New Evidence Of Chinese Spy Hardware Found By Ex-Mossad Investigators; Super Micro Shares Plunge

 

A major US telecommunications company found “manipulated” hardware from Super Micro Computer Inc. in its network in August – bolstering claims in a Bloomberg report last week alleging that China installed bugging devices on hardware bought by Apple, Amazon and a host of other companies.

According to a new report by Bloomberg, the unnamed telecom company hired former Israeli Intelligence Corps security expert Yossi Appleboum, now of Maryland-based Sepio Systems, who provided “documents, analysis and other evidence of the discovery” following last week’s report detailing how China’s intelligence agencies had ordered subcontractors to install malicious chips in Super Micro motherboards between 2013 and 2015. 

U.S. military seeks to be more lethal, including in space: Mattis

The U.S. military is seeking to be more lethal in all domains, including space, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said yesterday.

In a briefing with reporters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Mattis said U.S. Northern Command will have to change to meet the challenges of the future, to include space-related security challenges.

If the Iran Nuclear Deal Collapses, Iranian Hackers Will Target These U.S. Companies

 

If the Iran nuclear deal fails, U.S. companies will suffer never-before-seen security breaches thanks to Tehran’s “hacker army.”

This particular cyber militia has been honing its skills and expanding since 2013. That’s when then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani increased the country’s cybersecurity spending 12-fold, Business Insider reported in 2015. Rouhani allocated roughly $19.8 million to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Tehran’s military) to up its cyber capabilities.

Theory: China’s Secretly Prepping for War in the South China Sea

Chinese leader Mao Zedong, 1963.

 

Should a U.S.-China war break out in the South China Sea, Beijing will rely on an old Mao-era military tactic in its efforts to vanquish the United States.

The likelihood of such a conflict increases by the day…

That’s because the United States continues to exert its military presence in the trade- and resource-rich South China Sea, despite China’s insistence that nearly the entirety of the valuable maritime region belongs to it. China’s claims, as a matter of fact, clash with those of six other nearby nations, such as Vietnam and Taiwan.

Modernizing America’s Nuclear Capabilities Is a Must

A Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile in its silo in Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, circa 1980. (Image source: U.S. Department of Defense)

 

 

• In 1989, America had 1,000 nuclear missile silos, and a small number of additional bomber and submarine bases and submarines at sea, facing 13,500 Soviet warheads. Today, the U.S. has 450 such silos facing 1,750 Russian warheads. That is a switch from a ratio of 13 Russian warheads to every U.S. missile silo, to a ratio of 4 Russian warheads to every U.S. missile silo. Getting rid of Minuteman ICBMs would reverse that progress and make the ratio even worse, with 175 Russian warheads to every U.S. missile silo. How is that an improvement?
• The U.S. “cannot afford to delay modernization initiatives” while the “American people and our allies are counting on congressional action to fund our nuclear enterprise modernization efforts.” — General Robin Rand, the commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command.
• America’s ability to defend itself is at stake.

In April 2017, the Pentagon launched the U.S. Defense Department’s legislatively mandated quadrennial Nuclear Posture Review to determine American policy, strategy and capabilities. The process now underway involves testimony from experts arguing over how the estimated $27 billion spent annually (growing over the next decade by an additional $10 billion a year) on America’s nuclear arsenal should be allocated.

WAR READY: Trump deploys TANKS to Estonia as NATO builds up HUGE army on Russian border

Members of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade fire blanks from a machine gun during a simulated attack [Getty Images]

 

DONALD Trump has deployed swathes of US military equipment to Estonia as Nato continues to build its growing army on the Russian border.

More than 50 units of military equipment including four battle tanks and 15 infantry fighting vehicles, were delivered to Tapa, northern Estonia, according to the Estonian Defence Forces.

Reports confirmed the American troops will even take part in the country’s Independence Day Parade.

Dawn of EU Pentagon: Brussels to build defence agency run by politicians playing soldiers

Donald Trump has called for Europe to take on more of NATO’s funding

 

AN OBSCURE defence agency could play a key role in greater military cooperation as the European Union pushes on with plans for an EU army.

Although virtually unknown, the European Defence Agency could be a vital element if the EU hopes to forge tighter defence links in the future.

Currently, the organisation has a relatively tiny budget, staff of just 130 people, and is run by diplomats not military chiefs.

But there have been suggestions the EDA could become the European equivalent of the Pentagon – the headquarters of the United States Department of Defence.

Pentagon has no idea where hundreds of thousands of guns went in Iraq and Afghanistan

The U.S. government has shipped over 1.4 million guns to Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11, according a new analysis by the U.K.-based watchdog Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), but the Pentagon is only able to account for fewer than half of them.

AOAV released its analysis of publicly available data on U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracts on Wednesday, and added that when requested to provide its own accounting for the small arms provided to the war-torn nations, “the DoD data shows that over 700,000 small arms were sent from the U.S. to Iraq and Afghanistan within these periods. However, this amount only accounts for 48 percent of the total small arms supplied by the U.S. government that can be found in open source government reports.”

Space Warfare: No Longer Just Science Fiction

Caption: (iStock.com/Andrey Prokhorov)

 

What was once restricted to the realm of fiction and fantasy is now reality, and the U.S. is already losing.

In the last few decades, the idea of space warfare has evolved dramatically. Once perceived only in the fantasy realm of tie fighters and X-wings, war in outer space is now reality. In a technological age, satellites and military installations in orbit are taking on a pivotal role in geopolitics.

The realm formerly dominated by the United States is under threat. With each satellite launch by foreign powers, gaping holes form in America’s defenses. Space is being opened up to a number of powerful nations eager to exploit the heavens for their own military advantage. Invisible battlegrounds are forming in the night sky.

Pentagon: ‘Revanchist’ Russia seeking path of aggression

Work spoke at the Norwegian-American Defense Conference at the National Press Club, where he hailed Norway’s commitment to global peace and security, U.S. Department of Defense reports.

Europe and, by extension, NATO, faces challenges from 360 degrees, the deputy secretary said. To the east, west and north, it faces a “resurgent and apparently antagonistic Russia,” while from the south and from within, terrorism and violent extremism are concerns.

Electronic Weapons: The Swarm Goes To War

May 2, 2016: Since the 1980s the U.S. Department of Defense has been spending more time and effort on developing technology to make it possible for autonomous robots to communicate and cooperate in maintaining the most efficient “swarm” of robotic sensors or weapons. Progress has been slow but successful. Now the navy is testing swarms of small submarine detecting surface and underwater vehicles. The air force has already developed swarming systems for UAVs as well as some types of aerial decoys. The army is doing the same with small robotic vehicles used for surveillance and security. After more than half a century of theoretical and practical work the swarms are about to enter service.

Exclusive: The Pentagon Is Preparing New War Plans for a Baltic Battle Against Russia

But the really troubling thing is that in the war games being played, the United States keeps losing.

For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Department of Defense is reviewing and updating its contingency plans for armed conflict with Russia.

US Navy Starts Accompanying British Ships Off Iranian Coast

The move comes after the United Kingdom asked for an escort for their ships, Army Col. Steve Warren said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) —US warships have begun accompanying British merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.

“They’ve asked if we would accompany their flagged vessels through the strait.”

Pentagon Testing Drones That Can Launch from Ocean Floor

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is testing a drone that can hibernate on the ocean floor for years at a time before being launched to the surface and into the air at the push of a button.

Dubbed Upward Falling Payloads (UFP) program, the project was detailed in a biennial report released last week by DARPA, a US Department of Defense agency.

According to DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar, the Agency is trying to approach military technology needs with a new perspective, after having focused primarily on assets for ground wars in the past 14 years. The UFP program will therefore be one of several other research projects DARPA will focus on as a means of revolutionizing the US Military’s maritime strategy.

DoD: U.S. War Machine Vulnerable to EMP Event

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Defense will be hard-pressed to respond in any meaningful way to a catastrophic failure of the civilian electric grid infrastructure due to an electromagnetic pulse event, whether natural or man-made, according to a little publicized study.

…

“Preparing for months without a commercial source of clean water (city water pressure is often dependent on electric pumping to storage towers) and stoppage of sewage treatment facilities will require net methods of survival particularly in populated areas,” according to the little known May 2011 military study put out by the U.S. Army War College.