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20 Jan 22. Electronic warfare spending to soar, tipped to hit $12bn. An acceleration in the development of advanced EW technology is set to trigger a surge in investment over the coming decade, new research has revealed. According to an analysis from GlobalData, the international electronic warfare (EW) market could be worth $11.8bn by 2031, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 4.22 per cent.
This spike is expected to be triggered by an acceleration in the development of new, innovative capabilities, including cognitive EW technologies, the incorporation of Gallium-Nitride (GaN) technology into phased-array antennas, and miniaturisation of EW systems.
Venkatesh Kandlikar, defence analyst at GlobalData, noted an increase in the integration of such technologies in both new and existing military platforms.
“Countries around the world are stressing not only the integration of modern EW systems with next-generation aerial platforms, but also the enhancement of existing airborne warfare platforms to provide superior situational awareness, electromagnetic attack, and countermeasure capabilities with new sensors and more powerful digital signal processing,” Kandlikar said.
“Additionally, the increased use and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is expected to aid growth of the airborne platform EW segment in the coming years, as the UAVs are now being regarded as dedicated EW platforms, having previously been utilised exclusively for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and combat missions.”
The integration of cognitive control mechanism with electronic countermeasures is tipped to address existing limitations associated with legacy EW systems, including an inability to handle high load and unresponsiveness to new and emerging threats.
A ramp up in the adoption of mini and nano UAVs in tactical missions is also expected to drive miniaturisation of EW systems on UAV platforms.
“Over the forecast period, the evolution of electronic counter-countermeasures will also push EW system manufacturers to modernise and refine EW systems resulting in increased and sustained investment in research and development in the sector,” Kandlikar added. (Source: Defence Connect)
19 Jan 22. At Project Convergence, Army’s new battle command system demonstrated expanded capability. The U.S. Army originally intended for the Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS, to serve as the brains of its air-and-missile defense system, but has exponentially expanded its mission set.
Now, Northrop Grumman, the system’s manufacturer, says recent experimentation at Project Convergence last fall proved IBCS can do what the service requires.
According to Northrop, IBCS showed it can remotely detect and defeat threat targets, using ground, air and space sensors. The system was also able to pass ground target tracking data to a fire control system, helping the Army use it to connect any sensor and shooter on the battlefield.
The testing at Project Convergence demonstrated the system’s “architectural capability to integrate networks, sensors, and effectors across domains for joint operations,” the company said in a Jan. 19 statement.
In fall 2021, the Army completed its second Project Convergence, a campaign of learning held at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, to experiment with and evaluate capabilities the Army hopes to deploy for a fully modernized force that can fight across all domains.
IBCS, which has cost the Army about $2.7bn to date to develop, was cleared for production in January 2021.
The system was demonstrated in one of the seven use case scenarios executed during Project Convergence and also participated in a network and communication exercise as part of the campaign at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, in October and November.
During the joint air-and-missile defense use case scenario, IBCS conducted a successful engage-on-remote test, a Northrop spokesperson told Defense News.
Threat targets were launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. An engagement operations center using IBCS picked up on the threats at Fort Bliss, Texas, and tracked them. Then the system was able to remotely initiate from Fort Bliss the launch of Patriot missiles at White Sands to take out the threat.
Part of the demonstration included using space-based sensors, which Joint Tactical Ground Station operators tapped into through satellite communications to track a missile threat. While ground and airborne sensors have been used in demonstrations involving IBCS, the addition of space sensors shows the system is able to tie into the space capability layer, according to the spokesperson.
During the communications exercise, IBCS was able to obtain information from an F-35 fighter jet tracking a ground target and feed it to the Army’s fire control system — the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System — for the first time. AFATDS then engaged the target.
The demonstration shows IBCS can contribute not just to defensive missions but to precision strike missions as well, the spokesperson said.
“Project Convergence provided us another opportunity to demonstrate our architecture’s ability to deliver joint connectivity across the services,” Christine Harbison, Northrop Grumman’s vice president and general manager for combat systems and mission readiness, said in the company statement. “That open architecture allows utilization of satellite communications to conduct remote engagements of target missiles, demonstrating our ability to connect the battlespace for all-domain operations.”
At Project Convergence 2021, the Army focused heavily on artificial intelligence and machine-learning enabled systems that could contribute to the military-wide Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2).
JADC2 is the Pentagon’s major effort to connect all sensors on the battlefield to troops, enabling a speedier transfer of data, information, intelligence and communications across platforms and services. IBCS is seen as the Army’s contribution to JADC2.
Last month, the Army awarded Northrop a $1.4bn contract for both low-rate initial production and full-rate production of its future battle command system.
The system is currently running through its initial operational test and evaluation and the Army expects to reach a full-rate production decision on IBCS in fiscal 2023. (Source: Defense News)
20 Jan 22. President Biden Signs National Security Memorandum to Improve the Cybersecurity of National Security, Department of Defense, and Intelligence Community Systems. President Biden has signed a National Security Memorandum (NSM) to improve the cybersecurity of National Security, Department of Defense, and Intelligence Community Systems, as required in his Executive Order (E.O) 14028, Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. This NSM requires that, at minimum, National Security Systems employ the same network cybersecurity measures as those required of federal civilian networks in Executive Order 14028. The NSM builds on the Biden Administration’s work to protect our Nation from sophisticated malicious cyber activity, from both nation-state actors and cybercriminals. This NSM:
- Specifies how the provisions of EO 14028 apply to National Security Systems. The President’s May 2021 Executive Order required that the government “shall adopt National Security Systems requirements that are equivalent to or exceed the cybersecurity requirements set forth in this order.” Consistent with that mandate, this NSM establishes timelines and guidance for how these cybersecurity requirements will be implemented, including multifactor authentication, encryption, cloud technologies, and endpoint detection services.
- Improves the visibility of cybersecurity incidents that occur on these systems. It requires agencies to identify their national security systems and report cyber incidents that occur on them to the National Security Agency, which by prior policy is the “National Manager” for the U.S. government’s classified systems. This will improve the government’s ability to identify, understand, and mitigate cyber risk across all National Security Systems.
- Requires agencies to act to protect or mitigate a cyber threat to National Security Systems. The NSM authorizes the National Security Agency, through its role as National Manager for National Security Systems, to create Binding Operational Directives requiring agencies to take specific actions against known or suspected cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. This directive is modeled on the Department of Homeland Security’s Binding Operational Directive authority for civilian government networks. The NSM directs NSA and DHS to share directives and to learn from each other to determine if any of the requirements from one agency’s directive should be adopted by the other.
- Requires agencies to secure cross-domain solutions – tools that transfer data between classified and unclassified systems. Adversaries can seek to leverage these tools to get access to our classified networks, and the NSM directs decisive action to mitigate this threat. The NSM requires agencies to inventory their cross-domain solutions and directs NSA to establish security standards and testing requirements to better protect these critical systems. (Source: glstrade.com)
19 Jan 22. Norwegian Startups Eye U.S. Defense Market. Some of Norway’s most innovative companies are looking to break into the U.S. defense market with help from Silicon Valley.
Hacking 4 Allies — a program run by the Norwegian-American Defense and Homeland Security Industry Council — recently announced the selection of eight companies to participate in the program. The effort aims to generate investments, research-and-development funding, and contracts for startups to enter both military and civilian markets in the United States and Norway.
Peter Newell, CEO of Silicon Valley-based BMNT Inc., which is helping lead Hacking 4 Allies, told National Defense the two countries have mutual problems within their defense and commercial sectors.
“Because of Norway’s unique positioning, it’s easier to recognize the problem for what it is in Norway, and then find and identify where that problem presents itself in the United States,” he said.
Eight startups based in Norway will be trying to put their products into the hands of defense personnel both in Washington and Oslo to solve the nations’ shared obstacles. The products each company specializes in are diverse — including artificial intelligence, electronic blank ammunition, cybersecurity solutions and robotics.
Norway’s defense industrial base is extremely niche compared to the rest of the world, explained Torbjorn Svensgaard, CEO of the Norwegian Defence and Security Industries Association. The country’s specialized technologies could fill gaps in larger defense markets such as the United States, he said.
During the selection process, Tore Helland, senior advisor at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, said each startup’s product was evaluated based on whether it could be beneficial to both U.S. and Norwegian defense sectors.
“I think that makes the companies selected … a mixture of the personalities needed to succeed,” he said. “They have the technology that is interesting and can be used, and they now have a market that is bigger than their regional market.”
The program will largely take place at BMNT’s H4XLabs facilities, a business accelerator that works one-on-one with clients and helps them enter the U.S. market. The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and the Norwegian-American Defense and Homeland Security Industry Council will also be involved in increasing the chosen companies’ presence in the United States.
The groups will teach the companies how to find opportunities in the United States and strengthen the relationship between Norway’s industry and the U.S. economy, according to a news release.
A key element of the program will be helping startups navigate the complex Pentagon acquisition process by “attacking the bureaucracy that prevents innovation,” Newell said. The organizations want to help companies find a variety of pathways into the market, including with other transaction authority agreements, he said.
“It’s yin and yang — we’re working both sides of the fence,” Newell said. “At this end, we’re making sure they’re highly qualified candidates with [products] with problems attached to them that are worth the time. At the same time, we’re working with the government to make sure its platform is adequately built to actually be a better partner with them.” (Source: glstrade.com/National Defense)
19 Jan 22. Symphony Technology Group (STG) has announced the launch of Trellix – an offshoot of the merger between STG subsidiaries McAfee Enterprise and FireEye, announced in October 2021. The new business is set to offer extended detection and response (XDR) solutions with a focus on leveraging machine learning and automation.
By using the “living security” strategy, Trellix aims to deliver solutions that learn and adapt to protect operations from the most advanced threat actors.
“We are incredibly excited to have Trellix in the STG portfolio,” William Chisholm, managing partner of STG, said.
“Customers can expect Trellix’s living security platform to deliver bold innovation across the XDR market.”
Bryan Palma, who will serve as Trellix CEO, said the strong security foundation offered by the company would help ensure continued innovation, growth and resiliency.
“Trellix’s XDR platform protects our customers as we bring security to life with automation, machine learning, extensible architecture and threat intelligence,” Palma added.
Specifically, Trellix’s offering is expected to enable customers to ingest over 600 native and open security technologies, providing security analysts with enhanced insight, granting more control and delivering comprehensive threat context.
“The promise of XDR dramatically improves security efficacy, and the vendors that can deliver on that promise will capture market share,” Frank Dickson, program vice-president, cyber security products, IDC said.
“However, integrating context and delivering outcomes takes resources and work. It is a monumental effort made possible with the right security partner.
“With a combined product portfolio that spans endpoint, network, messaging, data protection and cloud services, Trellix has an impressive multi-technology portfolio to address the promise of XDR.”
Meanwhile, STG has confirmed McAfee Enterprise’s Secure Service Edge (SSE) portfolio would be launched as a separate business unit later this quarter, incorporating cloud access security broker (CASB), secure web gateway (SWG) and zero trust network access (ZTNA). (Source: cybersecurityconnect)
18 Jan 22. Northrop Grumman Demonstrates JADC2 Enabling Capabilities in US Army’s Project Convergence. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) programs recently completed successful testing and demonstrations as part of U.S. Army’s Project Convergence. The testing demonstrated Northrop Grumman’s architectural capability to integrate networks, sensors, and effectors across domains for joint operations. The Northrop Grumman systems involved included the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS), and the Marine Corps AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR).
“Project Convergence provided us another opportunity to demonstrate our architecture’s ability to deliver joint connectivity across the services,” said Christine Harbison, vice president and general manager, combat systems and mission readiness, Northrop Grumman. “That open architecture allows utilization of satellite communications to conduct remote engagements of target missiles, demonstrating our ability to connect the battlespace for all-domain operations.”
During live-fire exercises at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, numerous tactical ballistic missile surrogates were launched. A mix of ground, airborne, and space-based sensors sent tracking data via satellite communications to an Engagement Operations Center at Fort Bliss, Texas. There, soldier operators remotely tracked the targets and initiated the launch of missiles to engage the targets.
Also during Project Convergence, the Army conducted a series of complex network and communication exercises in which IBCS supported the execution of precision strike missions, in addition to conducting an integrated air and missile defense mission. It fused data from an F-35 sensor to identify and track a ground target and provided the data to Army Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and AFATDS engaged the target.
Project Convergence is the U.S. Army’s campaign of learning to aggressively pursue an Artificial Intelligence and machine learning-enabled battlefield management system and is the U.S. Army’s contribution to the military-wide Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2). Project Convergence 21 was an event that tested its sensor-to-sensor capabilities as a Joint Force through a series of seven scenarios.
19 Jan 22. As 5G rollout begins, Pentagon still doesn’t understand impact on military aircraft. Military flight operations over the US will largely be business as usual — even though the Pentagon won’t understand the impact 5G interference could have on military aircraft until this summer at earliest. Today, after multiple delays and months of negotiations with the airline industry, Verizon and AT&T will begin rolling out 5G nationwide, in a move the commercial aviation community says will have dire safety implications. Airline executives warned in a Jan. 18 letter that, without safeguards in place around airports and runways, the rollout could cause “catastrophic disruption” and “economic calamity.” Despite an agreement by Verizon and AT&T on late Tuesday to limit 5G services around major airports to prevent interference, some international airlines such as Emirates and Lufthansa canceled flights to the United States due to concerns about potential effects on the Boeing 777. But for a controversy that’s dominated headlines and reached the desk of the president, the Pentagon — the largest aircraft fleet owner in the world — has remained largely silent. That’s because right now, it doesn’t know how 5G will affect military aircraft.
All told, it will be at least a year and a half after the Federal Communications Commission began selling spectrum for 5G before the Defense Department weighs in on the issue, and it could take months after that for the department to come up with a plan to resolve any technical failures that occur as military pilots continue flying in areas where the 5G deployment is occurring.
The overarching problem shared by both the military and civil aviation revolves around radar altimeters, a piece of hardware used by airplanes, rotorcraft and even some drones to measure the height of an aircraft from the ground.
In the United States, 5G will reside on a neighboring portion of the C-band spectrum to radar altimeters. Some aviation experts and government officials are concerned that the resulting interference could prevent aircraft from being able to make landings in bad weather — or worse, that pilots may not truly understand an aircraft’s distance from the ground, increasing the risk of a crash.
“The DoD continues to work very closely with our FAA counterparts on this issue. All DoD Services issued bulletins to the field/fleet, making aircrews aware of the potential for interference and establishing a mechanism to report instances of interference,” said Lt. Col. Dylan McDermott, the Pentagon’s point person on this issue in his role as head of the Aviation Cyber Initiative, co-chaired with the FAA and Department of Homeland Security.
While military pilots will be advised of the potential issue, the department has not issued any NOTAMS — a “notice to air missions” that spells out hazards and or other abnormalities in the air — for any of the military bases in 5G deployment areas, McDermott said in a Jan. 18 statement to Breaking Defense.
However, NOTAMs issued by the FAA will also apply to military aircraft during operations from civil airfields, he said. Some of that guidance, published by the FAA last week, prohibits pilots at certain airports from making “instrument landings” — a landing where visibility is low due to weather or other factors, and a pilot relies on avionic systems like radar altimeters — in areas where 5G interference is a possibility.
So what does that mean for the military? It’s hard to say.
On Monday, the FAA approved two currently-in-use altimeters for low-visibility landings at 48 of the 88 airports that could be impacted by 5G interference. These two models are already installed on 45% of the commercial aviation fleet, including in aircraft such as the Boeing 737, 747, 757, 767 and MD-10/-11.
Many US military aircraft are derived from those commercial designs, and if they share the same altimeters, could essentially operate as usual from both military and civil airfields. Those aircraft include the Navy’s P-8 Poseidon, based on the Boeing 737; the E-4 Nightwatch and VC-25A — also known as Air Force One when the president is onboard — both of which are based on the Boeing 747; the C-32 executive transport plane, based on the 757; the KC-46A tanker, based on the 767, and the KC-10 tanker, based on the MD-10.
Boeing declined to comment on whether these military derivatives would also be cleared for instrument landings at commercial airports. In a statement to Breaking Defense today, US Transportation Command said that it has not yet experienced any impact to is aviation missions due to the 5G rollout, and that it “is aware of and is closely monitoring, via the FAA, the 5G rollout and its impact to aviation.”
For other military aircraft models, flying out of civil airports could get more difficult when bad weather strikes, as pilots unable to make instrument landings may be forced to land at neighboring airfields or cancel flights in order to abide by FAA guidance. While that might not be a problem for all squadrons, it could adversely affect military airfields that are collocated with civil airports, such as Portland International Airport, which is used by the Air National Guard.
It’s also unclear how the potential interference could impact aircraft that frequently are flown at low altitudes, such as helicopters or planes used by special operators like the AC-130, which could be more at risk of a crash if radar altimeters are no longer giving accurate readings to pilots.
In The Public Fight Over 5G, Pentagon Largely Absent
While the Federal Communications Commission and FAA have waged a yearlong public battle over the 5G rollout, the Defense Department has played mostly a silent, tertiary role as officials attempt to better understand the issue while remaining behind the scenes.
RTCA, a trade organization that works with the FAA on safety standards, published a Oct. 2020 report raising concerns about the potential for 5G interference to radar altimeters, “including the possibility of catastrophic failures leading to multiple fatalities, in the absence of appropriate mitigations.” However, that report only measured the impact of 5G on commercial altimeters.
In January 2021 — a month after the FCC had begun auctioning C-band spectrum in the 3.7–3.98 GHz frequency for 5G — Pentagon officials told Defense News that the department would not try to slow down 5G deployment. Instead, officials hoped to conduct their own testing of military radar altimeters before laying out a plan to mitigate any risks.
This stance did not change as President Joe Biden took office. The Biden administration has remained broadly supportive of the 5G rollout while commending efforts to address concerns from aviation authorities.
In a Jan. 18 statement issued after Verizon and AT&T agreed to delay the 5G rollout around airports, Biden said the move “protects flight safety and allows aviation operations to continue without significant disruption and will bring more high-speed internet options to ms of Americans. Expanding 5G and promoting competition in internet service are critical priorities of mine, and tomorrow will be a massive step in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, the Defense Department has made quiet progress in its efforts to better understand how military aircraft could be impacted. In April 2021, the Pentagon, FAA and DHS funded their own evaluation centered around military aircraft: the Joint Interagency 5G Radar Altimeter Interference Quick Reaction Test.
“What we were chartered to achieve was to provide validated 5G test methodologies,” said McDermott in a Jan. 13 interview. “Our intent with that is to support some follow-on testing [and get] some insight into possible mitigations and standards.”
The test involves a two-step approach. First, the department is working with the nonprofit MITRE Corp to create methodologies and 5G waveforms that can then be used to conduct bench tests of altimeters.
“We have a number of radar altimeters that are already on the bench,” said McDermott, who added that the hope is to test enough altimeter models to cover at least 80% of aircraft used by the US military.
Then, military aircraft — as well as commercial aircraft used by the Civil Reserve Air Fleet — will go through live tests at Hill Air Force Base in Utah or Majors Airport in Texas. During those flights, aircraft and helicopters will conduct instrument approaches and low level approaches in the presence of a 5G tower to see whether the 5G signals trigger interference. (McDermott could not immediately specify which telecom providers would be partnering with the department for tests.)
The team hopes to have all testing and analysis done by the end of the summer, he said.
“Through the course of our trials, you know, we’ll get a pretty good sample of what individual radar altimeters will or will not do in the presence of 5G,” he said.
However, when asked whether the conclusion of the study would give the department the information it needed to mitigate any interference or technical problems found during testing, McDermott acknowledged that recommending an action plan is not one of the objectives of the test team.
That means it could take even longer for the Pentagon to assess whether existing altimeters need to be modified or replaced by new models and to determine the total cost to the department.
“At the end of this, will there be additional work?” McDermott said. “Yes.”
Honeywell, one of the two major domestic producers of altimeters and an early participant in Pentagon discussions, said in a statement that the company is closely following the issue.
“If needed, we’re ready to verify compatibility of our equipment with any new requirements and we have been working with the FAA, Department of Defense and aircraft manufacturers to conduct testing of our systems in the 5G spectrum,” Honeywell spokesman Adam Kress said, adding that the company has yet to receive additional requirements for their altimeters from the FAA or aircraft manufacturers.
Collins Aerospace, the other main supplier, declined to comment for this article. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
18 Jan 22. Arqit partners with AUCloud to deploy Australia’s first sovereign quantum encryption service. Arqit to help deliver critical cybersecurity capabilities in collaboration with AUCloud, Australia’s leading sovereign cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider. Arqit Quantum Inc (“Arqit”), a global leader in quantum encryption technology, welcomes Sovereign Cloud Australia Pty Ltd (“AUCloud”) as the latest local service provider to join the Federated Quantum System for deployment in Australia in partnership with the Australian Government. AUCloud is a highly respected Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider selling high security sovereign cloud services to the Australian Government, Defence, Intelligence, and Critical National Industry (CNI) communities. NextDC, Australia’s largest data centre operator is a key strategic investor in AUCloud. Arqit’s Federated Quantum System allows allied governments to have sovereign control of a private instance of Arqit’s technology, interoperable with the system of other participating allies. The main end user is government, but a local service provider is always required and Arqit is delighted that AUCloud will play this role and undertake support for Arqit in Australia. The emerging nexus around AUKUS – the Australian, UK and US alliance for joint defence investment and innovation – is creating an impetus around cyber security, quantum, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This has catalysed the joint development of an Australia-wide network of Sovereign Quantum Edge Cloud Services.
By addressing urgent threats to existing cybersecurity infrastructure and creating the foundations for critical future capabilities, Arqit’s partnership with AUCloud will deliver an immediate capability to Australian customers in the Defence, Government, Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and Enterprise sectors, including Financial Services.
The relationship will also provide further opportunities for Australian industrial participation in space, cyber and quantum technologies.
This agreement reinforces activities around the UK-Australia Space Bridge agreement (signed between UK and Australia in 2021) where Arqit has been awarded a contract to prepare for Australian participation in Arqit’s Federated Quantum System (FQS) programme alongside UK and Canada. The work includes defining technical contributions to the mission, industrial supply chain and preparation for deployment of Arqit’s QuantumCloud™ technology, which delivers full independence to the customer as well as interoperability with the systems of other allied partners.
Phil Dawson, Managing Director and Co-Founder of AUCloud, said: “We are excited to build upon AUCloud’s sovereign cloud focus and collaborate with Arqit to launch this pioneering sovereign quantum edge cloud service, as Australia continues to reinforce its technical contributions to the space, cyber and quantum technology mission.”
Arqit Founder, Chairman and CEO, David Williams, added: “We are delighted to support the Australian, UK and US alliance for joint defence investment and innovation. The world needs stronger, simpler encryption, and it is important that allied countries work together to share the benefit of Arqit’s globally unique, transformational quantum safe encryption. We look forward to deepening our partnership with Australian industry in this effort.”
13 Jan 22. Indra awarded MP C16 contract to equip Eurofighter maintenance with AI (Artificial Intelligence) to enhance operational availability. Indra, a leading global technology and consulting company, has been awarded the R&D contract ‘MP C16: Use of a System based in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Techniques for the Predictive Maintenance of the avionic systems of the C.16 Eurofighter’, funded by the Spanish Directorate-General for Armament and Material, at the proposal of the Air Force. The company will develop a new artificial intelligence system that will provide this aircraft with the ability to self-diagnose the status of around twenty critical avionics systems, thus enhancing flight safety and superiority of one of the most advanced fighter aircraft on the planet.
Indra makes strides with this Defence Systems digitalisation project that will mark the future for the sector. The adoption of technologies such as the combat cloud, hyper-connectivity, virtual reality and artificial intelligence will be decisive for any army to maintain its operational capacity in the coming years.
Developing this solution in the framework of the Connected, Sustainable, and Intelligent Air Base project (BACSI) of the Spanish Air Force to improve the maintenance of the Eurofighter opens up a new avenue for preparing this advanced fighter for the use of cutting-edge technology, such as AI. It also does so in the context of Sustainment 4.0, an area that is serving as a testing ground for many of these digital technologies before they are put into service in critical systems in the field.
The solution will allow early detection of the possible failure in different critical systems and will check that the aircraft is in perfect condition before each take-off. This intelligent maintenance system not only improves safety, but is also cost-saving, extends each platform’s service life and ensures maximum fleet availability.
Indra’s expert system will analyse the huge volumes of data collected by the Eurofighter’s systems and process it to look for any anomalous behaviour. It will also record the exact environmental conditions in which it was produced in order to classify the data and train the system, thus progressively increasing its accuracy. Indra will also study the possibility of installing additional sensors on the aircraft to enhance the system’s capabilities.
This project is aligned with the plans of the Spanish Armed Forces and Air Force to advance their digital transformation and prepare to face new threats. The development of this system is possible thanks to Indra’s cooperation with personnel from the Ministry of Defence and its bases as well as the data collected over the years by the Spanish Air Force and company personnel.
Deployment of this AI solution will represent a new, previously unexplored milestone in aircraft maintenance in Spain. It also represents an advance in the application of the Sustainment 4.0 concept that Indra is working on, which proposes the introduction of the most cutting-edge technologies to comprehensively manage the maintenance and logistics of armies with an extremely precise degree of control. Their incorporation will allow for much more agile armed forces, with greater deployment capacity and effectiveness against the most technologically advanced adversaries.
Indra’s Artificial Intelligence system will also contribute to the development of the Sustainable and Intelligent Connected Air Base (BACSI in its Spanish acronym) that the Air Force is promoting. A model that is committed to more operative, efficient and sustainable bases thanks to the technological and digital revolution. (Source: www.joint-forces.com)
14 Jan 22. Following procurement cut, the Army is looking to add funding back in 2022 for aerial jamming pod. After zeroing out procurement for the Army’s first brigade aerial jamming pod for Fiscal Year 2022, the service’s electronic warfare community is trying to add funding back in the next budget cycle.
In the Army’s most recent budget, it eliminated its plan to spend $12m to purchase the Multifunction Electronic Warfare-Air Large system, an electronic attack pod also capable of cyber effects mounted to a MQ-1C Gray Eagle. It was designed to be the first brigade-organic airborne electronic attack asset.
Despite cutting procurement, the Army did ask for $12 m in Fiscal 2022 for research and development funds for the pod.
“We have proposed a course of action for consideration to Army senior leaders to add a limited amount of procurement back to the line. That’s pending,” Col. Daniel Holland, capability manager for electronic warfare, said during a virtual presentation hosted by AFCEA’s Northern Virginia chapter Jan. 13.
Holland said they are updating the capability development document for MFEW to “tighten up some key performance parameters for multidomain operations against near peer threats.”
Following the zeroing out for procurement dollars, the Army’s top acquisition official for the EW portfolio described a “prove it” phase for MFEW.
“We’ve got to show that the MFEW capability can operate in a robust environment and potentially on platforms, not just the Gray Eagle, but looking at diversified platform set … and looking for how MFEW will operate before we make a commitment on how we’ll necessarily go after a capability like MFEW in the future,” said Mark Kitz, program executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors. “I think over the next year the Army is going to get some data and learn how this MFEW capability will enable how we want to operate in the future, and I think that data will then inform how we go forward with an MFEW-like capability.”
While acknowledging challenges in the budgeting cycle, Holland believes the Army is on “solid footing” for a developmental test and a limited user test in 2022, for which the updated document will be necessary to inform.
“We think that the [capability development document] update includes feedback from the operational force, particularly the division, which is particularly important as the Army pivots from a [brigade combat team]-centric Army to a division-centric Army, since MFEW is intended to be fielded to division combat aviation brigades, the detailed performance improvements that we’re going to specify in the [capability development document] update are particularly relevant for this pivot,” he said. “I’ll say that we’re constantly looking to pace the threat and the [capability development document] does just that.”
Despite the challenges, Holland said the Army’s electronic warfare community believes MFEW is an important component of the service’s portfolio. In fact, other service officials have noted that MFEW is an integral part of the Army’s family of electronic warfare systems.
“All of our capabilities … when used in tandem — [Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team], [Terrestrial Layer System-Echelons Above Brigade], MFEW Air Large — are all integrated to provide that EW and those cyber effects,” said Deputy Project Manager for Electronic Warfare and Cyber Willie Utroska in August. (Source: Defense News)
13 Jan 22. US Army tactical network modernization has ‘significant’ momentum going into 2022: Official. “The future network must be high-speed, it must be high-capacity, it must be multi-path, and ubiquitous to the user,” said Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of the Army’s Network Cross-Functional Team. The US Army’s tactical network team has a “significant amount of momentum” going into the new year as it plans to develop and field new network tools to soldiers, a senior Army network official said today.
By the end of fiscal 2022, the Army tactical network team plans to have tools from its Capability Set ’21 in action with eight brigade combat teams and six expeditionary signal battalions-enhanced, and to have provided capabilities to two Multi-Domain Task Force units, according to Maj. Gen. Rob Collins, director of Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical.
The Army’s network upgrade initiatives are part of the service’s larger multi-bn-dollar modernization push to build a force ready to confront near-peer threats, including sorting out a plethora of digital problems.
“The future network must be high-speed, it must be high-capacity, it must be multi-path and ubiquitous to the user,” said Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of the Army’s Network Cross-Functional Team, who spoke on a panel with Collins at the AFCEA Northern Virginia Army IT Day.
The Army is modernizing its network through iterations of new network tools delivered to units every two years and is currently working through three sets at once. Capability Set ’21 focused on immediate gaps in the Army’s network for infantry units. Capability Set ’23 is designed for Stryker brigades, and Capability Set ’25 centers on armored formations.
Capability Set ’23 is just a few months away from its Critical Design Review in April, a key acquisition milestone where the service will make final network design decisions before production and fielding to soldiers starting in FY23.
After Preliminary Design Review in April last year, the modernization team worked with the Stryker brigades with the Europe-based 2nd Calvary Regiment to inform design decisions. The service is just about to start another technical test this month, and Collins said network modernization leadership is “very comfortable” with the current work.
“As we head into our technical test … we’re experimenting with increased throughputs and satellite connectivity,” Collins said. “We are furthering our experimentation, data fabric with cloud, we are furthering our experimentation with some of our intelligence and electronic warfare partners.”
Meanwhile, the Army will start a pilot program with the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., later this month to learn more about the network needs of its armored brigades. That pilot program, previewed by Breaking Defense last year, will test both mature and immature technologies, and collect data on armored on-the-move communications needs to inform Capability Set ’25.
“The armored formations offer some unique environments that they operate in. [They are] very space-, weight- and power-constrained platforms,” Collins said.
Both generals highlighted the importance of continuing the Army’s work on developing a data fabric in 2022 to enable Joint All-Domain Command and Control, citing networking experiments at Project Convergence in October 2021. A data fabric will help link disparate platforms together and will allow those systems to pass important warfighting data, but Rey said that there likely won’t be a single fabric.
“industry partners are probably thinking that we’re … laser-focused in on a particular data fabric, but we’re not,” Rey said. “I believe there are going to be multiple different types of data fabric. We need those data fabrics to be… open-sourced, where they can actually collaborate with one another.” (Source: glstrade.com/Breaking Defense.com)
14 Jan 22. UK to upgrade communications on Cyprus military base. The U.K. will build a new communications facility on one of two bases it maintains on the Eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, a British Defence Ministry spokesman said Friday.
The spokesman told The Associated Press that the purpose of the “small-scale infrastructure project” is to “modernize communications infrastructure and increase our resilience.”
The spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, gave no further details. The facility will be built at a disused site at Dhekelia Garrison on Cyprus’ southeastern corner.
The U.K. retained the bases when Cyprus gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960.
The bases incorporate a large airfield at RAF Akrotiri and an important electronic intelligence gathering station at Ayios Nicolaos situated around 175 kilometers (109 miles) from Syria’s Mediterranean coastline.
Notably, Britain has projected its military strength in the region since it exited the European Union on Feb. 1, 2020, with large naval deployments, such as its newest aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, from which cutting-edge F-35 jets operate.
British military aircraft have also flown from RAF Akrotiri to assist in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
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