Sponsored by Spectra Group
https://spectra-group.co.uk/
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21 Jul 22. The first two U.S. Air Force F-15E aircraft recently began Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS) modification at Boeing [NYSE: BA]. Forty-three F-15Es will receive EPAWSS, which is also the electronic warfare system that will equip the F-15EX Eagle II.
Developed, produced and integrated by the strong partnership between Boeing and BAE Systems, EPAWSS represents a transformational overhaul to the survivability of the F-15 by providing advanced capabilities to detect and counter ground and airborne threats while also improving battlefield situational awareness.
“The Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System makes the most of mission effectiveness and survivability for the F-15 in contested environments, and further strengthens a highly capable, lethal aircraft,” said Prat Kumar, vice president of F-15 Programs. “With EPAWSS, the F-15E and F-15EX have successfully proven they can perform across a large force environment to penetrate advanced enemy air defenses and improve mission flexibility.”
In May 2021, the first two F-15EX aircraft, delivered ahead of schedule, participated in Northern Edge exercises with the EPAWSS suite. During the highly contested and complex exercises, the two jets demonstrated operational potential, which set the stage for future incremental improvements, allowing the jets to exhibit proven, outstanding performance in subsequent exercises and flight test missions in October 2021 and February 2022.
19 Jul 22. Samsung just released a new XCover6 Pro smartphone that helps users of critical communications with new and improved features. The new Samsung smartphone, together with the Airbus Tactilon Agnet MCX solution, – the winner of ICCA best MCX of the year – enables mission and business critical communication to be successful even in demanding conditions.
Airbus has developed and tested Tactilon Agnet solution together with Samsung, and the just released XCover6 Pro smartphone brings new solutions for service deployment and MCX services for demanding users.
Samsung Knox products complete Tactilon Agnet deployment easily with firmware management, license server for offline activation, out of the box enrollment and many other features that are valuable for critical communications users. With Samsung Knox Security, security management and quality can be implemented even more efficiently.
“This announcement shows that a global and leading technology enterprise is ready to meet mission critical user requirements for terminals. Airbus’ Tactilon Agnet solution on Samsung Knox enabled smartphones ensures faster and easier deployment, use and security of MCX services,” says Samuel Gustafsson, the Head of European Sales from Airbus. Samuel continues: “The Tactilon Agnet service on the new XCover6 Pro will be able to serve the users with new features without compromising on efficiency and security, which are increasingly important aspects of critical communications.”
“Security and usability are top priorities for government organizations when choosing mobile technology,” said Neil Barclay, Head of B2G, Samsung Europe. “Leveraging our enterprise grade security and staging tools, we’ve collaborated with Airbus to create a unique and easy-to-deploy platform that manages and protects the most sensitive and confidential information on a best-in-class PTT device”.
The new Samsung XCover6 Pro itself has numerous features that makes it functional for field use such as protection for demanding conditions, programmable hardware keys, high capacity battery with fast charging, and loud mono speaker for clear voice communication. Also, the Samsung XCover6 Pro has a chipset with support for LTE and 5G, which will enhance the quality of video streaming and video conferencing by end-users.
International Critical Communications Awards 2022 selected Airbus Tactilon Agnet 500 as the best MC-X solutions of the year.
15 Jul 22. Boeing to deliver final capabilities under Project Currawong to Australian DoD. “The final two pieces of capability” of the last stage or “Release 3” of the Australian Department of Defence’s (DoD’s) Project Currawong “are currently in the final phases of completion and acceptance”, Tom Minge, Boeing’s Currawong programme manager told Janes.
Boeing is the prime contractor of Currawong, officially known as Joint Project (JP) 2072 Phase 2B. The project is focused on developing an integrated battlefield telecommunications network system for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
“The final two pieces of capability to be completed are the deployable data centre assembly (DDCA) and the headquarters on the move (HQOTM),” Minge told Janes.
“We [Boeing] anticipate the DDCA will be completed by the end of the July 2022, with the HQOTM shortly after,” he said.
“We [Boeing] are on-track for production, delivery, and training to be completed by December 2022,” he added.
Boeing has been delivering ‘Release 3′ to the Australian Army “in a number of stages”, Minge said. (Source: Janes)
18 Jul 22. Raytheon to provide FLEWS under LAND 555 Ph.6. Raytheon Australia will provide the Army’s Force level Electronic Warfare System (FLEWS) under Project LAND 555 Ph.6, valued at some $75 m.
Under this project the FLEWS will be installed in modified Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles (PMV), said Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy. The system will improve the ADF’s ability to monitor and control the electronic environment and, where necessary, deny or degrade the electronic systems of adversaries.
“The Government is committed to increasing the ADF’s ability to operate and fight in complex electromagnetic environments,” Minister Conroy said.
“This new capability will give our Land Force a better range of options to continue to pursue our interests in our region and deter, defeat and deny attacks and threats against Australia.
“The Project will complement air and maritime force level electronic warfare systems, further enhancing these capabilities when deployed in combination as a Joint Force.”
Australian companies will undertake supply, training and maintenance support, though no details have been made available as yet.
“The Project will inject more than $46 m into Australian industry, contributing to strengthening our sovereign defence industrial base, supporting delivery of multiple Sovereign Industrial Capability Priorities and growing the skills of our local workforce,” Minister Conroy said. (Source: Rumour Control)
18 Jul 22. Airbus to deliver connectivity services using its leading Zephyr High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS). Airbus has launched a connectivity services business through the creation of a dedicated HAPS Services Business based around Zephyr, Airbus’ leading HAPS technology platform. This will help enable it to industrialise rapidly and begin serving a substantial total addressable market, providing low-latency connectivity services from the stratosphere for telecommunications and Earth observation applications. The new business is a subsidiary of Airbus Defence and Space.
Following on from recent successful test flight campaigns the solar-powered Zephyr has established itself as the leading HAPS platform in the world. With the company now set to offer telecommunications services via its platform, it will play a crucial role in helping to bridge the digital divide through connecting the unconnected on land, air and sea.
To help lead its ambitious growth plans, Samer Halawi has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the new business. Most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Intelsat, Samer is a seasoned Telecom executive with more than 30 years’ experience in Telecommunications and Global Satellite Communications, as well as Automotive and Investment Banking. He brings experience and expertise in building and transforming successful companies.
“With thousands of flight hours in the stratosphere and an admirable entrepreneurial spirit, the Zephyr team are well placed to develop future connectivity services. This is an exciting time for the team, building on our success with the leading HAPS, and it is now time for the next step,” said Samer Halawi.
Samer’s leadership team will be boosted by the appointment of Taz Esmail as Chief Financial Officer. Taz joins from her most recent role as CFO at Meta Aerospace; with extensive experience in the aviation, aerospace and defence sectors having worked in both listed and blue-chip private equity environments.
“Our connectivity services will provide a viable alternative and complement to terrestrial and satellite-based connectivity solutions, allowing for the first time low-latency and direct-to-device connectivity across vast geographies, and economically. Our sustainable technology allows us to save and improve people’s lives whilst ensuring a better outcome for our planet”, added Halawi.
With over 3.7 bn people unserved or severely underserved by current terrestrial and space-based telecommunications networks, Airbus and Zephyr are reimagining connectivity, and working towards bridging the digital divide, offering state of the art connectivity service to commercial, defence and institutional customers across the globe.
18 Jul 22. Thailand: Bangkok’s utilisation of spyware to monitor pro-democracy activists will further heighten regulatory scrutiny of technology-related organisations. On 17 July, the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto claimed that the devices of at least 30 of Thailand’s pro-democracy activists were targeted with Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. Forensic investigations revealed that these intrusions occurred between October 2020 and November 2021. While Citizen Lab refrained from attributing this activity to a specific actor, these dates coincide with pro-democracy demonstrations opposing growing military influence and control within the country. Indeed, the likelihood of this being a Thai government-backed operation is further heightened given NSO Group’s business model of only licensing its products to “government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to investigate terrorism and serious crime”. This is the latest revelation regarding NSO Group since its products were discovered being used on a range of targets, including politicians and journalists, linked to the Catalan independence movement (see Sibylline Cyber Daily Analytical Update – 20 April 2022). These most recent NSO-supported campaigns will highly likely sustain the fallout from the 2021 Pegasus scandal, further heightening the regulatory scrutiny faced by technology and cyber security firms producing spyware in the coming months. (Source: Sibylline)
15 Jul 22. Frazer-Nash Consultancy to lead Cyber Defence R&D for UK Ministry of Defence. Frazer-Nash (NYSE: KBR) announced today that it will lead research and development for self-defending, self-recovering cyber defence concepts in support of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD).
Frazer-Nash Consultancy, a KBR company, will work with the MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) as part of the Autonomous Resilient Cyber Defence (ARCD) project.
The three-year project will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to develop cyber defence concepts that can be tested and evaluated against attacks in a simulated military environment. Frazer-Nash will use the latest technologies to deliver high-risk, disruptive options; AI-driven cyber defence decision-making; and informed cyber sensing, which will be integrated into the concept demonstrator.
“Frazer-Nash is renowned for helping organizations safeguard their systems and protect their critical assets and processes through teams that are at the forefront of innovation,” said Andrew Barrie, Managing Director of Frazer-Nash Consultancy, and President of KBR’s Government Solutions EMEA business. “We are excited to support the MOD in its fight against cyber-attacks with this cutting-edge research and demonstrator.”
Said Zoe Fowle, Dstl’s Cyber Security Programme Manager, “Dstl are excited to be working with Frazer-Nash on this vanguard project, delivering cutting-edge response and recovery concept demonstrators over the next three years, with the potential to transform cyber resilience for MOD.”
Frazer-Nash has worked in the cyber security arena for more than two decades. Its security professionals protect organisations’ systems and data, analyse and mitigate cyber risk, and deliver advice and assurance, as well as using their expertise to advance holistic cyber defence that covers technology, people and processes.
14 Jul 22. US Army merges data analytics, combat management programmes. US Army officials within the service’s primary information systems and networking technology directorates are working to merge two major programmes – data analytics and combat management – into a cohesive capability, with the goal of leveraging the new, joint programme into the army’s burgeoning data fabric development effort.
Programme officials from Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS) and Program Executive Office Command, Control, and Communications – Tactical (PEO C3T) are in the midst of consolidating PEO EIS’s ‘Vantage’ data analytics and visualisation platform with PEO C3T’s Command Post Computing Environment (CPCE) programme, US Army Chief Information Officer (CIO) Raj Iyer said. (Source: Janes)
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Spectra Group Plc
Spectra Group (UK) Ltd, internationally renowned award-winning information security and communications specialist with a proven record of accomplishment.
Spectra is a dynamic, agile and security-accredited organisation that offers secure Hosted and Managed Solutions and Cyber Advisory Services with a track record of delivering on time, to spec and on budget.
With over 15 years of experience in delivering solutions for governments around the globe, elite militaries and private enterprises of all sizes, Spectra’s platinum and gold-level partnerships with third-party vendors ensure the supply of best value leading-edge technology.
Spectra was awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Innovation) in 2019 for SlingShot.
In November 2017, Spectra Group (UK) Ltd announced its listing as a Top 100 Government SME Supplier by the UK Crown Commercial Services.
Spectra’s CEO, Simon Davies, was awarded 2017 Businessman of the Year by Battlespace magazine.
Founded in 2002, the Company is based in Hereford, UK and holds ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001:2013 and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation.
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