S. Korea Begins Anti-Sub Exercises Near Border

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

SEOUL - South Korea on Aug. 5 launched its largest-ever anti-submarine exercise near the disputed sea border with North Korea, the defense ministry said, despite the North's threats of retaliation.

The South has warned the North it will not tolerate provocations during the five-day naval drill in the Yellow Sea.

The exercise is designed as a warning to the North following accusations it used a torpedo in March to stink a South Korean warship. Forty-six sailors died in the Cheonan tragedy.

Military officials say 29 ships, including a submarine and destroyer, 50 fixed-wing aircraft and 4,500 army, navy, air force, marine and coast guard personnel are taking part.

A ministry spokesman told AFP that underwater firing drills would take place close to Baengnyeong, the nearest island to the disputed maritime border with the North. Cheonan went down just to the southwest of the island.

AEHF satellite is slated for launch Aug. 12.

The U.S. Air Force says the first Lockheed Martin Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite is slated for launch Aug. 12.

Once in operation after months of testing, AEHF will begin ushering in a new era for protected, jam-proof communications. This mission is now handled by the Milstar constellation.

AEHF will be able to send high-data-rate communications to users around the globe (except for the extreme polar regions).

The first AEHF will provide more capacity than the entire Milstar constellation and it will provide a five-fold increase in the number of terminals services, says Col. William Harding, vice commander for the wing that oversees Milsatcom procurement at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center.

He declined to provide the final orbital location for AEHF-1. After about three months of orbit raising, however, it will be placed at a 90-deg. West location to allow for in-orbit checkout. This testing will take about 3-4 months, Harding says.

The extended data-rate (XDR) services, a unique high-data-rate protected communications capability offered by AEHF, could come online about one year after launch.

AEHF will have crosslinks capable of working with the Milstar satellites in orbit today and it also will operate with terminals already in the field.

The launch will require the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 531 configuration with three solid-rocket motors. The launch window at Cape Canaveral, Fla., opens up just after 7 a.m. on Aug. 12.

Canada, the Netherlands and the U.K. all participated in AEHF development, though Harding declined to say how much money each partner provided for the work and when capability will be delivered to them.

AEHF has been through its share of turbulence. The program grew out of the loss of a Milstar satellite in 1999. It was originally thought a national team would develop the system, but that was later amended; Lockheed Martin is the lead with Northrop Grumman providing the payload. The program’s projected constellation size also has ebbed and flowed. Now officials say they are planning for long-lead items for satellite 4, with a production contract not yet negotiated.

The Pentagon’s Selected Acquisition Reports, however, outline six satellites, a signal that the constellation could grow.

In the December 2009 SAR, the Pentagon estimates AEHF cost at $12.449 billion for six satellites. In 2002, the program was estimated to cost about $6.086 billion for three satellites.

AEHF-2 is slated for launch next spring with the third satellite to follow in early 2012. Transition to global XDR communications will not occur until later in the decade when four satellites are in orbit.

The design life for AEHF satellites is 14 years. Milstars were expected to last 10 years; all Milstar spacecraft have exceeded their seven-year mission duration expectation.

Concept: Lockheed Martin

Anything I can do the NSA can do better

In 2009, Chris Paget showed the world the vulnerabilities of RFID by downloading the contents of US passports from the safety of his automobile. This year, he's doing the same for mobile phones. Demonstrating at DefCon 2010, the white hat hacker fooled 17 nearby GSM phones into believing his $1,500 kit (including a laptop and two RF antennas) was a legitimate cell phone base station, and proceeded to intercept and record audience calls. "As far as your cell phones are concerned, I'm now indistinguishable from AT&T," he told the crowd. The purpose of the demonstration was highlight a major flaw in the 2G GSM system, which directs phones to connect to the tower with the strongest signal regardless of origin -- in this case, Paget's phony tower.

The hacker did caveat that his system could only intercept outbound calls, and that caller ID could tip off the owner of a handset to what's what, but he says professional IMSI catchers used by law enforcement don't suffer from such flaws and amateur parity would only be a matter of time. "GSM is broken," Paget said, "The primary solution is to turn it off altogether." That's a tall order for a world still very dependent on the technology for mobile connectivity, but we suppose AT&T and T-Mobile could show the way. Then again, we imagine much of that same world is still using WEP and WPA1 to "secure" their WiFi.

ENGADGET

US. Embassy Workers "unwell" after handling suspicious package

PARIS — Two employees of the U.S. Embassy in Paris were being given medical tests Friday after handling a suspicious package and reporting feeling "unwell," officials said.
However, an embassy official said no-one appeared to be in danger, with preliminary test results indicating the envelope was "not harmful."

French police officials said the two people involved were feeling "unwell" and that the incident was being investigated. A mobile laboratory was deployed at the site to test for poisonous substances.
Elizabeth Detmeister, deputy press attache at the embassy, said in a statement: "The embassy confirms that a suspicious envelope was received. Per embassy security procedures, the two employees who were exposed to it were evaluated by medical professionals and the envelope is being analyzed by a laboratory."
"Preliminary results indicate that the envelope was not harmful," she added.

She told msnbc.com that the two employees concerned worked in the mailroom at the embassy.
"They thought there was something suspicious [about the envelope], they reported it and our normal procedure is to have them treated or looked at by medical officials just in case," Detmeister said.
She said she was not aware of what caused the workers to be suspicious but added there was "no powder."

Embassy spokesman Paul Patin added: "We have no indication that anyone is in danger or hurt."
Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC contributed to this repor

C-17 crash in Alaska claims 4

CNN) -- All four airmen on board an Air Force C-17 were killed when the cargo plane crashed during a training mission near Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska on Wednesday, the Air Force reported Thursday. The names were being withheld, pending notification of next of kin.
The aircraft, assigned to the 3rd Wing at the base, crashed about 6:14 p.m. local time, Air Force Capt. Uriah Orland said.

In a statement Thursday, 3rd Wing commander Col. John McMullen said, "Our deepest sympathy and sincerest condolences go out to the family and friends of those airmen killed in this crash. Yesterday, we lost four members of our Arctic Warrior family and it's a loss felt across our entire joint installation. Right now, our immediate focus is on providing all possible support to the loved ones of our fallen aviators. We are also engaged in a deliberate investigative process."
Gov. Sean Parnell issued a statement expressing his sympathy for the crash victims.
"Alaskans are very connected to the military and our thoughts and prayers are with Alaska's Air Force family," Parnell said.

A board of officers will investigate the accident, Orland said.