25 Apr 05. NAS Fallon UAV programme moves. Founded by the Department of Defense (DoD) in 2001 to help the military identify ways to improve and co-ordinate the use of UAVs by all four of the military services, the Fallon UAV centre succeeded in its prime mission of developing a ‘playbook’ and tactical manuals that will be utilised at the new Indian Springs facility. The biggest challenge at this juncture facing the future of the UAV relates to joint services co-ordination as well as joint weapons and aerial control standards. (Source: Lahontan Valley News)
25 Apr 05. Sky-X to Fly in May . The Sky-X, being developed by Alenia Aeronautica of Italy, will begin test flights in May on the Vidsel test range in Northern Sweden, and will then be displayed at the 46th International Paris Air Show to be held at Le Bourget from 13th – 19th June 2005. The recently unveiled technology demonstrator is 6,84 metres long with a wing span of 5,74 m, and is powered by a Microturbo TRI 60-5/268 engine allowing a maximum take-off weight of more than 1,100 kg (max 200 kg payload capability), and a cruise speed of Mach 0,5 Mach. The air vehicle is said to be capable of reaching altitudes of 33,000 ft (10,000 m) and has been designed to have a maximum speed of Mach 0, 7. (Source: Luca Peruzzi, freelance journalist)
25 Apr 05. Boeing Australia, in collaboration with Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, has unveiled the most advanced simulation and operations analysis facility in Australia. The Boeing Australia Systems Analysis Laboratory (SAL) has been upgraded as part of the 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) Wedgetail program. As a result, the SAL is now an international leader in constructive simulation and operations analysis. The complex task of integrating these leading-edge technologies was headed by Shane Arnott, Boeing Australia SAL Director. According to Arnott, this capability does more than simulate technical military systems. It also provides unparalleled decision support services and an environment to conceptualize and design network-centric architectures.
22 Apr 05. A new cybersecurity operations center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia has been set up to continuously monitor and report cyberattacks against computer networks related to critical infrastructure. The non-profit Cyber Incident Detection Data Analysis Center, or Ciddac, will use monitoring devices to automatically detect cyberattacks. To address privacy concerns about the information it gathers, the center will scrub the data before it is released to law enforcement agencies, the government and other Ciddac members. Participation is voluntary and is being offered to private operators of banking, water, power, transportation and other critical infrastructure. (Source: PostNewsweek Tech Media)
26 Apr 05. The loss of jobs in the US high-technology industry following the bursting of the internet bubble in 2000 began to slow last year. A total of 25,000 jobs were shed in 2004. The American Electronics Association, representing about 2,500 technology companies employing a total of 1.8m people, said the loss represented a considerable slowdown compared to the 333,000 jobs lost in 2003 and the 612,000 in 2002. Venture capital investment in technology also rose for the first time since 2000. The report found high-tech VC investment totalled $11.8bn in 2004, compared to $10.7bn a year earlier. High-tech employment totalled 5.56m people in 2004, down by 0.5 per cent. Jobs in the high-tech manufacturing sector fell by 2 per cent, with the biggest losses coming in computers and peripheral equipment and electronic components. Communications services shed 54,000 jobs, but the software services industry added 30,300. On a state-by-state basis, California remained by far the biggest employer of tech workers at 916,000 in 2003 the latest year for which data were available. This was down from 1,124,000 in 2000. Texas was the second-biggest technology empl