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posted by martyb on Monday April 02 2018, @09:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the ISWYDT dept.

The Taliban Have Gone High-Tech. That Poses a Dilemma for the U.S.

Once described as an ill-equipped band of insurgents, the Taliban are increasingly attacking security forces across Afghanistan using night-vision goggles and lasers that United States military officials said were either stolen from Afghan and international troops or bought on the black market.

The devices allow the Taliban to maneuver on forces under the cover of darkness as they track the whirling blades of coalition helicopters, the infrared lasers on American rifles, or even the bedtime movements of local police officers.

With this new battlefield visibility, the Taliban more than doubled nighttime attacks from 2014 to 2017, according to one United States military official who described internal Pentagon data on the condition of anonymity. The number of Afghans who were wounded or killed during nighttime attacks during that period nearly tripled.

That has forced American commanders to rethink the limited access they give Afghan security forces to the night-vision devices. Commanders now worry that denying the expensive equipment to those forces puts them at a technological disadvantage, with potentially lethal consequences.

See also: Taliban ramps up attacks to send message that no one is safe


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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by sonamchauhan on Monday April 02 2018, @11:23AM (3 children)

    by sonamchauhan (6546) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 02 2018, @11:23AM (#661398)

    The stuff that would benefit from cloud authentication (or time-based edge authentication), like military hardware, they won't do. Instead, life saving equipment is denied and stupid stuff like consoles and entertainment get always-on cloud authentication.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 02 2018, @11:28AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday April 02 2018, @11:28AM (#661400) Journal

    DRM for night vision goggles?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 02 2018, @06:41PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 02 2018, @06:41PM (#661613)

    Military hardware follows a different and strict ethos than most other engineered hardware. Thousands of years of warfare has taught us that you always design a killing implement to be as fool proof and rugged as you can possibly make it. Considerations for materials, design constraints, usability, etc all revolve around the idea that the weapon should always function no matter what happens. It should work in the blistering heat, freezing cold, under water, etc. Any design attribute which is extraneous is carefully considered before being added to a weapon system. Just because it would be nice to have is never a reason to add something to a weapon. It has to not only be nice to have but also function in all condition. If this design addition breaks or fails it should NEVER effect the overall function of the weapon. The weapon should be able to function up until the point one of its internal components (bolt, bolt carrier, firing pin, etc) is damaged. As a soldier, If a gun stopped working because a safety lever broke or some clever anti-recoil system jammed up you would be absolutely livid if you survived the situation. You would rightly never want to own another weapon with components that could so easily render your firearm inoperable.

    That's the gist of what I'm trying to impress upon you. In every other area of engineering most would consider this just a problem of working on minor details and kinks. But in actuality, when dealing specifically with military hardware, any additional feature or system has to be so thoroughly vetted (or should be, we know this isn't always true) to be sure it won't stop working in the field, for ANY reason. The idea that it would stop an enemy from using the same equipment is something secondary to the primary consideration: Will it work at ALL times for friendly users? We all know how finicky DRM systems can be, not to mention internet access in a warzone is fraught with its own problems. A system like the one you want would be practically impossible to implement in a way that is satisfactory to the above requirements.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @04:08AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @04:08AM (#661804)

      The USA supplies the gear to Afghan soldiers, probably for free. The gear is export controlled.

      Want it? Put up with what we say you must put up with, or go make your own.

      It wouldn't even be totally crazy to DRM this stuff for our own troops, because sometimes it falls into enemy hands. Your worry about failure has to be balanced with the worry about the enemy using it against us.