New Technology May Cut Risk of Giving Syrian Rebels Stinger Missiles 279
Hugh Pickens writes "PBS reports on a proposal of arming Syrian rebels with a force equalizer to make a decisive blow against Bashar al-Assad's ruling regime — an idea that has so far failed to take hold inside the Obama administration because of serious concerns about flooding a troubled region with dangerous weapons that someday might fall into the wrong hands. Could sophisticated weapons, such as anti-aircraft missile systems, be outfitted with mechanisms that would disable them if they fell into the wrong hands? According to military analyst Anthony Cordesman the U.S. could modify Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank weapons with batteries that cease functioning in a few weeks or months or the weapons could be built to require authentication codes before they are enabled to work. "I think it would be relatively decisive," says Cordesman. ... Another idea is to install GPS-disabling devices so that Stinger missiles only worked in a designated geographic area, such as only in Syria. Such weapons, it is believed, might tip the balance in favor of the rebels in the same way that Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, provided by the United States to the Afghan Mujahedeen, helped expel the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. Cordesman stressed that this type of weapon would have to be thoroughly tested to make sure the controls work and could not be undone. 'You could not transfer these types of weapons without these types of protections. You simply have no way to know where they would end up, how they would be transferred, what would happen to them.'"
All we need now is a great name (Score:3, Informative)
Re:GPS give time (Score:4, Informative)
Why would you design a secure system with an easily bypassed circuit? The GPS circuit can prove authentication to the other electronics by signing all locations and instructions with a private key. These systems need a lot of in-flight stabilisation and navigation so just shorting the "FULL POWER" line on the hardware controls isn't going to get you very far.
The spoofing doesn't work on the encrypted military GPS, it can only be jammed, so if they make that the only source for the location spoofing doesn't work either. Of course, their enemies could jam the encrypted GPS to prevent them firing, but such is the nature of these things.
Re:US Military (Score:5, Informative)
History fail.
Re:US Military (Score:5, Informative)
I think he means more like abusing and executing POWs. Plus a little using snipers against civilians, that sort of thing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/world/middleeast/united-nations-warns-syrian-rebels-over-atrocities.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
Re:Good idea... (Score:3, Informative)
Geography fail.
It was called Iran-Contra.
Not Iraq-Contra.
Saddam never got any weapons from Reagan.
You got the wrong country.
Re:Good idea... (Score:5, Informative)
"Saddam never got any weapons from Reagan. You got the wrong country."
Incorrect. The United States supplied plenty of weapons, materials and intelligence to Saddam Hussein in the 1980s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_war [wikipedia.org]
Re:Good idea... (Score:3, Informative)
Saddam never got any weapons from Reagan.
Yes he did [counterpunch.org]. The Reagan administration was in fact supplying both sides of the Iran-Iraq War in the hopes that they'd basically destroy each other.
Re:DRM for weapons? (Score:4, Informative)
I believe you're thinking of a PAL, a Permissive Action Link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_Action_Link [wikipedia.org]
Funny thing, it started out as the Prescribed Action Link, but the grunts didn't like that, so they were permitted instead :)
Can control yield and disable weapons, as well as authorize only specific targets in the case of an ICBM. So that new show 'Last Resort' where the rogue sub captain fires a nuclear warning shot into the Atlantic off the coast of DC. Yeah, that could never happen....
Re:Syrian Rebels ARE the WRONG HANDS! (Score:5, Informative)
Bullshit. Plain and utter bullshit. It started in Hama [wikipedia.org]. In 1982. It restarted in Hama last year. But it originally started with Assad's father and the Muslim Brotherhood. And it started IN Syria. A lot of people who are fighting Assad now are foreigners but not the majority by any means. And the only reason there are hardline religious factions there at all is because they are the only ones who are willing to help (whatever their reasons). Everyone else for whatever reason is staying well clear. If you need help in a life and death match, you'll take it where-ever it comes from. We all would. And Assad is not innocent in terms of using hardline religious fanatic terrorists either. In partnership with Iran, he uses Hezbollah as his surrogate army to control Lebanon and to indirectly maintain Syria's war with Israel. And it's evident he is bringing them into play again.