* WH situation room’s extreme makeover
* Army helos still undefended
* Pentagon bookkeeping FUBAR
* LAPD’s stolen-car spotter
* Britain’s “voluntary” DNA sweep
* Osprey goes to war?
* 10,000 combat hours for ScanEagle UAV
* STRATCOM consolidates
* Teeny-tiny planes take off
(Big ups: JR)
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>Army helos still undefended
As eDefense writer mentions at last, there are threats of unguided RPGs. Soviet Union suffered in Afghanistan for attacks by Taliban against helicopters by these. The warning system to be added would not be enough.
Unguided RPGs rely on the “900 foot self destruct” trick. But after the SEALS got shot down in Afghanistan-inside a specops chopper inevitably equipped with all sorts of doodads, I am prepared to agree that RPG-7 is still a threat to aircraft.
It will work against state entities like say, Iran. Or against anyone who wants to use a MANPAD, though a RPG can be trained against ground targets when the going gets rough. Oh well, until we get a portable “sentry gun” on a chopper…
> We’re hunting for stolen vehicles using the LAPD’s new tech toy: a digital license plate reader.
I’m somewhat surprised that this only now coming into use. We noticed the technology back in the mid-1990s when the receipts printed out at the IAD long-term parking lot started carrying license plate numbers. (There was a camera looking at the back of cars at the check-out gate.) AFAIK, this is just a specialized use of OCR technology.