Laptop-Triggered Mines Heading to Iraq

[Rose Siding]

NEW YORK -- U.S. troops in Iraq will soon be able to lace their defensive perimeters with a high-tech, multi-pronged version of one of the most effective weapons in their enemy's playbook: the remote-controlled bomb.

By June, soldiers in the Army's Stryker Brigade, which operates mainly in and around the northern city of Mosul, will be able to pick out an individual anti-personnel munition from a minefield of hundreds and explode it by pushing a computer's touch screen from many yards away.

The system, known as Matrix, is part of the Army's emerging arsenal of "smart" land mines that military officials say are meant to do away with the accidental deaths and maimings caused by their not-so-smart brethren.

Twenty-five sets of mines, including M18 Claymores, and the laptops that trigger them over a wireless network are being rushed into the field after the system was successfully tested in September.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-remote-control-mines,0,6157493.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[htuttle]

1. "the laptops that trigger them over a wireless network"

Wireless network?

Oh, man...

[Xithras]

4. Sounds like a bad use of terminology

I doubt this is your standard 802.11 network...it probably isn't even a "network" at all, but "radio bombs" doesn't sound quite as catchy. They are probably just radio detonated mines with some kind of authentication mechanism built in (i.e. they only detonate if a specific MD5 hash is received, or something like that).

As long as nobody tries to play Quake on that laptop, I'd rather see these than standard mines anyday. Not only will soccer playing kids not set them off, but even if they're forgotten about they'll go inert when the battery dies.

[inflection]

16. government isn't that stupid... wait nevermind.. (cool link inside!)

i know the feds can hack 'em:
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article111.php

[Deja Q]

24. Wireless? Cool, it's been said they're easy to hack into.

:crazy:

[VegasWolf]

27. Yeah WiFi! Easy to hack. Just wait for the US soldiers to go for a

stroll at night. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

[Larkspur]

2. Are those laptops loaded with Windows XP operating system?

Wonder how many viruses those laptops will be infected with.

[inflection]

12. XP Pro SP2 is actually pretty secure...

if you've got the right patches installed.

on edit: i'm sure they outsource their IT support... our soldiers might be calling a neighboring country for tech support lol..

(even though without outsourcing i wouldn't have a job)

[Selteri]

22. Yes, they outsource their tech support

but they are dumb as rocks when it comes to how they handle thier mahines. I've heard enough horror stories to have no faith in anything computerized and our armed forces just by listening to the constant problems the Air Force Bases have.

[Orsino]

3. What happens when troops...

...begin to resemble the people they are supposed to be conquering? How will the media spin "their bombs are terrorism; our bombs are liberation"?

[Mika]

13. Our mines are different. They are "peace" mines.

:puke:



www.stopbolton.org

[inflection]

14. fight fire with fire; urban warfare is the worse...

our troops are already sitting ducks just being there... might as well give them what possible to defend themselves... (after all, not all agree with the war in the first place)

[truthisfreedom]

5. great. battery-powered land mines. just great.

do they make that annoying bleep like motorola phones when it's time to recharge them?

[hector459]

6. Why the hell are we using "land mines" anyway? We occupy the country

we don't know who the enemy is. I thought there was an international law or movement against "civilized" nations using land mines?

[TahitiNut]

7. We're not a signatory to the Land Mine Treaty.

The U.S. opposed it, primarily because the DMZ between North and South Korea is infested with them as a "deterrent."

[Up2Late]

8. I sure hope they don't get hacked, but computers Never get Hacked

If you have a strong Heart, you should check out these U.N. Anti-land mine web sites and T.V. Commercials:

Stop Land Mines .org

This Land was Mine .com

[warrens]

17. Whew, I was really worried. Silly me.

Why, those Iraqi's have probably never even seen a typewriter, much less a PC. And people in the third world know nothing about hacking. I feel very encouraged.

Off topic, there's some damn general on NPR right now saying everything is great in Iraq right now. He admits he SHOULD have suspected there might be an insurgency in a country with more guns and bombs than people, but silly him, he just thought it would be all chocolate and roses. And if not, he would have brought in more troops and kicked some ass.

God, I hate, hate, hate these lying fuckwads.

[Up2Late]

25. Do you remember which show it was on? I listen to NPR a lot...

...and love to know who's lying about what.:smoke:

[BrotherBuzz]

9. Those pesky insurgents are adaptive...

How long will it take the insurgents to reconfigure a garage door opener to prematuely set these mines off?

[The_Casual_Observer]

10. Forgive me, but why do we need to use land mines

in a country where there isn't an enemy that uses tanks or field artillery pieces? They are fortifying there permanent bases in the worse possible way. It sounds like genocide to me.

[bin.dare]

11. remote offensive attack and brain teasers ...

... just in case you thought these were local perimeter defense:

"Military analyst John Pike of Globalsecurity.org believes the system could be used to attack enemies who are encroaching on a base but are too far away to hit with sniper fire, which he says can only reach out about a mile.
You can see much farther than that. If you wanted to set up a perimeter security so that the enemy could not sneak up and mortar you, you could do it by putting out a mess of these things," he said. "And then with motion detectors or something, if somebody's sneaking up on you, you can look up in their direction."

and i luv the humour of this part, added Pike:

"If you've got 500 of these mines out there, trying to figure out which one you want to detonate, when the clock's ticking, well that could be a brain teaser."

[DS1]

15. I wonder if they'll remember to encrypt the network

and with something other than 123412341234

[customerserviceguy]

19. Yep, the "Spaceballs" password!

Just want you all to know, I have NOTHING to do with this!

[mbperrin]

18. Oh, good! Another way to keep us from admitting we are killing

human beings! After all, from far enough way, they are just "blobs", not people.......

[thaseint]

21. Agreed

Without the horrors of war, war itself becomes no longer horrible.

[Selteri]

20. This can't end well.

There will be one problem or another very quickly and there will still be lots of accidents.

[obxhead]

23. It is said that

Art mimics life & life mimics art.

I really hope that none of the "terminator" movies will ever be considered art.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

26. Yeah... The Matrix?

Holy shit.
This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. I am sure there are people working on how to reprogram and re-purpose those mines as we speak.
What simps we are.

[Sin]

28. Wow

The Blue Screen of death just took on a whole different meaning.

[VegasWolf]

29. WIFI ERROR: Failed to initialize remote land mine. Please step carefully.

[Zerex71]

30. And let me guess, the laptops will run which ever-reliable OS?

Oh, I don't know, will it be WinCRAP? You know, the one that NEVER crashes or locks up.

[leesa]

31. Ooooh more fun for US boys and girls. No muss, no fuss!