Sponsored by Spectra Group
https://tacs.at/Spectra
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17 Jan 19. Spectra Group’s SlingShot selected to participate in US Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiments (AEWE 2019). Spectra Group is an internationally renowned specialist provider of secure voice, data and satellite communications systems, specifically optimized for use in remote and challenging environments, with offices in UK and USA. Following recent contract successes in the US, particularly with their battle-winning SlingShot tactical communications system, Spectra Group (US) Inc has been selected by the US DoD to take part in the 2019 Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiments (AEWE 2019) at Fort Benning. The Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE) is the US Army’s premier venue for small unit modernization, providing capability developers, the Science and Technology (S&T) community, and industry with a repeatable, credible, rigorous, and validated operational experiment, supporting both concept and material development. The AEWE is an annual campaign of experimentation to place cutting edge prototype technologies into the hands of Soldiers to solve small unit tactical problems. The Manoeuvre Battle Lab, as part of the Army Futures Command (AFC), executes AEWE to accelerate near and midterm Army modernization and provide bottom up input to capability development, by providing early and iterative feedback on prototypes in a tactical setting. AEWE is the “first step” of a larger Army and Joint Experimentation enterprise. Being demonstrated at AEWE, Spectra’s SlingShot adds voice and data BLOS COTM (Beyond Line of Sight Communications On The Move) to in-service tactical VHF and UHF radios. In addition to standard voice and data C2, it can enable capabilities such as remote biometric analysis, fire mission planning, tracking and inter-agency operations. Man-portable, vehicle, maritime or aviation-borne, useable on the move, delivering flexible channel leasing and with minimal increase in training-burden, SlingShot redefines tactical communication capabilities.
Simon Davies, President of Spectra Group said: “It’s an important and prestigious step for Spectra Group to be selected to take part in the US AEWE 2019. Our SlingShot system is already in service with the world’s premier specialist forces and it has been battle-proven on multiple occasions”. He added: “I am confident that AEWE will provide an excellent opportunity to show case SlingShot’s unique, widespread, operational capability which is attracting increasing attention from the Security Force Assistance Brigades, Brigade Combat Teams, FORSCOM, and indeed USMC and NG”.
16 Jan 19. The US Army wants drones that make their own networks. Eventually, the Shadow will come to pass. The Army is looking for replacements to the venerable drone, first flown in 1991, through its Future Tactical UAS program. In the nearly three decades since, every aspect of drone technology has seen some improvement, including materials used, sensors to communication hardware and software, and even the batteries that power those computers and sensors. The Army has also seen the limitations of what it can and cannot do with a drone that has to either operate from a runway or be launched from a rail and caught on a hook. Into this mix of requirements and new possibility flies the Resolute Eagle, made by PAE ISR, complete with an ad hoc network system from Persistent Systems.
The Army is looking at a range of drones for possible Shadow replacement, and the Resolute Eagle will have to compete with designs as varied as Insitu’s ScanEagle and Integrator, Martin UAV’s V-Bat, Endeavor Robotics’ Firstlook and SUGV, QinetiQ’s Talon and Dragon Runner. This is a somewhat crowded field, and to compete in it Resolute Eagle has a VTOL model, which essentially grafts booms with rotors to the drone’s wings, allowing it to take off and land like a quadcopter. The VTOL configuration is listed as having 12 hours of endurance, compared to 18 hours for the purely fixed-wing version, and the booms are detachable, giving some flexibility when forward deployed.
“Our reconfigurable platform (from fixed wing to VTOL), large payload capacity, and reduced ground support equipment requirements offers significant mission flexibility, both as a Shadow replacement for BCT expeditionary forces and as a complement to the existing platforms currently in use for military and civilian uses,” said Beth Beach, vice president of business development at PAE ISR.
Besides military customers, PAE ISR is targeting the Resolute Eagle at a broad range of law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, humanitarian and commercial missions, according to Beach. Its ISR abilities could be used for pipeline and railway inspection, as well as evaluating the area after a natural disaster and looking for people in search and rescue. Key to this is an ability to operate beyond line of sight through satellite communications.
Relying on satellites is a safe bet for civilian applications going forward, but across the Pentagon people are looking for other ways to retain or set up communications networks on the battlefield in the event that the satellite communication becomes untenable. One way to ensure communication via drones is equipping the drones with tools for an ad hoc network. For the Resolute Eagle, that comes in the form of Persistent Systems’ MPU5 Wave Relay mobile ad hoc networking (MANET).
“The beauty of the MANET is that it can be setup and deployed with ease,” said Robert Regan, sales engineer at Persistent Systems. “Users can leave and enter the network seamlessly due to its self-healing and self-forming nature. When dealing with RF it is important to remember that every use case is different. So when dealing with distances there are lots of variables that can affect distance: RF environment, terrain, frequency band selected and antenna selection, just to name a few. With our auto-tracking antenna system we have reached out to UAV’s at 130 miles.”
This MANET is platform agnostic, and could operate not just from Resolute Eagle drones, but from multiple drones, ground robots, and in systems carried by people on foot. To keep the communication secure, MPU5 radio operates with AES 256-bit Suite B encryption, ensuring that only those with the right decryption tools (or the proper key) can access it.
As the Army looks for its Shadow replacement, the capabilities on offer are what’s most compelling, since they suggest the full range of possibility for a new mid-sized tactical drone. Crossing over from offering to contract is a not insignificant task, and in November 2018 US Naval Air System Command awarded PAE ISR a $173bn contract for ISR services by Resolute Eagle. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
16 Jan 19. 3 ways China’s military could use cyber in war. A new report from the Defense Intelligence Agency provides insights in to how the Chinese military might deploy cyber capabilities in a future conflict. The report, which provides an overview of China’s entire military, notes the People’s Liberation Army could use cyber capabilities to support military operations in three critical ways:
– Relying on cyber reconnaissance to better plan cyber attacks,
– Establishing information dominance in the early stages of a conflict to constrain an adversary’s actions or slow information warfare activities,
– Expecting that cyber will act as a force multiplier when coupled with conventional capabilities during a conflict.
The report also notes that China’s cyber capabilities could also focus on targeting links and nodes in an adversary’s mobility system.
In 2015, China reorganized and consolidated all of its information-related capabilities – think: cyber, space, electronic warfare, command and control and information operations – under a single entity called the Strategic Support Force centralizing them for overall better command and control.
DIA’s report, as well as other DoD reports on China’s military, note that the SSF marked the first steps in the development of a cyber force – similar to U.S. Cyber Command – by combining cyber reconnaissance, cyberattack and cyber defense capabilities into one organization. This move could help reduce bureaucratic hurdles and centralizing command and control.
A senior defense official, speaking to reporters, cautioned that it is difficult to determine how effective the Chinese military’s cyberattack capabilities could be.
Cyber espionage
The senior defense official also noted that DIA’s assessment focused on how the Chinese would intend to use cyber capabilities in wartime and how that would be different from the Chinese military using cyber for corporate espionage or the theft of intellectual property.
China’s use of cyber to penetrate companies around the world and steal trade secrets for the benefit of Chinese companies has drawn the ire of many nations. The U.S. government has indicted several Chinese, including members of the PLA, for their actions on this front since 2014.
Many cyber experts believe China’s activity has violated international norms. In 2015, then-U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an agreement not to hack each other for the purpose of corporate espionage.
Several cyber threat intelligence organizations have found that the verbal agreement largely worked citing a decline in Chinese activity. However, many of these same firms now suggest that the Chinese has bolstered their activity in this area following the end of Obama’s term.
The report notes that the PLA does play a role in these cyber thefts. However, the report also states China maintains its government and military does not engage in cyber espionage. (Source: Fifth Domain)
16 Jan 19. New Tactical Data Link System Link-M. The Turkish software technology company MilSOFT made their indigenously developed tactical data link system (Link-M) public. According to the company, this new link system followed the footsteps of NATO’s Link 22. The company sources assert that Link M will be capable of working on V/UHF and HF radios. Interoperability with other NATO data links is possible with data forwarding capabilities of the company. CMMI 5 holder MilSOFT, has been the producer of data link processors of all NATO Tactical Data Link systems. MilSOFT has also operationally proven its Link handling technology on many platforms with Link 11/ 16/22 data forwarding capability. Link M will be able to work with customer selected COTS radios, modems and crypto systems, which eliminates the restrictions put by some countries / organizations. MilSOFT business development team will, understandably, seek non-NATO countries for the high standard data link capacity pursuer, in order to get return of their long time invest-ment. Being also a manufacturer of open architecture combat management systems (CMS) , MilSOFT can inter-connect Link-M with latest technology CMSs. If a country has chosen to work with legacy CMSs, then a gateway system can also be provided to the customer in order to provide interoperability. (Source: ESD Spotlight)
15 Jan 19. Japan to develop electronic warfare aircraft. The Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) is looking to develop electronic warfare (EW) aircraft capable of jamming enemy radar and communications at stand-off range. An MoD spokesperson told Jane’s on 15 January that the move is based on Japan’s new Mid-Term Defense Plan (MTDP) for the next five years, which states that the MoD and the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) are to “swiftly promote the research and development of stand-off electronic warfare aircraft, high-power electronic warfare equipment, high-power microwave devices as well as electromagnetic pulses (EMPs)”.
Moreover, Japan’s National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPGs), which were also approved by the Japanese Cabinet in December 2018, emphasise the need to reinforce the country’s capabilities to “neutralise radar, communications, and other means of counterparts intending to invade [Japan]”. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
14 Jan 19. Smiths Detection Wins New Contract with DHS Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office. Smiths Detection has been awarded an indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office (CWMD) to provide radiation portal monitors (RPM). The RPM is a passive checkpoint which can detect potentially dangerous radiation emitting material which passes through its detection zone. The portal is capable of scanning trucks, vehicles, containers, packages and people.
Shan Hood, President of Smiths Detection Inc., said: “Smiths Detection’s extensive experience with radiation detection and checkpoint solutions, as well as our research & development investment in data solutions, makes cutting-edge screening technology a reality. Solutions, like the RPM and our ability to deliver 24/7/365 service sets Smiths Detection’s solutions apart for their efficiency and effectiveness. We are ready to help DHS and the CWMD office protect the United States for years to come.”
SDI is partnered with subcontractors, Radiation Solutions, Inc. (RSI) and Silverside Detectors Inc. to utilize gamma and neutron detection technology respectively. Jens Hovgaard, President, RSI, said, “We are thrilled to be moving into this phase of the program and look forward to working closely with Smiths Detection, CBP, and CWMD to support and enhance the RPM replacement program.” “Silverside is committed to providing best-in-class neutron detection for protecting the United States, and commends Smiths Detection and RSI for their commitment to technical and mission excellence,” said Andrew Inglis, CEO & Founder, Silverside Detectors Inc.
The IDIQ contract with CWMD has a $291m ceiling, allows for multiple orders of SDI products and services under a single contract, and provides flexibility for the customer in follow-on order decisions. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
14 Jan 19. US Marine Corps Awards Harris Corporation $75m Order to Provide MUOS SATCOM Upgrade for Tactical Radios.
Highlights:
- Upgrades AN/PRC-117G software to include MUOS capabilities
- Supports Marines’ increasing demand for more capable satellite communications
- Leverages currently fielded radios to provide an affordable option for increased capability
The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) has awarded Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) a $75m order to provide MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) narrowband satellite communication upgrades to the service’s Falcon III® AN/PRC-117G manpack radio fleet. The order is part of the Navy Portable Radio Program five-year IDIQ contract received in 2017.
Harris has continued to invest in the development and deployment of MUOS and other advanced waveforms to add capability to the widely deployed AN/PRC-117G family of radios, as well as its next generation of tactical radios.
As a software defined radio, the AN/PRC-117G was developed to be easily upgradable with new waveforms such as MUOS, enabling customers to increase capabilities economically.
The MUOS software upgrade will allow Marines to access the new, advanced MUOS satellite constellation that provides next-generation satellite communications, enabling them to talk and more easily share data anywhere in the world.
The AN/PRC-117G MUOS software upgrade will also provide the Marines with a greater number of SATCOM users, enhanced voice and data communication, and robustness in disadvantaged environments where they operate, such as urban and high/low latitude locations.
“This well-earned order for Harris Corp. to upgrade the Marine Corps’ radios will boost the Rochester-Finger Lakes economy, in addition to ensuring that our Marines have the most modern and effective radios possible. Harris has proven countless times over that it produces superior technology for the U.S. military, and this order further confirms it,” said Senator Chuck Schumer. “I was proud to secure funding for these MUOS upgrades in the 2019 Defense Appropriations bill to give Harris a chance to compete for this order, and will always fight for investments that both protect our troops and provide a shot in the arm to the Rochester-Finger Lakes economy.”
“Adding this capability to the 117G will enable the Marines to leverage the proven radios they have already deployed, fought and trained with to access the advanced capabilities and capacity of the MUOS satellites with a simple software upgrade,” said Dana Mehnert, president, Harris Communication Systems. “The MUOS upgrade also will enable interoperability with other U.S. DOD and allied users who deploy this advanced capability in the future.”
In addition to the MUOS upgrades, Harris will deliver ancillary devices for the AN/PRC-117G radios currently fielded by the USMC. These include antennas, which enable the Harris radios to support SATCOM-on-the-move while connected to the MUOS satellites.
11 Jan 19. University to Open Cyber Lab in Central Florida. The University of Central Florida is establishing a new cyber center with financial and mentoring support from Lockheed Martin, the organizations announced in December. The facility — known as the cyber innovation lab — is poised to open in February, said Michael Georgiopoulos, dean at the college of engineering and computer science at UCF. Lockheed has pledged to donate $1.5m toward the effort.
“We have [had] a tremendous partnership with Lockheed Martin over the last 50 years and we hope that this gift for the cyber innovation lab at our university will be the beginning of another future relationship,” Georgiopoulos said during remarks at the National Training and Simulation Association’s annual Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference in Orlando, Florida.
The center — which will be located on the school’s main campus in Orlando — will be particularly useful for the university’s Hack@UCF club, where participating students hone their offensive and defensive cybersecurity skills, he said in an interview. The club has won a number of national accolades, he added.
Tom Warner, director of Lockheed Martin’s cyber defense, range and resilience organization, said: “The investment in UCF is an investment in the future of the students, of the city of Orlando and also the global cyber community.”
Lockheed’s cyber business has grown by 400 percent over the past five years, Warner noted. That is creating a workforce issue, challenging the company’s ability to fill its cyber talent pipeline, he said.
The company has a duty to partner with academia “to make sure we provide the resources to inspire and prepare our youth for jobs in this very exciting and challenging career,” he said.
UCF in particular has served as a “feeder school” for Lockheed in the past, Warner said. Besides funneling in promising talent, academia brings a lot to the table when it comes to cyber innovation, he said.
“The research and perspective that they bring in that partnership is really what helps us … get ahead of the curve in terms of new technologies that are coming, new techniques as it relates to what to do for network defense or offensive cyber,” Warner said. (Source: glstrade.com/NDIA)
10 Jan 19. Algorithmic Warfare: 5G Wireless Network Could Revolutionize AI. Wireless network carriers have been spreading the news far and wide: 5G is coming. And when the next generation of cellular mobile communications arrives, they promise, so will more bandwidth to pipe in data to devices at lightning-fast speeds. While 5G — which is slated to be introduced in 2020 — is creating buzz in the commercial sector, it will also have defense applications, particularly as it relates to the development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems that have to crunch through vast amounts of data. Five-G, when combined with the multitude of sensors that make up the internet of things, will give users the ability “to collect real-time data that allows AI to do real-time analytics,” said Mei Zhou, a business development executive with Dell EMC. Users will be able to not just employ historical information to make decisions, but to combine it with real-time data for a more holistic view, she said.
Dell EMC is working closely with network equipment manufacturers and carriers to help prepare for 5G, she noted during a panel discussion at the National Training and Simulation Association’s annual Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference in Orlando, Florida. The panel was organized by Women In Defense’s Central Florida chapter.
While there are challenges, establishing 5G connectivity is key to moving forward, she added.
“It’s a really critical piece that is building the underlying … communication infrastructure where AI will be layered on top,” she said. “Without this networking infrastructure, you’re not going to be able to move the … [data from] the edge into the different networking infrastructures to be able to make predictions and make analytics.”
That kind of capability is not only a “must have” for the military, but for the commercial sector, she added.
Yasir Saleem, a senior consultant at Adobe, said getting to those real-time decisions is key. A next-generation communication network would allow AI systems to “look at real-time events that are happening, the decisions that are being made, what’s coming up, what’s happened in the past and really put all that data together.”
Verizon Wireless has said that in its 5G trials, it achieved download speeds that were 30 to 50 times faster than with 4G. Additionally, latency could drop from the current 15 to 60 milliseconds to just 1 millisecond or less with 5G, making lag times nearly impossible to detect.
Lindsey R. Sheppard, an associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ international security program, noted that while the military has its own communication networks that are separate from the commercial lines that will be upgraded with 5G capabilities, it will still reap benefits.
“There will be commonality, lessons learned, technology transfer between the commercial equipment, the commercial infrastructure, that can be then used in defense systems,” she said in an interview. “If you can leverage the commercially developed equipment, the commercially developed standards and the commercial form factors, then … you can get that benefit of” 5G networks.
Five-G comes with two major improvements over legacy capabilities, she noted. The first includes a higher bandwidth that allows for more data to be transferred between platforms or from a platform to a network. The second is lower latency.
Latency is the time delay of processing the data across the network, she said. “Lower latency means that you’re getting nearer to real-time.”
The combination of those two factors means information can be consumed and digested faster, Sheppard said. That, along with an increased availability of data, more access to computing power and a push for electronics miniaturization, will be significant for artificial intelligence systems and machine learning in particular, she said.
“Five-G fits in with that confluence of factors that allow artificial intelligence to work in ways that it hadn’t before,” she said. “It opens up this additional space where we can start thinking about how can we do things differently.”
AI capabilities powered by 5G networks could help military operators fly swarms of unmanned aircraft, Sheppard said. “That high bandwidth, low latency network allows for … algorithmic alignment during operations,” she said.
It could also aid autonomous truck convoys where one manned vehicle is followed by a number of unmanned platforms, she noted.
“That careful coordination between the leader and the followers require that network connectivity,” she said. Upgrading systems to a 5G connection would allow for increased and faster data transfer, making the process more efficient.
Five-G will be a boon for fields associated with the electromagnetic spectrum, such as electronic warfare, signals intelligence and communication intelligence, she said.
“All of these fields, I think, are getting some much-deserved attention as 5G [comes online and opens] … up this new space for them,” Sheppard said.
Five-G can help with spectrum management, she said. “Essentially what you’re doing is using artificial intelligence to coordinate and … optimize the way that all of the devices on the network utilize the available spectrum.”
However, there are still a number of issues to resolve before the potential of 5G can be fully realized, she said.
“We have an engineering challenge,” she said. “How do we leverage this new availability of data, this new access to computing power, this network that supports a transfer of a lot more data, a lot quicker?” she asked.
Additionally, developers still need to tackle how to ensure that AI systems are being fed quality data, she said. Labs must create better processes to verify and validate data, models and outcomes. (Source: glstrade.com/NDIA)
10 Jan 19. The US Army reduced the cost of its tactical modems by 80 percent. The US Army is rolling out a new tactical modem, a device that connect troops in the field to commanders for communicating orders and instructions. The new modem supports communication in the Precision Fires-Dismounted system and Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System. To develop the latest iteration, which replaces a 19-year-old system, the Army went in house. It now owns all the intellectual property, the source code and the technical data, in a move that planners say will make the new Ultralink modem cheaper and more readily available.
“We make the cables, we make the cases, we make the boards. So now we can do repairs, we can buy just the components and do replacements as needed, which makes it an order of magnitude cheaper,” said Ben Foresta, Branch Chief, Unified Laboratory for Tactical Radios-Army (ULTRA), U.S. Army.
The modem takes digital data coming out of a forward observer device and converts it to a radio-friendly signal. The digitalization ensures calls for fire are transmitted accurately and speedily. But the older model has struggled in recent years over issues of cost and availability, said Lt. Col. Chris Anderson, product manager for Fire Support Command and Control (Product Manager FSC2), Project Manager Mission Command (PM MC).
The Army has relied on a single vendor since the 1990s and now pays about $5,500 per modem. The supply chain hasn’t kept pace with demand and it can take up to a year for the Army to get a new modem, should it need to replace one of the currently fielded units, Anderson said.
“The components were essentially obsolete. There’s no stockpile, they build them on demand, and they haven’t re-architected the hardware for some time. You can’t buy the components off the shelf, you have to have it built for it you, which drives up the overall cost and the time it takes to produce it,” Foresta said.
“We wanted a government-owned solution that would give us more flexibility and that we could improve over time, so we wouldn’t run into these issues again,” Anderson said.
Precision Fires-Dismounted (PF-D) provides forward observers with digital maps to send precision target coordinates and is hosted as an application on the Nett Warrior Android-enabled smartphone. The Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) delivers automated support for planning and executing fires.
PM Mission Command partnered with Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) to develop the new modem. Representatives from the two groups began engineering discovery work in late 2017, and by July 2018 had prototypes ready for developmental operations with 2-77 Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado. Then, CERDEC engineers crafted new hardware components at the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, located on Aberdeen Proving Ground. From initial computer-modeled designs, they leveraged 3-D printing to develop the initial prototype.
ULTRA’s subject matter experts sought to maintain the features of the legacy system, while creating a solution that would offer interoperability between existing and emerging technologies.
“As we field new units with new equipment, they will get an Ultralink, while others will get them as their old units break. In the meantime, it’s going to be a heterogeneous fielding, so we needed to be sure that everyone could interoperate,” Foresta said.
The Army is shipping out the new modem to initial users, and should deploy the technology to all 2,200 forward observers by the end of fiscal year 2020. The cost per unit has dropped to about $1,000 and should go even lower once mass production ramps up, Anderson said.
In-house development may not be the answer to every supply-chain problem the military encounters. In this case, though, the ability to re-engineer a well-understood piece of technology and update it for current users should deliver tangible battlefield benefits.
“It will give them a steady source of supply for a widget that they use every day,” Anderson said. “That alone makes their lives easier. And from a program management perspective, if we can reduce costs by 80 percent or more, that’s pretty powerful.”
10 Jan 19. DoD ramps up development of a ‘cyber factory.’ A weapons systems program needed for Department of Defense cyberwarriors is ramping up following the first major contract award in October. Northrop Grumman was awarded a $54m system coordinator contract for the Unified Platform, one of U.S. Cyber Command’s largest and most critical national security programs to date. Officials have said the program will integrate capabilities necessary to conduct operations, delivered on an ongoing basis through a “cyber factory.” With the system coordinator contract awarded, the program is quickly ramping up production capability, explained the Air Force, working as the executive agent for the program, in response to written questions.
“In line with congressional direction, we are integrating and rationalizing current capabilities and assessing how best to meet current and emerging war fighter needs with next-generation capabilities,” the Air Force said.
The main work will take place in San Antonio, Texas, under the Unified Platform project management office, part of the Cryptologic and Cyber Systems Division under the Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence & Networks Directorate of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
The Air Force said it will be using a variety of vendors with “discrete task-based efforts,” as well as a range of contracting vehicles, to keep up with emerging cyberwarrior needs.
“By using a broad, available and vetted talent pool through a mix of [contracting] vehicles … Unified Platform will benefit from the best and the brightest,” the service said.
Currently, cyberwarriors are using a variety of different and disparate systems developed by each of the services over the years. Now with a unified cyber force under a single joint four-star command, these systems need to be consolidated to help with command-and-control and mission planning.
Hence, the force is trying to use rapid equipping authorities to get cyberwarriors systems quickly.
There will be a several deliveries of capabilities to warriors over time, the Air Force said, with one of its top officials saying the first tools could be available this spring.
The Air Force will be taking on the system integrator role for the time being, noting that Northrop’s award as system coordinator is not synonymous with it. Rather, the system coordinator role serves as an aide to the program management office by implementing certain tasks directed by the program management office.
Two initial critical tasks include standing up the “cyber factory” and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) implementation, a framework designed to guide enterprises through complex software development.
Also of significant importance is DoD cyberwarriors gaining their own infrastructure to plan and launch attacks separate from the National Security Agency, which uses its systems primarily for espionage. While Cyber Command and the NSA are still currently co-located, a temporary arrangement in which both are set to split under the proper conditions, one critical condition to splitting is the development of DoD-specific tools, systems and infrastructure.
Cyber Command’s deputy commander, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, noted during a recent speech that the command is thinking its way through how to “put steel on target” in cyber, a reference to the physical world of metal bombs falling on targets below. Unified Platform is one aspect of that equation in that it will allow for greater situational awareness, more cohesive mission planning and coordination among various teams that could be geographically dispersed. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Fifth Domain)
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Spectra Group Plc
Spectra has a proven record of accomplishment – with over 15 years of experience in delivering secure communications and cybersecurity solutions for governments around the globe; elite militaries; and private enterprises of all sizes.
As a dynamic, agile, security accredited organisation, Spectra can leverage this experience to deliver Cyber Advisory and secure Hosted and Managed Solutions on time, to spec and on budget, ensuring compliance with industry standards and best practices.
Spectra’s SlingShot® is a unique low SWaP system that enables in-service U/VHF tactical radios to utilise Inmarsat’s commercial satellite network for BLOS COTM. Including omnidirectional antenna for the man, vehicle, maritime and aviation platforms, the tactical net can broadcast over 1000s miles between forward units and a rear HQ, no matter how or where the deployment. Unlike many BLOS options, SlingShot maintains full COTM (Communications On The Move) capability and low size and weight
On 23 November 2017, Spectra Group (UK) Ltd announced that it had recently been listed as a Top 100 Government SME Supplier for 2015-2016 by the UK Crown Commercial Services
Spectra’s CEO, Simon Davies, was awarded 2017 BATTLESPACE Businessman of the Year by BATTLESPACE magazine and is a finalist in the inaugural British Ex-Forces In Business Awards in the Innovator Of The Year category.
Founded in 2002, the Company is based in Hereford, UK and holds ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation.
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