Short Takes – 1-23-24

Cyber Provisions in the FY2024 NDAA. LawfareMedia.org article. Pull quote: “The NDAA includes at least one new express grant of authority for military cyber operations. Section 1505 authorizes the secretary of defense to “conduct detection, monitoring, and other operations in cyberspace to counter Mexican transnational criminal organizations” engaged in illegal activities “that cross the southern border of the United States,” including drug smuggling, human trafficking, and weapons sales. The military may act in coordination with other federal agencies—likely the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security—and should do so “in consultation with the Government of Mexico as appropriate.” This new authorization builds on a long-standing law tapping the Defense Department to be the lead agency in monitoring and detecting aerial and maritime transit of illegal drugs into the United States and a much more recent grant of authority to conduct military cyber activities “when appropriately authorized to do so.””

What the Navy is learning from its fight in the Red Sea. MilitaryTimes.com article. Pull quote: ““[I have] no idea what specific doctrine our ships are using in the Red Sea, but you generally train to use multiple missiles per engagement,” Holmes said. “If it’s an SM-2 engagement … the latest variant of the SM-2 seems to run about $2.4 million per round, so you’re talking just under $5 million to bring down what is probably an inexpensive threat. And again, weapons expended in the Red Sea are weapons not available in the primary theater, East Asia, and are not quickly replaced.””

Zeno Power teams up with Westinghouse on radioisotopes for nuclear power system. GeekWire.com article. Pull quote: “Radioisotope power systems that convert heat into electricity for off-grid power have been used for decades — for example, for space missions ranging from the Apollo moonshots to the Curiosity rover mission to Mars and the New Horizons mission to Pluto. Those systems have typically used plutonium-238, but Zeno is working on systems that make use of other radioisotopes such as strontium-90.”

Sierra Space tests full-scale inflatable module. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “[Large Integrated Flexible Environment] LIFE is designed to fit within a five-meter payload fairing at launch and then inflate once in orbit. When fully expanded, the module will have a volume of 300 cubic meters, about one third the habitable volume of the International Space Station. Sierra Space has proposed a larger version of LIFE, designed to fit into a seven-meter payload fairing, with a volume of 1,400 cubic meters.”

Red Sea shipping attacks are impacting the chemical industry. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “Tom Brown, a chemicals expert and chief news correspondent for the energy and chemicals consulting firm ICIS, tells Chemistry World that pricing for some chemicals and products are starting to increase, especially in markets like Europe that are very reliant on imports of feedstocks or on the material itself.”

President's Cup Cybersecurity Competition. PresidentsCup.CISA.gov announcement. Pull quote: “Established in response to Executive Order 13870 [link added], the President's Cup Cybersecurity Competition is a national cyber competition aiming to identify, recognize, and reward the best cybersecurity talent in the federal executive workforce. Hosting challenges from across the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Framework, competitors will face a diverse array of challenges and will require an extensive skill set to succeed.”

Towards Achieving a Better Understanding of the Nation’s Defenses. RealClearDefense.com commentary. Pull quote: “Senators and Representatives in turn must forgo the temptation to focus on issues that impact only their states and districts and instead relentlessly probe DoD witnesses for answers about military preparedness writ large. They must be prepared to relentlessly follow-up on answers which are often vague or incomplete. Questioning like this requires extraordinary preparation [emphasis added].”

Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.  Pull quote: “The researchers began by looking at levels of more than 6,500 proteins in the blood of 113 people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and 39 people who had never been infected. Six months later, they took new blood samples. By that time, 73 people who had been infected had recovered, and 40 had gone on to develop long covid. Many of the proteins elevated in people with long covid were also elevated in people who had recovered from severe covid. But the markers that were unique to the long covid groups pointed to abnormal activation of the complement system.”