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Members of the command staff of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing stand at ease as an Osprey taxis to a stop at Al Asad Airbase on December 22. Aboard the aircraft is Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.

(Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Michael L. Haas)

The Pentagon hasn't been saying much about what's up with the Osprey in Iraq. That could be because it doesn't want to jinx what seems to be, after the first three months of deployment, a success story for the long-controversial tilt-rotor aircraft.

(By contrast, try getting it to stop crowing about the performance of a different breed of new aerial technology, unmanned aerial vehicles such as the Reaper.)

Since arriving at Al Asad Airbase last fall, the 10 MV-22 Ospreys of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 have accumulated more than 1,600 hours of flight time, carrying hundreds of passengers--from ground troops to VIPs--and thousands of pounds of cargo "without a mishap or even a close call," according to a story last week in The Dallas Morning News. That's no small feat for an aircraft that critics cited time and time again for its checkered history of fatal crashes; among other things, they said, the aircraft could well fall prey to the dust it would stir up in the desert environment. Time magazine in October tarred the Osprey--which flies like both a helicopter and a fixed-wing airplane--in a cover story titled "A Flying Shame."

The Marines Corps did seem to be handling the 16-ton Osprey gingerly at first in Iraq, using it in less risky support missions, according to the Morning News story. (For the Dallas paper, this is something of a local story: Bell Helicopter Textron assembles the aircraft in Forth Worth and Amarillo.) But in December, the aircraft began to take part in combat missions. From day to day, anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent of the Ospreys are ready to fly, the paper reported. That could be a sign of genuine and worrisome mechanical problems, or maybe just overly protective policies that keep airworthy Ospreys grounded.

If all continues to go well, scores more Ospreys will be hitting the production line for eventual use by the Marines, the Navy, and the Air Force.

The writing is on the wall, but what does it say?

(Credit: DARPA)

Foreign language translation on the battlefield is a dangerous and expensive proposition, and a job the military wants to see automated.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded BBN Technologies a $5.67 million contract to produce a Multilingual Automatic Document Classification Analysis and Translation (MADCAT) prototype capable of quickly converting to English everything from a crumpled, handwritten note in Arabic to computer files in Pashto using a PDA or a laptop.

Seems like a bargain, considering translation services in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere are expected to cost the U.S. taxpayer $4.6 billion over the next five years, according to one estimate. And that's without factoring the human costs. Translators suffer one of the highest mortality rates of any occupation in Iraq.

(Credit: DARPA)

Soldiers overseas are bombarded with foreign language images in the form of road signs, print media, captured documents, and graffiti, any one of which could be of immediate importance. The way it stands now, much of this material is either ignored or analyzed too late to be of any use, according to DARPA.

If and when it pans out, MADCAT is expected to provide "relevant, distilled, actionable information" to commanders and troops on the ground by translating foreign language text images accurately and automatically without bothering with linguists and analysts, according to the contract specifications. During the MADCAT proposal process DARPA demanded bidders demonstrate a "revolutionary approach," one that will produce a new benchmark in language translation. Specifically excluded were "minor evolutionary" improvements or "narrow applications" to current technology.

BBN says it plans to pull it off by integrating "optical character recognition with state-of-the-art translation and distillation techniques," while developing "novel methods for processing handwritten text," according to its press release.

If it works, MADCAT should be a major feather in DARPA's hat. Imagine being able to read "Yankee Go Home" on walls from Baghdad to Bagram. Better yet, French menus will be a thing of the past. Why print them, if everyone can read them?

Ustream cofounders Brad Hunstable and John Ham as West Point cadets in 1998

(Credit: The U.S. Army)

To many Americans with family members serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the most wished-for holiday gift is simply a visit with their far-off loved ones.

Ustream.TV, a start-up that lets people stream live video to the Web, is planning to help military families connect through the Internet this holiday season.

The company has given Webcams to people who have family stationed in Iraq, so they can access the Ustream service and take part in a video chat.

Ustream, headquartered in Los Altos, Calif., has a strong military background. Co-founders John Ham and Brad Hunstable met each other while attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The former cadets reached the rank of captain before leaving the Army.

Frank Caufield, co-founder of heavyweight venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is an investor in the year-old company and is also a West Point grad.

Wesley Clark, a former four-star Army general, is a member of Ustream's advisory board.

Ham and Hunstable last February

(Credit: Ustream)

"Having served five years and being separated from my family for a year, I know what it's like to be away from home during the holidays," Ham told CNET News.com on Thursday. "Military families sacrifice so much so their loved ones can serve their country. We're doing what we can to make a difference."

Initially, Ustream intended to send Webcams to soldiers in Iraq as well as their families. But Army officials nixed the idea for security reasons, according to an Ustream spokeswoman.

Soldiers already equipped with a Webcam will be able to broadcast themselves to their families at the same time their families will be visible to them. Service members without cameras can still watch on their computer monitors and communicate with loved ones through instant message or telephone.

The Talon, locked and loaded.

(Credit: Qinetiq)

Does the right to bear arms also apply to robots?

That's no longer a question for idle speculation. And the answer appears to be a quiet but distinct yes.

These aren't autonomous robots, of course (so begone, you Terminator nightmares, at least for now). They're standard-issue remote-controlled machines like Foster-Miller's low-to-the-ground Talon, which has been put to good use in dangerous places for less-aggressive duties such as finding and neutralizing roadside bombs. That means a human operator well versed in the rules of engagement would make the actual decision on whether to shoot.

But their use as a weapons platform is only just beginning, so we've yet to see how well they perform and under what circumstances, and it could soon enough become more widespread. For instance, Foster-Miller parent Qinetiq this week is showing off a weaponized Talon at the DSEi (Defence Systems and Equipment International Exhibition) event in London. Military units can equip the so-called SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Direct-action System) variant with an M240 or M249 machine gun, a Barrett .50-caliber rifle, a 40mm grenade launcher or an M202 antitank rocket system, Qinetiq says.

A trio of M249-equipped Talons is already on deployment with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq. (That compares with hundreds of bomb-disposal Talons.) In-country since April, they were formally approved for combat use in June, according to National Defense, which first reported on the use last month. Some 80 more could eventually be on the way, if funding comes through, the magazine reported.

The Talon is driven by joystick from a briefcase-size control unit.

(Credit: Sgt. Lorie Jewell/U.S. Army)

Qinetiq says the weaponized systems are being evaluated by "other nations" as well.

The Defense Department had hoped to have the gun-toting Talons in Iraq a couple years ago, according to an Army News Service story from December 2004. That account also said that in testing, the system could hit a bull's-eye from 2,000 meters, though it was understandably less accurate when on the move. At that time, each unit had cost about $230,000 to produce, and estimates were that the figure would drop 20 percent to 30 percent when the robots went into production.

Not long before that article appeared, Time magazine had designated the weaponized device as one of the "coolest inventions" of 2004.

The 200-pound robot can move at up to 5.5 miles per hour, and its battery has a 4-hour run time.

Marines make use of the Biometrics Automated Toolset system in Fallujah on July 19.

(Credit: Cpl. Joel Abshier/U.S. Marines Corps)

As state-level officials and other critics push back hard against the federal Real ID mandate here at home, the U.S. government is reporting success abroad with a biometric ID system it has installed in Iraq.

The automated biometric identity system being used by the Iraqi government now holds more than 350,000 sets of fingerprints, photos and retina scans, and "we increase the database by 4,000 or 5,000 each week," Army Lt. Col. John W. Velliquette Jr. said in a teleconferenced briefing this week. Velliquette runs the fingerprint and retina scanning center in Baghdad's International Zone. Iraqis are expected to assume full operation by next summer.

The system is used to verify the identity of members of the Iraqi police and military, prisoners and prison guards, and authorized gun owners. (The guns must be kept in homes; they're not to be carried out in the streets.) It's also used to identify criminals and suspects in criminal cases, Velliquette said. "We will get criminal hits; we get 10 to 20 a week from the minister of Interior."

And then there are the bureaucratic benefits. "We also weed out ghost employees," Velliquette said, "people who collect two paychecks but actually only work one job."

The ID system may not be as futuristic as the term "biometrics" would imply. Judging by the briefing transcript, it seems skewed heavily toward fingerprints--a biometric identification technology that's been around since the Sherlock Holmes era. Indeed, Velliquette referred to it as the Automated Fingerprint System, or AFIS.

And civilian employees of the Interior Ministry who collect information in the field via "jump kit" (Panasonic Toughbook computer, Livescan fingerprint scanner) can't upload the data directly to the main office. "Because of connectivity problems over here, the information is burned onto a CD (and) taken over to Adnan Palace," Velliquette said.

While we all hope that the ID system is helping to take some of the danger out of a dangerous place, the possibility exists that access by bad guys to the Interior Ministry database could lead to harm for some. Noah Shachtman, writing in Wired's Danger Room blog, called out Velliquette's concern that the database could become, in the lieutenant colonel's words, "a hit list if it gets in the wrong hands."

The business end of the BAT system.

(Credit: Cpl. Joel Abshier/U.S. Marines Corps)

Personal information in the database includes an individual's name, parents' names, address, birth data, height and weight--but not religious affiliation.

"Some sectors are entirely Sunni, some are entirely Shi'ite," Velliquette said, "so we take great pains to make sure this database stays in proper hands."

At the moment, the only people in Baghdad with access to the main database are seven American contractors and 24 employees of the Interior Ministry.

Actually, there are three biometric systems in operation. In addition to AFIS, there's the Biometrics Automated Toolset system, which is used to identify residents of particular cities, and the Biometric Identification System for Access, which is used for access to bases and to the International Zone, where U.S. and Iraqi officials and foreign diplomats work. All of the local systems are linked to the Pentagon's Biometric Fusion Center, in Clarksburg, W.Va. But they don't connect to each other, meaning that someone recorded in a BAT database in Fallujah who then moved to Baghdad wouldn't necessarily be readily identified.

The U.S. Marine Corps has found the BAT system to its liking. Fielded initially for use in military detention centers, it has come into everyday service on a much wider scope by units in Iraq (and Afghanistan). Residents of Fallujah, for instance, have to show ID badges created in connection with the system to get past checkpoints. "With the occupation here, badges have become part of the Iraqis' way of life," Cpl. Jonathan Rudolph, the BAT system noncommissioned officer with 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, told Marine Corps News recently.

As of the end of July, Marine BAT system operators had completed, updated or renewed over 5,200 ID cards since the beginning of June.

If this were real life, Wafaa Bilal wouldn't be alive. After all, he's been shot something like 40,000 times over the past month. Fortunately, the hits have come from a paintball gun. But while paint won't likely kill Bilal, the Iraqi-born artist views the constant assaults as a metaphor for the danger and confinement his family and others face back home.

Bilal's provocative video installation, Domestic Tension, invites the public to log on 24 hours a day to WafaaBilal.com to watch him, contact him or splatter him with bright yellow paint using arrow icons to maneuver a remote-control paintgun.

Wafaa Bilal can be seen online in his installation via a Webcam.

(Credit: WafaaBilal.com)

On the site is a live Webcam image of the artist, who has restricted himself to a room in Chicago's FlatFile Galleries until the exhibit closes on June 15. The site records the time of the last shot, as well as where the firings originated. Visitors can also chat--a recent look at the page showed comments such as "shoot 'em up" or "get more ammo" alternating with statements like "peace to everyone" or expressions of concern about violence and dehumanization.

Bilal sometimes chats live with visitors, as well.

Some people appear baffled by the artist's project, while others seem clearly invested in his work and message. Some people even attempt to stop others from aiming at the 40-year-old Bilal.

Bilal, who teaches at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and has lost a younger brother as well as his father to war-related violence, writes on his Web site that his art is most influenced by growing up under Sadaam Hussein's repressive regime and by the current war.

"I experienced violence on a daily basis," he says, "and visions of death and terror together with the anguish to the Iraqi people are irrevocably etched in my memory...From this point of departure, through art I strive to uncover an overarching human condition while creating a space for provocation, dialogue and contemplation."