DARPA's Military Mission & University Connections--Part 6

(See Parts 1-5 below)

In his March 25, 2004 statement before the House Committee on Armed Services’ Subcommittee on “Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities,” the Director of DARPA, Dr. Anthony Tether, also indicated additional specific ways that the DARPA-funded research work that is currently done on U.S. university campuses at places like Columbia is being used to improve the U.S. war machine’s ability to wage war in urban areas like Baghdad and Tehran:

“Command and control systems to improve the collaboration at all echelons and on-demand, precise air delivery of forces and supplies to the ground are also key elements…

“DARPA has some programs underway already. We are exploring ways to navigate accurately inside buildings and underground in tunnels. Other programs seek to allow forces to accurately determine a building’s layout before they enter, along with capabilities to determine whether hostile personnel are hiding in the building…

“DARPA’s information technology efforts build on traditional and revolutionary computing environments. Our programs strive to provide such things as improved device/system control, autonomous vehicle navigation, more robust and secure software systems, human-robot and robot-robot collaboration, and enhanced human cognition…”

Next: DARPA’s Military Mission & University Connections—Part 7

DARPA's Military Mission & University Connections--Part 5

(See Parts 1-4 below)

In his March 25, 2004 statement before the House Committee on Armed Services’ Subcommittee on “Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities,” the Director of DARPA, Dr. Anthony Tether, also indicated that the DARPA-funded research work that is currently done on U.S. university campuses at places like Columbia is being used to improve the U.S. war machine’s capacity to wage war in urban areas of the globe:

“Urban area operations can be the most dangerous, costly, and chaotic forms of combat. The number of military operations in urban area is increasing and this trend will likely continue for the foreseeable future. By 2025, nearly 60 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Adversaries will seek to fight U.S. forces in cities as a way to mitigate the U.S.’s superior ability to quickly destroy fixed and mobile targets in open and semi-concealed terrain. Accordingly, DARPA has created a new strategic thrust, Force Multipliers for Urban Area Operations.

“The basic idea is to do for the extremely complex urban environment what has been done for open terrain combat: find and use technology that significantly increases U.S. forces’ power and flexibility so that fewer forces are required to accomplish the mission.

“If successful, new urban warfare concepts and technologies would enable U.S. forces fighting in or stabilizing a city to achieve the same or greater overall effect as a larger force using current technology.

“Some initial concepts suggest making strong use of the vertical dimension for entry and attack. Other ideas focus on bringing situational awareness quickly into the complex urban battlespace. Information should flow smoothly from prehostilities intelligence into a tactical network that quickly disseminates information. The goal is to ensure U.S. forces can find and neutralize the enemy wherever he is located—on the streets, inside buildings, or hidden in underground bunkers.

“To achieve this vision, surveillance and target acquisition (RSTA), firepower, and communications must be robust, persistent, integrated, and immediately available. Firepower might include highly responsive precision air and ground fires, or even loitering and soldier-launched weapons, all networked directly to RSTA sensors.”

Next: DARPA’s Military Mission & University Connections—Part 6

DARPA's Military Mission & University Connections--Part 4

(See Parts 1-3 below)

In a March 25, 2004 statement before the House Committee on Armed Services’ Subcommittee on “Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities,” the Director of DARPA, Dr. Anthony Tether, also indicated some specific military applications of the DARPA-funded research work that is currently done on U.S. university campuses at places like Columbia:

“DARPA’s sensor work is exemplified by the Standoff Precision Identification in Three Dimensions (SPI-3D) program to develop an airborne LIDAR sensor to provide positive target identification from standoff ranges via high resolution three-dimensional representations. SPI-3D will be cued by wide area surveillance sensors, such as synthetic aperture radar, which can determine the presence of possible targets but may be unable to confirm target type or identity. SPI-3D technology will close this gap, allowing commanders to positively identify targets as needed by our rules of engagement.

“The National/Tactical Exploitation (NYTEX) program uses imagery and data from both national reconnaissance systems and tactical assets to locate and identify enemy air defense units. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, NYTEX supported our forces in Iraq by screening synthetic aperture radar imagery to look for enemy air defense emplacements.

“Other DARPA programs have performed significant demonstrations. These programs have located short-duration smitters with high accuracy; detected dismounted soldiers moving through trees; identified ground vehicles from acoustic/seismic sensor networks; maintained track on designated vehicles through obscured terrain; and delivered precision munitions to destroy moving tanks and trucks from 30 kilometers away.”

Next: DARPA’s Military Mission & University Connections—Part 5

DARPA's Military Mission & University Connections--Part 3

(See Parts 1-2 below)

In a March 25, 2004 statement before the House Committee on Armed Services’ Subcommittee on “Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities,” the Director of DARPA, Dr. Anthony Tether, indicated some of the military applications of the DARPA-funded research work that is currently done on U.S. university campuses at places like Columbia:

“The eight strategic research thrusts that DARPA is emphasizing in response to emerging trends are:

“Detection, Precision ID, Tracking and Destruction of Elusive Surface Targets
“Force Multipliers in Urban Area Operations
“Location and Characterization of Underground Structures
“Network Manned and Unmanned Structures
“Robust, Secure Self-forming Tactical Networks
“Cognitive Computing
“Assured Use of Space
“Bio-Revolution.

“Force Multipliers for Urban Area Operations is a new area that we have begun this year, partly to response to what we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the increasing likelihood that conflict in the future will be fought in cities.

“…DARPA is assembling the necessary sensors, exploitation tools, command systems, and information technologies to rapidly find and destroy ground targets in any terrain, in any weather, moving or not, at any time…

“DARPA is supporting research in four general areas: sensors to find targets; sensor exploitation systems to identify and track targets; command and control systems to plan and manage the use of sensors, platforms and weapons throughout the battlespace; and information technology to tie it all together and ensure the effective dissemination of information.”

Next: DARPA’s Military Mission & University Connections—Part 4

DARPA's Military Mission & University Connections--Part 2

(See Part 1 below)

A professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College in 2001 who also directed studies on space, precision targeting and control for DARPA, William Martel, indicated in the 2001 book that he edited, The Technological Arsenal: Emerging Defense Capabilities, that DARPA is involved in developing directed-energy technologies, new weapons for targeting and advanced computer and information technologies for the U.S. war machine. According to Naval War College Professor Martel’s book, “directed energy technologies are useful for detecting and destroying in real time, military targets anywhere in the world."

The Technological Arsenal: Emerging Defense Capabilities book also stated in 2001:

“Future generations of U.S. cruise missiles will be able to destroy targets with the same degree of precision as piloted aircraft, especially as improvements in sensor and artificial intelligence technologies could hit targets with accuracy measured in feet…

“…U.S. military power is being enhanced by the development of computer, communication, and information technologies. Even now, computers are making life-and-death decisions in war that historically were reserved to humans. For example, computer and fire control systems on Aegis cruisers coordinate the radars and missiles that track hundreds of targets…When the U.S. Air Force deploys the airborne laser during the first decade of this century, its computer will determine when to fire the laser…”

Among the weapons that are being developed these days by DARPA for the 21st-century U.S. war machine are high-power microwaves for naval weapons that use microwave devices, high-power microwaves for the electronic battlefield, microwave weapons to destroy electronic equipment. cruise missile technology targeting weapons, unmanned space or air weapons, precision-guided laser bombs and space-based lasers to attack targets.

Next: DARPA’s Military Mission & University Connections—Part 3

DARPA's Military Mission & University Connections--Part 1

In this 21st-century “era of permanent war and blogging,” U.S. universities like Columbia University sometimes claim that if they formally prohibit on-campus classified research for the Department of Defense they are no longer institutionally involved in doing war research for the Pentagon. Yet in the 21st-century, universities like Columbia still are apparently performing contract research work on campus for the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [DARPA], whose mission is to develop more advanced weapons technology for the U.S. war machine to use in Iraq and other foreign countries.

In a chapter titled “Managing Public Sector Research and Development: Innovation Versus Responsiveness,” the late 1980s book that Asa Clark IV and John Lilley edited, Defense Technology, described how DARPA has, historically, operated:

“The Under-Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USDRE) also exercises direction and authority over the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Originally created in 1958 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) under control of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDRE), it was renamed DARPA in 1972 and is now a separate agency under the Under-Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. DARPA maintains no laboratories and does no scientific research of its own. It operates through…educational institutions to seek out and manage high-risk basic research and applied-technology programs…

“DARPA manages R&D on projects up to the demonstration stage, where feasibility can be assessed. It then transfers the projects to the appropriate military service…In the words of DARPA’s director Robert S. Cooper, DARPA serves, in effect as ‘the venture capitalists of the Defense Department.’”

Asa Clark IV also observed in a chapter titled “Defense Technology: Conclusions and Implications,” of Defense Technology, that “advanced-technology research and development is carried out largely in secret,” by the U.S. war machine.

Next: DARPA’s Military Mission & University Connections—Part 2

`Big Bill Haywood'

(chorus)
So fight for your class all at one time
And don’t be a scab to get pearls
And stop their machines in One Big Union
The Industrial Workers of the World.

(verses)
There once was a union builder, his name was Bill Haywood
He organized mines in Utah, so workers could get more food
He fought in Colorado, in Denver and Cripple Creek
The bosses tried to shoot him, but Big Bill could not be beat. (chorus)

They put his men in bull-pens and broke into their homes
The rich formed vigilantes and tried to gun Bill down
They framed him for a killing and chained him by his feet
But workers rallied ‘round him, and Big Bill could not be beat. (chorus)

He spoke to textile workers who came from many lands
He told them that the wage system was what enslaved all of them
And when World War broke out, he fought for his free speech
And ‘though the bosses jailed him, Big Bill could not be beat. (chorus)

So workers if you’re laid off and walking streets in despair
Remember Bill Bill’s teachings and don’t fear “sabotage”
The bosses tried to crush him, but his spirit was too deep
And all the striking workers know that Big Bill could not be beat. (chorus)

The Big Bill Haywood biographical folk song was written during the 1970s, after I read The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) still exists in this 21st-century “era of permanent war and blogging” and has a website at the following link:

http://www.iww.org/

The Big Bill Haywood folk song can be heard if you click onto the music site link at:

http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+A.+Feldman/Biographical+Folk+Songs/Big+Bill+Haywood

Some other protest folk songs can also be heard at:

http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music

Next: DARPA’s Military Mission & University Connections—Part 1