The US Department of Defense has awarded three multimillion-dollar contracts as it embarks on a two-year design competition to bring mobile nuclear microreactors to US military troops in an effort to keep up with nuclear developments made by Russia and China.

The US Department of Defense has awarded three multimillion-dollar contracts as it embarks on a two-year design competition to bring mobile nuclear microreactors to US military troops in an effort to keep up with nuclear developments made by Russia and China.
A total of $39.7 million in contracts was split between three companies on Monday by the Pentagon, initiating a two-step plan to bring nuclear power to US forces in a variety of conditions.
According to the March 9 Department of Defense news release , the Virginia-based BWX Technologies was awarded $13.5 million, $14.3 million was issued to Westinghouse Government Services of Washington, DC, and Maryland’s X-energy received $11.9 million from the Pentagon.
The nuclear power effort comes as part of Project Pele , a “mobile microreactor program using a two-phased approach to mitigate project and technical risk” that is headed by the Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO).
Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Robert Carver told Defense News that Project Pele “involves the development of a safe, mobile and advanced nuclear microreactor to support a variety of Department of Defense missions such as generating power for remote operating bases.”
He explained that the three companies will be given a “two-year design-maturation period” before the Pentagon chooses which company will develop and demonstrate a prototype.
“The United States risks ceding nuclear energy technology leadership to Russia and China,” SCO Director Jay Dryer said in the departmental release. “By retaking technological leadership, the United States will be able to supply the most innovative advanced nuclear energy technologies.”
Dr. Jeff Waksman, program manager of Project Pele, was also quoted in the release and said that the Project Pele is unique due to the “reactor’s mobility and safety.”
“We will leverage our industry partners to develop a system that can be safely and rapidly moved by road, rail, sea or air and for quick set up and shut down, with a design which is inherently safe,” he noted.
The Pentagon predicts that the developed microreactors will significantly reduce the department’s investment in power infrastructure and promote the “sustainment of operations for extended periods of time anywhere on the planet.”
According to the Department of Defense’s current estimates, the Pentagon uses “30 terrawatt hours of electricity per year and more than 10 million gallons of fuel per day.”

USA tested it's super gun on Friday

US Army artillery experts recently revealed that a working version of the autoloader designed for the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) system should be demonstrated by the end of the year.
According to a report by Military.com , Army leaders on Friday watched the ERCA system launch two rocket-assisted projectiles: a 155-millimeter round and an Excalibur precision-guided round. The projectiles traveled distances of 65 kilometers, which is almost double the range that can be reached by a typical 155-millimeter artillery gun. The test demonstrations took place at the Yuma Proving Ground facility in Yuma, Arizona.
— Ashley Tressel (@ashleytressel) March 6, 2020
"This provides a significantly longer-range capability, so it enables commanders to attack and fight differently," Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Martin told reporters after the demonstration, Military.com reported.
"Our adversaries are artillery-centered formations ... so we are never going to have the same number of cannons as they do, but what we will have is overmatch in terms of range, accuracy and lethality," he said.
Army leaders also believe that the ERCA system could be in service for use by 2023 and include a M109A7 Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) “howitzer chassis mounted with a 58-caliber length gun tube that fires the new XM113 rocket-assisted projectile,” Military.com reported. The XM113 is a 155-millimeter artillery projectile that can strike at longer ranges than conventional projectiles.
According to Army-Technology.com , the M109A7 is a next-generation artillery system being manufactured by British multinational defense company BAE Systems. The US Army has contracted BAE Systems to build 18 ERCA systems for use by 2023.
Army officials also hope the new autoloader will further improve the ERCA.
"The autoloader will give us the ability to fire at a rate of six-to-10 rounds per minute and deliver that volume of fire to create the effect of mass in large-scale ground combat," Brig. Gen. John Rafferty Jr., director of the Long Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team at Army Futures Command, is quoted as telling Military.com. "In the year and a half that I have been doing this job, it has matured significantly."
The autoloader, being developed in a laboratory in Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, will undergo demonstrations in December.
"It will demonstrate its ability to take the XM113 off the ready rack in the howitzer, load it into the breech, go grab a supercharged propellent, put that behind it ... and allow the crew to fire the howitzer," Rafferty said.
"The other thing it's got to do, is it has to fuse it and then set the fuse. Right now, it takes two cannoneers and a sergeant watching them to do that, so it is not a simple machine."
The Army also plans to demonstrate the autoloader in conjunction with the ERCA gun in 2021.

U-2 spy planes carry navigational watches capable of finding their way by using Chinese and Russian satellite networks if access to the US GPS network is interrupted.

A US Air Force general has revealed that pilots of the service’s U-2 spy planes carry navigational watches capable of finding their way by using Chinese and Russian satellite networks if access to the US GPS network is interrupted.
When the Air Force’s U-2 “Dragon Lady” spy plane pilots fly on their dizzying, high-altitude missions around the globe, they take with them equipment capable of hijacking the navigational networks of the very countries they’re spying on, a leading US general has revealed.
“My U-2 guys fly with a watch now that ties into GPS, but also BeiDou and the Russian [GLONASS] system and the European [Galileo] system so that if somebody jams GPS, they still get the others,” said Air Combat Command chief Gen. James M. Holmes on Wednesday at a conference in Washington, DC. The remarks were made in response to a question about the Pentagon’s addition of redundancies into its equipment, Defense One reported .
Holmes was short on details, but Defense One noted the Air Force bought 100 Garmin D2 Charlie navigational watches for its U-2 pilots in 2018.
“The D2 Charlie aviator watch will be an integral and functional part of the U-2 pilot’s toolkit,” the company
said in a February 2018 news release .
“Designed with pilots of varying backgrounds and missions, the D2 Charlie aviator watch features a colorful, dynamic moving map which depicts airports, navaids, roads, bodies of water, cities and more, offering greater situational awareness,” the company said. “When the D2 Charlie is paired with Garmin Connect on a connected mobile device, pilots can view weather radar on top of the map display relative to flight plan information.”
However, interest in the ability to tap into different navigational satellite networks is hardly restricted to the Pentagon: studies in 2010 and 2012 noted the practical benefits of being able to reference Russia’s 24 GLONASS satellites and the European Union’s 30 Galileo satellites for quicker and more accurate location data in the event that a direct line of sight to a GPS satellite is blocked, as can happen in urban environments The US operates 31 GPS satellites under the purview of the US Space Force.
“Inclusion of GLONASS observations does offer some significant advantages over GPS-only integrated systems. Although not quantified here, similar results would also be expected by including data from other GNSS [Global Navigation Satellite Systems] as well (e.g., Galileo),” a 2012 study published in the journal Sensors concluded.
China also operates a global navigation satellite system, BeiDou, which consists of two constellations totaling 33 satellites.

US Refuses to Buy $1 Billion Worth of Iron Domes as Israel Rejects Handing Over Source Code

The Iron Dome is one of three layers in Israel’s air defences and is responsible for shooting down short-range missiles like those regularly fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
The US military has reconsidered its plans to buy Israeli Iron Dome air defence systems after facing a number of challenges while studying the first two that they bought.
The Pentagon was planning to spend around $1 billion to buy two more batteries of the system. However, initial tests revealed issues that prevented the Iron Dome from being incorporated into the US Integrated Battle Command System, despite the military initially managing to hook it up to US radars and the Common Aviation Command and Control System during tests in 2019.
"We believe we cannot integrate them into our air defence system based on some interoperability challenges, some cyber challenges and some other challenges", the head of Army Futures Command, General Mike Murray, said during a hearing at the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.
Murray didn't elaborate on the specifics of the challenges, including the one related to interoperability, but according to anonymous sources cited by The Times of Israel, the key problem for the US military was that Israel had refused to provide the source code for the Iron Dome’s software. This, in turn, reportedly prevented the Pentagon from reprogramming it to make it compatible with the American systems.

Now the US military is stuck with two Iron Domes that have already been bought but can't be used to help American troops repel cruise missile attacks and cover this area of the Pentagon's Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2-Intercept programme.
"So what we’ve ended up having was two stand-alone batteries that will be very capable but they cannot be integrated into our air defence system", Murray explained.
Now the US is looking for a replacement for the Israeli Iron Domes elsewhere. According to General Murray, a "shoot-off" will be organised for both the US and foreign countries' defence industries in order to fill the program by 2023.

Moscow’s first two hypersonic weapons – the Avangard glide vehicle and the air-launched Kinzhal ballistic missile – have already entered into service. In addition, Russia is finalising the development of the Zircon hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile. The US, meanwhile, has until recently kept the development of such weapons suspended.
The Pentagon has recently been intensifying its efforts in the development of hypersonic weapons and the means to protect against them . Namely, it plans to carry out tests of a hypersonic missile interceptor in the mid-2020s in a bid to counter new weapons that have been developed by Russia and are currently in development by China.
In addition to this, the US Navy will be spending over $1 billion in 2021 alone on developing hypersonic missiles under the Conventional Prompt Strike programme. According to the project, the US seeks to be able to "attack high-value targets or fleeting targets" at the start of or during a conflict, while not relying on its system of forward-based land or naval forces.

Virginia-Class submarine

The Pentagon began to look into hypersonic weapons back in the 2000s, but suspended most programmes after initial tests failed to show the desired results. Now these projects have received fresh life, since both of the US’ so-called potential "near-peer adversaries", Russia and China, are developing their own hypersonic armaments.
Emphasis on Submarines?
One of the most promising of the Pentagon’s projects in the sphere are hypersonic missiles designed to be fitted on nuclear-powered fast-attack Virginia-class submarines – specifically its latest modification, the Block V. At least 10 vessels of this type will be produced over the next 20 years, each equipped with four Virginia Payload Modules hosting seven bays for vertical launches of the new hypersonic weapon. The same armament is also expected to be used on the Zumwalt-class destroyers in the future.

The future USS Zumwalt heads down the Kennebec River after leaving Bath Iron Works Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, in Bath, Maine

The hypersonic weapon itself consists of a two-stage missile carrier and a special warhead – the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB), which was first tested back in October 2017. Additionally, the C-HGB will be fitted on the ground-based Long Range Hypersonic Weapon system that is designed to operate at a speed of over Mach 5 – far below Mach 27, which Russia’s Avangard gliders reached during tests.
Lagging Behind New Leader in Hypersonics
The situation is not any better for the US when it comes to developing air-based hypersonic missiles. The experimental X-51A Waverider, designed by Boeing, has had a long series of failed tests since 2010. The missile itself has been in development since the middle of the 2000s and has still not reached operational readiness. Its deployment by the US Armed Forces is expected in the middle of the 2020s.

Multi-purpose fighter MiG-31 with the hypersonic Kinzhal rocket on the military parade devoted to the 73rd anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945

During its first successful test in 2013, the Waverider reached a speed of Mach 5 and there has been no information since then about whether its speed will increase in the future. At the same time, its Russian competitor, the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, is capable of traveling at a speed of between Mach 10 and 12.

LOCKHEED MARTIN
US Trying to Catch Up With Russia, China in Hypersonic Arms Development - Defence Department

In other words, the Pentagon's achievements appear bleak in comparison with those of the Russian military . The latter has already deployed its Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missile, and is currently finalising the development of the Zircon (NATO reporting name: SS-N-33) anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile.
John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted back in 2018 that the US had failed in the field of hypersonic arms research and development, noting that it would take years to regain a leading position.

India has captured a Chinese vessel with material capable of manufacturing nuclear-capable missiles

China has denied allegations that it tried to ship material to Pakistan to help the latter develop nuclear-capable military equipment. The ship was seized by Indian customs on 3 February and defence scientists claimed the material the ship was carrying was meant to manufacture a nuclear arsenal.

India has captured a Chinese vessel with material capable of manufacturing nuclear-capable missiles.    

According to Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, the vessel "Da Cui Yun" was detained by Customs at the port of Kandla in Gujarat while en-route to Port Qasim in Karachi, Pakistan. 

“Our examination has revealed that the item is an autoclave that is controlled under a dual use export controls' list. Therefore the item has been seized by our authorities as per our legal procedures. It has also been ascertained by our examination that this item has military applications", inistry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Thursday in New Delhi.

Indian authorities detained the Chinese vessel when it was docked in Kandla as it had incorrectly declared the item that it was carrying.

The ministry has conveyed New Delhi’s concerns on the issue to China and highlighted that as a friendly country “the Chinese government should take appropriate measures to ensure that Chinese entities do not engage in activities that can contribute to proliferation”.

Nevertheless, Beijing denied the allegation that the seized industrial autoclave from the Chinese ship "Da Cui Yun" was meant for manufacturing “very long-range ballistic missiles or satellite launch rockets”.

"After seeking the information, we know that this item is actually a heat treatment furnace shell system, produced by a private company in China. This is not for military use and it is not a dual-use item under the non-proliferation and export control", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing.

On Tuesday, experts from India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) confirmed that New Delhi had seized a Pakistan-bound Chinese ship docked in Kandla on the western coast on intelligence input.

The seized autoclave can be used to manufacture the motor of very long-range missiles with range upwards of 1,500 kilometres as well as space rockets.

Mcafee has released its Mobile Threat Report for 2020 which analyses different sources of attacks against smartphones.

Mcafee has released its Mobile Threat
Report for 2020 which analyses different
sources of attacks against smartphones.
These include the usual backdoors , trojan
horses, cryptojacking and many more.
However, one method which stands out is
the use of hidden apps to perform deceptive
functions, making up 50% of all malicious
activity.
This marks an astonishing 30% increase
from 2018 revealing that 2020 will also see
a continuing surge.

Data compiled by Mcafee.

According to the report, there are a
number of ways attackers employ to
successfully target users in line with
changing trends. Firstly, as smartphone
gaming has become more popular (stop
facepalming console gamers), it is not
surprising that someone will want to take
advantage of this.
How it’s done is that the bad guys spread
malicious app links in chat windows of
gaming messaging platforms and other
potential channels. Then even though the
app reflects the real one in terms of its
functionality, once the user downloads it, it
in actuality harvests user data and also
shows intruding ads.
A similar technique was exposed when
attackers were caught using STEAM chat to
spread malware and remote administration
tool ( RAT). In another attack, STEAM
accounts were compromised to spread
malicious links through its chat feature.
Secondly, a new malware named LeifAccess
(also known as Shopper) has been
discovered which misuses in-built
accessibility features of Android. It does so
by harassing users with fake warnings such
as “security error should be dealt with
immediately” and getting them to grant
access to these services which are then
used to perform a range of actions such as
creating third party accounts.

An example of one such threat
notification, image by Mcafee.
Furthermore, it posts fake reviews on the
Play Store in multiple languages in order to
make malicious apps appear more legitimate
which is somewhat unique. These are
though recognizable if one sees beyond just
the star ratings since the written reviews
are always comprised of generic phrases
such as “very simple and useful.”
Nonetheless, even if a user does not grant
access to accessibility services, it still
continues to install apps and does
malvertising. As also seen in previous
Android malware, Shopper also does not
have its own icon and hence makes it
difficult for victims to uninstall it.
An example of fake reviews
Thirdly, instead of creating and distributing
their own malicious app, we saw attackers
gaining access to legitimate apps and
misuse them for their own motives. These
include a range of South Korean apps in the
transit category infected with a “fake library
and plugin that could exfiltrate confidential
files called MalBus” as reported by Mcafee
in a press release. The data gained from
such a compromise include “bus stop
locations, route maps, and schedule times
for more than 5 years.”
To conclude, we’ve seen certain trends
grow over time out of which malicious apps
happen to be one. These as observed are
further divided into distinct categories
showing how complex these attacks have
gotten.
Therefore, to protect one’s self from these
attacks is no longer possible by only relying
on programs such as anti-virus . If attackers
are employing social engineering to trick us ,
it is vital that we respond by taking
precautions in real-time while using our
human intelligence.

An example specific to
this case is of vetting real app reviews from
automated fake ones as seen above.
Moreover, think – why are all of these
reviews similar in terms of their length and
also quite simple, far from what humans
would write? Something seems fishy and so
in this way, such attack vectors can be
successfully thwarted.
Furthermore, it is essential that users start
sticking to legitimate sources for
downloading their apps like Google Play
Store and avoid third-party app stores since
the majority of malicious apps can be found
in the latter.

During his face-to-face yesterday with Felix tshisekedi in the USA Mike POMPEO: "WE HOPE THE DRC WILL continue ITS TRAJECTORY"

During his face-to-face yesterday with Felix tshisekedi in the USA
Mike POMPEO: "WE HOPE THE DRC WILL continue ITS TRAJECTORY"
March 4, 2020
* "We support the President's reform agenda to fight corruption and strengthen democracy", says US Secretary of State.
President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi continues his diplomatic crusade in the United States of America. He met, yesterday Tuesday, March 3th, in Washington, Washington, Washington. In the course of the trade, he wished to see the DRC "continue its positive path since the peaceful rotation of the state in January 2019".
According to Mike Pompeo who spoke through his Twitter account, exchanges with the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have focused on strengthening ties between the two countries.
The two personalities have mostly exchanged, reports the US Secretary of State's tweet about the need to step up the fight against corruption, an essential pillar that the DRC greatly needs for its socio-economic recovery.
Strengthening democracy
" Happy to welcome the president of the DRC, Tshisekedi, to discuss the strengthened ties of our countries and their commitment to advance our partnership. We support the President's reform agenda to fight corruption and strengthen democracy and hope that the DRC can continue its positive path ", said the US Secretary of State.
This meeting between Félix Tshisekedi and Mike Pompeo comes after that of April 2019, 3, during which Pompeo stressed the need for the Congolese president to set up a programme focused on the fight against corruption, the strengthening of government, promoting human rights, economic stability and security.
She returns, says the tweet, as part of the Congolese-American privileged partnership for peace and prosperity, established in April 2019 during President Tshisekedi's first visit to the United States.
Strengthening the links
The aim of this partnership is to strengthen the ties between the two nations by focusing on improving government, promoting peace and security, fighting corruption, promoting human rights and creation conditions to attract US investment for the prosperity of the Congolese people.
Yesterday's Fatshi-Pompeo's face-to-face comes three days after the Congolese president's speech before the American-American Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), which held his big annual conference on Sunday, March 1st running in Washington.
ADOPTION OF DIPLOMATIC Relationships WITH Israel
In his speech in front of this powerful Jewish lobby, Félix Tshisekedi announced a resumption of high-level diplomatic relations between his country and Israel and the installation of an "economic section" of the DRC embassy in Jerusalem with the aim of strengthening ties with this country in the fields of agriculture and science and technology.
Félix Tshisekedi has said that the DRC embassy will remain in Tel Aviv, but that he does not mind base this new economic section in Jerusalem. At the same time, he said his support for President Donald Trump's peace plan, a plan rejected by the Palestinian authority.
These statements were soon to trigger all-way reactions in the opinion. Some believe that this position taken by President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi, of the remaining second vice-president of the African Union, will place him at odds with African Muslim countries.
" Jerusalem is, by its history, a place that belongs to Jews, Muslims and Christians. To consider it as capital of Israel is to accept its privatization by the Jews alone ",

The US Department of State approved an Israeli request to buy up to eight KC-46 aerial refueling and military transport aircraft and related equipment in a deal valued at $2.4 billion

The US Department of State approved an Israeli request to buy up to eight KC-46 aerial refueling and military transport aircraft and related equipment in a deal valued at $2.4 billion, the Defence Security Cooperation Agency announced in a press release.
"The government of Israel has requested to buy up to eight KC-46 aircraft; up to seventeen PW4062 turbofan engines (16 installed, 1 spare); and up to eighteen GPS receivers (16 installed, 2 spares)", the release said on Tuesday. "The total estimated program cost is $2.4 billion".
The Defence Security Cooperation Agency emphasized in the release the US commitment to Israel’s security.
"It is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability", the release said.
The proposed sale further supports the foreign policy and
national security of the United States by allowing Israel to provide a redundant capability to US assets in the Mideast region, possibly freeing US assets for use elsewhere during times of war, the release added.

WhatsApp has rolled out the much-anticipated feature for users.

With Instagram already offering dark mode, millennials favourite messaging app WhatsApp has rolled out the much-anticipated feature for users.
After months of beta testing on both Android and iOS operating systems, WhatsApp finally launched its dark mode for users worldwide late on 3 March.
The dark mode on Facebook-owned WhatsApp will automatically be enabled after updating the app on iOS 13 and Android 10, but Android 9 users will have to enable the latest version through WhatsApp settings.
The dark mode update on the world’s most popular messaging app (1.5 billion users in 180 countries) has taken Twitter by storm with netizens raising a toast to the update and others complaining over the delay in the update.
pic.twitter.com/ptVZRcdVdJ
— Amit Meena 💫 (@amit_meena) March 3, 2020
pic.twitter.com/h9GSR2TMEN
— MOHAMMED OMER (@Mohdomer7989) March 3, 2020
#WhatsApp
Me, an Android 6-7 user, when I see WhatsApp got dark mode ready, but only for Android 9-10 devices:
pic.twitter.com/l4leCHPnYA
— The MAUZ (@OhLookaMAUZ) March 4, 2020
Several people mocked the new feature with jokes and memes:
Me : "See Maa, My Twitter is in DarkMode, My Instagram in DarkMode and Finally now WhatsApp also in DarkMode."
Mom : "Your future too my Son"
Me : #whatsappdarkmode #Whatsapp #DarkMode
pic.twitter.com/glOsbZE5w1
— the professor™ (@AapkaCharul) March 4, 2020
What else getting darker? Oh it’s my Career. sorry 🌚
#WhatsApp pic.twitter.com/SRlaSfScH9
— ✨Shanu Gladson Hansdak’✨ (@BiryaniGuy) March 4, 2020
#WhatsApp
How Facebook app feels like when all the other apps are in
#DarkMode pic.twitter.com/44JFc9Kjql
— Bahut Scope hai (@Bahut_Scope_Hai) March 4, 2020
The update is being rolled out in a phased manner, some have yet not received the update but it will soon be available. Dark mode is popular among people for dozens of reasons including, improving readability, minimising eye fatigue and exposing eyes to bright light during the night time or low lit places like movie theatres.