Transportation & Border Security

Flexible, flapping flying machines may be on the horizon

Rigid wings and rotors have made aircraft very successful; nature, however, prefers flexible, flapping flying structures -- just look at birds; indeed, the most efficient and acrobatic airfoils in nature are the flexible wings of the bat; Brown University researchers want to adopt the bat's approach to flying for human use

Grappling with the pirate problem

The Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia, and the Gulf of Aden, are among the most sensitive choke points in global commerce; trouble is, the stable, the comparatively wealthy Southeast Asian countries that line the Malacca Strait have committed their naval and coastal forces to stamping out hijackings and piracy, but the Gulf of Aden is bordered by poor or dysfunctional countries like Djibouti, Yemen, and particularly Somalia

Briefly noted

Raytheon awarded contract for exploratory nuclear detection research... Navies may get tougher on piracy after tanker seizure... U.S. donates nuclear detection equipment to Nigeria

BAE's Jam Lab works on defending against anti-aircraft missiles

The question of what technology would best protect civilian aircraft against anti-aircraft missiles has not been settled; BAE Systems' Jam Lab is on the cutting edge of research into such technologies

Thruvision offers T-ray security scanner

Terahertz radiation offer the promise of effective scanning of passengers without revealing anatomically correct images of their bodies

Gaping boarding-pass security hole about to close

With all the millions spent on air travel security, it is still possible to get though airport security using a fake boarding pass; this hole is being closed by an encrypted 2-D bar code that includes all the information from a boarding pass and is digitally signed to ensure the data has not been altered

Trend

Modern-day piracy poses growing threats, challenges

Forget Captain Kidd, wooden legs, or treasure maps; modern pirates are equipped with supercharged speedboats, large-caliber weaponry, and all the radio intercept technology they need to identify and locate valuable ocean-going booty; on 9/11 we saw what damage a jumbo jet could do when used as a weapon; how about a supertanker as a weapon?

Two former DHS leaders on DHS under a new administration

Amit Yoran and Dwight Williams held important positions at DHS; now in private industry, they offer their view and the challenges the department will face next year

Briefly noted

Pentagon to ask Obama for $581 billion budget for next fiscal year... Security requirements for private aircraft arriving and departing the United States

Land transportation & border security

China's transportation vulnerability, I

Remember the Daily Wire's unofficial motto: Where there is a security need, there is a business opportunity. The need: Securing land transportation in China. Here goes: What with the many problems China faces, an accident on a town bus may not rank very high. There is, however, more to the story than meets the eye: A fire aboard the number 842 bus in Shanghai's Yangpu district during morning rush hour of 5 May killed three people and injured a dozen more. The bus, operated by the Dazhong Transportation (Group) Co., caught fire around 9:15 a.m. local time near Huangxing Road and Guoshun Road. Publicly, security officials say the fire was an accident caused by a mechanical problem. Security officials, however, have privately said that an individual came on board the bus carrying flammable materials. There is strong suspicion that the fire was the result of an intentional act, perhaps related to someone frustrated with losses on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Roger Baker of RightSideNews writes that for several months China has been stepping up security for transportation infrastructure in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics in August.