Noah’s 50 Favorite Posts of 2006

Enough with the pop­u­lar­ity con­test. Here are my picks — in more-​​or-​​less chrono­log­i­cal order — for the 50 best Defense Tech posts of 2006.

“Q Branch’s” Stock Market Shenanigans
Killer robots, cheeky Brits, cute marine mam­mals, shady gov­ern­ment offi­cials, insider trad­ing — plus, a gra­tu­itous ref­er­ence to James Bond — all in one post.
Laser Weapons “Almost Ready?” Not!
If youre into mil­i­tary tech­nol­ogy at all, some­where in the back of your mind, you want laser guns to hap­pen. That doesn’t mean they will.
The Dead Bombers of Halabja
David Axe finds the machines behind Iraq’s gas attacks.
Kneel Before the Centaur
Like a lot of us, for­mer Navy elec­tri­cian Dennis Buller is wor­ried about our troops over in Iraq. But he’s actu­ally built a machine to do some­thing about it.
China Tops Iraq, Osama in QDR
How the Pentagon’s every-​​four-​​years mas­ter plan focuses more on a future fight with China than today’s wars.
The Best Weapon
David Axe attends a tanker’s memo­r­ial ser­vice in Iraq.
Real-​​Life Ray Gun: Say When?
I was skep­ti­cal, when I first heard about the idea of using lasers and man-​​made light­ning to det­o­nate explo­sives at a dis­tance. Now, a lit­tle less so.
Happy Birthday to Me
Momma always told me to look on the bright side.
Be Mickey Mouse’s Spy
Here’s your big chance, junior spooks: the Walt Disney Company needs an ““Intelligence Analyst.“
The Enemy is Me
Last sum­mer, a U.S. Colonel in Baghdad told me that I was America’s enemy, or very close to it.
Mini-​​Sensors for “Military Omniscience“
The Pentagon’s new way to spot insur­gents: a set of palm-​​sized, net­worked sen­sors that can be scat­tered around a war zone. Its part of a larger Defense Department effort to estab­lish mil­i­tary omni­science and ubiq­ui­tous mon­i­tor­ing.
Stealth’s Radioactive Secret
Theres a sim­ple tech­nol­ogy that could trans­form civil avi­a­tion — slash­ing fuel con­sump­tion, reduc­ing green­house emis­sions and cut­ting noise. The prob­lem, David Hambling explains, is it’s a mil­i­tary secret.
New Detectors Sniff Terrorists’ Scents
The Pentagon’s fringe sci­ence arm wants to keep track of poten­tial enemies-​​of-​​the-​​state in every way imag­in­able: not just by sight, or by sound, or by their e-​​mail; but by their smell, as well.
Laser Labs Go Back to the Future
George Neil and Bob Yamamoto don’t remem­ber exactly where they were when they found out that the Pentagon was can­cel­ing their laser can­non project. But they remem­ber how they felt.
Air Force One Scare; Real Security Sacrificed
The head­line sure seemed scary: “Web site exposes Air Force One defenses,” Steven Schwartz notes. Too bad the arti­cle didn’t men­tion that the site is a fire­fighter safety man­ual, to help res­cue pas­sen­gers.
Federal Bureau of Luddites
Why the FBI is still using tech that’s straight out of the leisure suit era.
Iran’s Kooky, Incendiary Arsenal
Super-​​fast under­wa­ter mis­siles ain’t the half of it. Iran’s armed forces are rolling out a slew of new mil­i­tary hard­ware.
China’s R&D: Don’t Freak
China is about to pass the U.S. in the devel­op­ment of defense and com­mer­cial tech­nol­ogy, Matthew Tompkins warns. And they’re gonna take our lunch money, too.
Terrorists’ Unmanned Air Force
The bad guys can use drones, too.
Sunny, With a 75% Chance of Air Superiority
Some Air Force weapons sim­u­la­tors act like our biggest ene­mies just don’t exist. Haninah Levine explains.
Giant Slingshot: New Way to Space?
All space projects get into orbit pretty much the same way by burn­ing lots of rocket fuel. But what if, David Hambling asks, we could throw some­thing so hard, it would wind up in space?
NSA Sweep “Waste of Time,” Analyst Says
It’d be one thing if the NSA’s mas­sive sweep of our phone records was actu­ally help­ing catch ter­ror­ists. But a lead­ing data ana­lyst says that “it’s a waste of time… let[ting] the real ter­ror­ists run free.“
The Tech That Took Out Zarqawi
Ten years ago, tak­ing out Abu Musab Al-​​Zarqawi with F-​​16s would have been an impos­si­ble task. Not any more, David Axe reports.
Enter the BomBot
One of the nice things about being edi­tor of Defense Tech is that peo­ple occa­sion­ally show up at your apart­ment with mil­i­tary robots.
Superbomb — or Crapshoot?
A panel con­venes, to assess the not-​​quite-​​dead con­tro­versy over a phan­tom super­bomb. Sharon Weinberger won­ders why she wasn’t invited.
Clowns Sabotage Nuke Missile
On Tuesday morn­ing, a retired Catholic priest and two vet­er­ans put on clown suits, busted into a nuclear mis­sile launch facil­ity, and began beat­ing the silo cover with ham­mers, in an attempt to take the Minuteman III mis­sile off-​​line. Seriously.
Taking on Iran’s Air Force
What hap­pens a stand-​​off with Iran turns vio­lent?
Missile Flop: Norks in Tight Spot
Is North Korea’s busted mis­sile test as a major prob­lem for the U.S. — or for Kim Jong-​​il?
Semper Fi Sauvignon
From the halls of Montezuma to Fallujah, the United States Marine Corps have proved them­selves to be the most resource­ful war­riors on the planet. Now, a sin­gle test remains: Make a rich, smooth red wine.
CIA’s Wacky, Online ‘Personality Quiz’
These are tough times for the CIA. But can things have grown so dire at Langley that the it has to resort to gim­micks like a wink-​​wink-​​trying-​​to-​​be-​​ironic-​​and-​​cool– but-​​instead-​​looking-​​even-​​more-​​dorky recruit­ing web­site?
Hez Hacked Israeli Radios?
Readers debate whether Hezbollah really com­pro­mised Israel’s most secret com­mu­ni­ca­tions.
“Plug-​​and-​​Play” Ship Hits the Water
Why Navy Captain Don Babcock is in such a hurry.
Attack Of The Genius Robot Cockroach Swarm
“I have seen some rad­i­cal ideas for attack­ing deep bunkers,” David Hambling says, “but this beats ‘em all.“
Area 51: Hype vs. Reality
A vet­eran avi­a­tion journo writes about secret air­planes he believes might be under devel­op­ment at Area 51. David Axe won­ders how much proof he has.
Robotic Frisbees of Death
The Air Force thinks it has an answer to the most vex­ing prob­lem in counter-​​insurgency: fris­bees. Not just any fris­bees, mind you. Robotic fris­bees. Heavily armed robotic fris­bees.
How to Rate a (Possibly) Stupid Weapon Idea
Sharon Weinberger’s 15-​​point test to find out if a weapons-​​maker is full of it.
Iraqi Forces Don’t Suck … Entirely
Despite what you might have heard from other media, David Axe says, the Iraqi Army does not suck.
High-​​Tech Uniforms Finally Heading to War
A col­lec­tion of high-​​tech sol­dier gear, 15 years and half a bil­lion dol­lars in the mak­ing, will finally make it into bat­tle.
Army “Big Brother” Unit Targets Bloggers
Bloggers: “Big Brother is not watch­ing you, but 10 mem­bers of a Virginia National Guard unit might be.“
Spyboys Go Web 2.0
How the mil­i­tary keeps tabs on over­seas TV chan­nels, 24/​7 — and what it means for the future of intel­li­gence.
Cash-​​Poor Army Pays Big to Pimp Pricey ‘Future’
The Army is quickly going broke, its lead­ers insist. But there’s one Army account that the gen­er­als are still man­ag­ing to keep packed to the brim: mar­ket­ing.
Bush: Space is for Soldiers
Theresa Hitchens explores the President’s new space plan — and finds a mar­tial bent.
Big War Machines Pushed for Korea Fight
How mil­i­tary big­wigs are angling for North Korean fight.
NORK Nuclear Test: It’s A Dud
Jeffrey Lewis is the first to fig­ure out that Kim Il Jung’s nuclear test isn’t all it was cracked up to be.
BattleHog Drone’s Story Stinks
David Hambling asks: Could a home secu­rity con­sul­tant oper­at­ing out of a Manhattan apart­ment have built the lat­est and great­est killer drone?
“The Deadlies“
Defense Tech’s search for the most insanely haz­ardous gear, ever.
Mechanical Mole Men, Attack!
Throughout the ages, bad guys have loved bunkers. Which is why the Air Force wants teams of tun­nel­ing, foot-​​long “sub­ter­ranean vehi­cles.“
Labouchere of Arabia
David Axe camps out with a modern-​​day T.E. Lawrence.
<a href=“http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002950.html>Tomorrow’s Insta-​​Weapons
America owes a big chunk of its mil­i­tary supe­ri­or­ity to what it can make. So what hap­pens, Nicholas Weaver asks, when much of that high-​​precision man­u­fac­tur­ing can be located any­where and owned by any­one?
Drunks, Butts Test Pain Ray; Paris Hilton Next?
David Hambling’s new reality-​​show pitch. Milimeter wave weapons are involved.
Pentagon Plan: Hit Anywhere on Earth, in an Hour
The secret con­nec­tion between Nordstrom’s tod­dlers depart­ment and the Pentagon push to “strike vir­tu­ally any­where on the face of the Earth within 60 minutes.”

December 28th, 2006 | Blog Bidness | 48202 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2006/12/28/noahs-50-favorite-posts-of-2006/Noah%27s+50+Favorite+Posts+of+20062006-12-28+17%3A30%3A39ryan_singel You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.