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30 Sep 21. Lockheed Martin conducts F-35 experiment with ADF. The defence contractor has facilitated the sharing of real-time data from its fifth-generation fighter jet’s virtual weapons system during a joint military exercise between the US and Australia.
Lockheed Martin has revealed its F-35 Lightning II and Virtual Aegis Weapon System (VAWS) shared real-time sensor data with non-F-35 platforms outside the US during Exercise Talisman Sabre 21 (TS21) in July.
The data was transmitted via the F-35’s multi-function advanced data link (MADL), from Fort Worth, Texas to the US Indo-Pacific Command in Honolulu, Hawaii, before being relayed to the Australian Defence Force.
The demonstration aimed to support strategic objectives outlined in the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which includes the use of large-scale exercises to pursue innovative experimentation in a bid to bolster joint all-domain information sharing capabilities.
“With this demonstration, the F-35 has proven that its sensor fusion capabilities make it the most advanced node in the 21st century warfare network-centric architecture,” Bridget Lauderdale, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager of the F-35 program, said.
“We are proud to deliver on the expectations of our customers in the Indo-Pacific Command theater and in Australia, and look forward to working with them to build on the capabilities the F-35 has proven thus far.”
The F-35 is billed as the only fighter jet with the ability to reach into austere environments to provide critical real-time information to allied partners.
The sharing of real-time data during TS21 was the second time Lockheed Martin used the multinational exercise to test cutting-edge capability.
TS19 involved experimentation to enhance kill webs — a multitude of sensors designed to collect, prioritise, process, and share data, for fusion into a continuously updated display of information for joint forces. The global F-35 fleet is averaging around 70 per cent mission capable rates. Since the program commenced, over 690 aircraft have been delivered and are operating from 21 bases around the world, with more than 1,460 pilots and 11,025 maintainers trained and 430,000 cumulative flight hours surpassed. The Commonwealth government has ordered 72 F-35A aircraft under the Joint Strike Fighter program. All 72 aircraft are expected to be fully operational by 2023, with an option to expand the fleet to a maximum of 100 aircraft. Australia received three new F-35s in March, taking its current fleet to 33. (Source: Defence Connect)
29 Sep 21. Cirrus Networks and archTIS announced a partnership to resell archTIS’ attribute-based access control (ABAC) information security solutions to customers nationwide.
The partnership aims to allow Cirrus Networks, a leading IT solutions integrator, to resell and provide services for archTIS’ NC Protect solution to support enterprise, government and defence clients across Australia with the ability to securely access and collaborate on sensitive and classified data.
According to Chris McLaughlin, acting CEO at Cirrus Networks, partnering with archTIS will help take the company’s security offering to the next level.
“It’s fantastic to see two Australian SME’s working together to help protect our customer’s sensitive data using innovative solutions coupled with high quality service execution,” McLaughlin said.
The archTIS portfolio of data-centric information security solutions are designed to protect the world’s most sensitive content in government, defence, supply chain, enterprises and regulated industries through attribute-based access and control (ABAC) policies. NC Protect is aimed at providing enhanced information protection for file access and sharing, messaging and emailing of sensitive and classified content across Microsoft 365 apps, Dropbox, Nutanix Files and Windows file shares.
Matt Kluken, vice president and general manager APAC of archTIS, is looking forward to the working closely with Cirrus Networks via the newly forged partnership. (Source: https://www.cybersecurityconnect.com.au/)
28 Sep 21. ABMS: Top Air Force Manager Pleads For Industry Aid.
“The challenge is taking the data that you want to share — you got to understand it, and how you want to share it — and then write the applications that give you that data quality at the highest level, and compress timelines for those decision makers,” said Randy Walden, head of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office.
The head of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), Randy Walden, said that of the 40-odd programs his team manages, right now they need the most help with the department’s flagship battle management, command and control effort.
“I’ll touch on one [program] that I think we need the most support on recently, and that’s the Advanced Battle Management System,” he told the National Security Space Association’s SpaceTime Zoom broadcast today, in answer to a question from moderator Mandy Vaughn, CEO of GXO, Inc., about how industry can assist RCO.
“In general terms, I’ll say many of the same priorities and gaps you find in the unclass world exist in this classified world,” he said. “But ABMS is a good example of trying to leverage commercial industry and what they’ve done with a more global Internet of systems.”
ABMS is the Air Force’s planned component of DoD’s wider Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept. The program has hit some turbulence as new Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall refocuses it on providing near-term capabilities to operators, as opposed to prototyping and experimentation with cutting-edge tech.
Walden said the central goal of ABMS is to “compress the timeline” for command decisions to be made.
A critical issue in allowing that to happen, he explained, is getting service users to figure out what data they have, what data they need, and perhaps most importantly, how to share that data with each other via lightning fast artificial intelligence algorithms and machine-to-machine links, rather than “lethargic, human intensive” paper requests and orders.
“If you don’t know your data, it’s gonna be very hard to share, and it’s gonna be very hard to actually figure out what you want to do in the future. So, you do have to have some level of insight in the data you have,” he said. “Most of my job is asking others out there: ‘What data do you have and how would you like to share it from the battle management perspective?’ That requires those organizations and those individuals to think about what they want to do.”
Another central other issue for RCO, Walden said, is trying to “scale up” useful tech emanating from the scores of little contracts awarded for prototyping and demonstrations by the Chief Architect Preston Dunlap’s office prior to transition of ABMS to a program of record. RCO — which since its inception in 2017 has been focused on speeding new capabilities to warfighters under mostly highly classified programs, such as the B-21 bomber development — was tapped by as the acquisition authority for ABMS last November.
“A lot of the work we’ve been doing is trying to pick up where the where, originally, the chief architect left off, which was more of, essentially, their prototyping and demonstrations and On-Ramps. And so we took it from there — for which they had a lot of contracts — and the goal was to essentially start to extend and scale that up … in leveraging commercial industry’s 21st century technology,” he said.
For the moment, Walden said, RCO is concentrating on getting what is known as ABMS Capability Release 1 (CR-1) into the field. CR-1 is a set of software, applications and systems linked primarily to the fielding of new pods for the KC-46 tanker jets that allow them to serve as a kind of flying cell tower between the incompatible radio systems of F-22 and F-35 fighters.
The goal of CR-1, he explained, is to create “some sort of a gateway at the tactical edge, because the tanker is going to be there anyways. And so the goal would be to not only supply fuel for aircraft needing it at the time — whether you’re a tactical aircraft, a bomber, etc. — but at the same time be associated with sharing or refueling data.”
The communications gateway pod would allow tanker crews “to share the most recent information” about where they had been with pilots in other aircraft, he explained, but also on the ground in Air Operations Centers or Maritime Operations Centers, far-flung command headquarters, all the way up the chain through the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the president.
The difficulty, however, is figuring out how to allow platforms, weapons, and command systems, including those of the other services if they so wish, to automatically link to that gateway into a wider ABMS network, he noted.
“The challenge is taking the data that you want to share — you got to understand it, and how you want to share it — and then write the applications that give you that data quality at the highest level, and compress timelines for those decision makers,” Walden said. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
28 Sep 21. How the USAF is tackling electronic warfare challenges. The Air Force is on high alert when it comes to electromagnetic spectrum threats. But extensive system updates pose a risk.
“If we lose the war in the spectrum, we lose the war in the air and we lose it quickly,” Gen. Mark Kelly, the commander of Air Combat Command, said during keynote remarks at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space, and Cyber conference Sept. 22, noting that a peer adversarial fight would engage frequencies across the spectrum.
Kelly’s comments come a month after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed out the classified implementation plan for the Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy released last year.
The Air Force, in recent years, has made organizational changes to elevate the importance of electronic warfare, including moving the Air Force Spectrum Management Office into its Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Cyber Effects Operations (A2/6) branch under Lt. Gen. Mary O’Brien. That branch will also soon be home to the Air Force’s EMS directorate in October, O’Brien said Sept. 22.
“This is key terrain. We have to connect our joint force,” Kelly said during his presentation of the Air Force’s fighter roadmap, “because if the adversary can break our network, or if we can never establish a network, they can break our blue kill chains and potentially break our force.”
Kelly told reporters Sept. 22 that electronic warfare upgrades, such as with the Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System, were “major surgery” that could take F-15s out of commission for several months.
“That system requires a significant amount of power and cooling to be pulled off the engines to power it,” Kelly said. “The number of panels and amount of plumbing they pull out of that airplane to get their hands to the area they need to go is major surgery.” (Source: Defense Systems)
27 Sep 21. L3Harris Receives First Full Rate Production Orders for Advanced Tactical Radios on US Army’s HMS Contracts.
Highlights:
- $200m in orders marks key production milestone on Army’s HMS radio program
- Provides core components of the Army’s Integrated Tactical Network
- Delivers multi-channel handheld and manpack radios to the battlefield
L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has received full-rate production orders for the U.S. Army’s HMS (Handheld, Manpack & Small Form-Fit) program providing advanced multi-channel, multi mission communications for the Integrated Tactical Network.
The Army awarded L3Harris more than $200m for the multi-channel, software-defined Falcon IV® AN/PRC-163 handheld Leader Radios and AN/PRC-158 manpack radios that will increase warfighter effectiveness by enabling and multi-mission networking capability. The radios also fully support the Army’s unified network strategy, that will allow flexibility to upgrade waveforms as new technology emerges.
“The transition to full rate production is a major step forward for the U.S. Army in fielding their new Integrated Tactical Network and we are honored to support them with tactical radio solutions that make the ITN possible,” said Dana Mehnert, President, Communication Systems, L3Harris. “Our continued performance on HMS and the ENVG-B program are the most recent examples of how L3Harris is supporting the U.S. Army’s key priorities for its unified network and increasing situational awareness, mobility, survivability and lethality for our soldiers.”
The Army’s Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contracts for the handheld Leader and manpack radios include a 5-year base and an additional 5-year option, with a ceiling of more than $16 bn. The Army expects to purchase approximately 100,000 two-channel Leader Radios and 65,000 HMS Manpack radios. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
27 Sep 21. Lockheed scores US Army contract for major electronic warfare, intel and cyber platform. Lockheed Martin has won a second-round contract worth $9.6m to continue work on the U.S. Army’s first integrated electronic warfare, signals intelligence and cyber platform, the service announced Monday. The other transaction authority agreement for phase two on the Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team, or TLS-BCT, follows a 16-month prototyping period that involved Lockheed and Boeing subsidiary Digital Receiver Technology. During those months, each company was charged with developing prototypes and working with soldiers, after which point the Army would pick one solution to move forward.
TLS-BCT will be mounted on a Stryker vehicle, and officials have said it will be critical to modernizing the force to defeat modern and sophisticated threats on the battlefield.
“When fielded, TLS will be assigned to the Multi-functional Platoon and the EW Platoon organic to the Military Intelligence (MI) Company (MICO) in the BCTs. TLS will provide the warfighter at multiple echelons critical situational awareness of the enemy through detection, identification, location, exploitation, and disruption of enemy signals of interest,” said Ken Strayer, the project manager for electronic warfare and cyber within Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors.
In the most recent budget request, the Army asked for $39.7 m for the program from research and development funds. The first unit is to receive the system in fiscal 2022.
Lockheed’s award will provide prototypes for manufacturing proof of concept. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
27 Sep 21. Horizon Technologies Closes DSEI Show with a $1m Sale of FlyingFish™ Airborne SIGINT Systems to a European Customer. At DSEI, Horizon Aerospace Technologies, a subsidiary of Horizon Technologies, announced an approximately $1m sale of FlyingFish™ airborne SIGINT systems to a European prime contractor for a Southern European government end-user. The systems will be operated on manned ISR fixed-wing aircraft to support NATO and EU missions in the Mediterranean Sea and Northern Africa. John Beckner, CEO, Horizon Technologies and Bash Ahmed, COO, Horizon Aerospace Technologies NEWS RELEASEJohn Beckner, CEO, Horizon Technologies said, “We are happy to add another end-user to the list of countries who operate our FlyingFish™ and new BlackFish™ SIGINT systems. FlyingFish™ is in operation 24/7 around the globe saving refugees, combating illegal fishing, piracy, terrorism, and transshipments.”“DSEI was a very successful show for us, and we were very pleased with the attendance at the show and the quality of the visitors. Special thanks to ADS as well as DIT and DSO for arranging delegation visits. We had very good meetings for both our Aerospace and Space sectors. Customer interest is certainly high for our upcoming Amber™ CubeSat Launch.” James Masey, Director of Business Development, Horizon Technologies, Frederic Urban, Head of Business Development – AMBER™, Horizon Space Technologies, John Beckner, CEO, Horizon Technologies, Bash Ahmed, COO, Horizon Aerospace Technologies, Rakesh Sharma, Chairman of the Board, Horizon Technologies Horizon Technologies. Where Vision Turns into Reality. Horizon Technologies is a Global Leader in Innovative SIGINT and Space-Based Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) Intelligence Solutions. Horizon Technologies recently completed its Series A funding round with Maven Capital Partners and Virgin Money. Horizon Aerospace Technologies is a world leader in airborne Sat Phone monitoring systems for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) applications, equipping governments worldwide by enhancing their SIGINT capabilities. We are the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the FlyingFish™ BlackFish™ SIGINT systems which are in operation on numerous platforms worldwide. We participate daily in SAR missions via NATO and FRONTEX in the Mediterranean Sea and are heavily involved in international operations around the globe. Horizon Space Technologies is the prime contractor for the UK Government’s Amber™ program. The Amber™ Program will consist of Amber™ CubeSats in multiple orbital planes providing global Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) data to NMIC (led by the Royal Navy).
24 Sep 21. US Army moves to full-rate production on tactical radios essential for multidomain operations. The Army has awarded a full-rate production contract for a series of tactical radios critical to allowing forces multiple options for communication in a highly congested and dynamic operating environment. The orders are for the 2-Channel Manpack and Leader radios, according to an Army release, and will support the Army’s overarching network modernization strategy — the unified network — by providing communications options and flexibility to upgrade waveforms as new technology emerges.
As the Army modernizes its tactical network, service leaders have said the need to be resilient and have multiple paths of communication is critical. They anticipate adversaries will seek to jam or deny communications, meaning forces will need reliable alternatives to communicate and pass data back and forth in a dispersed manner on the battlefield.
The Manpack radio award, worth approximately $226.5m, is for 2,320 radios from L3Harris Technologies and 1,547 radios from Collins Aerospace. The Leader radio award totals $118.7m and includes 2,498 radios from L3Harris and 1,096 radios from Thales.
The Manpack radios provide beyond line-of-sight capability using the Mobile Objective User System, which allows for global voice calls over the radio through satellite communications.
This allows units to be more dispersed and communicate over farther distances, something leaders say will be key to taking on near-peer adversaries.
The Army has been using a series of experiments over the last few years with 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division as part of its modernized tactical network approach, which includes the incremental delivery of capabilities every two years under what it calls capability sets. Capability Set ‘21 sets the baseline for the network going forward.
The radio awards will allow fielding this capability set to multiple infantry brigades with 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Calvary Regiment Stryker brigade combat team, while also supporting the Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model and Tactical Satellite Modernization efforts, the Army said.
Both radios have been fielded as part of Capability Set ‘21, and four brigades have received them to date along with Security Force Assistance Brigades. Additionally, the radios were used by 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division during a training exercise in the Indo-Pacific theater.
“Full-rate production of these radios across the force will provide our warfighters with the most advanced radio network capabilities available for enhanced situational awareness, which is critical for mission success,” said Col. Garth Winterle, project manager for tactical radios, assigned to Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical. (Source: Defense News)
20 Sep 21. BAE Systems teams with strategic partners to enhance command, control, and intelligence information sharing capabilities for USAF MPE AE&I. BAE Systems, Inc., Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and By Light have teamed to offer enhanced information technology and engineering capabilities for the Mission Partner Environment (MPE) Architecture, Engineering & Integration (AE&I) contract for the US Air Force and joint agencies.
The companies’ exclusive arrangement is focused on applying complementary capabilities to meet requirements to modernise, manage, integrate, and consolidate the MPE. The MPE is an operational framework that provides a secure, agile, resilient, and interoperable worldwide enterprise Command, Control, and Intelligence information sharing capability across multiple security domains in support of Department of Defense, coalition warfighters, and mission partners.
“BAE Systems, SAIC, and By Light are working together to provide advanced technologies and streamlined engineering services that will improve support of the Mission Partner Capabilities Office’s efforts to modernise the MPE,” said Lisa Hand, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Integrated Defense Solutions business. “Our efforts will enable enhanced operational effectiveness, lethality, and agility of US military forces and mission partners.”
If selected as the prime contractor for the MPE AE&I contract, BAE Systems will transform current AE&I processes into a digital engineering environment. This transformational shift supports better decision making, enhanced communication, more efficient engineering process, and improved lifecycle management of a critical warfighter capability.
(Source: www.joint-forcescom)
25 Sep 21. The future role of 5G in autonomous military solutions has just been demonstrated by LMT, the leading mobile network operator in Latvia, in collaboration with the iMUGS Consortium. The demonstration, during which various scenarios were played out in battlefield-like conditions while showcasing specific use cases, took place today, on September 23rd, at the Ādaži military base in Latvia.
This was the second of a total of six demonstrations with the aim of showcasing the results of the iMUGS (Integrated Modular Unmanned Ground System) project – one of Europe’s leading defence industry development projects. The demonstration was organised by LMT, one of the members of the iMUGS consortium, with the support of the Latvian National Armed Forces and the project coordinator Milrem Robotics.
During the demonstration, the troops played out close-to-reality military scenarios in operational environments and relevant climatic conditions. Milrem Robotics’ unmanned ground vehicle THeMIS, was used, along with a number of other cutting-edge military technologies, such as:
- LMT’s battle Information Management System for displaying the data of the payloads and as a command system for scenario execution
- LMT’s Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (IRS) system for performing aggressive fire detection and source recognition
- The ISR system ‘Skudra’ for performing the signal intelligence mission
- A highly protected wheeled vehicle DINGO 2 as a command post from which the mission was led
Alternative communication networks were used by the troop and an unmanned ground vehicle, in scenarios that included switching from a tactical network, provided by Bittium in collaboration with LMT, to 4G and 5G networks.
‘These days, cybersecurity solutions are equally important as physically securing a nation’s borders. That’s why LMT, together with partners from various countries, are working together to research the development of innovative technologies with the aim of strengthening Europe’s defence capabilities. Our expertise in machine vision and machine hearing technologies, telecommunications, and IoT sensor integration into mission management systems is what provides the technological foundation for increased reaction time via autonomous technologies. This makes it possible to evaluate situations faster and can be the crucial moment not only for individual countries’, but all of Europe’s safety.’ – Juris Binde, President of LMT
‘The Latvian Ministry of Defense and National Armed Forces recognise the obvious potential that innovative technologies offer for strengthening both our national defense capabilities, as well as that of the EU and NATO Allies. The innovative defense industry forms one of the critical pillars of our Comprehensive State Defense System. Towards that end, we have actively supported our industrial participation in European Defense Fund projects and now, I am truly satisfied to observe such a variety of Latvian innovators participating in iMUGS demonstrations, solidifying their well-deserved place at the forefront of those who are setting the future standards for unmanned technologies in Europe.’ – Artis Pabriks, Minister of Defense of Latvia
iMUGS is a 13-party collaboration focused on standardising a European-wide ecosystem for aerial and ground platforms, command, control and communication equipment, sensors, payloads, and algorithms. Within the iMUGS project, LMT is conducting a study on the potential use of 5G in autonomous military solutions. The parties involved in the iMUGS project are Milrem Robotics, Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT), Talgen Cybersecurity, Safran Electronics & Defense, NEXTER Systems, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, Diehl Defence, Bittium, Insta DefSec, sol.one, dotOcean, GMV Aerospace and Defence, and Royal Military Academy of Belgium.
(Source: www.joint-forcescom)
24 Sep 21. Cubic’s Nuvotronics to deliver MARIA LRU test-asset for USAF F-16 upgrade. The contract provides the USAF with critical electronic warfare enhancements for the platform. Cubic’s fully owned subsidiary Nuvotronics has won a contract to deliver test-asset Millimetre wave Actuated RF to IF Amplifier (MARIA) Line Replaceable Units (LRU). The contract to deliver MARIA LRUs was awarded by Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in support of the US Air Force’s (USAF) ALR-69A upgrade for F-16 platform. Under the contract, Cubic|Nuvotronics will design, develop, produce, test, and deliver MARIA LRU flights test assets to GTRI. MARIA amplifier is a dual-input, single-output (DISO) radio frequency (RF) downconverter switch LRU. It will be installed and tested on board the F-16 platform.
Cubic|Nuvotronics vice-president and general manager Martin Amen said: “This award supports our continued evolution in innovation of solutions operating in mmWave spectrum. Our solutions like MARIA are especially adaptable to support applications for US Electronic Warfare platforms. Additionally, this award expands our adoption of our PolyStrata process providing significant size, weight, and power (SWaP) advantages.”
MARIA will offer the F-16 platform with unparalleled millimetre wave (mmWave) technology, advanced detection and dynamic range, and boost response time.
Cubic|Nuvotronics’ mmWave manufacturing technology helps in reducing production risk and variation. It also minimises cost and enables better ‘unit-to-unit repeatability’.
Cubic Mission Communications and Computing vice-president and general manager Michael Barthlow said: “The MARIA downconverter award puts Nuvotronics in a unique and exclusive position to provide the US Government industry leading mmWave solutions. We are honoured to be chosen as a potential key enhancer of the F-16 platform.” (Source: airforce-technology.com)
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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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