Short Takes – 4-22-23

Discussion about reliability of fewer big engines vs more smaller engines. Twitter.com thread. Pull quote: “It's arguably true--and James Oberg wrote about this years ago--that the success of Apollo was at least in part due to the reliability of the 5 huge Saturn V engines, as opposed to the Soviet Union's necessity to use 15-20 separate, smaller engines that had to fire simultaneously.”

FBI leak investigators home in on members of private Discord server. WashingtonPost.com article. Pull quote: “The Justice Department is unlikely to charge members of the server for viewing or sharing the classified information, based on past cases. Historically, the government has almost always charged only individuals with security clearances, which legally obligate them not to share classified information with people who aren’t authorized to see it.”

The Army Is Readying Armored Vehicles That Spy, Jam, and Hack Enemy Drones. PopularMechanics.com article. Bit of click bait title, but much more than counter-drone operations include in new EW vehicles. Pull quote: “By late 2022, sixteen brigades had stood up the new EW platoons, which are nested in the brigade’s Military Intelligence company. Until TLS is fielded, Army electronic warfare units will use Stryker and Flyer72 trucks equipped with Tactical Electronic Warfare System (TEWS). Longer-range signal intelligence is also performed by the General Dynamics AN/MLQ-44A Prophet system mounted on an M1165 up-armored Humvee. The National Guard units will receive these EW systems as they are replaced with TLS.”

Two Men Sentenced for Conspiring to Provide Material Support to Plot to Attack Power Grids in the United States. Justic.gov press release. Pull quote: “Upon arriving in Columbus, Sawall and Cook purchased spray paint and painted a swastika flag under a bridge at a park with the caption, “Join the Front.” The defendants had additional propaganda plans for their time in Ohio, but they were derailed during a traffic stop, during which Sawall swallowed his suicide pill but ultimately survived.” Another plot by ‘serious’ terrorists.

Pipeline Safety: Safety of Gas Transmission Pipelines: Repair Criteria, Integrity Management Improvements, Cathodic Protection, Management of Change, and Other Related Amendments: Technical Corrections; Response to Petitions for Reconsideration. Federal Register PHMSA technical corrections. Summary: “PHMSA is making necessary technical corrections to ensure consistency within, and the intended effect of, a recently issued final rule titled “Safety of Gas Transmission Pipelines: Repair Criteria, Integrity Management Improvements, Cathodic Protection, Management of Change, and Other Related Amendments.” PHMSA also alerts the public to its November 18, 2022, and April 19, 2023, responses to petitions for reconsideration of this final rule.”

Airman Shared Sensitive Intelligence More Widely and for Longer Than Previously Known. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “In February 2022, soon after the invasion of Ukraine, a user profile matching that of Airman Jack Teixeira began posting secret intelligence on the Russian war effort on a previously undisclosed chat group on Discord, a social media platform popular among gamers. The chat group contained about 600 members.”

A Life Lost in the Maw of Counterterrorism. SpyTalk.co book review. Pull quote: “In the headlong style of a deadline journalist, [Brett] Forrest presents a tragedy of naïveté and deceit, a tale that he first published as a story in the Journal. Here, after more than a year of research, he adds context—novelistic touches of scenery, atmosphere and backstory. He explores histories of the suburbs of Detroit (sometimes called “the Arab capital of North America”), the Islamic terrorism that changed the mission of the FBI, and the unusual independence and curiosity of Billy’s family.”