Sponsored By Oxley Developments
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20 Jun 24. BAE Newest Cross Domain Solution Passes UK CAPS Evaluation.
BAE Systems’ Cross Domain Solution (CDS) – the XTS IRIS Large Scale Enterprise platform – has successfully passed the UK CAPS evaluation alongside our Secure Voice and Video Gateway (SVG) Application.
The CAPS process verifies that High Assurance products have met the approved standards (set out by HMG policy) to be employed where cross-domain products are used to safeguard government classified data.
This certification builds on over 15 years of BAE Systems’ involvement in the creation of hardware-based Cross Domain Solutions, covering a multitude of use cases:
- Secure Voice and Video collaboration across trust domain
- Secure and controlled Import and Export (ImpEx) of structured and unstructured data types, and
- Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) protection,
- Safe Browsing (accessing) of different trust domains
The BAE Systems XTS IRIS Large Scale Enterprise Platform is a scalable, modular hardware-based appliance with wire-speed throughput of 160Gbps – a generational leap ahead of other CDS on the market.
At the heart of the platform are our advanced FPGA Processing Blades, which host our key security controls and filters that provide the assurance that your data (and nothing else) is securely transferred across domains. Without the large attack surface of general purpose operating systems that underpin traditional software-based CDS, we can give organisations the confidence to be more ambitious in collaborating internally and externally with partners.
Complementing our hardware-based solutions, we also produce a suite of software-based tools and filters that allow our customers to build advanced CDS to cover complex use cases.
Securely developed and manufactured in the 5 Eyes utilising a secure supply chain, this capability is available to customers today. Get in touch to discover how we can help you unlock the productivity gains that advanced collaboration and data-sharing can bring to your organisation.
We are also transferring this technology to the US, with the SVG and XTS IRIS Platform entering the NCDSMO Lab-Based Security Assessment (LBSA) against the Raise the Bar (RTB) 4.1 requirement set, with expected completion in 2025.(Source: ASD Network)
19 Jun 24. US Army moves out on digital engineering strategy. The Army is embarking on a strategy to implement a digital engineering environment meant to speed the pace, lower the cost and reduce risk in weapons systems development, according to Jennifer Swanson, the service’s deputy assistant secretary for data, engineering and software within its acquisition branch.
Gabe Camarillo, the Army under secretary, who previewed the effort last fall, signed the directive in May, Swanson said, which enables the Army to grow its digital engineering capability across the force using current development programs to pave the way while promoting increased interoperability and developing a capable and experienced workforce.
Already, the defense industry is using digital engineering, including digital twins, to develop future vertical lift aircraft, combat vehicles and even hypersonic weapons.
“We view digital engineering as the linchpin of all the digital transformation efforts that we have ongoing today,” Swanson said in a June 18 press briefing at the Pentagon.
“Data, the way that software communicates, the output of that software, and how we inform our soldiers and commanders to make real time decisions, [artificial intelligence] [are] pivotal, critical,” she said. “Leveraging that data, leveraging those software capabilities; digital engineering is really how it all comes together,”
The directive policy has four tenets. The first is to establish digital engineering focus areas, the second is to promote interoperability and implementation across the force, the third is to establish and monitor programs identified as “pathfinders” and the fourth is to develop talent and expertise.
The Army has identified three focus areas for the strategy: Ground vehicles; aviation; and sensors.
The aviation focus area takes many lessons learned from industry which has been using digital engineering for aircraft design heavily. The Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, one of the DE pathfinder programs, was designed from the beginning in a digital environment and has served as a prime example for how the service plans to develop major weapon systems digitally going forward. FLRAA was built and flown in record time because it was designed digitally.
The ground vehicle focus area will draw from the automotive industry, according to the directive, which, “leverages DE heavily in designing cars and trucks today and has gained tremendous efficiencies and increased quality as a result.”
The Army is already using digital engineering in its XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle competitive design effort from the very beginning and is therefore one of the service’s pathfinder programs to “illustrate DE’s potential contributions, highlight existing policies and processes that may hinder a program’s ability to implement DE and identify how to advance DE adoption in various contexts,” the directive states.
XM30 program challenges
The challenges programs face as they begin to implement digital engineering as part of the design and development process were recently highlighted in the XM30 program. In the Government Accountability Office’s weapon systems annual assessment, officials found “it took longer to release the request for proposals due to a lack of experience with digital engineering while directing contractors to use specific software design approaches.”
Additionally, the Army “lacked precedent for scoping a digital open architecture project, which delayed the Source Selection and Evaluation Board process,” the GAO found.
XM30 was “really first in terms of putting [DE] out in an RFP that way,” Swanson said. “There was learning to be done and so I think that’s why it took a little bit longer, but I think sometimes you do have to go a little slow to go fast because I think they will absolutely benefit and the return on investment is there.”
One of the challenges that still exists, and that the XM30 program is working through, is related “to the fact that we don’t have interoperable digital engineering tools in industry,” Swanson said. “It’s a big problem.”
The Army “is not going to direct everybody to use a certain tool,” she said. “The lack of ability to cleanly and easily share data between all those tools causes challenges and that’s not just inherent to what we’re doing. That’s across the industry.”
The industry is planning to adopt new standards for digital engineering tools to increase interoperability to solve that challenge, Swanson said. The goal to establish those standards is targeted for the end of the summer, she added.
Other pathfinder programs the Army is using to guide its digital engineering transformation are the Integrated Fires Mission Command, the Joint Targeting Integrated Command and Control Suite, the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier and the Program Executive Office Aviation Logistics Data Analysis Lab for UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache helicopters.
Selecting some older programs as pathfinders, like the M113, may come as a surprise, but according to Swanson, the M113 has a digital twin
“There is a lot of reuse of parts between the M113 and our newer vehicles and so being able to take that digital twin, leverage it and evolve, it is great,” she said.
One of the bigger challenges as the Army seeks to execute the directive will be to extend digital engineering capabilities beyond the development realm.
“We want to build those digital threads from requirements all the way to sustainment,” Swanson said. “That requires all of our partners within the Army that help us acquire these technologies and these programs and so that’s really what this directive is about is being able to set the stage to enable everybody else to do it.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
20 Jun 24. Inertial Labs Releases New GPS-Aided Inertial Navigation System. Built using Tactical-grade Fiber Optic Gyroscope technology, the new INS-FI by Inertial Labs has an IP67 rating ensuring exceptional durability and performance in harsh environmentsBy Sarah Simpson / 19 Jun 2024.
Inertial Labs has introduced the INS-FI, the company’s latest GPS-Aided Inertial Navigation System developed using Tactical-grade Fiber Optic Gyroscope (FOG) technology.
The INS-FI incorporates Inertial Labs’ latest onboard sensor fusion filter, cutting-edge navigation and guidance algorithms, and advanced calibration software. This integration ensures optimal performance and reliability, making the INS-FI an invaluable tool for diverse navigation needs.
Commenting on the new release CEO of Inertial Labs Jamie Marraccini, said “The INS-FI represents a significant milestone in our mission to provide superior navigation solutions. With its advanced FOG technology and robust design, the INS-FI sets a new standard for performance and reliability in the industry. We are excited to offer this groundbreaking product to our customers worldwide.”
A leading innovator in navigation and positioning solutions Inertial Labs designed the INS-FI to achieve an IP67 rating, ensuring exceptional durability and performance in the harshest environments and significantly ruggedized and shielded against EMC/EMI.
The fully integrated INS-FI includes an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) that combines Fiber Optic Gyroscopes and MEMS Accelerometers. Additionally, it features an all-constellations GNSS receiver with multiple bands (supporting GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BEIDOU, and NAVIC). This sophisticated system provides precise horizontal and vertical positions, velocity, and absolute orientation (Heading, Pitch, and Roll) for any mounted device and maintains high accuracy for both stationary and dynamic applications.
Key features:
High-Performance FOG IMU: Measures GNSS-free Heading (True North) with less than 0.5-degree error.
Accurate Positioning: Delivers horizontal and vertical positions with approximately 0.1% error of distance traveled for land applications and five nautical miles per hour drift for aerospace (UAV) applications without GNSS signal.
Compatibility: Fully compatible with Inertial Labs’ ADC (Air Data Computer), VINS (Visual Inertial Navigation Systems), and SAMC (Stand-Alone Magnetic Compass).
Inertial Labs are currently exhibiting the latest inertial navigation systems at Eurosatory 2024, Hall 5a, CD189. (Source: https://www.defenseadvancement.com/)
18 Jun 24. France preps Europe’s fastest classified supercomputer for defense AI. France plans to build Europe’s most powerful classified supercomputer to take the lead in artificial intelligence for defense purposes, Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced at the Eurosatory defense show here.
The Armed Forces Ministry will make computing time available to the Higher Education Ministry and other government departments, and also allow French defense firms to run AI solutions in a secure and protected environment, according to Lecornu. Lecornu said he’s not providing details on the capacity of the super calculator for AI applications, which is planned for 2025.
France in March announced plans to reallocate €2 bn of funding from the 2024-2030 defense budget to artificial intelligence. Lecornu said AI will be a differentiating factor between countries, creating a break between those left behind and those who manage to hang on.
“The challenge for the French team is obviously to be among those that stand out in this field,” Lecornu said. “When it comes to military AI, we’ll be the European power that’s best prepared, that’s going to devote the most resources to it.”
France, with its army that deploys operationally, will be capable of developing “not theoretical AI but combat AI, and that fundamentally is going to change the game.”
Lecornu said the technology is already being used in the French Army “everywhere,” with the Caesar howitzer using AI to aid with target acquisition by drone, a development resulting from the needs of Ukrainian gunners in their war against Russia, while the Air Force uses artificial intelligence in pilot training.
In terms of capacity sharing with civilian applications, the ministry will use the same model as that used by the French Atomic Energy Commission in the 1960s, Lecornu said. The Armed Forces Ministry in March announced the creation of a ministerial agency for artificial intelligence in defense, known by its French acronym Amiad.
“It’s such a revolution, artificial intelligence, in many respects as profound as the atom in the aftermath of World War II,” Lecornu said. “The particularity of our business is that it’s unthinkable to run AI on potentially classified material in a network that isn’t completely secure.”
France isn’t the only country to have identified AI as a military priority. U.S. Department of Defense spending on AI nearly tripled in the one-year period ending in August 2023 to $557 m, according to analysis by the Brookings Institution published in March.
The fastest supercomputer in Europe is Finland’s LUMI, with a performance rating of 380 Petaflop/s, or 380 quadrillion floating-point operations per second, which puts it in fifth position globally, according to the Top500 ranking as of June. Two of the world’s most powerful supercomputers use architecture by Eviden, a unit of French company Atos: Leonardo in Italy and MareNostrum in Spain.
One challenge France faces is retaining skilled engineers, with competition from tech companies such as Google and Apple that offer better salaries, Lecornu said. Retaining talent is a question of sovereignty, and it’s an issue the AI agency will tackle, according to the minister, who didn’t provide details on how that might be achieved. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley offer a range of Military Marine NVG friendly LED lighting that includes navigation lights and controls, flight deck landing lights and interior compartment lighting. Our lighting products are used by Navies around the world including our own Royal Navy on UK Aircraft Carriers, Canadian Frigates, Swedish Submarines, Australian Surface vessels and Submarines, on board French Naval Carriers and in Naval Gun Turrets.
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The technology is extremely energy efficient and built robustly, with proven long life. The lighting is NVG friendly, dimmable and programmable to allow for operations with aircraft pilots using military night vision goggles. They offer superior design giving high reliability for the most demanding environments with high sealing and the ability to meet the most stringent EMC standards.
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Oxley are proud to say that we are working in partnership with SeaKing to enable a control panel to be offered with our LED Navigation Lighting. All of Oxley navigation lights have been specifically developed for vessels over 50 metres.
Contact Marcus Goad on 07850 917 263 for more information or to arrange samples.
Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.
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