DefenceTalkThe sale of two intelligence satellites to the UAE by France for nearly a billion dollars could go south after they were found to contain American technology designed to intercept data transmitted to the ground station. The equipment, costing 3.4 billion dirhams ($930 million), constitutes two high-resolution Pleiades-type Falcon Eye military intelligence satellites, which a […]https://www.defencetalk.com/france-uae-satellite-deal-shaky-after-us-spy-tech-discovered-onboard-50043/

DefenceTalkThe US military has invested billions in blimp-like aircraft to track militants planting roadside bombs but the spyship experiment is losing altitude because of technical failures and changing priorities. The lighter-than-air projects were billed as an innovative revival of an old aircraft design to conduct “unblinking” surveillance on the battlefield — at a fraction of […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-militarys-airship-programs-lose-altitude-49487/

DefenceTalkTextron AirLand, LLC, a joint venture between Textron Inc. and AirLand Enterprises, LLC, today unveiled its Scorpion prototype, a versatile Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR)/Strike aircraft platform. The aircraft was introduced during a press conference at the Air Force Association Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition in National Harbor, Maryland. The demonstration aircraft is […]https://www.defencetalk.com/textron-airland-introduces-scorpion-isrstrike-aircraft-49081/

DefenceTalkSituated in sight of unstable north Africa and on the shipping route to the Middle East, Gibraltar has military and intelligence facilities that still make it a strategic asset for Britain, analysts say. Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity in 1713 following a military struggle but has since the 1960s fought to have the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/gibraltar-still-strategic-asset-for-britain-analysts-48790/

DefenceTalkThe Distributed Common Ground System-Army, or DCGS-A, participated in Enterprise Challenge 2013 at Fort Huachuca, July 15-26, demonstrating collaboration between the Army and industry through technology testing in a tactical environment. “The concepts that we’re proving and the capabilities that we’re demonstrating here at Enterprise Challenge 13 show that we can give decisions makers the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/intelligence-sharing-through-tactical-glasses-highlighted-at-enterprise-challenge-2013-48656/

DefenceTalkThe Philippines said Wednesday that US spy planes were providing crucial intelligence on Chinese military activities in disputed areas of the South China Sea. US Navy P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft frequently fly over areas that the Philippines says are within its legal territory but where China has deployed military vessels, said Foreign Secretary Albert del […]https://www.defencetalk.com/philippines-says-us-spy-planes-monitoring-china-at-sea-48649/

DefenceTalkThe U.S. Navy got its first look at the upgraded MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned system when Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) delivered its first MQ-8C system this month. Northrop Grumman is the Navy’s prime contractor for the MQ-8 Fire Scout program of record. The company delivered the first MQ-8C aircraft to the Navy in early July […]https://www.defencetalk.com/first-upgraded-mq-8c-fire-scout-delivered-to-us-navy-48544/

DefenceTalkHong Kong has risked the threat of US reprisals in allowing Edward Snowden to leave. But its government insists that the rule of law took primacy for a territory that jealously guards its separateness from mainland China. On social media, there was talk of political considerations at play in allowing the former National Security Agency […]https://www.defencetalk.com/snowden-exit-hong-kong-revels-in-its-rule-of-law-48223/

DefenceTalkSenior commanders recently called on the defense industry to provide technologies that give special operations forces more situational awareness, better networking and communications and more precise location and targeting capabilities. Officials from across U.S. Special Operations Command, including commanders of its service components and the theater special operations commands, laid out their wish lists earlier […]https://www.defencetalk.com/special-ops-commanders-seek-intel-data-sharing-assets-47992/

DefenceTalkChinese hackers have stolen top-secret blueprints to Australia’s new intelligence agency headquarters, a report said Tuesday, but Foreign Minister Bob Carr insisted ties with Beijing would not be hurt. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the documents taken in the cyber hit included cabling layouts for the huge building’s security and communications systems, its floor plan, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/china-steals-new-australia-spy-agency-blueprints-report-47939/