30 Sep 14. SEWIP Block 2 set for at-sea operational test. Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training has completed the installation of a first SLQ-32(V) shipborne electronic warfare (EW) system upgraded under Block 2 of the US Navy’s (USN’s) Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP). According to the company, the DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA guided-missile destroyer USS Bainbridge received the SEWIP Block 2 system in July for operational testing. The Block 2 implementation has received the in-service designation AN/SLQ-32(V)6. Established in 2002, the SEWIP programme encompasses a set of incremental upgrades for the legacy SLQ-32 EW system. Originally developed by Raytheon, and fielded from the late 1970s onwards, SLQ-32 is a family of shipborne EW outfits providing detection, analysis, threat warning, and (in some variants) electronic attack functionality. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
02 Oct 14. U.S. Navy stands up first cyber type command. Submarines have a three-star type commander who oversees their force. So do ship crews, aviation squadrons, and expeditionary sailors likes Seabees and divers. Now Navy hackers have their own, too. The newest TYCOM stood up Tuesday with the creation of Navy Information Dominance Forces, which will align several different cyber and technology commands under one roof. NAVIDFOR, as it will be known, will consolidate missions, functions and tasks from Navy Cyber Forces Command, Fleet Cyber Command, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command and the Office of Naval Intelligence, according to a Wednesday release from NCF. “The standup of the NAVIDFOR TYCOM directly supports integration of ID capabilities throughout the Navy and is a natural progression in the development of an ID force capable of delivering assured command and control, battlespace awareness and integrated fires,” said Rear Adm. Diane Webber, the newly minted NAVIDFOR commander, in the release. The shift gives information dominance the same kind of command structure that other weapons systems fall under, the way surface ships’ manning and training is overseen by Naval Surface Forces. Ditto for aircraft training and manpower falling under Naval Air Forces. “NAVIDFOR’s establishment is the next step in the evolution of ID as a Navy warfighting discipline,” Webber said. Webber, who has been commanding officer of NCF since Sept. 2013, will serve just a few days with NAVIDFOR. Rear Adm. Matthew Kohler, director of intelligence operations at ONI, will relieve her on Friday. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Navy News)
01 Oct 14. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working on new ways to protect information and systems that use the Internet, said Arati Prabhakar, the agency’s director. The current mode of protection “patch and pray” really doesn’t work anymore, Prabhakar told the Washington Post’s Cybersecurity Summit. DARPA is working to improve cyber security, and Prabhakar discussed the historical background as National Cyber Security Awareness Month kicked off. The agency formed after the Soviet Union shocked the world with the launch of the world’s first satellite in 1957. Many Americans believed the United States had lost the space race and Soviet domination of space threatened the existence of the free world. President Dwight D. Eisenhower created DARPA in response to this threat. The agency mission was not to develop the next technology, but to leap ahead to a whole new generation of technology. And the agency has been successful. DARPA developed what became the Internet and the first information began flowing on it in 1969. The Pentagon agency has been working on cyber security ever since. One of the agency’s projects is to build software that is not hackable. “What that means is there is a mathematical proof that this particular function can’t be hacked from a pathway that wasn’t intended,” Prabhakar said in response to a reporter’s question. “That won’t solve the entire problem, but it might