Technology

Belarus experienced ‘nation-scale’ internet disruption during election, says web monitoring group

Belarus was hit with widespread disruption in internet connectivity during the country’s closely watched election Sunday, according to web monitoring organization NetBlocks.

“Network telemetry from the NetBlocks internet observatory confirm that internet connectivity in Belarus has been significantly disrupted as of Sunday 9 August 2020 amid tense presidential elections,” NetBlocks said in a statement on its website. “Outages increased in severity through the day producing an information vacuum as citizens struggled to establish contact with the outside world. The incident is ongoing as of Monday afternoon.”

Widespread protests followed the election, which saw authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko win his sixth consecutive term

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NetBlocks cited a news report Saturday that said authorities planned to shut down internet service during the elections. “National cyber-security response center Belarus CERT issued a statement describing the internet restrictions as a measure to block incoming cyber-attacks,” NetBlocks said.

Police block a road and use smoke grenades during a protest after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020.
(AP Photo)

The country’s central election commission said that with all ballots counted, Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for 26 years, took 80.23% of the vote and his main opposition challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, had only 9.9%.

On Sunday, NetBlocks tweeted that “#Belarus is in the midst of nation-scale internet disruption affecting fixed-line and cellular operators.”

“Multiple internet providers in #Belarus have lost routing as polling stations start to close from 8:00 p.m; geolocated network data confirm the new disruption has nation-scale impact further limiting visibility of events,” added NetBlocks in a subsequent tweet.

The election was fought amid frustration over a worsening economy and the government’s dismissive response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Human rights groups said one person was killed — which the authorities denied — and dozens were injured in a police crackdown on protests that followed Sunday’s presidential election.

Opposition supporters believe the election results were rigged and plan to gather in Minsk for more protests on Monday evening.

Fox News’ Frank Miles and the Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Dystopian Deeds: How China’s top-notch mass surveillance system threatens global freedoms

Every millimeter of Beijing is monitored by state-of-the-art surveillance cameras, according to the Beijing Public Safety Bureau. Facial recognition algorithms matched with images filed away in a secret database could see you in legal trouble for something you did near your front door. A semi-political post made in a private chat could lead to the loss of your job.

Yet it is only the tip of the iceberg — and the very beginning — of the rise of technologically-advanced China and its dystopian dreams. It might be a deterrent to crime, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership advocates, but it also means a substantial loss of privacy and saps any semblance of free expression.

“The Chinese Communist Party is committed to the production and use of technology that controls and surveils its population,” Chairman Robin Cleveland and Vice Chairman Carolyn Bartholomew of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told Fox News in a joint statement this week. “The decision to use these tools of repression is politically motivated to sustain the Party.”

In this photo taken Wednesday, July 16, 2014, a child plays under police surveillance cameras set up to monitor a dirt road intersection in Kuqa in western China’s Xinjiang province. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
(The Associated Press)

And what happens in China does not stay in China.

Surveillance — or simply spying — has become a booming business in the world’s most populated country with scores of tech start-ups moving in to meet the market demand with the government’s encouragement. But human rights activists say that the enterprise has quickly become a critical apparatus for suppression and abuses, especially on minority groups.

Notably, Beijing has endeavored for decades to crush the Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang, and in recent years swept millions into concentration camps that the government prefers to call “re-education camps.” But according to documents leaked earlier this year, the reliance on digital snooping innovations has been masterfully crafted.

The system in play is quietly called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), which has the ability to audit entire populations. From there, it can rapidly produce names of people classified as “suspicious” — and thus marked for possible detention — purely as a result of their travel patterns abroad, mobile applications installed and key phrases used in bulletins or private messages, sometimes as basic as asking someone else where they can pray.

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Developed by a state-owned military contractor China Electronics Technology Corporation, IJOP is said to have been copied by Chinese military theorists researching how the U.S. military used information technology during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and enhanced from there.

In this photo taken Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, a computer screen shows the leaked online post from Guilin University of Electronic Technology warning of “hostile domestic and foreign powers” that were “wantonly spreading illicit and illegal videos” through the internet in Beijing, China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

If stopped at a checkpoint, IJOP can filter through billions of data points in a few seconds and learn everything about you — from photos and home addresses to official identification numbers, education, Internet browsing history and family connections.

In addition to these pervasive police checkpoints, of which more than 10,000 police stations and tens of thousands of police have been hired since early 2017, surveillance measures include the urging of neighbors to snitch, placing CCP officials directly in homes and placing QR codes on the doors of homes so police can track who is supposed to be in each building.

According to Joseph Humire, Executive Director for the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), Xinjiang serves as the “central nervous system of surveillance” in China, which is an IJOP that prompts you to enter identifying information, such as when you grow a beard, leave your house, or your blood type, etc.

“These apps try to determine your pattern of life, and if Chinese authorities determine any change in your pattern of life, they come to visit you,” he told Fox News.

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But it is not only minorities that are tracked.

“It is targeting the whole population with the focus on anyone who has independent thinking,” said Xiaoxu “Sean” Lin, a microbiologist and activist/spokesperson for the Washington-based Falun Dafa Association. “Many technologies are involved in facial recognition including Facial Action Unit analysis, facial expression recognition, deep neuro network analysis, facial muscle movement recognition, topographic modeling, deep machine learning and supercomputer technologies.”

Humire also pointed out that there is approximately one CCTV camera for every six citizens in China, “which makes China the most surveilled country in the world.”

Recently, Beijing has brought its arsenal of tracking tools together to create a social credit score, which penalizes Chinese citizens for physical or digital activities that the Communist Party deems problematic.

“The government can use these social credit scores to impose restrictions on travel, banking, scholarship, and other pursuits, thereby forcing Chinese citizens to abide by the Communist Party’s desires or accept serious personal and professional restrictions,” explained Zack Cooper, a research fellow, and China policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). “Many of these activities are conducted by Chinese companies at the request or direction of the government.”

And that has something of a broad appeal well beyond its borders.

“Some authoritarian countries see China as a model for controlling a large population. Another advantage is that Chinese companies potentially have access to records on 1.3 billion individuals, which makes it much easier to develop and improve complex algorithms than is possible in smaller societies with more concern for data privacy,” Cooper continued. “As a result, Chinese companies have made serious headway in recent years.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro at the Great Hall of the People September 1, 2015 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Parker Song-Pool/Getty Images)
(2015 Getty Images)

Experts also underscore that China, which has predominantly come to corner the market of artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition (FR) in recent years, is thus shaping the global standards and dictating the regulatory environment for surveillance technology, primarily so that its companies can access and dominate markets worldwide.

Heather Heldman, managing partner of geopolitical and risk forecasting firm, the Luminae Group, underscored that it is the combination of tools as a package that gives China’s surveillance apparatus the upper hand.

“China is using a variety of tech tools to carry out its mass surveillance – everything from sophisticated DNA mapping to advanced social media monitoring and cyber-surveillance tools such as facial recognition – all tools more commonly used in a military or law enforcement context,” she told Fox News. “Much of the funding for the construction and deployment of such systems comes from the Chinese government, but it also comes from international private sector enterprises that may be partially owned by a Chinese entity.”

She also concurred that a number of other countries are also buying this technology, especially in Africa, “where it has been well received by autocrats seeking to maintain their grips on power.”

Humire also conjectured that the controversial technology is being sold to countries in Latin America, most notably in Venezuela, where China’s state-controlled ZTE Corp developed a new smart ID card.

“The Maduro regime is a strategic ally of Beijing, so in some sense, this was expected, however, this is also happening elsewhere in the region. In a northern province of Argentina, called Jujuy, ZTE has sold a surveillance system with 600 cameras worth around $30 million,” he said. “In neighboring Uruguay, they’ve donated more than 2,000 surveillance cameras to reportedly monitor the borders with Argentina and Brazil. In Brazil, Huawei equipment is embedded in government infrastructure and some agencies, like its Central Bank.”

Overall, Chinese companies have exported surveillance technology to more than 60 countries worldwide, according to one report from the Carnegie Endowment, some of which have poor human rights records and therefore, would not be permitted to purchase from most developed nations.

Indeed, its universal footprint is continuing to expand.

“Countries and cities around the world have increasingly opted to employ public security and surveillance technology platforms from China,” stated an April 2020 analysis by the Brookings Institute. “The drivers of this trend are complex, stemming from the expansion of China’s geopolitical interests, the increasing market power of its technology companies, and conditions in recipient states that make Chinese technology an attractive choice despite concerns about security and privacy.”

In some instances the countries buying — and later funding the further development of oppression gadgets — are tied up in pre-existing financial agreements with Beijing.

“The CCP and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping consider AI critical to its future military and economic power competition. The Belt and Road Initiative [BRI] has a digital silk road of Chinese-built fiber-optic networks that expose internet traffic to greater monitoring by Chinese intelligence agencies,” Humire asserted. “There is a fear of economic retaliation from China because many countries in the world are indebted to the PRC. Half of the countries that China has exported its AI or surveillance tech is part of its BRI and depend on these infrastructure loans.”

And with the turbulent proliferation of the novel coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, many experts worry that the already mammoth surveillance engine will only be bolstered — and at a record pace, with the CCP having enlisted the emergency aid of technology companies to develop products intended to squash the contagion’s spread.

In this Jan. 4, 2020, file photo, a health surveillance officer monitors passengers arriving at the Hong Kong International airport in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

The U.S. is purporting to push back against the Chinese boom to backdoor surveillance. President Trump announced Friday that he intends to soon sign an executive order banning the China-developed, video-sharing app TikTok — which has denied accusations of spying — and messenger WeChat within the next six weeks. In addition, the government has long-cautioned other countries against allowing 5G company Huawei from operating within its borders.

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Late last month, the U.S. added 11 Chinese companies to its economic blacklist, claiming the firms were involved in genetic analyses used to deepen the scale of abuses committed against Uighurs and other minorities.

“There have been some notable efforts recently to make the use of this surveillance equipment more difficult in Xinjiang,” Copper added. “However, I think we have to be realistic that many of these companies have little exposure outside China, and few of their corporate leaders are going to change their behavior due to the threat or imposition of visa bans or banking restrictions.”

Animal assassins and military mammals: How superpowers continue to train creatures for combat

Man’s four-legged best friend has historically played a critical role in the military machine, however, they aren’t the only animal playing a pivotal part.

The truth is seemingly stranger than fiction. Think mammal mercenaries. Reptile reconnaissance. Pigeon patrols.

“Using trained animals, other than beasts of burden for logistics purposes, has always been effective for very specific tasks in a wartime theater and evading detection by the enemy,” Miguel Miranda, an expert analyst in military technology, told Fox News.

Late last month, reports emerged that Russia had sent “military dolphins” to Syria. Satellite imagery of Russia’s naval base at Tartus in Syria, according to Popular Mechanics, indicated that the mammals were deployed to warden its fleet in the war-depleted nation and were likely housed in pens at the base.

Typically, dolphins can be trained to identify mines and enemy infiltrators. Their alleged use by Russia has raised questions about what other purposes mammals could serve in the theater of conflict and espionage.

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In May last year, fishermen off Norway’s northern coast discovered a beluga whale donning a specially-made harness reading “Equipment St. Petersburg” with Go-Pro cameras mounted to either side – prompting officials to surmise that the whale most likely came from Russian Navy equipped to aid in various missions.

A 2017 Siberian Times report underscored that Russia’s Murmansk Sea Biology Research Institute had coached beluga whales, dolphins, and seals for military duties, claims denied by Russia’s defense ministry. However, it was widely documented during the crest of the Cold War in the 1960s that the then-Soviet Union extensively schooled everything from beluga whales and dolphins, to sea lions and fur seals to recover lost objects and scope out hidden sea mines.

A view shows a facility, where nearly 100 whales including orcas and beluga whales are held in cages, during a visit of scientists representing explorer and founder of the Ocean Futures Society Jean-Michel Cousteau in a bay near the Sea of Japan port of Nakhodka in Primorsky Region, Russia April 7, 2019. Press Service of Administration of Primorsky Krai/Alexander Safronov/Handout via REUTERS

Three years earlier, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, it was reported that Moscow had launched a new program to tutor dolphins and seals for combat purposes and, in 2016, was offering thousands of dollars for bottlenose dolphins and scouting for ones with “perfect teeth.”

Moreover, in the spring of 2000, the BBC identified a Russian man who had been tasked with training a pack of dolphins “to target enemy combat swimmers and divers with harpoons strapped to their backs, capture them, and carry mines to enemy ships in suicide attacks” during Soviet times. The dolphins could reportedly distinguish between Soviet and foreign subs by the sound of their propellers.

After funding ran out, the handler is believed to have sold the dolphins – which have a lifespan of some 50 years or so – potentially to Iran.

However, Russia is hardly the only military might that disciplines mammals – the United States armed forces have made use of the sea life dating back to the 1960s and the Vietnam War.

The U.S. Navy kept its Marine Mammal Program classified until 1992. Still ongoing out of San Diego today, the U.S. Navy utilizes the extraordinary sonar capabilities of Pacific bottlenose dolphins – which can detect better and faster than any technological gadget – as well as sea lions, who have a remarkable underwater vision to spot mines, as well as recover dormant torpedoes and test objects needed for naval exercises.

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The mammals are said to have retrieved millions worth of lost instrumentation on the ocean floor and can patrol areas near nuclear-powered submarines and expose a variety of submerged threats in dark or murky waters.

Dolphins were sent to the Iraq war to assist in mine unmasking and clearance operations in the Persian Gulf to clear the way for humanitarian ships and can be deployed anywhere on the globe via a C-130 cargo aircraft, according to the U.S. Navy. It was also documented in the early days of the War on Terror that the Navy had begun cultivating dolphins to shoot possible terrorists targeting U.S. vessels – with concerning reports that some had escaped from their training ponds in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Dolphins are used by both U.S. and Russian militaries (CREDIT Robert W Boessenecker)

The U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has also dived into the terrain. The New Scientist reported in 2016 that the agency was working to remotely control sharks via implanted electrodes in their brain, thus taking advantage of their ability to monitor underwater crafts and pursue chemical trails.

Furthermore, last year it was revealed that DARPA was experimenting with using fish as subaqueous spooks – examining whether the refined sensing practices of marine organisms could bolster national security as an extra surveillance system in a research effort dubbed Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors (PALS).

But perhaps one of the earliest pioneers in purporting to develop military mammal programs were the Brits, who employed sea lions during World War II to find mines. However, the effort was deemed a failure as the creatures were considered too slow and too easily distracted.

Birds, too, were incorporated early by the British army. Throughout World War I, the army attempted to teach seagulls to defecate on periscopes belonging to Germans, thus impairing the vision of adverse submarine crews, noted TIME Magazine.

test
(iStock)

Meanwhile, France today recruits albatrosses as a form of law enforcement – outfitting them with radar detector satellite tags in a bid to curb illegal fishing, which threatens the existence of seabirds. Scientists from France’s Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé first had to develop a tracking device to enable them to audit the bird’s location and surrounding vessels, thus allowing them to monitor areas otherwise challenging to regulate.

French Breitling Jet Team comprising of 7 Aero L-39 Albatross planes perform stunts during their Southeast Asian Tour aerobatics showcase on Saturday March 9, 2013 in Singapore. This is the first stop of their tour and the team will be showcasing their aerobatics performances in other countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
(AP2013)

These non-human creatures are not immune from arrest, detainment, assassination, or just the blame game either.

In the 1970s, Sudan claimed that it had captured a snooping pelican – equipped with Israel-linked GPS technology – into its territory. In 2011, Hezbollah operatives shot down a rare Bonelli eagle it said was acting covertly for Israel, and in 2015, Hamas accused Israel of using a dolphin to spy on its movements.

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And in 2018, a senior Iranian military advisor, Hassan Firuzabadi, at a press conference incriminated western intelligence agencies of scheming to sneak “a variety of reptile desert species like lizards and chameleons” into the country to “find out where we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities.” Zoologists refuted this by underscoring that lizards, at least, are not able to identify uranium.

Also, in recent years, Egypt imprisoned a bird on suspicion of spying for France – later releasing it after verifying that the accessory tied to its leg was a wildlife tracker by French scientists to study migration patterns.

But on the topic of ruffling feathers, pigeons have long had a place in intelligence gathering – with historians pointing the first account of message-toting pigeons used by Noah, ensued in later years by the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte and then used as couriers for French troops in the First World War, often losing their lives on the battlefield. German forces had also taken to strapping small cameras onto the birds to collect intel through means of aerial photography during the conflict.

The U.S. military, Smithsonian magazine highlighted, also enlisted pigeons – guided by laser pointers and instructed to drop recording apparatuses – throughout the 1960s and 1970s to survey enemy lines and pinpoint potential ambushes.

Pigeons fly at the Ernakulam boat jetty as state run boats start plying after lying idle for nearly two months due to the lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus in Kochi, Kerala state, India, Wednesday, May 20, 2020. The resumption of once-routine aspects of daily life that were upended by the pandemic has picked up speed in recent weeks, as governments and communities try to strike a balance between keeping infections from flaring anew and allowing economies to function. (AP Photo/R S Iyer)

While the tactic is no longer believed to be in the U.S. playbook, Pakistan continues to accuse India of sending snitching pigeons into its borders.

“One should recall how the terror group ISIS even had its own reliable network of carrier pigeons for sending and delivering encrypted messages,” Miranda noted, citing declarations by Jordanian authorities in 2016 in which the jihadists were doing such things as tying letters with phone numbers to the foot of the bird and sending it to areas outside its self-styled caliphate.

Yet the animal operations and experimentations are numerous.

In the 1940s, at the height of the Second World War, an American dentist devised a plan to leash bombs to bats in the quest to cripple Japan with fires. The National Research Defense Committee tested the endeavor using Mexican free-tailed bats but it was ultimately canned after at least one car and building were accidentally set ablaze.

And starting in the 1960s, amid the epoch of Soviet encroachment, the CIA was working to turn housecats into listening devices by having vets insert microphones in their ears and radio transmitters into their heads to send to the Kremlin. Nonetheless, the enterprise was scrapped.

The future of non-human fellows in the realm of reconnaissance, defense, national security, and surveillance remains to be seen.

But one thing remains clear among experts and analysts. Despite the jaw-dropping modern-day technological advances, animals have distinct abilities – from echolocation and intelligence to camouflage and speed – that man-made goods have yet to surpass.

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But the next chapter may be a broader incorporation of both.

“Hybridization is an interesting trend where advances in microelectronics and materials allow companies to assemble a drone shaped like an animal – a bird, for example – or concealed with an exterior that mimics an animal’s appearance that’s then used for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes,” Miranda added. “Remarkably, this particular field of automation and robotics is a level playing field since the Chinese and the Russians have pursued these technologies on their own with impressive results.”

Could armored vehicles take hits from enemy fire and then self-heal ‘Terminator’-style?

Imagine an armored vehicle takes enemy fire and is disabled, crew members are injured, when all of a sudden its armor regenerates.

Perhaps a drone is conducting surveillance while operating in a forward, high-risk combat area when it is nearly decimated by enemy explosions, yet its biologically-inspired polymer material instantly self-heals.

Further, what if a soldier’s body armor is damaged by enemy attacks during close-quarter urban combat, placing his or her life in immediate danger, but the armored plates quickly regenerate and keep the soldier alive?

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While not here yet, these kinds of Hollywood-sounding warfare scenarios are not entirely beyond the realm of the possible, given cutting edge research now funded by the Army Research Office and conducted by Penn State University and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.

Scientists are discovering new ways of replicating, mirroring or approximating protein-based polymer materials inspired by biology. The materials are beginning to show some of the actual properties known to characterize biologically-based polymers, such as self-healing.

“Biologically-based materials, created through research, could be used in future robotics, prosthetics or maybe serve as a component of a composite material used in protective applications. If something was dropped or damaged, you would not need to take the time to replace it, you could self-heal the damage and get the device back in the field,” Dr. Stephanie McElhinny, program manager, Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory, told The National Interest in an interview.

File photo – Troopers with the U.S. Army 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division fire the main gun round at a target during unit gunnery practice with newly acquired M1A1-SA Abrams tanks at Fort Stewart, Georgia, U.S. March 29, 2018. Picture taken March 29, 2018. (U.S. Army/Handout via REUTERS)
(U.S. Army/Handout via REUTERS)

The plan, ultimately, is to potentially merge these polymers with other substances to form new composite materials able to exhibit these kinds of natural or biologically inspired self-healing properties. While these composites have not yet been created, Army scientists are making progress with initial efforts to engineer these kinds of biologically-inspired polymer materials based on the amino acids that construct protein polymer-like substances.

McElhinny detailed an elaborate, yet promising scientific process, which includes designing a biologically based DNA recipe or sequence to create proteins to obtain the desired properties. While the materials are synthetically made, they are inspired by self-healing properties, McElhinny explained to TNI.

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“Sequences are designed on a computer and then inserted into a bacterial strain to produce polymers. These drive into a powder and that can be processed into different materials,” McElhinny said.

Such progress introduces a new scientific frontier with potentially promising combat applications. It is an example of one of many ongoing Army Research Office projects intended to serve what could be called a two-fold process. The service wants to both harvest some scientific progress for near-term combat, while also advancing what’s called basic research intended to manifest years down the road.

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To draw from what could be called an overhyped sci-fi possibility, some might at least wonder if something like this could someday make something like Hollywood’s “Terminator” a reality.

Will the US Navy reach 355 Ships? Fleet size vs. high tech

The U.S. Navy’s quest for 355 ships raises questions about the extent to which sheer numbers of platforms can offer new dimensions of combat power.

Would a high number of warships be enough or could fewer high-tech ships controlling unmanned systems have an equivalent or even superior impact?

Some have maintained that the technology woven into modern and emerging future vessels is so sophisticated that it would give America an advantage without necessarily adding large numbers of new ships.

The hope is that long-range sensors, multi-domain synergy, manned-unmanned teaming and a large platform “mothership” might achieve the requisite combat superiority without necessarily relying upon hundreds of ships.

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However, others argue that the current fleet is simply ill-equipped to meet combatant commanders’ demand for sustained and widespread global operations. Such a concept provides the foundation for why the Navy has been asking for as many as 12 carriers and a fleet as large as 355 ships or more.

In this photo provided by U.S. Navy, the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and USS Nimitz (CVN 68) Carrier Strike Groups steam in formation, in the South China Sea, Monday, July 6, 2020.
(Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jason Tarleton/U.S. Navy via AP)

Navy shipbuilding plans have specified a path to achieve that goal, a roadmap that includes adding submarines, destroyers, a new fleet of amphibious assault ships and of course, an additional carrier.

Some observers point to the size of the Navy during the Reagan era, which exceeded 500 ships, as a way to make the point that a more sizeable fleet enables the service to project global power, protect strategically vital global waterways and of course deter potential adversaries.

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However, the seemingly contrary points of view on a large Navy vs. fewer higher-tech drones invites an interesting thought. Why not both? Each strategy might bring an unprecedented advantage to maritime warfare.

There are several reasons why it is likely to make sense to pursue such an ambitious strategy, provided budget priorities could be properly aligned.

If that happened, two concerns come to mind: multi-domain warfare and major power two-front war. After all, it is well known that modern warfare changes the equation in a radical way, removing the likelihood of traditional, more linear force-on-force engagement limited to a narrow or clearly defined geographical area.

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Warfare today will be multi-domain, dispersed, information-driven and will heavily involve previously less-impactful domains such as cyber, space, electronic warfare and artificial intelligence.

Long-range weapons and sensors, over-the-horizon aerial nodes, undersea-surface-air-land networking and emerging space weapons and warfare technologies will expand warfare in seemingly limitless ways. No longer will a fleet of battleships or a carrier strike group simply target a geographical region for targeted attacks.

While those missions will still exist, future engagements will rely on the speed of processing information. For instance, stealth bombers, tanks, submarines and destroyers will all operate as combat platforms as well as information nodes connecting otherwise separated areas of combat operation.

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Perhaps a forward-operating armed Unmanned Surface Vessel network with other surface drones to identify an enemy submarine attack force with sonar? The unmanned system, able to operate safely close to the enemy, sends real-time data to air drones and surface ships to attack from afar.

One senior Navy leader put it in “mothership” terms, saying that big platforms such as amphibious assault ships could command and control a fleet of literally thousands of unmanned systems. Imagine this fleet conducting surveillance missions, testing enemy defenses, finding optimal areas for attack, performing high-risk targeting missions, and transporting amphibious forces and weapons for attack. All of this involves at least networking with undersea, surface and air platforms. This enables manned ships to operate in a more disaggregated, yet intricately connected, fashion. In turn, such a manned-unmanned fleet could operate over a wide swath of combat operations.

Aerial nodes such as F-35s can detect and relay threats from beyond-the-horizon, tracking approaching enemy fire from previously impossible distances. Self-guiding cruise missiles and deck-launched rockets can find and hit targets from new distances as well, all the while leveraging data sharing from forward operating drones. Such systems could quite possibly be able to laser “paint” targets for large ships, send real-time video, help guide surface, air and undersea attacks. Finally, newer methods of undersea GPS-like communications technology are fast emerging.

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What all of this may amount to, simply put, is that both a larger Navy and groups of advanced technologies would be needed for a major-power engagement of any kind, let alone some kind of two-front U.S. war against both Russia and China simultaneously.

Army maps plans for future tank

Racing over bridges, supporting advancing infantry with suppressive fire, shooting vehicle-launched counter-drone missiles and engaging enemy tanks from safe standoff ranges are all operations the Army anticipates for its new fleet of armored combat vehicles.

A decided emphasis for the Army’s family of Next Generation Combat Vehicles is speed, maneuverability and expeditionary warfare, all key components of the service’s effort to bring supportive fires to advancing infantry, cross bridges, engage in mechanized maneuver warfare and leverage a new generation of sensor technology and drone coordination.

The NGCV effort consists of an interesting mixture of new platforms, to include the fast-emerging Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle infantry carrier, Robotic Combat Vehicle and some kind of future tank-like platform.

Part of the strategy for engineering lighter-weight vehicles resides in a specific effort to use new sensor systems, active protection and speed itself as survivability-enhancing mechanisms. The concept is to see and elude or thwart incoming enemy fire before being hit. In effect, see and destroy enemies before you yourself are hit.

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The strategy is to use long-range AI-enabled targeting sensors and thermal sights, air and ground drone connectivity, Short-Range Air Defense and active protection systems … instead of very heavy armor… to engage in massive mechanized force-on-force warfare.

File photo – M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks assigned to 3rd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division stage prior to a tactical movement during Spartan Focus, at Fort Stewart, Ga.
(U.S. Army photo by Spc. Andres Chandler/released)

However, the Army plans for a new fleet of armored combat vehicles as of yet, do not involve efforts to build anything heavier than 30-to-50 tons maximum. An Abrams tank is 70-tons.

The Abrams brings unparalleled survivability but lacks speed to keep up with advancing infantry and lighter-weight vehicles and suffers distinct mobility problems. Abrams tanks simply cannot get to a lot of places as they are too heavy for many bridges and other weight, speed and mobility sensitive combat conditions.

Given all this, when it comes to survivability in terms of being prepared to “take a hit” if necessary, will the Army’s new fleet of future vehicles truly be prepared? Certainly, boxers train to keep fighting when they take punches, knowing that will likely happen.

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Much of the Army’s long-range future strategy hinges upon the emergence of lightweight armor composites, most of which may not yet be ready to offer protection that is superior to heavy armor. Army weapons developers have said that some kind of “breakthrough” survivability technology may be needed before the service can truly engineer a next-gen “tank.”

If lightweight armor strong enough to hold off tank rounds and certain kinds of Anti-Tank Guided Missiles is not yet here, future armored Army vehicles will need to rely upon sensors, active protection and maneuverability to survive. Is that enough?

Could the Army’s new fleet encounter some of the same limitations thought to have imperiled the future of Future Combat Systems? Years ago it was determined that FCS’ new fleet of eight 27-ton Manned Ground Vehicles simply were not survivable enough for heavy mechanized, major power war.

The technical and developmental premise of FCS was to rely upon a sensor-driven “survivability onion” able to see and destroy threats without having to sustain a direct hit. Such a strategy, which may now inform the Army’s NGCV approach, may be based on what could be flawed or imperfect reasoning.

ARMY TO TEST AND SHOOT WEAPONS AT NEW MOBILE PROTECTED FIREPOWER PROTOTYPES

Would you feel prepared for a fight if you based your entire approach upon the expectation that you will not have to take a hit? What if sensors are jammed or malfunction? What if certain kinds of enemy munitions are able to penetrate the “survivability onion?”

Should an armored combat vehicle, ready to engage in major power mechanized warfare, be engineered such that it has the best chance of surviving and continuing to fight in the event that it is hit by a tank round? RPG? ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile)?

Certainly, Army weapons developers, strategists and technology experts have learned lessons from FCS, which is why the service aims to connect the best of both worlds with its new fleet of NGCVs.

This means that the seemingly impossible may be possible … perhaps the Army can build future armored combat vehicles that are both more maneuverable and deployable while, at the same time, bringing new levels of unprecedented survivability to armored warfare? It just might be possible, if seemingly paradoxical.

One such strategic effort to circumvent this predicament might be found with robotics and manned-unmanned teaming. If unmanned vehicles were operated by humans at safer stand-off ranges, they could absorb incoming enemy fire, engage heavily armored vehicles and test enemy defenses, lessening the need for manned armored vehicles to enter into higher concentrations of enemy fire in closer proximity.

Long-range sensors, weapons and air-ground networking are all part of the Army’s multi-domain conceptual effort to prepare for future war and build lighter, faster, more expeditionary armored vehicles.

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Nonetheless, the bottom line may be this: Heavy armor has an irreplaceable valuable place in future war. It may be here to stay… at least for the immediate future.

Space Force on alert: Behind Russia’s mysterious testing of deadly anti-satellite weapons in orbit

Space Wars: it might soon leave the realm of science fiction and become a reality.

Last week, the head of the U.S.’s newest military branch, the Space Force, cautioned publicly for the first time that Moscow had undertaken at least two concerning anti-satellite weapon tests in recent months, in a potential bid to develop on-orbit efficiency that could dangerously hinder the U.S.’s heavy dependency on space-based systems.

“On July 15, Russia injected a new object into orbit from Cosmos 2543,” the U.S. Space Force said in a statement. “Russia released this object in proximity to another Russian satellite, (which was) inconsistent with the system’s stated mission as an inspector satellite.”

While Russia’s Defense Ministry dismissed the allegation, it is not the first time the Pentagon has said such an incident occurred.

Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, commander of U.S. Space Command and U.S. Space Force chief of space operations, further highlighted that the Russian satellite system used to conduct this on-orbit weapons test is the same onr they “raised concerns about earlier this year when Russia maneuvered near a U.S. government satellite.”

WHAT IS THE ‘SPACE FORCE’ AND HOW WILL IT FIT INTO THE US MILITARY?

“This is further evidence of Russia’s continuing efforts to develop and test space-based systems, and consistent with the Kremlin’s published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold the U.S. and allied space assets at risk,” Raymond continued.

The proclamation that these satellites are part of a space-based anti-satellite weapon system is even more significant given that Cosmos 2542 had moved into a position to shadow a U.S. KH-11 spy satellite, publicly identified only as USA 245, in January, The Drive’s War Zone analysis pointed out.

FILE: Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, the commander of Air Force Space Command and the Joint Force Space Component Command.
(Clayton Wear/Air Force)

A month earlier, the USA 245 satellite was forced to move its own orbit to avoid a collision with the notorious 2543, which the U.S. Space Force believes was also trailing the American asset. Then in April this year, Space Force also raised red flags that the Kremlin had conducted testing of an unspecified “direct-ascent anti-satellite missile,” also known as a DS-ASAT, from its Plesetsk base in northern Russia.

“Russia’s DA-ASAT test provides yet another example that the threats to the U.S. and allied space systems are real, serious and growing,” Raymond said in a statement after that incident. “The United States is ready and committed to deterring aggression and defending the nation, our allies and U.S. interests from hostile acts in space.”

While no targets were destroyed in either the April or July experiments, the pattern – coupled with the notion of two Russian satellites following an American spy satellite – is enough to stir up some anxieties.

“If we stick to the U.S. version, the Russians now have a means for using small satellites to intercept a target in orbit and destroy it,” Miguel Miranda, an Asia-based arms and security expert, told Fox News. “This is a serious capability because the U.S. military’s biggest advantage over its rivals is an immense command and control plus intelligence and surveillance network orbiting our planet. Without it, the U.S. military suffers and struggles to fulfill its mission.”

Moreover, the U.S. State Department underscored that matter both in 2018 and again in 2020, saying that “Russian satellite behaviors were inconsistent with their stated mission and that these satellites displayed characteristics of a space-based weapon,” and characterizing the behavior as “hypocritical and concerning.”

Eugene Gholz, an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, also emphasized that – if accurate – it is no small matter.

“The capability to weaken U.S. military satellite constellations would inhibit the U.S. military’s ability to project power far from the U.S. homeland — that is, space is an essential part of the U.S. military’s infrastructure for operations against countries like Russia, China and Iran. The United States uses space-based intelligence gathering to understand threats to the U.S. homeland (for defense), but the U.S. also uses a lot of space-based capability to enable the U.S. military to go attack other countries,” he explained. “Relatively powerful other countries like Russia are naturally interested in weakening the U.S. military’s ability to attack them, which naturally attracts those countries to finding ways to hamper U.S. military space operations.”

The logo for the newly-created Space Force.
(AP)

But what is the newly-deployed and seemingly troublesome Cosmos 2543, also spelled Kosmos 2543?

Moscow deems it a “space apparatus inspector,” which does nothing more than observe and examine damage to other equipment on-orbit. Yet given its small stature and mobility, some defense experts suspect it could also double as spycraft or be used to destroy other critical space apparatuses in a number of ways – including launching projectiles, which the U.S. Space Force is accusing its Russian counterparts of dry-running in recent months.

“Details remain vague on this ‘inspector satellite,’ but the main concern is it’s able to launch small payloads toward another orbiting vehicle,” Miranda said. “Going by that alone, it does seem to have an offensive role, and this is what the U.S. military is concerned about.”

Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow and space expert at The Heritage Foundation, concurred that a big part of the problem quite simply is that we don’t entirely know what the Cosmos 2543 is and what it can do.

“It would appear to be a mini-satellite, launched from Cosmos 2542. Now, Cosmos 2543 has itself launched a smaller object,” he noted. “I am not aware of the U.S. testing anything akin to this. The U.S. and other states have talked about ‘servicing satellites,’ usually more in terms of systems that would be able to refuel and possibly repair satellites in orbit.”

According to the U.S. Space Force statement, Russia’s development and testing of orbital weapons highlight the importance of instituting the U.S. Space Force as a new branch of the armed forces – signed last year as an executive order by President Trump – and the U.S. Space Command as the nation’s unified combatant command for space.

“It is a shared interest and responsibility of all spacefaring nations to create the conditions for a safe, stable and operationally sustainable space environment,” the release continued.

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But what that means in practice remains to be seen, as the two powers have different objectives when it comes to developing a protocol.

“Both sides are gearing up for a future where the killing of satellites would be a key capability in a war or conflict. The goal is simple: if your opponent is blinded, he can’t attack you. Having weapons that can kill satellites that would direct precision attacks, find potential threats, and even wage a nuclear war are clearly a game-changer,” observed Harry Kazianis, a senior director at the Center for the National Interest. “They also create the potential for a weapon that could create incentives to strike satellites first in a war, as whoever does so and does so fast has a good chance at coming out as the winner.”

Washington and Moscow are holding their first discussions on space militarization in Vienna this week. The Wall Street Journal said Trump administration officials hoped the meeting “would lead to the establishment of a set of voluntary norms for operating in space and possibly a new communications channel to link space officials on each side,” while Russia in contrast “has advocated a formal treaty against the placement of weapons in space, reflecting Moscow’s long-standing push to head off a potential U.S. effort to develop space-based antimissile defenses,” making it unclear if an agreement will be reached.

“There is clearly ongoing tension between the U.S. and Russia, in space but also on the ground. The Russian annexation of Crimea, its support for ‘little green men’ in eastern Ukraine, its pressure on Georgia and the Baltic states, all indicate that its relations with the West will remain tense for the foreseeable future,” Cheng said. “Space reflects terrestrial tensions, and it is likely that there will be further tests of new Russian weapons, as they would want to neutralize the American space advantage in any conflict.”

President Vladimir Putin, left, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, right, and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu inspect warships during the Navy Day parade in St.Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday, July 26, 2020. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

In addition to simmering space tensions with Russia, the U.S. Space Force also has to contend with China’s influence in the sphere as it is also actively curating an array on anti-satellite systems. In 2007, Beijing sent a message to its adversaries by shooting a kinetic anti-satellite missile to blow up a weather satellite, demonstrating its prowess and generating the worst scattering of debris in the Space Age so far.

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Experts warn that the aerospace warfare arena – while still in its infancy – could quickly emerge as the prominent battlefield for a substantial conflict in the not-so-distant future. Its domain is especially crucial for the United States, which depends upon space systems for everything from navigation and weapons guidance to intelligence collection, communications, data sharing and storage, and advanced attack warnings.

“The focus should be on ensuring that the U.S. will always have ready access to space, and be able to fulfill the necessary space-related missions to help assure victory in any conflict with any other state, be it China and Russia as major powers, North Korea or Iran as mid-size powers, or terrorist entities,” Cheng added. “Space contributes to operations against any adversary, and is vital to the American way of war.”

Tech issues delayed Big Tech hearing as Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook awaited grilling

Ironically, tech issues momentarily delayed a hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday that has the CEOs of the four largest U.S. tech companies facing questions on a wide range of topics, including whether they violated U.S. antitrust laws or censored conservative voices.

A source familiar with the matter told Fox News the tech glitches were not in the Apple, Facebook, Google or Amazon‘s side of things, but rather the lawmakers’. The House Judiciary Antitrust subcommittee “is having issues trouble shooting the technology on their end,” a source said ahead of the hearing, initially scheduled for noon.

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Separately, a source familiar with the matter said the Democratic majority on the antitrust subcommittee, in charge of the hearing’s logistics, was made aware of the issues and eventually was able to fix them.

The hearing is called “Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sudar Pichai, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are scheduled to make statements and take questions at the hearing.

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Fox News’ James Rogers Gillian Turner and Hillary Vaughn contributed to this article.

Big Tech on Capitol Hill: Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple CEOs set to testify in antitrust hearing

Four Big Tech titans – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple – will testify before the House Judiciary Antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday.

The hearing “Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google” begins at 12 p.m. EDT.

The CEOs are testifying as the House panel caps its yearlong investigation of market dominance in the industry.

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None of the four CEOs will be physically present on Capitol Hill — all will be testifying via video link. For Bezos, this will be his first time testifying before Congress.

This combination of 2019-2020 photos shows Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Evan Vucci, Jeff Chiu, Jens Meyer)

In his testimony, Bezos will describe how he founded Amazon 26 years ago “with the long-term mission of making it Earth’s most customer-centric company,” according to a witness statement posted to the House Judiciary Antitrust subcommittee’s website.

“It’s not a coincidence that Amazon was born in this country,” Bezos will say, according to his prepared statement. “More than any other place on Earth, new companies can start, grow, and thrive here in the U.S. Our country embraces resourcefulness and self-reliance, and it embraces builders who start from scratch.”

AMERICANS, ESPECIALLY REPUBLICANS, SAY SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES TOO POWERFUL

Meanwhile, Facebook’s Zuckerberg will describe how the social network is part of an industry that has changed the world. “We face intense competition globally and we only succeed when we build things people find valuable,” he will say, according to a witness statement posted to the subcommittee’s website. “I’m proud that we stand for American values like giving every person a voice and expanding access to opportunity.”

Big Tech has been under intense scrutiny in recent years amid concerns about privacy, alleged political bias and if they’re violating antitrust laws.

House Judiciary Subcommittee Chairman Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., has called the four companies monopolies. In 2019, he called on the FTC to investigate Facebook. “Given all that we’ve learned recently about Facebook’s predatory behavior, it’s clear that serious enforcement is long overdue,” he said in a statement.

Cicilline, however, believes that breaking the Big Tech companies up should be a last resort, according to the Associated Press.

Critics of Big Tech are keen to see lawmakers clamp down on the tech titans. “There’s nothing about the fact that the internet is a relatively new technology that should mystify lawmakers — the tools that these companies are using to assert and protect their dominance have been in monopolists’ playbooks for generations. Bringing these companies to heel is a simple matter of will and demands action by the only force that’s more powerful than they are — the government, acting on behalf of the public,” said David Segal, co-chair of activist group Freedom From Facebook & Google, in a statement emailed to Fox News. “We hope that tomorrow’s hearing will be an important step forward in that process.”

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Facebook and Google are “two of the world’s most dangerous monopolies,” according to the Freedom from Facebook and Google website. “We can break their power and put rules in place so these corporations serve us, rather than the other way around,” it says.

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Most Americans believe social media companies have too much power and influence in politics, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.

According to the research, which was conducted between June 16 and June 22, 72 percent of U.S. adults surveyed said social media firms wield too much power and influence. “Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats believe social media companies wield too much power, but Republicans are particularly likely to express this view,” explained the Pew Research Center in a statement.

Fox News’ Christopher Carbone, Gillian Turner, Ashley Cozzolino, Brooke Crothers and the Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Army works to ensure AI-enabled warfare doesn’t go too far

What if an Artificial Intelligence-enabled combat system simply goes too far by expediting and completing a decision-making cycle beyond what was intended by a human operator? Can there be specific boundaries or safeguards engineered into a system to properly define and set parameters of possible computerized decisions based on algorithmic calculations?

U.S. Army weapons developers are carefully considering some of these nuances as the service quickly carves out and “applies” the best warfare uses for fast-increasing levels of AI-empowered autonomous decision-making. Perhaps a human, operating in a crucial, decision-making command and control capacity, will need to be sure the machines adhere to necessary safeguards or standards.

“If I direct a machine to do something, what happens when it starts making decisions on its own? How have I properly told it what I want it to do and what is acceptable and what isn’t?… A lot of time people who are desirous of AI behavior patterns have not fully understood that there are a lot of boundaries you have to make sure you pay attention to,” Dr. Bruce Jette, assistant secretary of the Army, Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, told The National Interest in a recent interview.

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Of course, Pentagon doctrine specifies that any use of lethal offensive force would need to be authorized by a human decision-maker, yet short of pre-programmed limits such as preventing an actual weapons firing, are there certain decision-making processes that should not be left solely to a computer?

U.S. Army Soldiers from Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), fire the TOW missile system during a live fire at Fort Campbell, Ky. Oct. 24, 2018 – file photo.
(U.S. Army Photo by Capt. Justin Wright)

“We are trying to develop an interactive approach to AI. How do I get soldiers involved and how do I understand what the implications are? How do I link that into a development program when it comes to aiming a gun?” he said.

Some of these nuances explain the precise reason Army leaders and senior weapons developers explain that the best use of AI involves human-machine interface or a certain kind of collaborative teaming between the two. While computer automation, or advanced, AI-specific algorithms can perform certain crucial combat functions exponentially faster and more efficiently than humans, there are still many key decisions that need to be made by a human.

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Human cognition is itself an extremely complex, unique and unprecedented phenomenon, not easily mirrored or replicated by even the most advanced machines. Procedural functions, such as data gathering, data organization and essential analytical processes, can be done exponentially faster than humans, vastly improving situational awareness and making potentially life-saving calculations among a host of otherwise too complicated, interwoven variables.

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While Jette and other senior weapons developers are clear that proper applications of this kind of technology, drawing upon AI-enabled real-time analytics, bring new paradigm-shifting dimensions to warfare, there is also consensus that there are, without question, faculties of human intuition and problem solving that simply cannot be replaced in any kind of machine. At least… not yet.

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