National Security Space Launch

The United States Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, formerly known as the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, was first established in 1994 by President William J. Clinton’s National Space Transportation Policy. The policy assigned the responsibility for expendable launch vehicles to the Department of Defense (DoD), with the goals of lowering launch costs and ensuring national security access to space. As such, the United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) started the EELV program to acquire more affordable and reliable launch capability for valuable U.S. military satellites, such as national reconnaissance satellites that cost billions per satellite. In March 2019, the program name was changed from EELV to NSSL, which reflected several important features: 1.) The emphasis on “assured access to space,” 2.) transition from the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine used on the Atlas V to a US-sourced engine (now scheduled to be complete by 2022), 3.) adaptation to manifest changes (such as enabling satellite swaps and return of manifest to normal operations both within 12 months of a need or an anomaly), and 4.) potential use of reusable launch vehicles. As of August 2019, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have all submitted proposals. From these, the U.S. Air Force will be selecting two companies to fulfill approximately 34 launches over a period of five years, beginning in 2022. This paper will therefore first examine the objectives for the NSSL as presented in the 2017 National Security Strategy, Fiscal Year 2019, Fiscal Year 2020, and Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA), and National Presidential Directive No. 40. The paper will then identify areas of potential weakness and gaps that exist in space launch programs as a whole and explore the security implications that impact the NSSL specifically. Finally, the paper will examine how the trajectory of the NSSL program could be adjusted in order to facilitate a smooth transition into new launch vehicles, while maintaining mission success, minimizing national security vulnerabilities, and clarifying the defense acquisition process.No embargoAcademic Major: EnglishAcademic Major: International Studie

The Law and the Human Target in Information Warfare: Cautions and Opportunities

This bachelor thesis will explore how two traffic shaping mechanisms can help preserve battery power while retaining a certain Quality of Service (QoS) in an Android based application developed for crisis management. The implemented user-space mechanisms will delay all elastic data requests in order to reduce the number of times the 3G transmission radio enters high power states. This lowers the QoS but extends the user equipment's battery life. The thesis will show that a shaping mechanism has the capability to reduce radio energy usage by up to 50% for the given Android application at the cost of added transmission delays by up to 134 seconds for background traffic. The study also presents two policies that help the application adapt to the current battery level and lower the QoS accordingly, namely one that has a lenient savings effect and one that has an aggressive savings effect

Meeting the Challenge of Cyberterrorism: Defining the Military Role in a Democracy

Denna forskningskonsumtion strävar efter att utifrån två frågeställningar undersöka dels var det deliberativa samtalets möjligheter och begränsningar ligger, dels undersöka hur det deliberativa samtalet påverkar lärarrollen i klassrummet. Detta sker genom en systematisk litteraturstudie som behandlar ett urval av relevanta svenska författare och även ett par internationella engelskspråkiga författare. Det deliberativa samtalet är en kommunikativ metod där samförståelse, konsensus och demokrati står i fokus. Tomas Englund, en av de mest uppmärksammade förespråkare av metoden beskriver det deliberativa samtalet med en rad punkter. Dessa punkter beskriver samtalet som att det ska ge olika argument utrymme, samtalet ska vara tolerant, samtalet ska ha inslag av kollektiv viljebildning, traditionella uppfattningar ska ifrågaställas och samtalet ska helst utesluta lärarledning. Det deliberativa samtalet har av bl.a. Skolverket lyfts fram som en  metod som ska gynna värdegrundsarbetet i skolan. Runt millenieskiftet hade det deliberativa samtalet samt värdegrundsarbetet fått en allt mer central del i skolan där Tomas Englund var en av de mest framträdande förespråkarna av metoden. Ytterligare styrkor i samtalet kunde även förstås som dess potential i att kunna implementeras i andra kommunikativa situationer inom flertalet ämnen. Trots att förespråkarna av det deliberativa samtalet kan lyfta många styrkor hos metoden finns fortfarande flera invändningar. De främsta styrkorna som lyfts ur det deliberativa samtalet är värdegrundsarbetet och samtalets tillämpningsbarhet, men de mer kritiska författarna vill gärna uppmärksamma hur det tämligen strukturerade samtalet kan påverka klassrummet och dess dynamik mellan lärare och elever. Hur ska exempelvis läraren förena sin position som betygsättande maktfigur med att hålla samtalet så öppet och tolererande som möjligt, oavsett åsikter som tas upp? Hur ska retoriska färdigheter hos eleverna behandlas när samtalet ska vara öppet och inkluderande? Forskningskonsumtionen lyfter även hur sociala och kulturella faktorer spelar in på elevers förmåga att deltaga i samtalet och lyfter genom författarna fram en diskussion om samtalets lämplighet i klassrummet, främst genom dess deltagare som utgångspunkt. Slutsatsen härleds till att lämpligheten hos det deliberativa samtalet i klassrummet kan kondenseras ned till frågan om förutsättningarna i klassrummet. Det deliberativa samtalet är ingen universallösning för värdegrundsarbete, men har samtidigt en rad andra styrkor som är värda att lyfta fram. Författarna saknar även en enhällig lösning över vilken roll läraren ska ha i samtalet och saknar även en riktig diskussion om hur det deliberativa samtalet ska behandla konflikter när samtalet drivs till sin spets

Implementation and Development of Vehicle Tracking and Immobilization Technologies

Since the mid-1980s, limited use has been made of vehicle tracking using satellite communications to mitigate the security and safety risks created by the highway transportation of certain types of hazardous materials. However, vehicle-tracking technology applied to safety and security is increasingly being researched and piloted, and it has been the subject of several government reports and legislative mandates. At the same time, the motor carrier industry has been investing in and implementing vehicle tracking, for a number of reasons, particularly the increase in efficiency achieved through better management of both personnel (drivers) and assets (trucks or, as they are known, tractors; cargo loads; and trailers). While vehicle tracking and immobilization technologies can play a significant role in preventing truck-borne hazardous materials from being used as weapons against key targets, they are not a & ”silver bullet.” However, the experience of DTTS and the FMCSA and TSA pilot projects indicates that when these technologies are combined with other security measures, and when the information they provide is used in conjunction with information supplied outside of the tracking system, they can provide defensive value to any effort to protect assets from attacks using hazmat as a weapon. This report is a sister publication to MTI Report 09-03, Potential Terrorist Uses of Highway-Borne Hazardous Materials. That publication was created in response to the Department of Homeland Security´s request that the Mineta Transportation Institute´s National Transportation Security Center of Excellence provide research and insights regarding the security risks created by the highway transportation of hazardous materials

Department of Defense Precise Time and Time Interval program improvement plan

The United States Naval Observatory is responsible for ensuring uniformity in precise time and time interval operations including measurements, the establishment of overall DOD requirements for time and time interval, and the accomplishment of objectives requiring precise time and time interval with minimum cost. An overview of the objectives, the approach to the problem, the schedule, and a status report, including significant findings relative to organizational relationships, current directives, principal PTTI users, and future requirements as currently identified by the users are presented

Governance of Dual-Use Technologies: Theory and Practice

The term dual-use characterizes technologies that can have both military and civilian applications. What is the state of current efforts to control the spread of these powerful technologies—nuclear, biological, cyber—that can simultaneously advance social and economic well-being and also be harnessed for hostile purposes? What have previous efforts to govern, for example, nuclear and biological weapons taught us about the potential for the control of these dual-use technologies? What are the implications for governance when the range of actors who could cause harm with these technologies include not just national governments but also non-state actors like terrorists? These are some of the questions addressed by Governance of Dual-Use Technologies: Theory and Practice, the new publication released today by the Global Nuclear Future Initiative of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The publication's editor is Elisa D. Harris, Senior Research Scholar, Center for International Security Studies, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs. Governance of Dual-Use Technologies examines the similarities and differences between the strategies used for the control of nuclear technologies and those proposed for biotechnology and information technology. The publication makes clear the challenges concomitant with dual-use governance. For example, general agreement exists internationally on the need to restrict access to technologies enabling the development of nuclear weapons. However, no similar consensus exists in the bio and information technology domains. The publication also explores the limitations of military measures like deterrence, defense, and reprisal in preventing globally available biological and information technologies from being misused. Some of the other questions explored by the publication include: What types of governance measures for these dual-use technologies have already been adopted? What objectives have those measures sought to achieve? How have the technical characteristics of the technology affected governance prospects? What have been the primary obstacles to effective governance, and what gaps exist in the current governance regime? Are further governance measures feasible? In addition to a preface from Global Nuclear Future Initiative Co-Director Robert Rosner (University of Chicago) and an introduction and conclusion from Elisa Harris, Governance of Dual-Use Technologiesincludes:On the Regulation of Dual-Use Nuclear Technology by James M. Acton (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)Dual-Use Threats: The Case of Biotechnology by Elisa D. Harris (University of Maryland)Governance of Information Technology and Cyber Weapons by Herbert Lin (Stanford University