Army pays Russians, Russians sell to Iraqis
Army pays Russians, Russians sell to Iraqis
Date: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 3:42 PM
H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
www.ZaZona.com
We have all heard the old joke that military intelligence is an
oxymoron, but in this case it's no joke.
The U.S. Army paid a Russian company to build GPS jamming equipment.
Somehow that equipment got into the hands of the Iraqis, even though
the Russian company denies selling it to them. This is the risk the
U.S. takes as it continues to outsource it's technology to hostile
nations. Pentagon toadies probably bragged about building these jammers
cheaper with Russian engineers but you can bet they will deny all
responsibility for their stupid decisions to sacrifice national
security and jobs for cost reduction. Fortunately there is nothing to
worry about because Russian Premier Vladimir Putin said he would look
into the issue.
Jammers aren't the only problem that we have. When Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld issued orders for 120,000 additional troops to move
into the war zone he didn't think to find out if the soldiers had
enough clothes to wear! There aren't enough desert-camouflage jackets
for all the soldiers being deployed. The "evil empire" might catch our
Army with it's pants down!
The reason our soldiers don't have enough to wear is that most of the
domestic clothes manufacturers have moved to China. Rumsfeld should
call up his Chinese trading friends and ask if the U.S. can borrow some
of their surplus army clothes. Just imagine if our soldiers marched
into Baghdad looking like this:
http://anulib.anu.edu.au/clusters/ap/digilib/chi/gp/hist/2.39.1.jpg
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/story/0,10801,79783,00.html
U.S. Army awarded contracts to Russian GPS jammer vendor
By Bob Brewin
MARCH 27, 2003
The U.S. Army awarded $192,000 in contracts in 2002 to a Russian
company identified in news reports as a supplier of Global Positioning
System (GPS) jamming equipment to Iraq.
Moscow-based Aviaconversiya Ltd. has denied selling the jamming
equipment to Iraq, according to the news reports. Officials there
couldn't be reached for comment this week, despite repeated attempts by
Computerworld to do so.
On Tuesday, President Bush personally complained to Russian Premier
Vladimir Putin about the sale of Russian military equipment to Iraq,
according to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. In a press briefing
that day, Fleischer said the White House was "concerned" about reports
"of ongoing cooperation and support to Iraqi military forces being
provided by a Russian company that produces GPS jamming equipment. ...
We have credible evidence that Russian companies provided the
assistance and the prohibited hardware to the Iraqi regime.
"The President raised with President Putin our ongoing concerns about
support [that] would be provided for Iraqi military forces by Russian
companies that produced the equipment," he said. Putin promised to look
into the issue, Fleischer said.
Iraq evidently tried to use those jammers against U.S. forces after the
U.S.-led coalition began strikes against Iraqi targets last week. "We
have noticed some attempts by the Iraqis to use a GPS jamming system
that they obtained from another nation. We have destroyed all six of
those jammers in the last two nights' airstrikes. I'm pleased to say
they had no effect on us," Air Force Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart, of the
U.S. Central Command, said yesterday.
Air Force Lt. Col. Ken McClellan, a Defense Department spokesman,
acknowledged that the Army had let contracts to Aviaconversiya. The
company is included on an online list of all Defense Department
contracts worth more than $25,000 that were awarded in 2002 (download
PDF from Defenselink). But he declined to provide any details.
"Because of the sensitive nature of what constitutes exact military
capabilities, or potential vulnerabilities, I doubt seriously whether
you'll find anyone willing to go beyond the previously released
information from Defenselink or Commerce Business Daily," McClellan
said in an e-mail reply to questions about the contract.
GPS experts said the Army most likely bought equipment from
Aviaconversiya to test its capabilities, which in turn would help U.S.
forces avoid jamming or attack jammers being used against them. But,
James Hasik, a GPS consultant in Atlanta, said he doubts that the
jammers would have much effect on GPS-equipped smart weapons used in
Iraq such as the Tomahawk cruise missile or Joint Direct Attack
Munitions, because they have backup guidance systems such as
gyroscope-based inertial navigation systems.
Richard Langley, a professor of geodesy at the University of New
Brunswick in Canada, agreed and said the jammers would also have a hard
time interfering with an encrypted military GPS code broadcast at a
frequency of 1227.6 MHz. But the jammers could interfere with signals
broadcast at 1575.42 MHz, a band used by commercial GPS receivers. Such
receivers could have been bought by individual troops, but the Army
tried to derail that practice in January. In the January 2003
"Pathfinder" newsletter (download PDF), the Army warned troops of the
"severe risks" associated with the use of commercial GPS receivers on
the battlefield. The newsletter is published by the Army's Program
Manager GPS in Fort Monmouth, N.J.
"Never use them for calling in your critical position information," the
newsletter cautioned, urging the use of a crypto-protected Precision
Lightweight GPS Receiver (PLGR) made by Rockwell Collins Inc. in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa. The newsletter said the PLGR is "your best protection
against spoofing and jamming and the mission failure or death that
could result from their effect on a commercial" receiver.
Hasik said jamming of civilian signals could be detrimental if pilots
of aging aircraft such as the Air Force A-10 or the Navy F-14 have
bought handheld commercial receivers to make up for those planes' lack
of built-in GPS. Jamming could interfere with critical navigation
functions of the receivers, he said.
GPS receivers are susceptible to jamming because of the weak nature of
the signals as they travel to receivers on earth from 24 satellites in
space, Hasik said.
This week's warning about the sale of Russian GPS jammers to Iraq and
the subsequent attack on them illustrate the Pentagon's concern about
interference with one of the core technologies of its smart weapons
systems. Earlier this year, McClellan said the Pentagon had a "somewhat
serious concern about an online article in 'Phrack' that detailed how
to build a homemade GPS jammer" (see story).
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/5509053.htm
Posted on Sat, Mar. 29, 2003
Military-supply shortages developing
No units have had to delay deployment, Defense Supply Center
Philadelphia officials said. A growing worry is food.
By Bob Fernandez
Inquirer Staff Writer
Some shortages in desert-camouflage fatigues, tents, hot-weather boots,
and chemical suits are developing as the war in Iraq continues and more
troops are activated for duty, according to military-supply officials
in Philadelphia.
But so far, no military units have been forced to delay battlefield
deployments because of short supplies, officials with the Defense
Supply Center Philadelphia said yesterday.
One growing source of concern is food.
With the U.S. troop count escalating rapidly, the center has begun
exploring the need to sign contracts with additional food processors
because the three companies that manufacture prepackaged MREs, or Meals
Ready to Eat, might not be able to produce them fast enough. Already,
two MRE processors are running 24 hours a day, and a third is near
capacity.
"We are just about at the place where there is no place else to go,"
Frank Johnson, spokesman for the center, said.
The center, which employs 2,900 in the Northeast section of
Philadelphia, is the nation's military-supply depot. It orders and
ships food, clothing, medicine and industrial supplies for all branches
of the military through a network of commercial companies and
government warehouses.
The shortages have appeared as the war has become broader, and has used
more U.S. troops, than some initially forecast. There were about
125,000 troops in Iraq before Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued
orders Thursday for 120,000 additional troops to move into the war
zone.
Meanwhile, the military is constrained in what it can do about supplies
by "Buy American" rules.
Military products must be made in the United States and contain U.S.
raw materials. During the last decade, many apparel companies and other
manufacturers closed in the United States and moved production to
places such as China and Mexico, complicating military procurement.
The owner of an Alabama company that produces desert-camouflage jackets
and dark-green woodland-style jackets said yesterday that it had been
easier in the 1991 Persian Gulf War to quickly expand the production
volume of fatigues because there were more factories around. Companies
that made clothing for department stores or other non-military buyers
switched to military production easily.
"The ability to multiply production is not what it was in Desert Storm,
because many of the factories that did civilian work went to China," he
said. The owner did not want his name, or the name of his company, used
because his employees fear a terrorist attack against the factory.
In peacetime, the Philadelphia supply center does not like to stockpile
goods because the government or a company must then bear the expense of
unused inventory. The employees in the Philadelphia center sign
contracts with companies to produce goods, track inventory in
warehouses, and take orders from military commanders.
Another factor leading to tight supplies is the Army's requirement that
soldiers be provided with four sets of fatigues as they are activated,
center officials said. Before this, the Army required only two sets.
This change, in effect, has doubled the number of desert-camouflage
fatigues needed for battle.
In some situations, Army commanders are supplying their troops with
woodland-style uniforms - which appear to be in plentiful stock.
"There are backup plans," William J. Kenny, executive director of
business operations for the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, said
Thursday. "We might not be able to give them an MRE or a desert cammie
[fatigue], but we will be able to give them something."
Among the other items in high demand: desert-style hats, water-canteen
covers painted in desert camouflage, mechanics' overalls, and tents.
"We are stretched to the gills to find 16-foot-by-16-foot tents,"
Johnson said. There is only a "finite tent base in the U.S."
Contact Bob Fernandez at 215-854-5897 or bob.fernandez@phillynews.com.
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