Short Takes – 11-29-23

Biden Administration’s New Supply Chain Resilience Council to Oversee 30 Interagency Missions; Alejandro Mayorkas Quoted. ExecutiveGov.com article. Pull quote: “The Department of Homeland Security also has its own supply chain resilience facility. “Conflict, political instability, and climate change could challenge our supply chains in the years ahead,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “The Supply Chain Resilience Center will help American businesses and the federal government anticipate these disruptions and play a key role in the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to prevent them,” the Wash100 awardee added.”

GPS Spoofing Signals Traced To Tehran. AVWeb.com article. Pull quote: “Since late September, the website Ops Group has been collecting reports from pilots flying in the Middle East reporting satellite-based navigation equipment giving them false position reports. In some cases, their panels have told them they’re as much as 120 miles from their actual location, prompting the FMS to react. Some crews have had to ask ATC for vectors to keep them on course. Humphreys said the alarming development is the spoofing affects both the GPS-dependent equipment and the Inertial Reference System (IRS).”

Army boot camp will soon include counter-drone training. ArmyTimes.com article. Pull quote: ““We don’t have enough air defense capacity relative to demand, and we never will. Look at the way in which Ukraine has been expending air and missile defense interceptors and translate that over to what we would need in a China conflict. We are going to need to increase capacity a lot more.””

For the first time, we’re seeing views of China’s entire space station. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “This means the Tiangong space station will continue operating at least until the mid-2030s, several years after the planned decommissioning of the International Space Station in 2030, more than 30 years after the launch of the oldest ISS module. NASA's strategy is to partner with commercial industry to develop a smaller space station to replace the ISS in low-Earth orbit. The idea is that a commercial space station would be cheaper to operate than the ISS, and NASA and other government space agencies could buy access to the privately owned outpost for astronauts and scientific experiments.”

US Coast Guard Issues Safety Alert for Wood Pellet Fires. GCaptain.com article. Pull quote: “Both fires resulted in significant damage, costing approximately $355,000 each, including total loss of cargo and extensive damage to the vessels. The cause of these fires was determined to be spontaneous combustion, a phenomenon that is not necessarily common but has been observed before. According to the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes Code, wood pellets containing additives or binders can ferment over time if their moisture content exceeds 15%, leading to the generation of flammable and asphyxiating gases that can cause spontaneous combustion.”