in which asymmetric power does allow cheap things to undo expensive ones — to introduce both the idea of the “Assassin’s Mace”(which I think fits many asymmetric systems) and to lead into some of the technological oscillations behind Offense/Defense balance, which I get into later on…. the best Assassin’s Maces are still secretly guarded and definitely aren’t for sale — at least not yet.”

So the good news is that U.S. air power still rules — and that Iran can’t buy “Assassin’s Mace” technology from China to cancel it out. The bad news is that this situation might change at any time.

[Photo: U.S. Navy]

Dugan will now be in charge of more than $3.2 billion of high-risk science and technology projects — everything from thinking computers to shape-shifting machines to soldier telepathy.

“Regina Dugan is precisely the dynamic leader Darpa needs to open new technology frontiers and transition revolutionary technologies to serve our nation’s interests,” Zachary Lemnios, director of Defense Research and Engineering, says in a statement.

Back in mid-May, Wired.com first reported that Dugan was the likely pick for the position, beating out more-experienced candidates like former Darpa No. 2 Dr. Jane “Xan” Alexander and agency Defense Sciences Office chief Dr. Michael Goldblatt.

After getting her Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology, Dugan (pictured, center) worked as researcher at the Institute for Defense Analyses from 1993 to 1996. She then spent four years as a program manager at Darpa’s Defense Science Office during the ’90s. There, she led the “Dog’s Nose” mine-detection effort — and shepherded research into swarms of tiny robots, inspired by “rats and locusts.” She then went on to run a high-tech investment firm. In 2001, she formed RedX, a company which builds security gear, including an explosives detector that relies on fluorescent ink.

A donor to Democratic presidential candidates, Dugan continues to serve on senior advisory panels including the Defense Science Board, the Army Science Board, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, according to her bio. She’s also “the sole inventor on a patent for refueling satellites in orbit.”

Dugan succeeds Tony Tether, the agency’s longest-serving chief.

[Photo: Annette Polan, www.capitalartports.com, used with permission]

Military-backed researchers have built a tiny drone that looks and flies like a hummingbird, flapping its little robotic wings to stay in the air. So far, the mock bird, built for Pentagon mad-science division Darpa, has only stayed aloft for 20 seconds at a time. But that short flight was enough to show the potential of a whole new class of miniature spies, inspired by nature. Darpa just handed AeroVironment, makers of the winged “nano air vehicle,” another $2.1 million to build a hummingbot 2.0.

Ultimately, Darpa program manager Todd Hylton says in a statement, he’d like see “an approximately 10-gram aircraft that can hover for extended periods, can fly at forward speeds up to 10 meters per second, can withstand 2.5-meter-per-second wind gusts.” He also wants the nano air vehicle to operate inside buildings, and be controllable from up to a kilometer away.

AeroVironment, for its part, doesn’t just want its little drone to fly like a bird. The company wants the thing to look like one, too:

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• Plasma Propulsion for Palm-Sized Drones
• How To: Make a Robotic Insect
• Pentagon Wants Cyborg Insects to Sniff WMD, Offer Free Wi-Fi …
• Video: D.I.Y. Flapping Flyer
• Video: Air Force’s Killer Bugbots Attack

Three years ago, North Korea ratcheted up tensions in the region with a series of missile tests, including the launch of a long-range Taepodong-2 ballistic missile. That Taepodong-2 launch was a failure: The missile cracked up less than a minute after launch, but the North Koreans continued to pursue intercontinental ballistic missile technology.

So can we count on a repeat performance this Fourth of July? According to Bloomberg’s Tony Capaccio, don’t count on it. Capaccio spoke with unnamed government officials who are tracking North Korea’s launch preparations, and they say that “there are no signs of the work necessary to launch a long-range missile during the U.S. July 4 Independence Day celebration.”

Still, it’s worth taking a look at how North Korea’s missile program has progressed. David Wright and Theodore Postol recently published an analysis of the country’s April test of the Unha-2, a satellite launch vehicle, in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Wright and Postol note that parts of the missile were of Russian origin: The first stage, they argue, uses a cluster of four Nodong engines, which are “scaled-up” versions of the engine used in Russian/Soviet-origin Scud-B missiles. The second stage, they say, looks identical to the single-stage Soviet R-27 sea-launched ballistic missile.

The bad news? The Unha-2 “represents a significant advance over North Korea’s previous launchers” and it could potentially reach the continental United States if it modified for use as a ballistic missile. The good news? The long-range missile “appears to be constructed from components that probably weren’t manufactured in North Korea.” In other words, they will sooner or later run out of missile parts, provided that sanctions remain in place.

[PHOTO: Eric Lafforgue via Flickr]

See Also:

• Meet North Korea’s New Top Cop
• How To: Measure North Korea’s Nuclear Blast
• Inside America’s (Mock) Attack on North Korea
• North Korea’s Possibly Itty-Bitty Nuke (Updated)
• North Korea’s Satellite Launch: Fail?
• North Korea Threatens ‘Shower of Nuclear Retaliation’
• Is North Korea Spoiling for a Fight at Sea?
• North Korea: The Mother of All Stability Ops?

* Double-drone attack in Afghanistan

* Jones: no more troops this year

* How to: build an Air Force from scratch

* “Spanish boffins develop bat-like sonar-vision superpower“

* Cell phone vigilantes strike

I recently took part in a BBC Radio 4 program, which took a light-hearted look into the “the real Manchurian Candidate” — and examined whether there is any truth in stories of mind control. It gave me a chance to talk about exotic non-lethal weapon concepts like the so-called telepathic raygun, the system which beams sound directly into your skull, and the “voice of god” talking fireball. Most of these projects are just lab experiments, or examples of Powerpoint engineering. But in some legal, policy, and business circles, electromagnetic brain assaults are being taken seriously.

Walbert’s cause is supported by Jim Guest, a Republican member of the Missouri House of Representatives. He’s working on proposed legislation to addresses electronic harassment, including a bill against the forced implantation of RFID chips.
The U.N. is also now taking the possibility of electromagnetic terrorism against people seriously. And for the first time this year’s European Symposium on Non-lethal Weapons included a session on the social implications of non-lethal weapons, with specific reference to “privacy-invasive remote interrogation and behavioral influence applications.” Those who believe they are being targeted are getting a bit of official recognition.

For some, this opens up a new business opportunity. There are already quite a few companies out there offering “Technical Surveillance Counter Measures,” or sweeps to determine if you are the victim of electronic harassment. As well detecting the usual bugging devices, they can check if you are being covertly bombarded by microwaves which may be the cause of “headache, eye irritation, dizziness, nausea, skin rash, facial swelling, weakness, fatigue, pain in joints and/or muscles, buzzing/ringing in ears.”

Much of this trade may come from people with symptoms caused by something less exotic than high-tech military hardware. But companies will no doubt be willing to sell them expensive protection measures, anyway. And as awareness of these developing technology projects increases, we are likely to be hearing a lot more about “electronic harassment,” “gang stalking” and the like over the next few years.

And there is also likely to be what folklorists call “Ostension,” or acting out. Now that there are so many websites explaining how easy it is to harass people by zapping them with a modified microwave oven, sooner or later someone is bound to try it.

[Photo: U.S. Army]

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• U.N. Investigates Electromagnetic Terrorism

Engel’s series of reports gives viewers an intimate look at life on Firebase Restrepo, a remote outpost in some of Afghanistan’s more unforgiving terrain.

Conditions at Restrepo, Engel notes, have gotten better over the past several months. The firefights are less frequent, and soldiers have seen a few improvements to their outpost: Security cameras, a new guard tower, better food. They even have a microwave and a morale phone. Still, the work is dangerous, and the casualties are high: Of the original 20 soldiers Engel met from one platoon when he last visited, only about half were still on Restrepo. The others had been killed, injured, or evacuated because of illness.

See Also:

• Afghan Airstrike Video Goes Down the Memory Hole
• New Top General Could Mean Changes for Afghan Airstrikes
• ‘Deliberate Slip’ Reveals Afghan Superbombs
• Minister: U.S. Shortchanging Afghan Development
• U.S.: Afghan Airstrike Killed About 30 Civilians (Updated …
• Eight Civilians Dead in New Afghan Airstrike
• Air Base Loss Could Hobble Afghan War Effort
• Intel Sharing Falls Short on Afghan-Pakistan Border