Quality Leadership Weblog :-)

Book Review: The Body Electric, (New York Times)…William Saletan, New York Times, December 27, 2009, pg. BR14
…The heroes of his new book, “The Department of Mad Scientists,” work for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as Darpa, a secretive arm of the United States government. And the revolution they’re leading is a merger [...]

Taliban Using Snipers Against U.S.-Led Troops, (Miami Herald)…Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy News Service, Jan 3, 2009.
Taliban fighters increasingly are deploying snipers to fire on U.S. troops at greater distances throughout opium-producing southern Afghanistan, according to the top two commanders for the southern region.
The increased use of marksmen is the latest Taliban shift to asymmetrical warfare [...]

Why China Helped Countries Like Pakistan, North Korea Build Nuclear Bombs
(U.S. News & World Report (USNews.com))…Alex Kingsbury, jan 2, 2009.
Former U.S. Air Force Secretary Thomas Reed knows nuclear bombs better than most people. For starters, he designed two of them when he worked at the Livermore National Laboratory as a weapons designer.
His new book The [...]

Obama Moves To Counter China With Pentagon-NASA Link, Bloomberg.com)…Demian McLean, Bloomberg News, Jan 2, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China.
The potential change comes as Pentagon concerns [...]

Nintendo Wii Being Adapted To Defuse IEDs, (CNN)…Chris Lawrence, December 28, 2008 . Nintendo Wii Being Adapted To Defuse IEDs , CNN Sunday Morning, 9:00 AM
…The Wii-mote would use an infrared beam to instantly match a soldier’s motions with the robots movement. Potentially, it’s small and light enough that the infantry could use it to [...]

The Planned Change principle generally includes three courses of action: Maintain/sustain the current system/process, evolutionary/incremental improvement or revolutionary improvement through re-design.  The higher degree of change, the higher the risk. Risk can be minimized through use of the concept of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs).  FCS incorporates all three approaches and a strategic assessment will help [...]

A Pentagon Energy Plan, (Baltimore Sun)…Thomas M. Spangler III, Dec 18, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama’s energy team is in place, and he has ambitious plans to reform the nation’s energy system. Where should he start? How about with the nation’s largest consumer of petroleum - the Pentagon.

See also previous posting: Air Force and DARPA — Energy [...]

Drone-Pilot Burnout (New York Times Magazine)…Aaron Retica
…the Predator crews at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada “are at least as fatigued as crews deployed to Iraq,” if not more so, according to a series of reports by Air Force Lt. Col. Anthony P. Tvaryanas.
… remote pilots do not receive the kind of cues from their sense [...]

Pentagon Database Swells To 80,000 DNA Profiles, (USA Today)…Peter Eisler, Dec 12, 2008
The Pentagon has catalogued 80,000 DNA profiles in an obscure database that holds genetic information on foreign terrorism suspects and detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Defense officials and documents.

Cyber Attack On DoD Linked To Russia, (FNC)…Jennifer Griffin, Dec 10, 2008.
Fox News has learned that the cyber attack on the U.S. military’s classified information network has been traced to a front company run by former Russian FSB or KGB spies. The attack led the Pentagon to ban the use of all thumb drives because [...]