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28 Feb 19. BAE Systems updates F-35 electronic warfare systems. BAE Systems has successfully inserted new technology into its electronic warfare (EW) systems for the global fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, according to a 28 February statement. The Digital Channelized Receiver/Techniques Generator and Tuner Insertion Program (DTIP) technology is the latest upgrade to the AN/ASQ-239 system. The DTIP was introduced into BAE Systems’ manufacturing processes in 2018, with the first deliveries in July 2018.
BAE Systems believes this upgrade to the AN/ASQ-239 system positions it to meet future capability requirements and improve operators’ ability to conduct critical missions in contested airspace. This improved EW system delivers the functionality of the previous system in a smaller footprint, reducing volume and power requirements. The system also resolves issues with manufacturing obsolescence that would have otherwise required costly design work.
BAE Systems said it is the first F-35 supplier to insert updated technology into its systems at full production speeds. The company is delivering 11 systems monthly and ramping production to match aircraft production. The Pentagon anticipates ramping up to as many as 170 aircraft in upcoming contracts, including 157 aircraft for the upcoming Lot 12. Lot 10 was for 90 aircraft while the Lot 11 contract awarded on 28 September 2018 was for 141 aircraft. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Feb 19. New airborne software-defined radios pitched at IAF requirements. Germany’s Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) and South Africa’s Reutech Communications have taken the opportunity at Aero India 2019 to showcase their latest software-defined radio (SDR) systems. The R&S SOVERON series is a multiplatform, multiband tactical SDR operating in the VHF/UHF (30-512 MHz) frequency band and is based on SCA 2.2.2 architecture. The company is being offered in three variants – SOVERON VR (vehicular tactical radio), SOVERON AR (airborne radio), and SOVERON HR (handheld radio). These radios have been ruggedised to MIL-STD-810G environmental and MIL-STD-461F EMC standards. The SOVERON family has been developed to address the German armed forces’ joint communications development known as Streitkräftegemeinsame verbundfähige Funkgeräte-Ausstattung (SVFuA). It is also being offered to international customers.
SOVERON radios incorporate the company’s SOVERON WAVE waveform suite, which it claims to offer fast frequency hopping and embedded encryption capabilities and designed to operate in contested environments. Other features include simultaneous voice and data transmission and mobile ad hoc network (MANET) capabilities.
Pushkar Krishna, head of sales at R&S’ Secure Communications business told Jane’sthat the Indian Air Force (IAF) has expressed interest in the SOVERON AR for its Tejas Mk 2 medium fighter.
The company further disclosed that the SOVERON AR is being fielded in the IAF’s CH-47F Chinook helicopter. It is also being introduced in Saab’s Gripen fighter aircraft and will be replacing the legacy R&S MR6000R SDR in older Gripen models.
Meanwhile, Reutech Communications showcased its ACR500 MkIIS SDR, the latest addition to its airborne SDR portfolio. The ACR500 MkIIS system operates in VHF/UHF (30-407 MHz) frequency band and is equipped with a 20 W transmitter to support landward, airborne, and maritime communications in aircraft. It is designed as a direct replacement for company’s legacy ACR500-L radio and is interoperable with the company’s LANDSEC family of tactical radios. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
26 Feb 19. Harris Defence Australia awarded New Zealand Army’s radio contract. Harris Defence Australia has signed a contract to deliver a mobile tactical command system for the New Zealand Army. Under the $40m contract, the company will design and deliver a tactical communications network that will include portable radios for soldiers. It will also be responsible for the supply of software, systems and connecting radio equipment.
New Zealand Defence Minister Ron Mark said: “Communication networks are vital to defence force operations and must be modern, effective and designed to meet the needs of military personnel.
“The contract has been signed as part of the first tranche of work being delivered under the Network Enabled Army programme, one of several projects underway addressing equipment obsolescence.
“Networks and equipment used by the New Zealand Army and Special Forces are the focus of this contract.”
The Network Enabled Army (NEA) programme aims to provide national land forces and special operations forces with a deployable, networked command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) capability.
NEA is a long-term programme that will be delivered in four tranches over 12 years, with tranche one expected to be delivered by the end of 2021.
Mark added: “Together these will enable accurate and detailed information to be transmitted securely between military personnel and command centres, both within New Zealand’s Forces and when operating at an international level.
“Whether at home or overseas, the defence force operates alongside other government agencies and New Zealand’s international partners, and the ability to work together effectively is vital to the success of these operations.
“Interoperability with partners is strategically important, and as technology continues to advance, defence must be ready to keep pace in both procurement processes and capability requirements.”
The contract was signed following an extensive evaluation process to assess the solution that meets the army’s operational requirements. (Source: army-technology.com)
26 Feb 19. The Charter of Trust takes a major step forward to advance cybersecurity.
- BSI German Federal Office for Information Security, CCN National Cryptologic Center and Graz University of Technology in Austria join charter as associate partners
- Companies commit to driving cybersecurity across global supply chains
- Important signals set at global, European and national political levels
- Ambitious targets set in 2019: Focusing on advancing “Cybersecurity by Default” and “Education” topics
At the Munich Security Conference in February 2018, nine organizations signed the world’s first joint charter for greater cybersecurity. A year on, the Charter of Trust has grown to 16 members.
In addition to Siemens and the Munich Security Conference, the signatories include AES, Airbus, Allianz, Atos, Cisco, Daimler, Dell Technologies, Deutsche Telekom, Enel, IBM, NXP, SGS, Total and TÜV Süd. Now, the Charter of Trust welcomes two government authorities to its ranks as associate members for the very first time: the BSI German Federal Office for Information Security, which is one of the most relevant institutions for cybersecurity experts and the CCN National Cryptologic Center of Spain.
CCN is an agency of the Spanish State annexed to the National Intelligence Center. In addition, the Graz University of Technology in Austria will be joining the charter as an associate member. The team there focuses on cybersecurity research and for instance was one of the teams that discovered the IT vulnerabilities “Meltdown” and “Spectre”. The associate partner is a new format, through which the Charter is opening up for important government representatives, universities and think tanks for cooperation. A benefit to such organizations is that they can cooperate on specific projects without having to become full members with all rights and duties.
“In the age of the internet of things, the Charter of Trust is a very important first step,” said Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens. “We’re open to many more partners, making the real and digital worlds safer places for all of us. Cybersecurity is the key enabler for successful digital businesses. We hope that this initiative will lead to a lively public debate on cybersecurity and, ultimately, to binding rules and standards.”
An area of early and intense focus has been security of supply chains. Third-party risks in supply chains, are becoming a more prevalent issue and are the source of 60 percent of cyberattacks, according to Accenture Strategy. Charter of Trust member companies have worked out baseline requirements and propose their implementation for making cybersecurity an absolute necessity throughout all digital supply chains. These requirements address all aspects of cybersecurity – including people, process and technology. Examples of these requirements include:
- Data shall be protected from unauthorized access throughout the data lifecycle.
- Appropriate level of identity and access control and monitoring, including third parties, shall be in place and enforced.
- A process shall be in place to ensure that products and services are authentic and identifiable.
- A minimum level of security education and training for employees shall be regularly deployed.
Charter of Trust members are establishing a risk-based methodology for implementing these requirements in their own supply chains, involving supply chain partners in the process.
In 2018 Charter of Trust round tables worldwide opened up an in-depth exchange between policy makers and the Charter partners. Governments and industry are aligning at the global, regional and national levels in the pursuit of common security goals. The “Paris Peace Call for Trust & Security in Cyberspace” presented in November 2018 by French President Emmanuel Macron is a clear commitment to form and achieve stability in cyberspace and confirms the willingness to work together to define and implement international cybersecurity principles. Content wise, the Paris Peace Call shares key tenets with the Charter of Trust principles and the partners look forward to seeing them reinforced further at the forthcoming G7 summit. “Cybersecurity will play an important role at the next G7 summit,” said Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference. “The Charter of Trust has stimulated important discussions here and is an authoritative guideline for policy makers.” The new EU Cybersecurity Act was an important step towards strengthening cyber institutions and providing a framework to develop cyber certifications. The Charter of Trust members look forward to bringing their expertise to bear in the development of the certifications as implementation gets underway in 2019.
The Charter of Trust has set ambitious goals for 2019. Besides deepening and expanding the policy dialog, members plan to advance two topics: “Cybersecurity by Default” and “Education” – meaning predictive cybersecurity settings embedded in products and other environments, and global continuing training efforts both inside and outside companies.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, threats to cybersecurity in 2018 caused 500bn euros in losses worldwide. And threats to cybersecurity are constantly on the rise as the world digitalizes further: according to Gartner, 8.4bn networked devices were in use in 2017 – 31 percent more than in 2016. The figure is expected to rise to 20.4bn by 2020.
26 Feb 19. Infinera announced today it is reinforcing its commitment to open networking with the introduction of a Disaggregated Cell Site Gateways (DCSG) solution that conforms to the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) DCSG specification. The TIP DCSG-compliant solution is designed to support the efficient and cost-effective backhaul of cell site traffic and is based on an open and disaggregated architecture for existing 2G/3G/4G and future 5G mobile infrastructure.
Powered by Infinera’s Converged Network Operating System (CNOS), a disaggregated carrier-class routing software stack, Infinera will showcase its DCSG solution at Mobile World Congress this week in partnership with Edgecore Networks, a leader in open networking hardware products.
“We are pleased to welcome Infinera to our DCSG open networking ecosystem, which is expanding the scope and value of disaggregation beyond optical transport networks,” said Luis MartinGarcia, Co-Lead, Disaggregated Cell Site Gateways project group, TIP. “Open networks can help operators as they build out 5G infrastructure by reducing costs, expanding and leveraging automation so they are more agile in introducing new services.”
The DCSG specification was developed by the Open Optical & Packet Transport (OOPT) Project Group within TIP in collaboration with leading Tier 1 global mobile operators, including Vodafone, Telefonica, TIM Brasil, BT and Orange.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to open networking, we are excited to demonstrate the value of our disaggregated CNOS software within the framework of TIP’s DCSG specification,” said Mikko Hannula, Vice President, Engineering & Product Management at Infinera. “Our DCSG solution is enhanced by our comprehensive portfolio of software-defined networking-capable networking solutions and end-to-end system integration capabilities.”
22 Feb 19. US Army Cloud: Big Announcement In March. The existing, expensive network can’t do what the Army needs. So is the solution outsourcing to the private sector? In just three weeks, the Army will roll out a new policy for cloud computing, officials said this afternoon. The strategy will open up new options for outsourcing functions to contractors that the government currently does for itself.
“The rollout comes next month,” said Col. Jeth Rey, Army Cyber Command’s director of operations, at an AFCEA luncheon here. “This is very new to us and we want to explore it.”
“Currently, how we operate is government-owned, government-operated equipment; we’re exploring the possibility of contractor-owned, contractor operated, [but] government owns the sites,” Rey continued. “That’s the lesson learned from the Navy and the Air Force.”
“Next month, CIO/G6” – the Army’s Chief Information Officer, Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford – “will hold his annual conference [aka AFCEA’s annual Army Signal Conference, March 12th-15th]. I recommend each and everyone one of you to come out,” Rey told the audience, mostly contractors. “We will talk ‘as a service’ at that event.”
“As a service” is an IT sector term of art for the practice, increasingly popular in the private sector, of outsourcing key network functions. “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS), for example, means effectively renting servers from a cloud computing company, rather than buying, owning, and operating your own. “Software as a Service” (SaaS) goes farther: You not only rent the hardware, you rent the software you run it on as well, with the service provider doing all the downloading, uploading, and installation for you. Wikipedia’s page on “As A Service” currently lists some 38 variations, from “artificial intelligence” (AIaaS) to “everything” (XaaS).
Col. Rey – soon to be promoted to one-star-general – confirmed to me and another reporter after the event that a wide range of such options will be included: “We’ll do the roll-out in March,” he said, “[for] everything as a service.”
Rey and the other three Army colonels at today’s AFCEA event were shy about details, understandably unenthusiastic about stealing any thunder from their superiors. Besides Crawford, the three-star CIO, scheduled speakers at next month’s conference include the one-star director of the Army AI Task Force (Brig. Gen. Matthew Easley); the two-stars running the Army network modernization taskforce, Maj. Peter Gallagher, and the network acquisitions program, PEO-C3T’s Maj. Gen. David Bassett; and the four-star vice-chief of Army staff, Gen. James McConville.
What Rey & co. would divulge today, however, is that the Army is looing to do a number of as-a-service pilots, both internally – the leading one will be at the newly created Army Futures Command, whose Austin HQ has no existing Army infrastructure to fall in on – and externally with the Air Force and Navy.
The biggest obstacles are cultural, said Col. Carl Young, who heads the architecture and data division of CIO Crawford’s Pentagon staff. “It’s the various subcultures of, ‘well, this is my data, and not our data, [and] I don’t want you using it.’”
But, Young went on, “those walls are beginning to erode and break down, and we are sharing across the wide array of Army elements and joint elements… partnering with the Air Force and the Navy right now to learn how they do it.”
The Army needs to find partners, both in the military and the private sector, because it simply can’t do everything that needs doing in-house, Young said. IT has become so sprawling, feudal, and fragmented that “we don’t have an authoritative card catalogue” of every system out there, let alone what it all does, he said.
“We’ve got to get that into one matrix where we can see comprehensively, what are our risk factors, what are our implementation, goals, what can we afford not to pay for?” Young said. “Because we cannot to do it all. It’s already a $12.5bn enterprise [and] that’s not enough to do what we all want it to do.”
“Maybe the [Army] network doesn’t need to perform a particular function, maybe it needs to be outsourced – that’s one of the things Army cyber is looking at that,” Young said, with a nod to Rey’s organization. “Maybe it doesn’t need to provide the function at all.”
But aren’t some military functions too important to outsource – “inherently governmental” to use the term of art – because they are matters of national policy, life, and death? Isn’t the network a weapon?
“That’s a concern,” Rey said, “but when we look at our network as a weapon system, [the end user device,] the end point, is always going to be in the hands of some government employee. [The commercial sector,] we’re just asking them for transport “ – that is, of the data from one government user to another. “We’ve been using commercial transport for years now, so it’s nothing new.” (Source: glstrade.com/Breaking Defense.com)
21 Feb 19. Army Adapts Aircraft EW To Protect Tanks: BAE RAVEN. Will high-tech hardware developed to protect aircraft translate to the mud and dust of ground combat? As the Army races to modernize against the Russian threat, it’s adapting countermeasures used on aircraft to protect its armored vehicles from anti-tank missiles. Systems like BAE’s RAVEN jammer, which won a recent Army “rodeo,” could be a lot more effective than just bolting on another layer of armor on already overloaded vehicles — if the contractor can make what originally an airborne system rugged enough to function in in the mud, dust and clutter of ground combat.
We’re talking high-tech hardware here. RAVEN is a “soft kill” jammer that tricks missiles into missing. It would part of a second wave of upgrades to Army vehicles, following the Israeli-made “hard kill” systems – which physically shoot missiles out of the air – that the service is already urgently fielding. The Army wants both types for maximum protection.
So the service is pushing hard towards an integrated hard-and-soft-kill system. Last week, the service’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center – now part of the newly formed Army Futures Command — announced that BAE’s RAVEN had won a “Soft Kill Rodeo” last fall. The next step: intensive field testing on an M2 Bradley troop carrier fitted with both RAVEN (soft kill) and Iron Fist (hard).
But going high-tech comes with risks and costs, as a candid interview with BAE revealed. It’s all the dilemmas of the Army’s troubled modernization system in microcosm.
The ugly truth is that ground combat is brutally hard on high technology, in different ways than air warfare. For example, the vibration on a moving armored vehicle is actually gentler than on a helicopter in flight – until you start shooting. (In Vietnam, the main gun on the M551 Sheridan light tank could recoil so hard all the electronic cards popped out). There’s more moisture, mud, and dust. And even if nothing breaks, the sensors have to see through a lot more clutter at ground level than in the air.
Down In The Mud
“We’re on a path to ruggedize it for that [ground] environment but we aren’t quite there yet,” BAE executive Ryan Edwards told me. “That’s probably the main reason that we say RAVEN is only TRL 5.”
That’s on a Technological Readiness Level scale from TRL 1 (basic principles observed) to TRL 9 (proven in combat). TRL 5 means the components have all been proven to work in a realistic environment, but not yet as the complete system.
The core technology that RAVEN uses to trick missiles into missing – which he can’t divulge — is well-proven on military aircraft, Edwards told me. The hard part is adapting that tech to the ground.
“Having been on a Bradley, before you’d be surprised at how high the mud can get on a combat vehicle, said Edwards, a former Army officer who deployed to Iraq in 2005-2006 with the National Guard. “In an environment like the deserts of Iraq or Fort Bliss or the National Training Center, there’s a lot of dust…. and there’s also tree branches and shrapnel and things like that that you have to protect these systems from.”
“We have a pretty well known and deep history of aircraft platform protection and the RAVEN countermeasure is our attempt to adapt some of that… at a price point … that make it more relevant for ground combat vehicles,” Edwards said. “We’re still working closely with the customer to determine what is the best way to ruggedize that capability and make it reliable enough for a combat vehicle.”
How long will it take?
“The whole system could easily be mature…within 24 months,” Edwards told me.
Infrared, Radar, Other Sensors
The version of RAVEN that outperformed all comers in Army tests last fall included both the active countermeasure itself and four infrared cameras to detect incoming threats from any angle. Those cameras feature high definition (1920×1200), a wide-angle field of view (120 degrees), and the ability to see smoke, dust, and vegetation by using long-wave infrared. (Short-wave IR gives a more precise picture, but it doesn’t penetrate clutter as well, making it easier for the enemy to hide).
However, the Army wants multiple ways to detect a threat, in case one fails, so BAE is working on additional sensors: a more precise medium-wave infrared (MWIR) camera and a radar. Those are less mature than other parts of the system, Edwards admitted.
The long-wave IR camera is about TRL 6 (prototype demonstrated in a realistic environment), he said. Since it’s also going on BAE’s proposal for the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) light tank, where it helps the driver navigate around obstacles, that camera should be fully ready in 12-15 months, presuming funding comes through. However, the jammer itself is TRL 5 (as mentioned above), the radar is also about TRL 5, and the medium-wave infrared is only TRL 4 (components proven to work in the lab, but not yet in realistic conditions).
BAE is also working on “slew to cue” software that would automatically turn the turret and point the gun at whatever fired the missile, allowing the vehicle to retaliate before the enemy gets off a second shot. (Trophy has similar, albeit less automated cuing feature). It’s even testing algorithms to detect hostile vehicles and infantry missile teams before they fire the first shot, allowing the RAVEN-equipped vehicle to take cover or shoot first.
All that said, RAVEN doesn’t need to track an incoming missile precisely to defeat it. Though BAE can’t confirm details, that’s probably because it broadcasts a wide beam of electromagnetic interference to scramble the missile’s targeting system and make it miss, what’s known as a “soft kill.”
By contrast, “hard kill” systems like the Israeli-made Rafael Trophy and IMI Iron Fistfire physical projectiles to destroy the incoming missile, which means they need a radar to track it accurately. The Army wants both.
Why? Soft-kill systems work as long as the vehicle has electrical power, but they don’t work on every threat, since some missiles are too sophisticated to be tricked, and old-school unguided threats like RPGs have no guidance system to trick at all. Hard-kill systems require physical ammunition, which weighs down the vehicle and can run out – but if they hit an incoming missile, however smart or dumb it is, they’re going to smash it.
Soft-kill is the first line of defense, Edwards told me, because it never runs out of ammunition. That way you can save your limited, bulky hard-kill ammo for the roughly 30-50 percent of threats that might make it through the jamming.
MAPS To The Future
Coordinating the hard and soft-kill systems will be the Army-developed Modular Active Protection System. MAPS happens to built around a processor that Lockheed Martin originally developed for the Apache helicopter – another example of aircraft tech coming down to earth.
The Army’s ultimate goal: a plug-and-play open architecture – hence the “Modular” in MAPS – that they can easily upgrade with the latest sensors, hard-kill countermeasures, and soft-kill systems, from whatever vendor offers the best tech at the best price. Currently it’s kludging together systems from different manufacturers, each of which comes with its own sensors, effectors, mounting brackets, etc. That all takes up a lot of space, weight capacity, and electrical power on Army vehicles already overburdened by 40 years of upgrades.
On the M2 Bradley in particular, “you have to turn off certain systems in the combat environment, because there just isn’t enough power to run everything,” BAE executive Ryan Edwards told me in a candid interview. Integrating multiple sensors and countermeasures into a single system should save both power and weight, he said.
But RAVEN and its wider suite of systems isn’t just for the Bradley, Edwards emphasized. “We’re not designing this specifically for a given platform,” he told me. “We try to keep it lightweight and modular so the Army can decide what platforms and what formations [it] makes sense for.”
That’s another advantage of soft-kill systems. Since they don’t require bulky physical ammunition like hard-kill countermeasures, you can put them on lighter vehicles. Potentially, Edwards said, you could make RAVEN light enough to go on even a four-wheeled armored truck like the venerable, vulnerable Humvee or the new, tougher JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle). That’s an option that could dramatically cut casualties in both major war and counterinsurgency – if the Army can afford enough systems. (Source: glstrade.com/National Defense)
21 Feb 19. Here’s what the US Army is looking for in its new EW program. The Army has briefed industry on its upcoming electronic warfare program and is now asking for feedback. The Terrestrial Layer System (TLS) is an integrated EW and signals intelligence system for ground use that the Army decided to pursue instead of the old Multi-Functional Electronic Warfare Ground and Dismounted system. The Army asserts that the capabilities the electronic warfare and cyber enterprise were pursuing for MFEW Ground were nearly identical to what the signals intelligence enterprise was pursuing. Thus, they decided to integrate the capabilities.
According to briefing slides presented to industry during a Jan. 23 industry day, made available on the FedBizOpps website, what’s really changed for the Army between previous plans and the new path it is charting is six-fold: urgent requirements from Europe and elsewhere to close capability gaps; three years of rapid prototyping; convergence of EW, signals intelligence, cyber and space; availability of national assets and advanced software capabilities from the intelligence community; a new national defense strategy that prioritizes near-peer competition; and approval for rapid EW force structure growth in the Army.
TLS, according to the slides, integrates signals intelligence, EW and cyber capabilities, which will be adaptable and tailored for Army tactical formations and continues technology innovation over the system’s lifecycle, securing an enduring competitive advantage.
The Army noted that its approach thus far is subject to change given the availability of software-based capabilities combined with rapid prototyping and real-world soldier feedback leveraging urgent capability needs.
However, it currently states the TLS acquisition approach is to utilize the Consortium for Command, Control and Communications in Cyberspace Other Transaction Authority to prototype systems for TLS FY20 with potential follow-on procurement.
Army officials have previously told C4ISRNET that TLS will not be taking the traditional acquisition path as a means of going faster, getting capabilities in the hands of soldiers to both gain useful feedback but also provide them a limited capability in the interim.
“Are we going to field this next week? Not necessarily, but we’re talking fielding to the force in the next two to three years, not seven to 10 years,” Col. Jennifer McAfee, director of the Training and Doctrine Command’s capabilities manager for terrestrial and identity at the Intelligence Center of Excellence, said.
Initial design tenants for TLS must be expeditionary to support a maneuver unit, modular leveraging open architectures, software defined framework enabling rapid integration of signal libraries, automated machine learning reducing the soldier workload and rapid and agile.
Moreover, an industry solution must leverage what has been learned from deploying urgent capabilities early to the field, what’s been learned from programs of record, what’s been observed from other services, partners and adversaries and technology evolution.
Following the industry day, the Army is looking for industry’s feedback on a variety areas, namely comments/recommendations on the current contracting strategy; comments/recommendations on the current reference architecture; comments/recommendations on necessary infrastructure/equipment to support developmental test and operational test range testing; and comments/recommendations for an optimized approach to integrating signals intelligence, EW and cyber systems/capabilities on a single vehicle. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
21 Feb 19. General Dynamics pitches new vehicle networking architecture. General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) has developed a new version of its vehicle networking architecture, called MESHnet V6, and showcased it at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi in February 2019.
Richard Fawcett, GDMS-Canada’s director for land and joint solutions, told Jane’s that MESHnet V6 was the latest version of an architecture developed over the last 25 years, with versions sold to a number of countries, including the UK as part of the Bowman programme. V5 was selected by the Canadian Army for its LAV 6.0 and Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle platforms.
Fawcett said that V6 was developed partly as a result of the UK’s Project Morpheus Evolve to Open (EVO) programme, for which GDMS is the prime contractor. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
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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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