DARC Corporate Consortium

Airplanes filled with billions of US dollars disappear in Iraq

2011-06-15T01:54:00.000-04:00

Some $6.6bn (£4bn) flown into Iraq eight years ago may have been stolen, according to a US official investigating fraud in the country.

The missing money may represent "the largest theft of funds in national history", investigator Stuart Bowen told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

Source: BBC World News

Cyber War Declaration

2011-06-02T11:43:00.000-04:00

The Pentagon declares war if a cyber-attack threatens civilian casualties.

"A response to a cyber-incident or attack on the US would not necessarily be a cyber-response. All appropriate options would be on the table," Pentagon spokesman Col Dave Lapan told reporters on Tuesday.

The US would "respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country", stated the White House in plain terms.

"We reserve the right to use all necessary means - diplomatic, informational, military, and economic - as appropriate and consistent with applicable international law, in order to defend our nation, our allies, our partners and our interests."

With notes from BBC World News

First European Country to Give up Nuclear Energy

2011-05-30T10:56:00.000-04:00

Germany becomes the biggest industrial power planning to give up nuclear energy, saying all its nuclear plants will be shut by 2022 in the wake of Fukushima crisis in Japan.

Western Credit ratings downgraded by China

2011-05-25T11:58:00.000-04:00

Dagong, the Chinese rating agency, has cut the UK's credit rating blaming sluggish growth.

For more than two years the UK's economy was been stuck at the 1.3%-1.5% range hurting government finances.

"The downgrade from AA- to A+ puts Britain on a par with Chile and heavily-indebted Belgium, and the US, which Dagong downgraded in November."

In contrast, the big three Western rating agencies all still award the UK - and the US - the top AAA rating.

Kepping a negative outlook on the UK's rating, the Dagong suggesting that more downgrades may be yet to come.

Western economist embarrassed by the news rebuff the Chinese "Obviously this is not one of the main rating agencies that markets pay close attention to," said Standard Chartered, the lead European Economic Research firm. Adding that Dagong "sees relatively low growth and high inflation."

Dagong points out that the issue remains that the budget deficit will overshoot the governments 7.9-9% target. Along with high inflation, governments in the Eurozone will need to raise rates to deal with inflation, thus slowing the economy further.

In contrast, Western countries rate the People's Republic three notches lower than their own economies. The Dagong is leading the rate cutting trend with Western agencies threatened to review the ratings of both the US and the UK. Still none have taken action.

With notes from BBC World News

Internet IPv4 addresses Exhausted

2011-02-04T00:41:00.001-05:00

At a ceremony held on 3 February, 2011 the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the remaining last five /8s of IPv4 address space to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

The Number Resource Organization (NRO) announced that the free pool of available IPv4 addresses is now fully depleted. On Monday, January 31, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated two blocks of IPv4 address space to APNIC, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the Asia Pacific region, which triggered a global policy to allocate the remaining IANA pool equally between the five RIRs. Today IANA allocated those blocks. This means that there are no longer any IPv4 addresses available for allocation from the IANA to the five RIRs.

Radiohead leads by example

2011-01-11T00:55:00.000-05:00

A group of fans have spent the last year creating a DVD of the gig by piecing together footage shot by 14 audience members.

The band allowed it to be released on the condition that proceeds went Oxfam's Haiti emergency fund.

The film was made available online over Christmas, and has already raised more than $11,500 (£7,300).

Source:

By Mark SavageBBC 6 Music News

BBC World News

AMD Boss, Dirk Meyer who took up job in 2008, resigns!

2011-01-11T00:36:00.000-05:00

The chief executive of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has resigned. AMD said Dirk Meyer had left with immediate effect, the company said was a "mutual" decision.

Thomas Seifert, Chief financial officer, will take on the top job on a temporary, helping AMD to "establish market leadership and generate superior financial returns".

AMD trails behind market leader Intel.

AMD is the world's second-largest maker of microprocessors, trying to compete against Intel chip which is used by more than 80% of the world's personal computers.

Apple Releases OSX 10.6.6 Update includes the Mac Apps Store!

2011-01-06T18:10:00.003-05:00

The Mac OS X 10.6.6 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.

It also includes the Mac App Store, the best way to discover and buy new apps for your Mac. The Mac App Store, a new application you'll find in the Dock, includes the following features:

Apple posts the following information about this update:

Discover Mac apps: Browse featured apps, top charts, and categories, or search for something specific. Read detailed app descriptions and user reviews, and flip through screen shots.
Buy and install: Easily purchase apps with your iTunes account. Apps install in one step and are quickly available from the Dock.
App updates: The Mac App Store keeps track of all your purchased apps and notifies you when free updates are available.

Here is a quick look at the new dock icon and Mac OS X application

The next release of Windows will run on mobile phone chips

2011-01-06T12:29:00.003-05:00

A desktop version of Windows 7 was shown working with three processors built around designs from UK firm Arm.

The demonstration is significant because before now Windows was closely connected with Intel-designed chips.

During its demonstration, Microsoft showed Windows running on Arm-designed chips made by Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia.

The announcement formed part of a keynote speech by Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer that opened the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Mr Ballmer said that the next generation of Windows would also run on new versions of these SOCs - Atom from Intel and Fusion from AMD.

Many expect the two to come together as Windows 8, which will handle multi-touch interfaces, a feature poorly supported in the current version of Windows but which is key for slates and tablets where the chips are likely to find a use.

Source

BBC World News

Last Kodachrome film roll given to National Geographic's Steve McCurry

2010-12-30T16:43:00.000-05:00

The final roll of Kodachrome film, a widely-lauded quality colour film, is to be developed in Kansas on Thursday.

Kodak announced it was discontinuing the iconic film in 2009, after competition from digital cameras caused a large sales decline.

Kodachrome is difficult to process, requiring expert handlers, and Dwayne's Photo in Kansas is the sole remaining developer.

The last film to be developed was shot by the owner, Dwayne Steinle.

Kodachrome film is renowned for its exceptional rendering of colour, vivid images and archival longevity. For many years, it was the preferred brand for print media.

Created in 1935, it was the first commercial film to successfully shoot in colour.

Kodachrome was also used for motion pictures.

Dwayne's Photo has been inundated with requests for developing, many from photographers who had been hoarding the coveted film for years.

One customer picked up 1,580 rolls of film used solely to shoot railroad engines. The nearly 50,000 slides cost $15,798 (£10,200) to develop.

BBC photo editor Phil Coomes has been documenting his own final days with Kodachrome, as well as collecting reader photographs on his BBC blog.

One of Kodachrome's most famous admirers is National Geographic's Steve McCurry, the photojournalist who captured the world's attentionwith a haunting 1984 cover photograph of Sharbat Gula, an Afghan refugee girl with stunning green eyes.

Ms Gula, whose identity remained unknown for many years, did not see the image until a documentary film crew located her in 2003.

Although Mr Steinle developed his own Kodachrome roll last, Kodak gave the final roll it produced to Mr McCurry.

With just 36 frames to use, he travelled to India to photograph a tribe on the verge of extinction.

Mr McCurry also shot images of New York, Kansas and actor Robert DeNiro in a journey filmed as a documentary by National Geographic.

He hand-delivered the last roll to Dwayne's Photo earlier this year.

"I wasn't going to take any chances," he told the New York Times.

The National Geographic film is likely to air in spring 2011.

Federal Reserve releases details banks' emergency aid

2010-12-28T13:06:00.001-05:00

The documents' release was ordered by Congress, and will be picked over by critics of the Fed's stimulus packages.

The data reveals the magnitude of support offered to banks.

Loans included $2.2trillion to Citigroup, $2.1tn to Merrill Lynch, $2tn to Morgan Stanley, and $1.1tn to Bank of America.

Most of the loans have been repaid, and none are overdue, the Fed said.

Bank of America's aid included a pledge by the Fed for up to $118bn (£75.7bn; 90bn euros) of assets if loans and mortgage-backed securities turned sour.

But the documents show that America's biggest bank did not, in the end, need the money.

In September 2008 alone, AIG, the insurance giant, had to draw on $62bn from a credit facility in order to pay off immediate debts.

Foreign banks including Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank also borrowed from the Fed to overcome their liquidity crises.

Collapse

Bear Stearns, another large US bank, faced "imminent insolvency" on 13 March 2008 and was loaned $12.9bn to trade through the following few days, the documents show. The money has been repaid.

Bear, which eventually collapsed and was bought by JP Morgan, had a total loan facility during the financial crisis of $960bn.

The Fed has provided $3.3 trillion in emergency aid, most of it since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, when the credit markets were close to seizing up.

This stimulus money includes $600bn announced last month, which sparked complaints that the central bank was stoking inflation and asset-price bubbles.

Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Advertising Edition)

2010-12-27T22:25:00.000-05:00

This is a reposting of an Eric Goldman blog on the past years quick links to important internet cases. Keep up the good work my friend, I hope to join your ranks one day, providing much needed transparency in this overburdened information age.

Nov.-Dec. 2010 Quick Links, Part 1 (Trademarks and Advertising Edition)

via Technology & Marketing Law Blog by Eric on 12/27/10

By Eric Goldman

I have a big backlog of Quick Links from the last 2 months. I'll post them over the next few days. I also have a backlog of other blog posts I need to write, especially my reassessment of my prediction of Wikipedia's demise. I'll get to those posts after I finish grading final exams.

An administrative note: This blog was named to the ABA Blawg 100 for the second year in a row, although oddly in the Legal Tech category. Many thanks for your continued readership. Feel free to vote in the popularity contest if you'd like. I voted for Techdirt and Not-So-Private Parts in their respective categories.

Trademark

* Tiffany (NJ) Inc. v. eBay Inc, 2010 WL 3416635 (U.S. Nov 29, 2010). The Supreme Court denied cert in this long-running case. My prior blog post.

* FreecycleSunnyvale v. The Freecycle Network (9th Cir. Nov. 24, 2010). A rare ruling saying that a trademark owner (The Freecycle Network) abandoned its TMs due to naked licensing. If you have a logo license program, this is a good reminder to make sure you have both quality control provisions in the license agreement and actually exercise quality control. For more on naked licensing, see this article by my former colleague Irene Calboli.

* NYT on an auction of 170 "retro" trademarks revived just for auction purposes. About 2 dozen trademarks were sold for a total gross of $132k. Marty keeps it real about the auction's validity.

* A fight over the name "Ernie's Liquor" in Palo Alto.

* K.S.R. X-Ray Supplies, Inc. v. Southeastern X-Ray, Inc., 2010 WL 4317026 (S.D. Fla. Oct. 25, 2010). ACPA violation and $10k award when a competitor registers a slight variation of its competitor's trademark as a domain name.

* Rebecca on a bizarre trademark battle over vehicle license plate designs.

* Sellify is appealing its loss against Amazon. My initial blog post.

* NYT: Star athletes are trying to trademark their catchphrases.

* B&B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis Industries, Inc., 2010 WL 4683725 (E.D. Ark. Nov. 10, 2010): "Here, the jury expressly found that B & B copied Hargis' fastener photos and size/weight charts and posted them on its website as its own, thus causing Hargis to prevail on its cross-complaint for false advertising and false designation of origin. The Court finds B & B's conduct focusing on the creation of a new website as well as its contacting Hargis customers, using metatags and purchasing domain sites using the term "sealtite" or phrases containing that term, introducing bogus design drawings into evidence of purported construction fasteners, and other conduct previously discussed, was a willful and deliberate attempt to manufacture evidence to support its trademark infringement claim. The Court finds this is an exceptional case in which the award of fees is justified."

* NYT: A New York state law requires "the education commissioner's consent for the words library, school, academy, institute and kindergarten, among others to be used in a certificate of incorporation or company name." Thus, the incorporation papers for a library-themed chocolatier named "Chocolate Library" got bounced.

* I'm helping Paul Levy and Public Citizen try to unseal the "confidential" joint appendix in Rosetta Stone v. Google.

Advertising

* The EU has opened an antitrust investigation into Google. I know that Google's making too much money to just walk away from Europe, but I think both the EU and Google would live happier lives if they were to go their separate ways.

* Google is changing its ad label from "Sponsored Link" to "Ad." Google has rolled this change out in Gmail, and I've also noticed a new ad unit right by the place where I archive or delete messages--sloppy clicking will earn Google a few extra pennies.

* Congress enacted the "CALM Act" to regulate the volume of TV commercials.

* California's rules on Political Online Advertising. (see items 19 and 20)

* Seattle mandates an opt-out system for Yellow Pages book deliveries, which prompts a lawsuit. Meanwhile, Verizon wants to stop distributing white pages directories.

* The FTC approved the Reverb settlement over fake blog posts. Venkat's prior blog post.

* In re Facebook PPC Advertising Litigation, 2010 WL 5174021 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 15, 2010). Facebook gets another dismissal without prejudice. The judge says:

To the extent that Plaintiffs allege that Facebook is subject to UCL liability merely because its filtering system is insufficient or ineffective, such allegations fail to state a claim….To the extent that Plaintiffs could allege that Facebook failed to employ any "filtering" system to protect against click fraud or knew but did not disclose that its system was subject to regular and frequent failure in excess of flaws inherent in such systems, they might state a claim.

Previous blog posts (1, 2).

* More detail on the Largo Cargo v. Google settlement.

* ClickZ: Still No Answers for Digital Pharma Marketers.

* Google is telemarketing local advertisers.

Ka-Sat, Europe's 2nd net-dedicated spacecraft, lifts off

2010-12-27T13:05:00.001-05:00

The six-tonne Ka-Sat lifted off atop a Proton rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 0351 local time on Monday (2151 GMT on Sunday).

"As many as 30 million households in Europe are not served at all or get high mediocrity of service," said Eutelsat CEO Michel de Rosen.

Ka-Sat, however, is considerably bigger, and has a notional capacity to serve up to two million households compared with Hylas's 300,000.

Paris-based Eutelsat is one of the world's big three Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) companies, and transmits thousands of TV channels across its fleet of spacecraft.

This endeavours also shows how vulnerable the European market is to any single point of failure of their internet backbone. The loss of a single satellite can disrupt internet access for two million households, either from state or non-state sponsored terror.

New Haitian PM criticises aide, will Haiti be the next victim of western led aide imperialism?

2010-12-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive says the international community is not allowing his country to play a big enough role in its own reconstruction.

Mr Bellerive said donors and the international community were not working with Haitians to find solutions when channelling aid to those who need it. He said greater control of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) was needed.

"Let's be clear, I have nothing against NGOs - we need them. What I need is to have control over what they do in my country, where they do it and with whom they are doing it, and at what cost," he said.

This is a typical scenario in the NGO and Aide led reconstruction efforts of Western countries around the globe since the turn of the century.

What we need is better coordination and a global oversight of aide and NGO activities world wide by the International community of aide recipients and donors. We need to be able to measure what aide is being given and whether it is in the best interest of those receiving the aide. Otherwise, it will cause more damage than good, leading to aide dependence and imperialism by opportunistic individuals, corporations and NGOs alike.

Novell Agrees to be Acquired by AttachMate; Sells Some IP to a MS-Organized Consortium - Updated

2010-12-26T13:04:00.000-05:00

Novell has sold itself to Attachmate Corporation. There is a side deal selling "certain intellectual property assets" to CPTN Holdings LLC, "a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft". SUSE goes to Attachmate, I gather, and will be a separate unit, so what goes to Microsoft's consortium?
No doubt we'll find out in time. It is being reportedthat what it will get is 882 patents. Blech. How many does Novell own? Is that all of them? If so, will we get to watch Son of SCO, but with patents this time? But keep in mind that the WordPerfect litigation could be in this picture, and I wonder if this could be a kind of deal to tactfully settle it out, with Microsoft paying to end it this way? $450 million isn't a lot, though, so how could it be all of the patents? Nevertheless, selling any patents to Microsoft is like selling your baby to a pedophile in the limited sense that you can reasonably predict what it will do with the acquisition.
Novell's CEO is telling "valued customers" in an email that it's a merger agreement, that Novell believes "the transaction is great news for our customers," that all contracts will be honored, and that the IP sale to Linux's sworn enemy "will not impact customers", whatever that means. Not a word about Linux and what it means for SUSE. Not a word to reassure the community. ComputerWorld's Chris Kanaracus has the interesting detail that Elliott Management, the group Novell rejected earlier, will become a shareholder in Attachmate:

Attachmate's offer of $6.10 per share follows the $5.75 a share offer made in March by investment firm Elliott Management Corporation, one of Novell's largest shareholders. Novell rejected that offer. But as part of the deal announced Monday, Elliott is to become an equity shareholder in Attachmate, according to a statement.

So. The vultures won, I gather. Here is the Attachmate statement, so you can decide for yourself. But here's a word from Elliott in that statement:

"Elliott is pleased to have been a major catalyst in this transaction, enabling Novell's shareholders to realize substantial shareholder value," said Jesse A. Cohn, portfolio manager at Elliott Management. "Novell has a robust product set that we believe will create a significant value opportunity as part of the Attachmate Corporation portfolio of products."

A major catalyst. Significant value opportunity. Get the picture?

Nikon, SanDisk and Sony propose larger, faster memory format

2010-12-25T13:04:00.000-05:00

Nikon, SanDisk and Sony have jointly developed the specifications for a faster type of memory card. The specifications have been submitted to the Compact Flash Association with the aim of them being adopted as a future standard. The proposal uses the PCI Express interface to offer transfer rates of up to 500MB/s, rather than the 167MB/s limit of the most recent Compact Flash 6.0 standard. The proposal hope to provide a card that can cope with future requirements for bursts of RAW images and large quantities of HD footage. The Compact Flash Association has established a working group that will evaluate the proposal by the end of 2010.

Groklaw - Google's Motion to Dismiss Paul Allen's Patent Infringement Complaint Granted

2010-12-24T13:08:00.000-05:00

Google's Motion to Dismiss Paul Allen's Patent Infringement Complaint Granted

Microsoft-Organized Consortium Buying Novell Patents Are Apple, Oracle, MS, and EMC - Updated 6Xs

2010-12-24T13:05:00.001-05:00

It's being reported on MacRumors that the members of the consortium put together by Microsoft to buy the 882 patents from Novell are Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, and EMC:

Breaking news: Twitter user @VM_gville just pointed me to the website of the German federal antitrust authority ("Bundeskartellamt"), which discloses a merger (or more precisely, joint venture) notification filed a week ago (on 09 December 2010), according to which the four companies behind CPTN Holdings LLC -- the acquirer of 882 Novell patents -- are Microsoft, Apple, EMC, and Oracle. The product market in which the newly formed company plans to operate is defined as "patents"

Here's the page where you can see the notation on the Bundeskartellamt website:

09.12.2010 - B5-148/10 - Unternehmen:
Microsoft, Apple, EMC u. Oracle / CPTN Holdings LLC (Anteilserw.+GU-Gründung)
Produktmärkte: Patente

Cubadebate Against Media Terrorism

2010-12-24T13:02:00.000-05:00

Cubadebate Against Media Terrorism: "U.S.: 43 million people receive food stamps (4 times the population of Cuba)
December 24, 2010

The number of people receiving food stamps in the U.S. increased 16% over last year, according to CNN. This means that 14% of the U.S. population lives with food stamps, or nearly 43 million people (four times the population of Cuba), or about one in seven Americans."

Microsoft Standardizes Incompatibility from 1991-2010 Reveals Novell - Groklaw

2010-12-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting article, but anyone who's has been a Microsoft insider for as long as I have, this doesn't come as much of a surprise. Still good to have the "facts". This is also a call to action to open source and cross platform compatibility. In other words, never standardize on Microsoft technology.

It's a Microsoft memo from 1991, regarding a suggested attack plan to beat out IBM's OS/2, written by Joseph Krawczak, currently group program manager for Outlook at Microsoft. Here are just three damning sentences from the confidential memo:

Pursue a product development strategy that prevents IBM from claiming Windows compatibility. Prevent Windows applications from running correctly on OS/2....Reposition OS/2 as impractical and incompatible in the minds of customers.

Nice. First quietly create incompatibilities to make sure that Microsoft applications wouldn't run right on OS/2. Then tell the world that they shouldn't buy OS/2 because Microsoft applications wouldn't run right on OS/2.But 1991 is a long time ago, I hear some of you say, and there is a new Microsoft. Oh? Let's see if that's so by highlighting one of the recent Novell filings with the SEC, its work agreement with Microsoft titled "Improving Microsoft-Novell Interoperability through Open XML" and dated March of this very year.
It's regarding work Microsoft was willing to pay Novell to do to make Microsoft's cynically misnamed Open XML seem like it allows interoperability. Novell has been at work since March to make Novell's version of OpenOffice.org interoperate, sort of, but as you will see not completely with Microsoft Office 2010 so that it would at least look like Open XML works and that somebody is implementing it.

Read the full article here

Surprise Microsoft All versions of IE have a Bug - by Abinyah Walker

2010-12-23T11:52:00.000-05:00

Microsoft has issued a warning about a serious vulnerability in all versions of its Internet Explorer browser. The IE Bug Gives Hackers Control Over Your PC, says Microsoft.

"As vulnerabilities go, this kind is the most serious as it allows remote execution of code," said Rik Ferguson, a senior security analyst at Trend Micro. "This means the attacker can run programs, such as malware, directly on the victim's computer."

Although the company said it would patch the problem, it is not planning to rush out an emergency update.

"The issue does not currently meet the criteria for an out-of-band release," said Carlene Chmaj, a spokeswoman for the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), in an entry on the center's blog. "However, we are monitoring the threat landscape very closely and if the situation changes, we will post updates."

The vulnerability in IE6, IE7 and IE8 surfaced several weeks ago when French security firm Vupen disclosed a flaw in IE's HTML engine. Tuesday, researchers posted a video demonstration of an attack, and added a reliable exploit to the Metasploit penetration toolkit.

Sources:

Google
BBC World News

DARC Corporate Consortium: Voyager 1 on a new adventure - by Abinyah Walker

2010-12-14T13:53:00.001-05:00

DARC Corporate Consortium: Voyager 1 on a new adventure - by Abinyah Walker

Voyager 1 on a new adventure - by Abinyah Walker

2010-12-14T13:53:00.000-05:00

Voyager 1, is the most distant spacecraft from Earth, and it has reached a new milestone on its 14 billion kilometre quest to exit the Solar System.

The particles that shoot out from the sun have made a distinct change in direction signalling voyagers approach to the yet unexplored region of our solar system, the heliopause.

Voyager 1, launched on September 5, 1977 has been travelling for 33 years. It's initial mission as a deep space probe was to visit our outter system planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It completed it's flybys of our large gasseous plannets in 1989, at which time it was redirected towards deep space in the direction of the glactic centre.

How is Voyager 1 able to stay in communication with earth after 33 years in the deep cold of space? Voyager 1 carries a plutonium-238 power cell which has kept it's instruments working to detect the suns energenic particles and transmit its findings back to earth. The regions called the heliopause and terminal shock of our outter solar system are of particular interest to science. These regions are where the particles sent out from the sun at near the speed of light suddenly change direction or come to a stop having reached a zone carved out by the protective bubble generated by our sun colliding with the interstellar space of our milky way galaxy.

The suns particles are colliding with matter from others stars in our galaxy indicating Voyager has neared the Heliosheath. These first signs has come from Voyager 1 in recent weeks.

Energy Revolution Key To Complex Life

2010-12-11T11:24:00.005-05:00

Energy Revolution Key To Complex Life
London, UK (SPX) Oct 29, 2010

The evolution of complex life is strictly dependent on mitochondria, the tiny power stations found in all complex cells, according to a new study by Dr Nick Lane, from the University College London and Dr William Martin, from the University of Dusseldorf.

"The underlying principles are universal. Energy is vital, even in the realm of evolutionary inventions," said Dr Lane, UCL Department o

LockMart Awarded High-Power Microwave Energy Weapon Contract

2010-12-09T11:45:00.001-05:00

LockMart Awarded High-Power Microwave Energy Weapon Contract
Orlando FL (SPX) Nov 03, 2010 -

Lockheed Martin received a $230,000 U.S. Air Force contract to define requirements for a weapon that uses high-power microwave energy beams instead of explosives to take out enemy electronic systems. The Non-Kinetic Counter Electronics Capability (NKCE) contract will lead to a new type of weapon that will destroy electronic equipment without endangering personnel.

The contract, awarded by the U.S. Air Force Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, FL, calls for the development of an operations concept for the NKCE system, along with a mission planning strategy. Lockheed Martin will deliver its findings to the U.S. Air Force during the first quarter of 2011.

The contract also involves the development of system requirements and a concept of packaging the high-power microwave source system into an aerial platform. In addition, Lockheed Martin will identify hardening strategies to ensure system survivability in heavily defended areas.

"This type of weapon is completely non-lethal, so we can take out specific electronic targets deep within an enemy's infrastructure without concern for human collateral damage," said Tom Remenick, Advanced Programs manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

"The ability to specifically render the enemy's electronic equipment useless will give our Warfighters a distinctive advantage in any conflict."

When fielded, the weapon would require an aerial delivery platform for operational flexibility and the ability to engage multiple targets per mission. The system would be aimed at buildings or other structures containing identified electronic equipment that high-power microwave bursts would quickly render useless.

Abinyah, iP4