Security at the recent Missile Defence Conference in Huntsville attracted a number of hostile comments from attendees. Industry representatives reported problems with security when trying to photograph their own display booths, while Defense News complained of ‘police intimidation’ of reporters.
Next month sees a “Modern Threats: Surface-to-Air Missile Systems” being held at Huntsville. The meeting is classified Secret/US only. However the conference agenda is unclassified and I have a copy. The first two days are as follows:
Wednesday, 3 September
Overview of Country X Air Defenses
Unique Long Range SAM System
Long Range SAM System
Long Range SAM Family
Ballistic Missile Defense Update
Directed Energy Weapons
MANPADS
Modern Medium Range SAM
Modern EP SAM Features
Medium Range SAM System
New Long Range SAM System
Thursday, 4 September
Overview of Country Y Air Defenses
Long Range SAM #1
Long Range SAM #2
New Short Range SAM System
Medium Range SAMs
Hardware Tours
Ballistic Missile Defense Update
Hardware Test Results
Long Range SAM System #3
“Country X” – “Country Y” – this is another example of security taken to point of silliness.
So come on chaps. Demonstrate how silly it is by ‘filling in the blanks’ and working out what countries and systems are involved.
By: Mercurius - 22nd August 2014 at 17:12
About a dozen. And posted them on Twitter. So they are now in the public domain.
By: bring_it_on - 22nd August 2014 at 15:56
Amy butler managed to click a few pictures despite the aggressive posture against cameras 🙂
By: Mercurius - 22nd August 2014 at 11:32
Its quite weird what happened there. Had some friends who had gone and got a long debrief on the matter. Very strange 🙂
One cannot help wondering whether security restrictions at conferences and exhibitions have been thought through, or if it is largely left to whim. I was once reprimanded for taking a photo of a French fighter-borne radar that was on show on the company’s stand during a public day at the Paris Air Show.
At the recent European EW conference, the audience was told that photographing the on-screen slides was not allowed, but that all the presentations would be available to download after the conference had ended. Needless to say, not all were. For example, the two presentations on threat systems (one of them by the UK MoD) were not included in the download. In practice, one of the two seems to have been omitted due to ‘finger trouble’ by whoever compiled the downloads, but even so, why say that all presentations would be available when this is unlikely to be true?
An east-European technical journalist of my acquaintance routinely photographs the on-screen slides displayed at air show press briefings, and tells me that the practice is common, since it is not unknown for the most interesting slides to be missing from the handout version of the powerpoints.
At the recent Eurosatory exhibition, many of the vehicles on show carried ‘no photography’ signs, and I was amused to hear the following exchange.
Stand security guy (yelling at a camera-wielding visitor): “No pictures allowed!”
Company guy: “It’s OK – he’s from the press.”
Perhaps the stupidest example of excessive security I know was a conference at which no form of note-taking was allowed. What purpose did the organisers think that the event would serve? And to make it even sillier, the conference was unclassified!
However, one UK-based technical journalist has an even better tale – that of being invited to speak at a symposium to which journalists are not admitted.
By: djcross - 21st August 2014 at 18:06
ITAR strikes again.
A make-work jobs program for .gov bureaucrats.
By: lukos - 21st August 2014 at 18:03
Country x Russia
Country y China or Israel, no not China as they won’t be giving hardware tours at a US venue that is secret and US only!Of course i could be very wrong.
I’m going with Russia and China. The MANPADS gave away Russia because of Verba.
Wonder what ‘EP’ refers to?
By: Arabella-Cox - 21st August 2014 at 16:24
Country x Russia
Country y China or Israel, no not China as they won’t be giving hardware tours at a US venue that is secret and US only!
Of course i could be very wrong.
By: bring_it_on - 21st August 2014 at 12:57
Its quite weird what happened there. Had some friends who had gone and got a long debrief on the matter. Very strange 🙂
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August 21, 2014 at 10:09 am