NEW HI RES NIGHT VISION MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE HELLO KITTY

Given, it might make you look like the love child of Robocop and a cartoon kitten, but SA Photonics' High Resolution Night Vision System (HRNVS) could mean smoother night flights for the US military. The light weight head mounted display couples high resolution imagery and an impressive 82.5 degree field of vision -- previous devices offered a range of only 40 degrees. What's more, it provides clearer peripheral vision, virtually non-existent halo effects, digital image enhancement, and night vision recording. The headset was designed in collaboration with the US Army and the Air Force Research Laboratory, which means these robo Sanrio helmets might actually get some play.

MILITARY BANS PORTABLE MEDIA DEVICES

The U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial.

Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, commander of Air Force Network Operations, issued the Dec. 3 “Cyber Control Order” — obtained by Danger Room — which directs airmen to “immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET,” the Defense Department’s secret network. Similar directives have gone out to the military’s other branches.

“Unauthorized data transfers routinely occur on classified networks using removable media and are a method the insider threat uses to exploit classified information. To mitigate the activity, all Air Force organizations must immediately suspend all SIPRNET data transfer activities on removable media,” the order adds.

It’s one of a number of moves the Defense Department is making to prevent further disclosures of secret information in the wake of the WikiLeaks document dumps. Pfc. Bradley Manning says he downloaded hundreds of thousands of files from SIPRNET to a CD marked “Lady Gaga” before giving the files to WikiLeaks.

To stop that from happening again, an August internal review suggested that the Pentagon disable all classified computers’ ability to write to removable media. About 60 percent of military machines are now connected to a Host Based Security System, which looks for anomalous behavior. And now there’s this disk-banning order. [Wired]

US CYBER COMMAND ACHIEVES FULL OPERATIONAL STATUS

The US Cyber Command has achieved "full operational capabilities". This means they have all the equipment and personnel to carry out their missions and know how to do it. "I am confident in the great service members and civilians we have here at U.S. Cyber Command. Cyberspace is essential to our way of life and U.S. Cyber Command synchronizes our efforts in the defense of DoD networks. We also work closely with our interagency partners to assist them in accomplishing their critical missions," said Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of U.S. Cyber Command.

The department will continue to grow the capacity and capability essential to operate and defend our networks effectively. U.S. Cyber Command is a sub-unified command under the U.S. Strategic Command. It reached its "initial operational capability" on May 21, 2010. [Engadget]

MILITARIZED SKATEBOARD MAKES ITS DEBUT

Ben Gulak, the guy who created the Uno electric unicycle, has created the DTV (Dual Track Vehicle) Shredder.  The Shredder is aimed at military use as a rugged and versatile one-man transporter.  It has enough torque to pull an SUV, but can turn within a 4 foot circle and climb slopes of up to 40 degrees.  It has a top speed of 30 MPH and can be remotely operated. [BPG Werks via Gizmodo]