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13 Mar 19. GSA launches Netcents-2 replacement. The General Services Administration and the Air Force are looking for bidders in what will become a multiple-award blanket purchase agreement for IT hardware and products to replace the $7bn Network Centric Solutions-2 contract. GSA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Air Force last summer to set up the Netcents-2 IT Products BPA. The new BPA would be based on GSA’s IT hardware category team and IT Schedule 70.
The Air Force’s Netcents-2 IT will be replaced with the 2nd Generation Information Technology (2GIT) BPA, according to GSA. The Netcents-2IT indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract expires in November 2019. The 2GIT BPA is designed to give the Air Force a fast, effective way to get IT hardware and commodity software, ancillary supplies and services at discounted prices leveraging GSA’s economies of scale.
In the draft RFQ issued last October, GSA estimated that the 2GIT could generate $850m to $1bn annually in volume sales and $5.5bn over the length of the five-year contract.
GSA and the Air Force are looking for contractors in five buckets of products and services, including data center gear and software; end-user products such as laptops, desktops and commercial off-the-shelf software; network gear and software, including routers, switches and teleconferencing capabilities; and radio equipment including handheld devices, charging equipment and vehicle radio equipment. The fifth bucket is a “total solution” that encompasses all the other categories.
Vendors that want to get on the 2GIT BPA can bid through e-Buy until April 18. GSA plans to host an online pre-quotation conference March 14 to discuss the request for quotes. (Source: Defense Systems)
13 Mar 19. US is risking losing its military advantage in the long-term due to hackers stealing national security data, according to an internal review by the US Navy. The review report stated that China and Russia are increasingly targeting the US military and its industry partners. This raises the question of whether the US is able to defend itself from cyber attacks. China and Russia are reportedly using well developed cyber-enabled regional and global ‘grey zone’ unconventional strategies to achieve their objectives. Furthermore, the report highlighted how China used stolen IP over the years to grow its gross national product (GNP) to roughly two-thirds of America’s and to increase the military advantage.
A statement from the review read: “Long-term, US future military advantage is being diminished by years of IP exfiltration from the DoD, DON, and DIB, all with little to no adverse consequences to the thieves.
“Long-term military advantage is also being further eroded as the indigenous innovation capabilities of China begin to grow at an exponential rate.”
According to the report, the theft includes critical information on weapon systems, advanced technologies, and unique capabilities and systemic and individual human vulnerabilities.
A senior US Navy official was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying: “We are under siege. People think it’s much like a deadly virus; if we don’t do anything, we could die.”
The review was conducted following the loss of significant amounts of US Department of the Navy data, including compromises of classified and sensitive information.
According to WSJ, Chinese hackers repeatedly targeted the navy, defence contractors, and even universities that partner with the service.
The publication added a high-profile incident last year that saw Chinese hackers steal important data on US Navy undersea-warfare programmes from an unidentified contractor.
The data breach also included information on plans for a new supersonic anti-ship missile, The Washington Post reported in June, citing US officials.
In response to the review, US Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said: “With urgency, the Department of the Navy Secretariat along with the chief of naval operations and the commandant of the Marine Corps, will coordinate with the Department of Defense and Congress for the resources required to compete and win in the cyber domain.” (Source: naval-technology.com)
13 Mar 19. VAQ-135’s EA-18G Growler to support US Central Command operations. The US Navy Electronic Attack Squadron 135 (VAQ-135) has deployed the EA-18G Growler aircraft to the 5th Fleet’s area of operations to help maintain maritime stability and security in the central command’s area of responsibility (AOR). VAQ-135 will support naval operations in the central region, connecting the Mediterranean and the Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. Earlier this month, personnel from VAQ-135 conducted pre-flight inspections for an EA-18G Growler at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.
The squadron’s EA-18G Growlers use electronic-based airborne attack and defence capabilities to provide assistance with combat missions throughout the region. The aircraft features an APG-79 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system and enables forces to detect, identify, locate, and suppress hostile ’emitters’.
US Navy VAQ-135 EA-18G pilot lieutenant Slawomir Glownia said: “We fly the Growler, which is a very unique platform. It has air-to-ground, air-to-air and airborne electronic attack capabilities. Our primary mission is jamming communications or enemy radar.”
While pilots are responsible for the execution of airborne electronic attack and defence capabilities, maintainers on the ground coordinate and perform various tasks to ensure the Growlers are always ready to launch.
VAQ-135 electrician mate petty officer 2nd class Ngedikes Benedict said: “Maintenance control is in charge of all the maintenance from getting it coordinated, what needs to happen first and who does what.”
The Growlers can operate from either an aircraft carrier or from land-bases. The US Navy procured the aircraft as a replacement for the EA-6B Prowler. EA-18G aircraft can provide critical electronic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data to other joint force aircraft.
It is armed with AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles that offer protection against hostile aircraft. (Source: naval-technology.com)
13 Mar 19. How the US Army is taking cyber units to the battlefield. Details are crystallizing on new Army cyber units that will provide information-related capabilities from the theater level all the way to the tactical edge. The Army is beginning to formalize and even move on forming these units — some of which were already being piloted in one form or fashion — putting real force structure toward fighting a 21st-century conflict. These teams are organic to the Army and separate from the cyber teams that belong to U.S. Cyber Command, which typically perform strategic, national level IP-based network operations as opposed to more localized effects.
Theater level
At the theater level, the Army is establishing a specialized detachment within its multidomain task force — located at Fort Lewis in Washington, where the Army is working out through experimentation and exercises to figure how to fight in future operations.
The detachment — called the Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare and Space unit (I2CEWS) — will integrate all the capabilities within its namesake under a single formation.
Maj. Gen. John Morrison, commander of the Cyber Center of Excellence, told Fifth Domain that the I2CEWS will focus on a geographic region and might differ in terms of make-up from region to region.
There will be one in Indo-Pacific Command, the region where the multidomain task force currently focuses, and one oriented to Europe.
The first I2CEWS was activated at Fort Lewis in January 2019.
Since these units will be theater focused, they’ll be set up to operate from the competition phase all the way through operations, Morrison said.
According to an Army chart, made available to Fifth Domain, the theater level includes the integration and synchronizing of capabilities in the I2CEWS’s respective region, to include electronic warfare and offensive cyber. Of note, some of the EW capabilities, aerial EW in particular, are still being developed and thus are only proposed at this time as a potential capability.
Senior Army leadership has discussed altering the way it is organized to fight future multidomain conflicts, and a theater focused, information-centric force gets to that end.
“The Army has relied on counterinsurgency operations over the past 15 years that depended greatly on the Brigade Combat Team. But now, with a new focus on large-scale ground combat operations anticipated in the future operating environment, that will require echelons above brigade, all of which will solve unique and distinct problems that a given BCT can’t solve by itself,” Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley, Futures and Concepts Center director, said.
Ground unit level
Drilling down into more of the tactical and operational space, the Army is now beginning to put resources behind establishing the 915th Cyber Warfare Support Battalion.
Details to date have been scarce regarding this unit, with officials acknowledging the Army approved its growth in 2019 and that it would serve Army-specific missions, not U.S. Cyber Command joint missions. It will be used to integrate intelligence, cyber, electronic warfare, signals, information operations and fires into one formation, while also able to deliver effects remotely and through local expeditionary cyber teams that will plug into the cyber and electromagnetic activities (CEMA) sections located in each brigade planning cell.
“The Cyber Warfare Support Battalion is a service-retained tactically focused force … that will deploy expeditionary cyber teams to provide offensive and defensive cyber capabilities at a specific echelon — we think it’s primarily going to be division or corps — that allows it to be tied all the way back into the broader cyber enterprise that we have inside the Army,” Morrison said.
While at division and corps, these capabilities can be pushed down to lower tactical echelons.
The exact timetable for when the unit will stand up is still in flux, though the Army is currently working through details as an order has went out making the unit effective January 1.
According to an Army chart, capabilities to be delivered from division include direct support and general support signals intelligence and EW support, long-range sensing, conduct of non-kinetic fires and enable cyber operations. At the brigade level, these capabilities include full-spectrum electronic attack, electronic support and electronic protect, site and media exploitation and enabled cyber operations.
The Cyber Warfare Support Battalion will essentially be a one-stop-shop for information-related capabilities similar to how the I2CEWS will integrate and synchronize those effects.
“What the 915th is going to do is tactical, information warfare operations — [which] is probably a better banner term,” Col. Brian Vile, commander of the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade, told Fifth Domain. “In reality it’s not just cyber; it’s cyber, EW, [information operations], [signals intelligence] … it’s everything.”
Vile said that, while the United States has the best infantry in the world, the information domain is where a large part of the frontlines will reside in the battlefields of the future.
“The information domain, the cognitive domain really is where we need to be fighting and winning; it’s where we’re losing,” he said.
The Cyber Warfare Support Battalion is a direct outgrowth of the CEMA Support to Corps and Below pilot program run by Army Cyber Command at the National Training Center. Through several rotations, the pilot sought to experiment what tactical cyber and electronic warfare formations would look like and how they could work within of a brigade combat team.
“The CWSB is the formal instantiation of a lot of things we were playing with and a lot of the lessons learned from our [Expeditionary Cyber Support Detachment] activities,” Vile said, referencing a nonoperational unit made up of personnel from 780th that was constructed merely for the pilot.
It is important to note that these new formations, despite common misconceptions that cyberwarriors don’t necessarily have to be physically fit to sit in sanctuary and conduct operations on a keyboard, will need to maneuver side-by-side with infantry or vehicular units.
“They’re wearing body armor, just like everybody else. They’re carrying some kit that’s probably going to outweigh your standard rifleman and, oh, by the way, they’re still trying to solve the same technical challenges that [military intelligence] folk are doing on a day-to-day basis,” Vile said. “Our soldiers are going to have to keep up with the infantry guys. If you start to fall behind, then you’re degrading the commander’s ability to conduct operations … They have to be able to keep up with infantry formations, period, full stop.” (Source: Fifth Domain)
13 Mar 19. 7 funding priorities in the Pentagon’s cyber budget. Tucked inside the Department of Defense’s massive $750bn budget request for fiscal 2020 is a blueprint for how the Pentagon plans to invest in new cyber capabilities. As part of the department’s command, control, communications, computers and intelligence budget, leaders asked for $2.8bn to improve specific cyber skillsets. That budget includes $2bn for research and development and about $843m in procurement funding.
In material made available March 12, Defense Department officials said the funding will focus on seven priorities. They are:
- End point management;
- Identity, credential, and access management (ICAM);
- Insider threat security;
- Secure application development;
- Cross-domain security to include mission partner networks;
- Supply chain risk management; and
- Encryption.
The budget material, which was included in the booklet “Program Acquisition Costs by Weapon System,” also said the funding will help increase cyberspace war-fighting capabilities and continue the development of the Unified Platform, which is U.S. Cyber Command’s top weapons system. In additional material, leaders requested $10m for the program for fiscal 2020. That’s the same as officials expected to request for 2020 at this time last year.
National security experts have described Unified Platform as the “cyber carrier” in which the Department of Defense’s cyberwarriors will plan and launch offensive and defensive cyber operations.
In previous years, cybersecurity was not included as a separate weapons system. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
13 Mar 19. How the Army is getting its EW kit right for future battlefields. The Army is undertaking a multipronged effort to field new electronic warfare equipment and organize new electronic warfare-specific units to modernize its force for a 21st-century conflict. The Army has placed a lot of importance on electronic warfare in recent years, though some contend not as much as cyber despite their striking similarities. The service believes these non-kinetic capabilities will be essential in the multidomain battlefield of the future, as evidenced by Russia’s demonstration of electronic warfare capabilities in Europe.
According to Army charts made available to C4ISRNET, as well as statements from senior leaders, the Army wants to provide EW forces and capabilities from every echelon.
“In simplistic terms, we’re establishing electronic warfare that will also provide cyber effects through the electromagnetic spectrum that’s being established at the [brigade combat team] level and then at the corps level they can be pushed down to the division. So you’ve got electronic warfare capable formations on echelon,” Maj. Gen. John Morrison, commander of the Cyber Center of Excellence, told C4ISRNET in an interview.
Currently, the Army has established a unit — 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division out at Fort Lewis in Washington — to serve as the pilot unit for new EW platoons it plans to stand up within military intelligence companies.
Morrison noted that there is not necessarily a timetable for when the pilot effort will conclude, but it will be evolutionary.
“We expect to have enough reps and sets by the end of fourth quarter ’19 — we’ll be able to put the formal requirement into the Department of the Army because we would have learned enough by doing this experimentation and demonstration and rapid prototyping,” he said, adding that the work in this space will never be done.
Forces and capabilities will constantly evolve, as evidenced by cyber teams with U.S. Cyber Command.
“I suspect that we’re going to form the first four teams between ’19 and ’20 and we’ll get them on mission, but I think it’s going to be exactly what happened with the cyber mission force. We build out these 39-manned cyber protection teams and then we found out we never ever deployed 39 people, then we figured out how we were actually operating and we have now changed our organizational design based off of actual operational employment,” he said. “I think this is going to be the same thing.”
Morrison said the entire 2/2 Stryker brigade is being equipped right now with initial EW prototypes and organizing around the organizational framework the Army expects all brigade combat teams will adapt.
“That’s important because it’s going to do a final validation on our operational concept; it’s going to make sure that we’ve got the organizational structure right; it’s going to make sure that we’ve got the training right so that we’re training the operators the right way and then it’s really going to buy down risk as we move toward the formal program of record, the Terrestrial Layer System,” he said.
TLS, the formal program, will be 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 is fielding several incremental systems and capabilities to a variety of units both in the United States and in Europe to refine what the final requirements for TLS will be.
“Instead of just putting something on the paper and not really having anything behind it other than traditional analysis, what we’re doing is we’re leveraging these experiments and demonstrations so that it informs what we’re actually going to submit as the requirement,” Morrison said.
This includes the Electronic Warfare Tactical Vehicle, an armored vehicle that provides forces offensive and defensive electronic warfare capabilities.
It also includes the Tactical Electronic Warfare System (TEWS), a follow-on system to Sabre Fury, an initial prototype that was delivered to Europe that is a vehicle-mounted system for direction finding and jamming. TEWS is a more mature prototype than Sabre Fury, Morrison said, adding that it provides electronic attack and sensing capabilities.
TEWS is what’s currently being fielded to 2/2 Stryker.
Additionally, Morrison said there will be two more prototypes in the summer that will integrate signals intelligence, electronic attack and electronic sensing onto a single platform. This will be the strong precursor to TLS, he said.
This approach of prototyping and getting these systems into the hands of soldiers is the approach the Army has tried to adopt and implement through Futures Command and the cross-functional teams, which are all aligned to the Army’s six modernization priorities. Of note, however, is the fact that electronic warfare is not one of the six and there is not a cross-functional team dedicated to delivering EW capabilities.
“The key is, much like you’ve heard from the cross-functional teams, putting this kit in the hands of soldiers,” Morrison said. “We’ve got testers that are there; we’ve got the acquisition folks that are there; we’ve got the requirements folks that are there; and that solider in the middle is the one that is constantly feeding us back.”
Morrison pointed to how this process allowed the service to skip ahead of the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool’s planned incremental capability drop schedule providing a more robust capability to the system.
This process “saves money, gets capabilities into the field faster and soldiers are telling us what they need it to do to support their operations,” Morrison added. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
13 Mar 19. Pentagon requests most money for net-centric systems since 2012. Pentagon leaders suggested spending just about the same amount of money on net-centric warfare in fiscal year 2020 than they requested this year. In the Department of Defense’s budget request for 2020, leaders laid out a plan to spend $10.2 bn on command, control, communications, computers and intelligence systems. That’s up 2 percent from the $10bn Pentagon leaders asked for last year. The figure marks the most amount of money the Pentagon has requested on such systems since fiscal 2012, when defense leaders asked for $10.9bn for that area. The budget is the fifth consecutive cycle in which defense officials asked for more money for C4ISR systems than the previous year.
“The FY 2020 budget request supports the net-centricity service-based architecture pattern for information sharing,” leaders wrote in the weapons system book accompanying the budget request, using nearly identical language to last year’s request. Budget materials were released March 12.
The plan, which covers programs across the department, consists of:
– $5.9bn for theater combat C3 and services, up from $5.7bn in fiscal 2019
– $1.6bn for technology development, up from $1.3bn in fiscal 2019
– $1bn for information security and assurance, down from $1.2bn in fiscal 2019
– $1bn for base communications, down from $1.1bn.
– $700m on automation, identical to last year.
Spending on this area includes the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical program, the Handheld Manpack Small Form Fit radio, Joint Regional Security Stacks, and the Navy’s Consolidated Afloat Networks program.
Leaders asked for $474m for the WIN-T program to fund new equipment for one Stryker brigade combat team and modernization for five brigade combat teams as well as two networking divisions. General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin are the prime contractors on the program.
Department officials also requested and $468m in procurement funds for the HMS radios to fund the competition for Leader and Manpack radios. Harris Corp., Thales Communications and Collins Aerospace are the prime contractors on the program. Last year, Pentagon leaders said they expected to spend about $513m in procurement funds in fiscal 2020 on the program. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
08 Mar 19. NATO NCI to team with Leonardo for cyber-guarding alliance summit in London. A team composed of 200 digital security experts from the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency and Leonardo are to provide cyber defence support to NATO’s London summit in December.
The NCI Agency on 13 February renewed a cyber defence contract with Leonardo to protect the NATO fixed enterprise networks deployed on the sites over an 18-month period, part of a NATO Computer Incident Response Capability Full Operational Capability (NCIRC FOC) cyber security contract. The NCIRC-FOC has also protected NATO summits in Wales in 2014, Warsaw in 2016, and Brussels in 2018.
NATO’s main focus in cyber defence is to protect its networks (including missions and operations) and to enhance resilience across the alliance’s systems. (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
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