November 7, 2019 | International, C4ISR, Security
By: Joe Gould
WASHINGTON ― Amid news that thousands of banned Chinese-made surveillance devices are in use across American government installations, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is asking the Pentagon to identify the Chinese gear in use at U.S. military facilities.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper made public Wednesday, Rubio said the Trump administration needs a comprehensive strategy to address the threats posed by foreign-sourced components and subcomponents.
“The Department of Defense must act quickly to identify and remove this equipment as every day that passes only provides our adversaries additional time to infiltrate and exploit our national security networks as well as the ability to monitor U.S. military activities that may be of interest,” Rubio said.
The letter comes after Forbes reported the government has made little progress complying with a legally mandated ban on Chinese surveillance tech. Government contractor Forescout found 3,500 devices from from telecom giants Huawei and ZTE, as well as surveillance camera-makers Dahua and Hikvision, on U.S. government systems a month before the ban was to take effect.
Language in the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act banned the procurement of Chinese-produced cameras and associated electronics to ensure U.S. government installations are not at risk of surveillance by potentially malicious Chinese technology. The provision also prohibited the renewal of any contracts currently in use across the federal government.
“As you continue to posture the Department of Defense in the era of great power competition, we must remain vigilant to attack from every possible source,” Rubio said in his letter to Esper. “I strongly urge you to implement a comprehensive and proactive approach meeting the requirements of the ban cited in the FY 2019 NDAA."
Among other questions, Rubio's letter asked what steps the DoD has taken to address the NDAA's ban on procurement, whether the department has considered removing the technologies, and whether the future will bring further prohibitions on additional products or manufacturers.
Rubio wanted to know whether the DoD has a way to purge nontraditional surveillance gear automatically. “How would you detect non-traditional IP-connected products, those beyond, if future prohibitions on such products materialize?"
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/11/06/are-banned-chinese-cameras-watching-the-us-military/
April 15, 2024 | International, Naval
This initial contract is to supply Kongsberg Maritime equipment for the fifth ship, Coast Guard Cutter Pickering, which is the first to be built by Austal USA at their yard...
July 8, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Other Defence
HUDSON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems has been awarded funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to integrate machine-learning (ML) technology into platforms that decipher radio frequency signals. Its Controllable Hardware Integration for Machine-learning Enabled Real-time Adaptivity (CHIMERA) solution provides a reconfigurable hardware platform for ML algorithm developers to make sense of radio frequency (RF) signals in increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum environments. The up to $4.7 million contract, dependent on successful completion of milestones, includes hardware delivery along with integration and demonstration support. CHIMERA's hardware platform will enable algorithm developers to decipher the ever-growing number of RF signals, providing commercial or military users with greater automated situational awareness of their operating environment. This contract is adjacent to the previously announced award for the development of data-driven ML algorithms under the same DARPA program (Radio Frequency Machine Learning Systems, or RFMLS). RFMLS requires a robust, adaptable hardware solution with a multitude of control surfaces to enable improved discrimination of signals in the evolving dense spectrum environments of the future. “CHIMERA brings the flexibility of a software solution to hardware,” said Dave Logan, vice president and general manager of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Systems at BAE Systems. “Machine-learning is on the verge of revolutionizing signals intelligence technology, just as it has in other industries.” In an evolving threat environment, CHIMERA will enable ML software development to adapt the hardware's RF configuration in real time to optimize mission performance. This capability has never before been available in a hardware solution. The system provides multiple control surfaces for the user, enabling on-the-fly performance trade-offs that can maximize its sensitivity, selectivity, and scalability depending on mission need. The system's open architecture interfaces allow for third party algorithm development, making the system future-proof and easily upgradable upon deployment. Other RF functions, including communications, radar, and electronic warfare, also can benefit from this agile hardware platform, which has a reconfigurable array, front-end, full transceiver and digital pre-processing stage. Work on these phases of the program will take place at BAE Systems' sites in Hudson and Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Dallas, Texas. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190708005199/en
December 9, 2022 | International, Aerospace
The language continues a three-year push from lawmakers for the service to prioritize the capability.