30 Jun 16. KRET to develop electronic warfare system for military aircraft. Russian firm Rostec’s Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET) is to develop electronic warfare system for the sixth-generation military aircraft. The electronic warfare system will provide individual protection and will be focused on resistance to threats, the company said. The hypersonic, multifunctional aircraft will be fitted with antenna systems and instrumentation units that will be integrated with avionics of various radio frequency, as well as communication systems, data transfer, identification of the state, navigation, central and peripheral computers and specialised calculators. According to a statement posted on the company’s website, the principle of integration is a fundamental approach to the design and construction of advanced aircraft’s electronic warfare. The systems and electronic warfare of the aircraft are equipped with wideband receivers and use digital signal processing, for automatic software databases’ formation for radiation sources’ classification and identification, as well as for the decision on the radio-electronic protection and electronic suppression. KRET first deputy director-general adviser Vladimir Mikheev said: “In addition, the most advanced system provides highly accurate geolocation, sufficient for the use of guided weapons.”
The aircraft’s sample, with completely automated defence systems, will take its maiden flight during the period up to 2025.
KRET said that the military aircraft can fly with or without a pilot.
The company is currently carrying out scientific work for the sixth-generation military aircraft. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
28 Jun 16. False Flags: The Kremlin’s Hidden Hand. The notorious hacking gang calling itself the Cyber Caliphate might not be what it claims to be. For two years the so-called Cyber Caliphate has been the online weapon brandished by the Islamic State against its enemies. Its hacking offensive, including aggressive use of social media, made front-page news around the world, heralding a new front in that murderous group’s worldwide jihad against “infidels.”
Pledging support to ISIS, the Cyber Caliphate hacked and defaced U.S. Government websites and social media feeds, including those of Central Command, the Pentagon’s Middle East headquarters. Numerous smaller cyber-attacks followed. They also hacked into Department of Defense databases and posted the personal information of 1,400 American military affiliates online.
The Cyber Caliphate has attacked targets in many countries, including allegedly accessing top secret emails belonging to senior British government officials. The most public of their attacks was the April 2015 hijacking of several feeds belonging to the French channel TV5Monde, which included defacing its website with the slogan “Je suis ISIS.” This assault, seen by millions of people worldwide, gave the group the notoriety it craved.
The American-led coalition against ISIS has taken the Cyber Caliphate threat seriously, devoting significant intelligence resources to tracking and studying the group. Western fears increased this April with the announcement that disparate ISIS hackers were merging, creating a new United Cyber Caliphate, designed to be a major expansion of the existing Cyber Caliphate. Drawing together jihadist hackers from many countries, this would constitute a major online threat.
In response, the Pentagon in late February announced the unleashing of real cyber-war against ISIS, including attacks by U.S. Cyber Command against the Islamic state’s communications, in an effort to disrupt their activities both kinetic and online. Neither are the Pentagon’s efforts to shut down the Islamic State’s online antics limited to the Internet. In August 2015, a drone-strike at Raqqa, ISIS’s Syrian stronghold, killed Junaid Hussain, a 21-year-old British jihadist of Pakistani origin who was the group’s best-known hacker.
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