C2, TACTICAL COMMUNICATIONS, AI, CYBER, EW, CLOUD COMPUTING AND HOMELAND SECURITY UPDATE

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20 Nov 19. Airbus Cybersecurity and ORSYS Sign Cyber Training Agreement. Airbus CyberSecurity, an Airbus Defence and Space unit, has signed an agreement with French services provider ORSYS to join forces in cyber training. As part of this agreement, ORSYS has selected the Airbus Cyber Range training platform to advance its services offering.

Since 2015, ORSYS has trained more than 15,000 employees in cyber security. By adding the Airbus Cyber Range to its portfolio, ORSYS will be able to provide its customers with a tool offering highly realistic scenarios, increasing the precision, diversity and interactivity of its training sessions. The platform can run a live simulation of a real IT (Information Technology) or OT (Operational Technology) environment that helps employees progress in crisis situations such as intrusion detection, network protection or incident response.

Cyber Range will also facilitate the testing of new products or configurations as well as the development of more advanced security systems to combat cyber-attacks, which are increasing both in terms of quantity and complexity. The Cloud-based training platform enables ORSYS’ users to follow training sessions or set up a simulated environment from any given location in the world.

“CyberRange is the preferred training platform by an increasing number of universities and public institutions in France. This new partnership is an additional confirmation that its performance and capabilities are recognised by the wider cyber community,” said Frederic Julhes, Head of Airbus CyberSecurity in France. (Source: ASD Network)

20 Nov 19. NASA Takes a Cue From Silicon Valley to Hatch Artificial Intelligence Technologies. Could the same computer algorithms that teach autonomous cars to drive safely help identify nearby asteroids or discover life in the universe? NASA scientists are trying to figure that out by partnering with pioneers in artificial intelligence (AI) — companies such as Intel, IBM and Google — to apply advanced computer algorithms to problems in space science.

Machine learning is a type of AI. It describes the most widely used algorithms and other tools that allow computers to learn from data in order to make predictions and categorize objects much faster and more accurately than a human being can. Consequently, machine learning is widely used to help technology companies recognize faces in photos or predict what movies people would enjoy. But some scientists see applications far beyond Earth.

Giada Arney, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, hopes machine learning can help her and her colleagues find a needle of life in a haystack of data that will be collected by future telescopes and observatories such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

“These technologies are very important, especially for big data sets and especially in the exoplanet field,” Arney says. “Because the data we’re going to get from future observations is going to be sparse and noisy. It’s going to be really hard to understand. So using these kinds of tools has so much potential to help us.”

To help scientists like Arney build cutting-edge research tools, NASA’s Frontier Development Lab, or FDL, brings together technology and space innovators for eight weeks every summer to brainstorm and develop computer code. The four-year-old program is a partnership between the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center, both based in Silicon Valley where startup-hatching incubators that bring talented people together to accelerate the development of breakthrough technologies are abundant.

In NASA’s version, FDL pairs science and computer engineering early-career doctoral students with experts from the space agency, academia, and some of the world’s biggest technology companies. Partner companies contribute various combinations of hardware, algorithms, super-compute resources, funding, facilities and subject-matter experts. All of the AI techniques developed at FDL will be publicly available, with some already helping identify asteroids, find planets, and predict extreme solar radiation events.

“FDL feels like some really good musicians with different instruments getting together for a jam session in the garage, finding something really cool, and saying, ‘Hey we’ve got a band here,’” says Shawn Domagal-Goldman, a NASA Goddard astrobiologist who, together with Arney, mentored an FDL team in 2018. Their team developed a machine learning technique for scientists who aim to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system.

These Goddard scientists hope to one day use advanced machine learning techniques to quickly interpret data revealing the chemistry of exoplanets based on the wavelengths of light emitted or absorbed by molecules in their atmospheres. Since thousands of exoplanets have been discovered so far, making quick decisions about which ones have the most promising chemistry associated with habitability could help winnow down the candidates to only a few that deserve further, and costly, investigation.

To this end, the FDL team Arney and Domagal-Goldman helped advise, with technical support from Google AI, deployed a technique known as a “neural network.” This technology can solve super complicated problems in a process analogous to the workings of the brain. In a neural network, billions of “neurons,” which are nerve cells in the brain that help us form memories and make decisions, connect with billions of others to process and transmit information. University of Oxford computer science graduate student, Adam Cobb, along with Michael D. Himes, a physics graduate student from the University of Central Florida, led a study to test the capability of a “Bayesian” neural network against a widely used machine learning technique known as a “random forest.” Another researcher team not associated with FDL had already used this latter method to analyze the atmosphere of WASP-12b, an exoplanet discovered in 2008, based on mountains of data collected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Could the Bayesian neural network do better, the team wondered?

“We found out right away that the neural network had better accuracy than random forest in identifying the abundance of various molecules in WASP-12b’s atmosphere,” Cobb says.

But besides better accuracy, the Bayesian technique offered something equally as critical: it could tell the scientists how certain it was about its prediction. “In places where the data weren’t good enough to give a really accurate result, this model was better at knowing that it wasn’t sure of the answer, which is really important if we are to trust these predictions,” Domagal-Goldman says.

While the technique developed by this team is still in development, other FDL technologies have already been adopted in the real world. By 2017, FDL participants developed a machine learning program that could quickly create 3D models of nearby asteroids, accurately estimating their shapes, sizes, and spin rates. This information is critical to NASA’s efforts to detect and deflect threatening asteroids from Earth.

Traditionally, astronomers use simple computer software to develop 3D models. The software analyzes many radar measurements of a moving asteroid and then helps scientists infer its physical properties based on changes in the radar signal.

“An adept astronomer with standard compute resources, could shape a single asteroid in one to three months,” says Bill Diamond, SETI’s president and chief executive officer. “So the question for the research team was: Can we speed it up?”

The answer was yes. The team, which included students from France, South Africa and the United States, plus mentors from academia and from technology company Nvidia, developed an algorithm that could render an asteroid in as little as four days. Today, the technique is used by astronomers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to do nearly real-time shape modeling of asteroids.

The asteroid modeling, along with exoplanetary atmosphere analysis, are a couple of FDL examples that show the promise in applying sophisticated algorithms to the volumes of data collected by NASA’s more than 100 missions.

As NASA heliophysicist Madhulika (Lika) Guhathakurta notes, the space agency gathers about 2 gigabytes of data (and growing) every 15 seconds from its fleet of spacecraft. “But we analyze only a fraction of that data, because we have limited people, time and resources. That is why we need to utilize these tools more,” she says.

A lead on missions focused on understanding and predicting the Sun’s effects on Earth, technology and astronauts in space, Guhathakurta has been with FDL for the last three years and has been a key architect in shaping this program. She supported a team in 2018 that resolved a problem with a malfunctioning sensor on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a spacecraft that studies the Sun’s influence on Earth and near-Earth space.

Back in 2014, just four years after the mission launched, a sensor stopped returning data related to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation levels — information that correlates with a ballooning of the Earth’s outer atmosphere and thus affects the longevity of satellites, including the International Space Station. So computer science doctoral students from Stanford University and University of Amsterdam, among others, with mentors from organizations including IBM, Lockheed Martin, and SETI, developed a technique that could, essentially, fill in the missing data from the broken sensor. Their computer program could do this by analyzing data from other SDO instruments, along with old data collected by the broken sensor during the four years it was working, to infer what EUV radiation levels that sensor would have detected based on what the other SDO instruments were observing at any given time. “We generated, basically, a virtual sensor,” Guhathakurta says.

The potential of this type of this instrument is not lost on anyone. SETI head, Diamond, imagines a future where these virtual tools are incorporated on spacecraft, a practice that would allow for lighter, less complex and therefore cheaper missions. Domagal-Goldman and Arney envisage future exoplanet missions where AI technologies embedded on spacecraft are smart enough to make real-time science decisions, saving the many hours necessary to communicate with scientists on Earth.

“AI methods will help us free up processing power from our own brains by doing a lot of the initial legwork on difficult tasks,” Arney says. “But these methods won’t replace humans any time soon, because we’ll still need to check the results.” (Source: ASD Network/NASA)

20 Nov 19. FCC plans to free up C-Band for 5G. The Federal Communications Commission announced Nov. 18 it plans to hold a public auction for C-band spectrum, freeing up much of the needed space for 5G usage. Commercial satellite companies use the C-Band spectrum primarily for satellite communications — with the military serving as a major customer — or satellite television, but many telecommunications companies have eyed that same spectrum as the perfect space for 5G.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s decision to sell off the spectrum via a public auction was seen as a negative for the four satellite operators that hold that spectrum — Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat. Those companies had hoped to auction off the spectrum themselves and make a return on their investment in the space. Intelsat, the biggest of the four, saw their stocks drop by 40 percent Monday following the announcement.

Pai justified the decision, stating that the FCC needs to free up significant spectrum for 5G quickly while generating revenue for the government and ensuring continued C-band services.

“After much deliberation and a thorough review of the extensive record, I have concluded that the best way to advance these principles is through an auction of 280 megahertz of the C-band conducted by the Federal Communications Commission’s excellent staff,” Pai said in a letter to lawmakers Nov. 20. “With a quarter-century track record of transparent and successful auctions, I am confident that they will conduct a public auction that will afford all parties a fair opportunity to compete for this 5G spectrum, while preserving the availability of the upper 200 megahertz of this band for the continued delivery of programming.”

Legislation authorizing such an auction was quickly introduced by Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and John Thune, R-S.D., following Pai’s announcement.

“After years of delay, this legislation would get crucial mid-band spectrum into the market to benefit the American people and secure our position as the leader in the race to 5G,” said Wicker in a statement. “Senator Thune and I have been working together for over a year to come up with the best way to expand access to 5G, especially in rural areas, and secure value for all Americans.”

If passed, the bill would require the public auction to start no later than Dec. 31, 2020.

The auction does represent a security tradeoff, said Daniel Bennett, a senior technical advisor at the Department of Energy’s Energy Security and Resilience Center. While some have been eyeing C-Band, which has a frequency range between 4-8 GHz, as a prime location for 5G technology, the Department of Defense is currently a major user of that spectrum for military satellite communications.

“We see the rest of industry kind of pushing towards sub-6 [GHz for 5G usage], so the benefit in that regard is having more sub-6 band to be able to leverage,” said Bennett at the CyCon U.S. conference Nov. 19. “But at the same time we’re taking it away from DoD entities.”

Still, leaving that spectrum with the Department of Defense could leave the United States behind when it comes to the development of 5G technology, said Jim Lewis, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The Defensive Innovation Board put out a report on 5G that the U.S. was at a disadvantage because it didn’t have the right spectrum for some 5G applications and we would have to move [it over to 5G use],” said Lewis. “Finding ways to free more spectrum for 5G will be one of the big debates over the next few years.”

Military equipment that was built to operate on the spectrum that is being moved to the commercial sector will have to be upgraded, retrofitted or otherwise adapted to use a new spectrum. In the past, some of those costs have been offset with revenue from the public auction of the spectrum, said Lewis.

While the FCC’s move was driven by a need for 5G spectrum, it follows an ongoing movement to shift spectrum from the military to the commercial spectrum.

“A lot of the story of the spectrum in the U.S. ― really for the last 15 years ― has been moving spectrum away from DoD and towards commercial,” said Lewis. “With the advent of the mobile phone, spectrum that was once DoD’s or NASA’s or other government agencies’ that no one cared about, now there’s a demand for it.” (Source: glstrade.com/Defense News)

Commercial satellite companies use the C-Band spectrum primarily for satellite communications — with the military serving as a major customer — or satellite television, but many telecommunications companies have eyed that same spectrum as the perfect space for 5G.

Pai justified the decision, stating that the FCC needs to free up significant spectrum for 5G quickly while generating revenue for the government and ensuring continued C-band services.

Legislation authorizing such an auction was quickly introduced by Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and John Thune, R-S.D., following Pai’s announcement.

If passed, the bill would require the public auction to start no later than Dec. 31, 2020.

While the FCC’s move was driven by a need for 5G spectrum, it follows an ongoing movement to shift spectrum from the military to the commercial spectrum.

20 Nov 19. Here are the problems offensive cyber poses for NATO. NATO has declared cyberspace a domain of warfare it must operate in and called on the integration of cyber alongside operations. However, as a defensive alliance, it has declared it won’t seek offensive cyber capabilities itself, instead relying on the capabilities of voluntary member states.

This approach, while not insurmountable, poses significant challenges to operations, experts claim.

“The idea of sovereign cyber effects provided voluntarily by allies is good. But … that will not fall under the command and control of the actual NATO commander,” David Bailey, senior national security law advisor for Army Cyber Command, said Nov. 19 at the 2019 International Conference on Cyber Conflict U.S. (CyCon U.S.) in Arlington. “It will still fall under the command and control of the country that contributes. In my mind, it’s going to be difficult to achieve that level of coordination that we’re used to in military operations, even in a NATO context.”

Sovereign cyber effects provided voluntarily by allies is the concept NATO is looking to implement. Cyber and NATO experts have explained that if a cyber effect is needed for a particular operation, those with the capability, capacity, authority and access will volunteer to provide it on behalf of the alliance.

Several experts have said members states that are both willing and capable of offensive operations number about a half dozen.

Speaking at the same event, Massimiliano Signoretti, NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence office of the staff judge advocate, noted additional complexities and friction involved in this approach. First, he foresees difficulties in the confidence of a commander, who ultimately doesn’t possess the cyber capabilities, to approve and employ them. Moreover, there could be difficulties in maintaining the confidentiality of the nation that is providing the capabilities to that commander. NATO’s secretary general has previously referenced allied nations conducting offensive cyber operations against ISIS. NATO opened a Cyber Operations Center in August 2018 to provide situational awareness in cyberspace, plan allied cyberspace operations and manage the execution of operations. (Source: Fifth Domain)

20 Nov 19. How far behind is the Pentagon in electronic warfare? The current trajectory of the military’s electronic warfare modernization is too incremental and insufficient to regain the upper hand against top competitors, a new EW plans and programs assessment mandated by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act asserts.

In a report to be unveiled Nov. 21, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) finds that budgetary increases in the technologies are unlikely to yield significant improvements against Russia and China.

While the Department of Defense increased funding in fiscal year 2017 for EW, the sector will stagnate in budgets after fiscal year 2020 and the earlier funding increases were appropriated without a clear vision or strategy for how forces will operate in the electromagnetic spectrum, according to the report.

“DoD dramatically increased its spending on EW and EMSO [electromagnetic spectrum operations] during the last five years, but did not focus additional funding on the most important new technologies and programs needed to gain an advantage in the EMS,” the report finds. “The misapplication of funding continues into the Future Year’s Defense Plan, during which funding for development of new capabilities is planned to decrease while spending on procurement is projected to go mainly to upgraded versions of today’s EW and EMSO systems.”

Moreover, at the current pace, DoD will need a decade or more to address gaps relative to Russian and Chinese militaries, the report states. Of note, the report points out that Russia has modernized 80 to 90 percent of its EW units in the past decade with 70 percent of pre-2009 systems set to be replaced by 2020. By contrast, the DoD largely did away with much of its EW units and capabilities in the last decade.

This imbalance in capabilities risks Russia and China’s continued pursuit of objectives through gray-zone operations, political warfare and/or military aggression.

CSBA identified asymmetries between U.S. capabilities and strategies and those of competitors, as opposed to identifying specific gaps or shortfalls, because fully mitigating all gaps could be infeasible given fiscal and temporal constraints. Instead of building or revising electronic warfare capabilities to avoid all adversary jammers and sensors, DoD should pursue a more proactive strategic approach, argues the study.

Instead of deterring great powers through a credible ability to delay, degrade or deny enemy capabilities, for example, DoD should focus its electromagnetic concepts and capability development on opportunities to reduce the confidence of militaries.

One of the biggest challenges for U.S. forces, CSBA highlights throughout its report, is that it will always have to fight away games. Russia and China benefit from being able to deploy systems closer to home in their sphere of influence as a means of having a leg up on U.S. forces, which must be more expeditionary by nature.

The report notes four categories that trends and asymmetries fall into:

Challenges DoD should acknowledge and try to mitigate. While some asymmetries are nearly insurmountable, DoD should focus on mitigating some, such as reducing their impact through new approaches to defense innovation or challenging Chinese and Russian EMS superiority in areas outside their primary regions of military concern.
Challenges DoD should attempt to alleviate or overcome. DoD can focus more intensely on experimentation on par with adversaries shifting from live training and certification toward virtual and constructive training, which could level the playing field in experimentation and concept development.
Challenges that could be turned to opportunities. DoD could accelerate the development and fielding of adaptive or cognitive multifunction capabilities in new or existing systems and begin experimenting with the electromagnetic battle management capabilities in development by the services. By decoupling systems from specific functions or frequencies, DoD could reduce its battle management challenges while turning the number of EW systems in the Russian and Chinese militaries into a battle management liability.
Opportunities DoD should more fully exploit. U.S. forces could exploit proximity of allies to conduct EW operations against Chinese and Russian forces during peacetime and support resilient operations during conflict.

The report offers four recommendations:

Implement new operational concepts that employ maneuver and complexity, enabling full exploitation of EW and EMSO;
Adopt more opportunity-based, rather than requirements-based, innovation;
Implement maneuver warfare in the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning; and
Emphasize virtual and constructive EW and EMSO training at the expense of live events. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)

19 Nov 19. Thales unveils new digital platform to optimise and strengthen customers’ security capabilities.

To address the evolving threat landscape, Thales has developed a new solution for security operators based on a digital platform that is open to third-party systems.
The platform acts as a digital command centre that ties together a vast array of sensors and sources and uses algorithms to process and analyse their data, enabling human operators to focus on their value-added tasks and ensuring optimum security for sensitive sites, cities and events.
Based on a private, public or hybrid cloud architecture, the platform benefits from the Group’s investments over recent years in the key digital technologies — cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, Big Data and connectivity.

With the new security solution unveiled at Milipol Paris 2019, Thales is anticipating the future security requirements of operators responsible for keeping the public safe, from threat prediction to response, including incident detection and situation awareness. The solution seamlessly integrates all types of security systems and services, and offers unrivalled data processing performance to cover the full spectrum of operator requirements.

This fully fledged digital command centre from Thales is based on a platform that processes and analyses the huge volumes of data generated by thousands of physical and virtual sensors. This new solution enables security operators to better anticipate, detect and resolve incidents and supports them at every stage of the process.

Today, operators are faced with an exponential rise in the volume of data from an increasing number of sources, including physical sensors, virtual sensors and open-source intelligence. Thales’s new solution ties together, processes and analyses all this data on a single digital platform to optimise security systems and make them more automated, more agile and more intelligent.

The security digital platform can be specifically tailored to the requirements of each customer. It offers a host of functions and simplifies operators’ tasks, from anticipation to forensics, surveillance, and incident detection and resolution.

Because security and mobility are closely interconnected, the platform can host customers’ mobility-related applications — road traffic management, pollution monitoring, public transport administration, traffic incident management, etc. — and process application data to ensure operational efficiency and continuity in any given location (sensitive site, city, neighbourhood, airport, etc.).

“The challenge of the security sector today is to provide customers with tailored, scalable solutions that help them tackle three key issues: the exponential rise in the volume of data from physical and virtual sensors; the need for greater automation and closer cooperation between the various security agencies; and protection from cyberattacks. Thales’s new security solution meets these requirements and supports our customers at every stage of their operational missions.” Gérard Herby, Vice President, Protection Systems, Thales.

Based on a private, public or hybrid cloud architecture, the platform benefits from the Group’s investments over recent years in the key digital technologies — cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, Big Data and connectivity.

The new platform is a game-changer for security operators, bringing them the agility and intelligence they need to provide optimum security for sensitive sites, cities and large-scale events.

Use case scenario of end-to-end incident handling on the new Thales platform

At a large-scale event, several sensors detect a suspicious package. The data from these sensors is correlated on the platform, which quickly confirms the incident and provides the experts with the additional information they need, such as the level of risk, the area affected and the number of people in the vicinity.

Security command personnel use the platform to quickly make a decision, advise all relevant stakeholders and coordinate agents on the ground. The platform also analyses event attendance data so that operators can communicate efficiently with the public, only alerting the people in the affected area so that a possible evacuation can be conducted more smoothly and the incident can be resolved swiftly and efficiently.

19 Nov 19. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is seeking expressions of interest from Australian industry to join them in their efforts to support the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) with Project AIR6500. Under AIR6500, the RAAF will develop a 5th generation multi-domain joint battle management system (JBMS) to enable coordination of air battle management, joint weapons employment, and ground-based air defence in operational theatres.

“Northrop Grumman aims to lead industry support to the RAAF as it fields a survivable, scalable and modern, next-generation JBMS under AIR6500. We’re committed to a sovereign capability that’s designed and developed through close collaboration with other Australian industry members,” said Chris Deeble, chief executive, Northrop Grumman Australia. “We recognize that a program of this size, scope and complexity will demand the most innovative, best-of-breed capabilities and a prime systems integrator partnering with Australian industry who can deliver world class capabilities to the Australian Defence Force.”

Northrop Grumman is engaging with a range of industry members, including small businesses, with the goal of creating an Australian AIR6500 solution that brings the best capability for the best value. The ICN Gateway Portal will serve as the primary vehicle for potential suppliers to register expressions of interest and share information about their competencies and skills.

Northrop Grumman delivers agile, modular open systems network architectures and complex, system-of-systems integration that enable joint and coalition interoperability. Our approach increases situational awareness, facilitates rapid and cost effective technology insertion and modernization, and reduces cost per engagement to deliver affordable solutions and accommodate changing environments.

18 Nov 19. USAF establishes Cyberspace Capabilities Center under ACC. The US Air Force (USAF) has established a Cyberspace Capabilities Center (CCC) during a ceremony at Scott Air Force Base to streamline communications enterprise. CCC was created by combining the Air Combat Command’s Cyberspace Support Squadron, Air Force Network Integration Center (AFNIC), and the 38th Cyberspace Readiness Squadron. The merged entities were deactivated during the ceremony.

The centre falls under Air Combat Command (ACC) and will help the USAF bridge the gaps in cyber support and synchronise enterprise requirements.

Air Combat Command cyberspace and information dominance director brigadier general Chad Radeuge said: “The continuing and expanding demands on our cyberspace enterprise requires us to find better ways to organise, train and equip those forces. Consolidation allows the reinvestment of resources to manage centralised cyberspace requirements, enabling warfighter needs and to improve the delivery of capabilities for mission readiness. Airforce cyber capabilities are intertwined with the intelligence, command and control, air superiority, personnel recovery and precision attack missions that we are responsible for. This (realignment) streamlines how the airforce presents forces to joint commanders, and it improves our ability to integrate cyber and air operations to improve our effectiveness in multiple domains.”

The new CCC will allow the service to improve the way it provides enterprise IT capabilities. In addition, the centre will develop airmen working in the mission set.

Former AFNIC commander colonel Marc Packler has been appointed the commander of the CCC while chief master sergeant Addison Spencer is the new superintendent. ACC was tasked with handling cyber responsibilities during last year.

The realignment is aimed at enabling the USAF to support the ‘National Defense Strategy’s goal of preparing for a future high-end fight’. (Source: airforce-technology.com)

16 Nov 19. Tech Data launches cyber range to fight simulated threats. Tech Data has opened a cyber range in Tempe, Arizona, to provide an environment for testing security technologies and training to prevent, detect and respond to simulated cyberthreats, the company said in a Wednesday news release. The company said the facility was built in response to a growing sense of urgency for cybersecurity threat preparedness. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, 3.5 million cybersecurity positions will be unfilled by 2021, and that skills gap continues to grow.

“To help address these issues in an ever-changing marketplace, the Tech Data Cyber Range will immerse users in a ‘safe’ environment,” Tech Data’s release said.

The cyber range will serve as a place for Tech Data’s vendor partners to test and demonstrate technologies to their customers to build on cybersecurity solutions and mitigate cyberthreats, the company said.

Tech Data is partnered with the National Cyber Warfare Foundation, which built its own cyberwarfare range in 2012. (Source: Defense News)

17 Nov 19. How Lockheed Martin Is Trying To Link Everything on the Battlefield. Experiment by experiment, the company is weaving aircraft, ground vehicles, satellites, and the rest into a network that will someday give commanders unprecedented decision-support options.

The Pentagon’s efforts to digitally connect everything on the battlefield is has a big challenge to overcome: getting disparate vehicles and weapons to share data.

“The interoperability of various, different systems, that’s really where we are struggling. We don’t have that machine to machine connection to begin with,” Air Force Brig. Gen. David Kumashiro recently told the audience at last week’s Defense One Outlook 2020 conference.

Over the past several years, Lockheed Martin officials say they’ve been working to build those connections, piece by piece and plane by plane. They started by asking, “How would we go fight in 2030, 2045?” and then working backwards, J.D. Hammond, vice president of C4ISR systems, told reporters at one of the company’s offices. The company began by asking “How would we go fight in 2030, 2045?” They started with an idea of the state they wanted to reach and then worked backward.

In 2013, the company launched a project, dubbed Missouri, to link the stealthy F-22 and F-35 combat jets. The Air Force has announced that they are to test a similar link next month, but the Air Force is establishing more complete linkages, including new forms of secure radio linkagages using software defined radio, and also including other assets such as Valkyrie drones. In 2015, they launched Project Iguana, extending the datalinks to the high-flying U-2 spy plane, fourth-generation combat aircraft such as the F-16, and satellites. In February 2018, they conducted an experiment under DARPA’s SoSITE program that added other aircraft and a ground station. In April, their RIOT experiment connecting jets to ground vehicles.

Experiment by experiment, Lockheed tried to “systematically work” to build the components of a larger network of networks, said Hammond.

There are four experiments projects planned for next year: Mayhem, focusing on links for satellites; Edison, datalinks for the Navy; Brennan, aircraft and Army units; and Project CASTL, satellites and a “space tactical layer”.

Ultimately, Lockheed wants all this to add up to a “virtualized cloud-based architecture.” Think of it like the branches of a tree. A handful of ships and planes might form one network. That will, in turn, connect to a larger network that would, in turn, would be connected to the larger JEDI cloud.

“You end up with virtual private clouds on the edge with a computing architecture you could have on an aircraft, on a ship, or any of the deployed nodes,” said John Clark, Lockheed’s vice president of intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance and unmanned aerial systems.

Most of the linked aircraft and ships in these experiments carry an Enterprise Mission Computer 2.0 — dubbed “Einstein box” after its abbreviation, EMC2 — that translates each platform’s data into a shared protocol that can go out to the larger wireless network.

Lockheed officials hope that bringing all these pieces together will enable a new sort of operating system for warfare. They showed journalists a new experimental battle management display to illustrate the concept.

The system presents the operator with a list of effects, from devastating explosions to a quiet disabling of some enemy system; a list of available assets, including planes or drones; a map of targets; and recommendations for the best way to deliver effects to targets. As circumstances change — fuel gets low, ammunition is depleted, targets are destroyed, new enemy forces arrive, etc. — the system can send out alerts that a new plan is needed — or automatically update the plan with new instructions for pilots and drone operators. It all depends on how high the operator wants to set the autonomy.

That vision is very different from the way mission tasking works today. Preston Dunlap, the chief architect of the Air Force, said at the Defense One Outlook 2020 conference, “Right now, our commanders are very limited in who they can assign to do certain” things. “More often than not, you have to assign someone because they happen to be in front of a specific place in front of a specific computer,” he said.

Of course, realtime data sharing across platforms isn’t a simple or clear-cut affair, even after successful experimentation. The years-long problems with Lockheed’s Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS, for the F-35 show how hard it can be simply to share data between operators and just one platform. The challenges of sharing data between multiple platforms, in the middle of battle in a highly contested airspace, are far larger.

But commanders say they must try. “In terms of where our adversaries are,” Kumashiro said, U.S. forces have “a need to have this joint all-domain command-and-control system.” (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense One)

15 Nov 19. USAF selects L3Harris and Northrop for F-16 EW prototypes. The US Air Force (USAF) has selected L3Harris Technologies and Northrop Grumman to demonstrate new electronic warfare (EW) prototypes for the F-16 Fighting Falcon. L3Harris and Northrop Grumman were awarded other transaction agreements to develop and demonstrate the technology to protect the USAF’s F-16 fleet from radar threats. As part of the project, L3Harris will build and test an integrated digital radar warning receiver electronic countermeasures solution based on proven technologies.

L3Harris Technologies Space and Airborne Systems president Ed Zoiss said: “L3Harris is delivering an integrated EW suite based on proven technologies from across the newly merged companies that will provide F-16 pilots with the most sophisticated, high-performance EW needed to defeat advanced and emerging threats. We’re leveraging technology synergies and innovations from across the company as a result of the merger, perhaps none more exciting and game-changing for our customers than in the area of EW and spectrum dominance.”

Under the agreements, both companies will work with non-traditional defence contractors to deliver the project. Northrop Grumman will demonstrate a digital radar warning receiver and an internally mounted EW suite.

The company said that the prototype provides threat identification, spherical radar warning and countermeasure capabilities. The solution is intended to ensure protection of pilots against ‘modern electromagnetic spectrum threats’.

Northrop Grumman land and avionics C4ISR vice-president Brent Toland said: “Providing advanced electronic warfare capabilities to the F-16 community is critically important to the future survivability of the platform, especially as the electromagnetic spectrum becomes increasingly contested.

“Our system builds on our long experience with the F-16 and other military aircraft to provide the warfighter with the ability to operate seamlessly against the threats that are continuing to grow in sophistication.” (Source: airforce-technology.com)

15 Nov 19. Rohde & Schwarz delivers communications suite for Lekiu-class frigates of the Royal Malaysian Navy, on budget and ahead of time, increasing the installed base in Malaysia. The Royal Malaysian Navy’s Lekiu-class frigates, KD Jebat and KD Lekiu, are the most modern surface ships of the service, serving in the 23 Frigate Squadron. To ensure seamless connectivity and support the mission, Rohde & Schwarz has delivered and commissioned its NAVICS IP integrated communications system (ICS) into the Lekiu-class frigates of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Working for a contract with Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (part of Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Bhd – BHIC), the independent company completed the project on budget and three months ahead of time.

Having upgraded the vessels with NAVICS, and modern software defined radios of R&S M3SR (Series4100 HF, Series4400 VHF/UHF), Rohde & Schwarz also integrates and interfaces with present third party systems on board such as Datalink, message handling, public address and ship telephone system.

“We are very proud to be integrated in two major naval assets for Malaysia and honored to be working with a great partner, Boustead Naval Shipyard,” Hansjörg Herrbold, Vice President Market Segment Navy Rohde & Schwarz, says. “Providing a safe, future-ready investment for the Royal Malaysian Navy in time and on budget, NAVICS interconnects the onboard services – voice, message handling and C4I.”

Rohde & Schwarz has provided more than 40 navies with state-of-the-art communications technology, and in the last fiscal year, contracted 14 additional platforms with NAVICS integrated naval communications systems. NAVICS references includes the Royal Navy’s Type 26 Global Combat Ship (GCS).

15 Nov 19. Perspecta Labs to demo integrated network planner prototype for US. Perspecta Labs will demonstrate an integrated network planner prototype for the US Army. Credit: Perspecta Labs. Perspecta Labs has received a $6m award to develop and demonstrate an integrated network planner prototype (INPP) for the US Army. Under the contract, Perspecta Labs will design, implement and evaluate the INPP to help improve the army’s tactical network operations (NetOps) capability.

The contract will run for one year. The prototype will ensure support for product types in the tactical network, as well as integrate planning and provisioning tools. The company said that the INPP will support the US Army in its efforts to ‘deliver seamless, assured command, control and communications for joint, coalition and civil missions worldwide’.

Perspecta Labs president Petros Mouchtaris said: “At Perspecta Labs, we are always looking for an opportunity to advance the capabilities of our customers with next-level innovation. We are excited to leverage our technical and systems development expertise to improve the planning, managing and operating capabilities of this critical army infrastructure.”

The firm will develop a solution that will improve the NetOps capability for the tactical portion of the Department of Defense Information Network for the US Army. The INPP solution will feature software modularity, simplified workflows and visualisation. Improvements will deliver benefits such as reduced complexity and training, as well as flexible operations.

Last month, Perspecta Labs received a five-year task order from the US Army to continue supporting the cybersecurity Collaborative Research Alliance (CRA) programme.

The company will provide applied research, experimentation, maturation and validation under the applied research and experimentation partner task order. (Source: army-technology.com)

18 Nov 19. OCSC calls on Australia to improve cyber security resilience for ourselves and region. Australia’s premier cyber security research organisation, the Oceania Cyber Security Centre (OCSC), has implored the country’s policy makers, industry and research community to place a greater emphasis on improving local and regional cyber security resilience in order to protect the national interests of Australia and close neighbour states. The OCSC is a not-for-profit collaboration of eight universities based in Victoria, Australia, with the “broad aim” of engaging with government and industry to conduct research, develop training opportunities and build capacity in Australia and across the Oceania region for responding to current and emerging cyber security issues.

Last week, the OCSC held its inaugural Project Showcase event in Melbourne, with chairman Cameron Boardman delivering an address in which he noted that the rapid growth and proliferation of notifiable data breaches was proof that Australia and its smaller neighbouring island states remain ill-equipped to deal with arguably the most proximate and prominent threat to their respective economies and national security.

“The number of notifiable data breaches is growing steadily and significantly. Understanding where the gaps are is critical to lessening the ability of bad actors or cyber criminals to attack a nation, its peoples and their allies,” Boardman said.

“It’s also important to note the stepping stones or ‘hop points’ for a cyber attack are not just limited to smaller, developing economies. There are examples of cyber attacks where trusted suppliers in ‘developed’ economies have been infiltrated to gain access upstream into more secure environments.”

The centre’s eight university partners, as well as over 120 specialist information technology and cyber security researchers within them, provide the foundation to work with private enterprises and the public sector to identify and develop solutions to complex security threats.

The first ever showcase event allowed leading cyber security researchers from OCSC member universities to present current proof of concept projects to an audience of some 200 academic peers and industry representatives.

“The OCSC is committed to working with the Australian and regional governments to prioritise and drive projects that can help build national cyber security capacity across Australia and the region and create a free and safe cyber space for all,” Boardman said.

Nine first-round collaborative projects were showcased in total, with Carsten Rudolph, associate professor for cyber security at Monash University and OCSC director, saying the event not only presented an opportunity to showcase the projects underway, but also provided a critical juncture between researchers and industry to strengthen opportunities for further collaboration and applications.

“An important part of our remit at OCSC is to not only showcase the available research but to catalyse collaboration opportunities between universities and the wider industry communities, including both private enterprise and the public sector,” Rudolph said.

“We are proud to present the first round of nine collaborative projects and we are committed to seeing them through to fruition as tools and solutions with real-world practical applications that can improve the cyber security resilience of Australia and our neighbour states across Oceania.”

The Victorian government provides “substantial support” for the OCSC to carry out its operations, with its key areas of interest including:

Critical infrastructure;
Data analytics;
Network security;
Cryptography;
Privacy and social media;
AI and automation; and
Organisational security.

The centre’s flagship project is the Cybersecurity Capacity Maturity Model for Nations (CMM), which has been deployed to over 70 countries.

The OCSC works in collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre to complete national level cyber security capacity policy assessments predominately in the Pacific region.

OCSC’s other key partners to deliver these projects are the Global Forum on Cyber Security, the International Telecommunication Union and the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre, the regional internet address registry. To date, the OCSC has completed CMMs for Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati. (Source: Defence Connect)

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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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