August 23, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Mark Pomerleau
There is a lot of hype about cyber or digital war, especially considering how cyber has become a vector allowing nations and organizations to achieve objectives below thresholds of conflict.
In this new cyber and digital conflict domain, traditional conceptions are being flipped on their heads.
Here are three potential trends that could factor into this increasingly dynamic environment.
For one, data is becoming a natural resource, Col. Steve Rehn, the cyber capability manager for the Army Cyber Center of Excellence, said Aug. 22 during a presentation at TechNet Augusta.
Rehn predicts that at some point there will be a conflict based purely on data based on the harvesting of data and the protection of data.
The desire for data will be so great and so critical that nation states are going to want to defend and go after it.
China is largely believed to be behind the breach of millions of personnel files from the Office of Personnel Management in 2015, which experts believe. Experts believe the purloining of this data, which includes the most sensitive personal information for federal employees with security clearance, was done solely for espionage and counterintelligence, not for economic gain as none of the information such as social security numbers have appeared on the dark web for sale.
Full article: https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/technet-augusta/2018/08/22/3-trends-in-the-future-of-cyber-conflict
March 23, 2022 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Germany makes a huge pivot in plotting the future of its air force, putting in a bid to buy a fleet of F35s on this week's Defense Dollars.
February 8, 2023 | International, Land
When it comes to network innovation, the Pentagon should let our warfighters decide what risks to take.
June 3, 2020 | International, Aerospace
June 2, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin a $26.7 million contract on June 1 to develop a structural modification for the F-35 strike fighter to improve its Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses capability (SEAD/DEAD). The retrofit design will be applied to both U.S. and foreign F-35s in Lots 14 and 15, and will be completed by August 2022. The contract, issued by Naval Air Systems Command on behalf of all F-35 users, says Lockheed will perform the engineering necessary to modify the aircraft to perform “full up” SEAD and DEAD. When the Air Force declared the F-35 operational in 2016, it described the F-35's SEAD/DEAD suite as able to perform the mission in a “limited” fashion. The need for a structural modification indicates the aircraft will be fitted with new munitions and/or sensors to carry out the role, which usually involves detecting, fixing, and attacking ground-based air defense threats, which can be mobile or stationary. When the service declared initial operational capability for the F-35A, the aircraft was in the 3i configuration, which gave it capability to release satellite-guided bombs. With the 3F version, the F-35 gained capability for the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb and AGM-154 Stand-Off Weapon—both used for SEAD/DEAD. The Block 4 upgrade will enable the F-35 to carry the in-development Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW). The Navy plans to field its AGM-88E Anti-Radiation Guided Missile, a successor to the HARM anti-radiation missile, and the Air Force is considering the weapon, as well. The ARRGM and HARM home in on the last known emissions of a surface-to-air missile radar at high speed; their presence and success in previous conflicts has dissuaded enemies from turning their radars on in some instances, hence “suppression.” The F-35's ASQ-239 electronic warfare system can passively detect an enemy air defense system's emissions and geo-locate these targets in concert with the F-35's other systems. Air Force leaders have said the F-35, by virtue of its stealth, will become the main platform for the SEAD/DEAD mission in the coming decade. That role is now primarily performed by the F-16 with the HARM. https://www.airforcemag.com/lockheed-to-retrofit-f-35s-for-suppression-destruction-of-enemy-air-defenses-role