The Pentagon is working with industry to explore the possibility that bomb, missile or laser-armed F-35s could destroy an attacking nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) targeting the US, potentially bringing a new dimension to existing defenses.
The F-35, officials explain, could use a “kinetic” solution wherein it fires upon and destroys a launching ICBM — or a “sensor” solution where it “cues missile defense systems,” locating or stopping attacks earlier than might otherwise be possible.
”We are now looking at how we could close the kill chain on that process,” officials familiar with the ongoing exploration told Warrior Maven.
One senior DoD official explained that the prospect of F-35 missile defense would likely hinge upon key intelligence information; should there be an indication or concern regarding a possible enemy launch, F-35C-armed carriers or other F-35s in the vicinity could use speed, stealth and sensor technology to find, ID and destroy an ICBM.
The prospect of using an F-35 for this purpose introduces a range of defensive possibilities not yet part of the Pentagon’s missile defense arsenal. For instance, an F-35 could fire air-to-ground bombs or missiles to explode the ICBM during or just after launch. An F-35 might also use lasers and electronic warfare to incinerate, jam or disable the flight trajectory of an attacking ICBM. If an ICBM guidance system or propulsion mechanisms were interfered with, an ICBM might be thrown off, heading into the ocean or an uninhabited area less likely to cause damage.
Also, a group of F-35s could potentially form some kind of networked “relay system” using the Multi-function Advanced Data Link (MADL) to deliver threat information across a fleet of aircraft in position to warn US missile defense systems. This MADL data link, which enables a group of F-35s to all see the same thing in real-time while conducting a mission, could potentially extend the range of systems able to find or detect an enemy ICBM. It goes without saying that the earlier Combatant Commanders and decision-makers learn of an attacking ICBM, the more time they have to consider and implement countermeasures or launch a counterattack.
ICBM launch points developed by potential adversaries are often deliberately lodged deep inland and heavily defended by air-defenses, making them harder for certain weapons and attack assets to reach.
“The F-35 could use its stealth configuration and maneuverability to get closer to ICBM launch points originating in enemy territory,” Loren Thompson, Chief Operating Officer of the Lexington Institute, told Warrior Maven.
Also, a 2014 Congressional Report, the US-China Economic and Security Review, contained a 70-page chapter on Chinese military modernization. Among its many findings, the report specifically cited Chinese “mobile” ICBM launchers with as many as 10 “reentry vehicles” in some cases. These weapons, of course, present significant new threats; the more reentry vehicles approaching a target, the more difficult the defense. With this in mind, an F-35 might bring an ability to use stealth, speed and maneuverability to operate above heavily defended inland areas to find, chase and destroy mobile launchers.
The initial launch or “boost” phase of an ICBM, it appears, would present the best opportunity for an F-35 to have the intended missile-defense impact. Hitting an ICBM attack during the final, or “terminal” phase, Thompson said, would present challenges due to the hypersonic speeds at which the reentry vehicles are moving. All of this raises the question as to whether an F-35 could be part of an integrated system able to detect and knock out enemy ICBMs while they are traveling in space. While difficult, it might someday be possible for an F-35 to use GPS or other air-mounted sensors to interact with satellites – which themselves could fire some kind of interceptor to hit an ICBM during space flight. In this scenario, an F-35 would function as a sensor or networked “node” and not an actual attacker, per se.
An F-35 would bring something new to missile defense by potentially filing a needed niche or, at very least, greatly supplementing existing land-based systems. Unlike offensive nuclear deterrents such as air, sea and land weapons, US ICBM missile defense weapons are primarily land-based. A Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), for instance, stationed in Ft. Greely, Alaska or Vandenburg AFB, Calf., would fire up into space during an ICBMs mid-course phase of flight to intercept the attacking missile. This presents a number of challenges, as GBIs would need to draw upon sensors or embedded technology enabling them to distinguished decoys from actual ICBMs.
Missile Defense Agency developers say radar and GBI-mounted triangulated sensor cameras have already been able to discern the difference between armed missiles and decoys.
“In 2017, when we shot down an ICBM target missile, the target missile contained countermeasures in order to test the system and ensure it is able to discriminate between various objects in space and hit the reentry vehicle,” a senior Pentagon official told Warrior Maven.
The emerging prospect of advanced threats are a key reason for the Pentagon’s developing Multiple Kill Vehicle system, a technology designed to both detect and destroy multiple incoming missiles or decoys traveling through space. Multiple Kill Vehicle, as it sounds, integrates a number of interceptors onto one missile; numerous decoys flying alongside an ICBM can increase the chances that an actual nuclear weapon will continue on to its target. For this reason, Multiple-Kill Vehicle’s sensors, engineered by Raytheon, are designed to distinguish decoys from missiles – and knock out more than one threat from the same interceptor.
Regardless, identifying and knocking out large numbers of ICBMs is, by any estimation, a challenge. A single launch, from a rogue state such as North Korea only able to launch one or two ICBMs at most, presents a much more manageable threat for ground-based interceptors. An incoming salvo of ICBMs, by contrast, is a different equation. This leads to two strategies; the first would be an offensive deterrent using the US nuclear triad to stop a first strike from ever happening by ensuring a catastrophic retaliation — and the second would encompass a range of ongoing technologically advanced defensive measures including things like satellites, lasers, Multiple Kill-Vehicles or F-35s.
Destroying ICBMs is something quite different than tracking or intercepting a short or medium-range ballistic missile. The F-35 is already developed in this capacity; the F-35 has been tested as an aerial node for the Navy’s Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air system. This technology, now deployed, uses ship-based Aegis radar, an aerial sensor node and a guided SM-6 missile to knock out attacking missiles from ranges beyond-the-horizon. Since its inception, NIFC-CA used an E-2 Hawkeye surveillance plane as the aerial node. Now, the system can use a far more capable F-35 as the aerial sensor.
Facebook’s low-paid army of content moderators, who are often subjected to poor working conditions, suffer PTSD-like symptoms as they are exposed on a daily basis to some of the vilest and fringe content posted to the social network, according to a scathing new investigative report by The Verge.
The tech publication starts off describing how Chloe, a content moderator at Phoenix, Ariz.-based Cognizant – where 1,000 people work to make very fast decisions under intense pressure about whether content that’s been flagged is in violation of Facebook’s rules – on that day has to moderate posts in front of her fellow soon-to-be-moderators as she’s being trained.
“The video depicts a man being murdered. Someone is stabbing him, dozens of times, while he screams and begs for his life. Chloe’s job is to tell the room whether this post should be removed. She knows that section 13 of the Facebook community standards prohibits videos that depict the murder of one or more people. When Chloe explains this to the class, she hears her voice shaking,” The Verge reports, adding that she later leaves the room and cries so hard she can barely breathe.
Facebook, which has faced criticism from all corners for its content moderation mistakes and for the massive rulebook that guides for moderators, had more than 30,000 employees working on safety and security by the end of last year. Of those, about half are content moderators, and the tech giant relies on contract labor for most of that work. In the face of a never-ending firehose of content, moderators are expected to maintain a 95 percent accuracy rate while reviewing more than 1,000 posts per week to see if they violate Facebook’s community standards.
The Verge’s report, which is based on interviews with a dozen former and current Cognizant employees, depicts a soul-crushing, morbid environment where workers joke about self-harm, do drugs on the job, develop severe anxiety or have panic attacks because of the horrifying content they’re forced to view. Most of the moderators interviewed quit after one year.
The Phoenix moderators, according to the report, make about $28,000 per year, while the average Facebook full-time employee earns $240,000. In contrast to the perk-filled life at Facebook’s Frank Gehry-designed Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters, moderators in Phoenix are closely surveilled by managers and allotted very short breaks for using the bathroom or so-called wellness time.
In addition, moderators told the tech news site that some colleagues have even embraced the fringe, conspiracy-laden views of the memes and posts they’re forced to view each day.
Both Cognizant and Facebook pushed back on some aspects of The Verge’s reporting.
At a later stage of the reporting, Facebook allowed The Verge’s reporter to visit the Phoenix site after telling her that the moderators’ experiences don’t reflect those of most contractors, either in Phoenix or worldwide. New positive-message posters were put up and several content moderators who spoke to The Verge expressed satisfaction with their jobs and how they’re treated, claiming that the very awful, violent content is only a small fraction of what they view.
A former contract content moderator sued Facebook in September, claiming that her work for the tech giant left her with PTSD.
DHAKA, Bangladesh – A fire in Bangladesh killed at least 81 people and gutted a section of Chawkbazar, a section of Dhaka that dates to the Mughal era 400 years ago, in a stark reminder of the lapses in public safety that continue in the South Asian country despite its rapid economic development.
The fire leaped from building to building in the ancient district, a warren of narrow streets — some only one meter (3 feet) wide — with apartments squeezed over shops, restaurants and industrial warehouses on the ground floors.
Witnesses said many gas cylinders stored in the buildings continued to explode one after another. They said the fire also set off explosions in the fuel tanks of some vehicles that were stuck in traffic in front of the destroyed buildings.
After a fire in 2010 swept through Nimtoli, a district near Chawkbazar, killing at least 123 people, authorities promised to bring the area into compliance with building codes and regulations, and evict chemical warehouses from buildings where people lived.
“This type of thing happens, there’s a big initiative to move everything out, and then after some time people forget about it and the government is really not interested any more. It’s like that,” Morshed said.
The newer northern half of Dhaka, where many famous fashion brand factories are located, contrasts greatly with the southern half that includes Chawkbazar.
“As the area was developed continuously, there is very high population density and haphazard growth,” said Shafiq-Ur Rahman, an urban planning professor at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka.
A government eviction drive in Chawkbazar and other areas of Old Dhaka to clear makeshift stalls from walkways was met with protests last May on the eve of Ramadan by business owners and residents.
The fire was about 500 meters (550 feet) away from Dhaka’s 18th-century Central Jail, a former Mughal fort where ex-Prime Minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia has been held since February last year on corruption charges. Since 2016, the jail has only been used to hold opposition figures, and Zia is currently the only inmate. It was not threatened by the fire.
Schmall reported from New Delhi.
New York (CNN Business) What are the criteria you look out for when buying stocks, especially when you want to diversify your portfolio?
Take a look at the S&P 500. The popular index of blue chip US companies might as well be a tech fund.
Five of the six most-valuable companies in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) are Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB). They make up nearly 15% of the fund’s total assets.
“People have been fooled into thinking that the S&P 500 is diversified,” said Lamar Villere, manager of the Villere Balanced Fund.
Villere told CNN Business that investors have to do their homework and not base decisions on faulty assumptions.
Here’s an example: His fund owns Steris (STE), a medical equipment company based in the UK, as well as Euronet (EEFT), an electronic payments firm with its headquarters in Kansas.
Which company is more exposed to Brexit concerns and sluggish growth in the EU? Euronet. That’s because Steris generated more than 70% of its sales last year from the US while Euronet only got a quarter of its revenue from America. Nearly half its sales were from Germany, the UK, Poland, Spain, Italy, Greece and France.
But Villere is confident both companies will continue to post solid earnings, despite geopolitical turmoil.
The key lesson for investors to learn is that if you own quality companies that can do well in most environments, you don’t have to worry as much.
There are other ways to diversify your portfolio, too. Villere said he typically finds better investing opportunities with smaller and mid-sized companies, because their stocks are not as widely followed by Wall Street. So they often wind up being less expensive.
But he doesn’t think investors should shun giant companies either. In the spirit of diversification, it makes sense to own a mix of companies of various sizes — and hold on to them for several years.
Louis Florentin-Lee, a portfolio manager with Lazard Asset Management, agreed with that. He told CNN Business he likes “companies with sufficiently strong economic advantages” that are making a product that’s “invaluable” to their customers.
“We don’t care what sector a company is in,” Florentin-Lee said, adding that buying shares of healthy companies is increasingly important at a time when investors are worried about global trade tension.
Any investor should want to own businesses that can not only withstand the threat of tariffs but even be able to raise prices if they must without worrying that they will lose sales.
Florentin-Lee said some examples of these types of companies are British alcoholic beverage giant Diageo (DEO), German flavors and fragrances maker Symrise (SYIEY) and credit card company MasterCard (MA).
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