cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/28977252

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has warned the National Weather Service of possible attacks from an armed conspiracy group targeting Doppler radar stations, according to a report from CNN. The group, Veterans on Patrol, is going after government radars because it believes they’re being used as “weather weapons.”

CNN learned of the possible attacks through NOAA emails warning NWS staff that Veterans on Patrol was planning to conduct “penetration drills on NEXRAD sites to identify weaknesses,” with the ultimate goal of destroying NEXRAD. Despite its cooler-than-average name, the NWS uses NEXRAD or “Next Generation Weather Radar” for a fairly mundane purpose: detecting precipitation in the atmosphere. NEXRAD plays a vital role in locating thunderstorms and tornados, making it easier to evacuate vulnerable communities before disaster strikes.

Archive link: https://archive.is/GVsgP

    • turmacar@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      “Vet” covers everyone from Air Force Tower Controllers to Navy Seals to the guy in charge of records in a basement in Alaska and more.

      For 4 years active duty and 4 years reserve most people are involved in logistics or records, and few of those have to know anything about radar.

        • Sinthesis@lemmy.today
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          20 hours ago

          You’re not far off as it is the second definition of the word. “Vietnam vet” “Gulf war vet” etc.

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            1 hour ago

            In that context it just means deployed to ths conflict. Sometimes it means contributed to the effort while in the military. So someone who cooked on base in Vietnam would be a Vietnam vet, but someone who enlisted during the Korean war but was sent to Japan wouldn’t be a korea vet.