YAHOO/AFP: Medvedev orders large-scale Russian rearmament

MOSCOW (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday announced a "large-scale" rearmament and renewal of Russia's nuclear arsenal, accusing NATO of pushing ahead with expansion near Russian borders.

Meeting defence chiefs in Moscow, Medvedev said he was determined to implement reforms to streamline Russia's bloated military and stressed Moscow continued to face several security threats needing robust defense capacity.

"From 2011, a large-scale rearmament of the army and navy will begin," Medvedev said.

FOX NEWS: Report: Marine One Information Found on Computer in Iran

A Pennsylvania company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks discovered a potentially serious security breach involving President Obama's helicopter, Marine One, WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh reported.

Sensitive information about Marine One was reportedly found by Tiversa employees at an IP address in Tehran.

SECURITY MANAGEMENT: Military Support Critical to Homeland Security, but Risky, Ex-Bush Official Says

02/27/2009 -

After Hurricane Katrina, former President George W. Bush was poised to shift responsibility for federal disaster response to the Pentagon until a senior defense official, harboring fears that date back to the country’s founding, warned that the move might violate the Constitution and federal statute.

That official, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense Paul F. McHale, Jr., addressed the American Bar Association’s Fourth Annual Homeland Security Law Institute conference Thursday in Washington, D.C.

PROJECT DISASTER: Officials from Northern Command, National Guard, and emergency response communities discuss hurricane response plans

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Top Pentagon, National Guard and federal emergency responders said Thursday their first-ever joint conference will help speed assistance to people before, during and after this season’s hurricanes.

“This allows us to tighten down our overall ability to respond to an event and get assistance to the local community,” said Gen. Victor Renuart, head of the U.S. Northern Command. “Citizens don’t care whether it is a civilian responder or a military responder, National Guard or active duty, they just need help.”

About 300 members of federal, state and military organizations met for three days at a conference on Hilton Head Island, trying to avoid the confusion that arose as Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. Representatives from 27 states attended, organizers said.

TECH NEWS WORLD: Biometrics: Booming on the Battlefield, Hampered in the Homeland

On the front lines in Iraq, U.S. troops can scan someone's eye or finger to try to determine if he is a potential enemy or has been connected to a terror attack.

At military bases on U.S. soil, it's not that easy.

The use of biometrics -- ranging from simple fingerprints to more advanced retinal and facial scans -- has thrived in Iraq, where soldiers carry handheld devices that enable them to link to databases filled with hundreds of thousands of identities.

AFCEA: Joint Experiment Bridges Interoperability Gap

Multinational effort focuses on information sharing between civilian and military agencies.

Network-centric data transfer capabilities are swiftly moving from the battlefield into areas such as national emergency response and homeland security. A recent joint exercise between NATO and Sweden demonstrated how coalition nations and local civilian authorities can link their networks together to share information in real time.

The goal of the Joint Live Experiment on Network Enabled Capabilities, held in September 2008 in Enkoping, Sweden, was to validate solutions for future coalition operations with live data exchanges between Sweden and NATO. The experiment also demonstrated Sweden’s Network Based Defense (NBD) and NATO’s Network Enabled Capabilities (NNEC) concepts.

TIME: Should the Military Be Called in for Natural Disasters?

Theoretically, even pacificists would probably admit that no one can respond as quickly and efficiently to a major U.S. disaster as the military. But the news that active duty soldiers fresh from a combat tour of Iraq will be gearing up to assist civilian agencies charged with responding to anything from accidental chemical spills to terrorist attacks has sparked mixed reactions from experts in emergency management and civil liberties advocates.

Officials: 3 dead after military jet crash

(CNN) -- A military jet crashed into a residential neighborhood in San Diego, California, on Monday as it tried to land at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, killing three people in a home, authorities said.

The victims -- two adults and an infant, according to the San Diego medical examiner's office -- were in one of two houses destroyed by the crash and ensuing fire, officials said.

One other person believed to be in that house is missing.

The pilot of the F/A-18 Hornet ejected safely and was taken to a hospital, the Marine Corps said in a news release. The pilot, whose name was not released, was the only occupant of the two-seat aircraft, the Marine Corps said.

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.