September 11, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
New RAMBO Attack Uses RAM Radio Signals to Steal Data from Air-Gapped Networks
New RAMBO attack exploits radio signals from RAM to steal data from air-gapped networks, posing cybersecurity risks.
August 27, 2019 | International, Land
Army Hopes Microsoft App Will Help Reduce Heavy Soldier Loads
By Matthew Cox
The Army is finalizing a new, web-based modeling app -- developed by Microsoft -- that will allow soldier equipment officials to see how hanging new pieces of kit on close-combat troops could affect a squad's performance.
"For a long, long, long time, we have struggled with the ability to be able to show in a quantitative manner how a new component or an upgraded component will affect the effectiveness of a soldier and squad," John Howell, current lead for the Army's new Adaptative Squad Architecture effort, told an audience Tuesday.
He spoke at the first industry day for what Army officials hope will lead to a new framework developing future capability sets for dismounted soldiers that are far lighter and more streamlined than today's assortment of tactical gear.
While still in its early stages, the Architectural Assessment Tool is designed to be a collaborative tool for project managers and requirements officials to view digital models of soldiers kitted-out in current-issue gear to form a baseline.
In a quick demo, Howell made a copy of the squad leader configuration baseline and then replaced his M4A1 with an M249 squad automatic weapon and the accessories needed for it.
"This is where you start to get into a little bit of the quantitative assessment piece," he said, showing how the app immediately calculates the weight added from the change. "What you notice immediately is that this special squad leader now weighs 30 pounds more."
It's a simple example, "but just to get to this point is quite a big step," Howell said. "In order to treat the soldier as an integrated weapons platform, this is the kind of thing you need to be able to do."
Adaptive Squad Architecture is the latest attempt by the Army to treat the soldier as a complete system, breaking away from the long practice of developing individual pieces of equipment and fielding them.
"We build the soldier out like a Christmas tree and our products are like ornaments, and we just continue to hang products off our soldiers until the soldier gets so heavy, they can't move," said Brig. Gen. Anthony Potts, head of Program Executive Office Soldier.
Potts told the mix of small and large defense companies in attendance that the Army needs a new approach to developing capability sets of equipment that are much lighter than the roughly 120-pound loads dismounted infantrymen carry today.
"If I can give you an architecture ... you can look at this and say, 'You know what? I've got an idea that I can combine three of those capabilities into one,'" Potts said. "Those three capabilities might weigh 4.5 today and you go, 'You know, I can bring it to one and I can bring it to you for 2.75 pounds.'
"Let me tell you something, if you do that, you have my interest."
In addition to the web-based assessment tool, the Army is also conducting evaluations that involve running infantry squads through tactical lanes at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to build a database of performance data, Potts said.
"We are doing a correlation of data on squad performance, how the individual data on that soldier relates to the individual performance and how it relates to the entire squad's performance," he said, adding that he is sending a five-member team to Afghanistan in October to embed with the 75th Ranger Regiment to do more data collection.
"We want to be able to make data-driven decisions on some of the places we are going for in materiel development in the future," Potts said.
Under the soldier lethality priority in the Army's new modernization strategy, the service is developing advanced new kit such as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS, a Microsoft technology that will let soldiers view their weapon's sight reticle and other tactical information through a pair of tactical glasses.
The Army is also developing the Next Generation Squad Weapon, a replacement for the M4A1 and M249 that promises to offer significant weight savings on the weapon as well as the ammunition, Army officials have said.
But Potts realizes that it's still up to commanders to decide how much weight their soldiers carry into battle.
"A commander may believe that if we gave him 20% lighter ammunition or 30% lighter ammunition and he feels like the fight he's going into ... means he can take 20 or 30% [more ammo], that's a commander's call," he said.
On the other hand, Potts said a commander may decide "I'm going up a hill at 90 degrees; I'm going to take that 30% weight savings because that's what I think is the most important thing to me."
"I think what we are going to do is give commanders more options on what they can do with their formations that they have never had before, because the basic load that we will provide through the architecture will be lighter. ... As we draw down the weight of our body armor, draw down the weight of our ammunition, draw down the weight of our automatic weapons, you are going to free up space in there that's going to make it lighter," Potts said.
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June 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - June 03, 2020
ARMY Skanska Koch Inc., Carteret, New Jersey, was awarded a $43,865,000 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of physical security/safety improvements in the New York City area. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in New York, New York, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 3, 2022. Fiscal 2018 civil construction funds in the amount of $43,865,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York, New York, is the contracting activity (W912DS-20-C-0013). National Security Innovations Inc.,* Boston, Massachusetts, was awarded a $7,815,789 firm-fixed-price contract to conduct research using eight gray zone research topic areas. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Boston, Massachusetts, with an estimated completion date of June 2, 2025. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation, defense-wide funds in the amount of $7,815,789 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alexandria, Virginia, is the contracting activity (W5J9CQ-20-C-0004). Weeks Marine Inc., Covington, Louisiana, was awarded a $7,130,000 firm-fixed-price contract to furnish a fully crewed and equipped hydraulic pipeline cutterhead dredge on a rental basis. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Plaquemines, Louisiana, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 27, 2020. Fiscal 2020 civil operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $7,130,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans, Louisiana, is the contracting activity (W912P8-20-C-0027). Raytheon Lockheed Martin Javelin JV, Tucson, Arizona, was awarded a $7,060,279 modification (P00048) to contract W31P4Q-19-C-0038 for engineering services for Lightweight Command Launch Unit system qualification build initiation. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Army) funds in the amount of $7,060,279 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Honeywell Aerospace, Phoenix, Arizona, has been awarded a $41,632,751 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the compact strategic grade gyroscope. Work will be performed in Phoenix, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by Aug. 28, 2025. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,103,247 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is the contracting activity (FA9453-20-C-0013). NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., a Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded an $18,670,070 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-20-C-0052) for the procurement of maintenance and sustainment operations support for the Norway Italy Reprogramming Laboratory systems and consumables in support of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft for the governments of Norway and Italy. Work will be performed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and is expected to be complete by December 2022. Non-Department of Defense participant funds in the amount of $13,648,950 will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to 41 U.S. Code 253(c)(4). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Branscome Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia, is awarded a $16,920,452 firm-fixed-price contract (N40085-20-C-0031) for a design-bid-build, repair LP area runway and instrument landing system (ILS) installation located at Naval Station, Norfolk, Virginia. Work will be performed at Norfolk, Virginia. The work to be performed includes, but is not limited to: repair of LP Area Runway 10-28, which includes asphalt and concrete pavement maintenance and repairs, runway markings, runway rubber removal, partial reconstruction of runway pavement, demolition of paved no-taxi islands and incidental related work. For the ILS installation support, work includes the demolition of existing ILS equipment and their supporting concrete foundations, installation of antenna foundations and equipment pads including micro piling, grading and drainage improvements, access road construction and reinstallation of existing generators and transformers. This project will also include additional utility work consisting of underground electrical and communication systems and incidental related work. Work is expected to be complete by March 2021. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $16,920,452 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Beta.SAM.gov website, and four proposals were received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. DRS Laurel Technologies, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is awarded an $8,830,253 firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-20-C-5605 to exercise an option and purchase additional consoles, displays, and peripherals (CDP) technical insertion (TI) 16, modification (MOD) 1 production equipment and spares to support the Navy's future surface ship combat systems. Work will be performed in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The CDP program consists of a suite of TI 16 MOD 1 common display system (CDS) consoles, thin client displays, multi-mission displays and peripheral equipment. The CDS consoles are a set of open-architecture watch station three-eyed horizontal display consoles comprised of three different console variants: water cooled CDS (14-35 Hz), air cooled CDS (14-35 Hz), and air cooled CDS (8Hz). The CDP hardware provides the human machine interface between the sailor and the ships combat systems. Work is expected to be complete by December 2021. This contract combines purchases for the Navy (99.96%) and the government of Spain (0.04%) under the Foreign Military Sales program. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2018 other procurement (Navy) funds; 2014 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2019 other procurement (Navy) funds; 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds; 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds; and government of Spain and 2018 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $8,830,253 will be obligated at time of award; funds in the amount of $152,639 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin Co., Stratford, Connecticut, is awarded a $7,681,241 cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N00019-20-F-0692) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-19-G-0029. This order procures support to update existing CH-53K system/subsystem specifications produced by the original equipment manufacturer. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut, and is expected to be complete by October 2022. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds for $7,681,241 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2207312/source/GovDelivery/
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May 14, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
A delicate balancing act: The US government must juggle a pandemic and the FY21 budget
By: Robert DuPree For the past few months, the U.S. federal government has been, quite understandably, totally focused on addressing the enormous health care and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. These efforts will necessarily continue to be front and center in the weeks and even months ahead, no matter how rapidly the curve flattens or declines, as different sectors and regions reopen. But to move the country forward, Congress must prepare to do its regular business for the year, which largely means tackling appropriations bills. Congressional staff have reportedly been doing the prep work to get spending bills ready for whenever the House and Senate can safely convene to work on them (or to do much of this work remotely). The American people — including federal contractors large and small, and our employees — are relying on Congress to check its partisan impulses and figure out how to do two things at once in the coming months: Continue to combat the COVID-19 crisis, and develop fiscal 2021 funding bills for all federal departments and agencies to meet our nation's needs. Unfortunately, there are some who are already taking a simplistic view, saying Congress will be so busy dealing with the pandemic that it will have to just give up and pass a continuing resolution to fund the government beyond the election into next year or even for a full year. On the contrary, the pandemic is exactly why Congress should be doing its work and completing updated appropriations bills on time. First of all, in these extraordinary times, the country doesn't need appropriations bills which merely extend the decisions made on spending last December, when Congress finally completed action (over two months late) on FY20 appropriations bills. The COVID-19 pandemic was just a blip on the horizon at that time. For FY21, the country needs updated spending legislation that more accurately reflects the greatly changed world we now face. Moreover, departments and agencies also need the flexibility to enter into new contracts to meet new needs, which is generally prohibited unless expressly provided under a continuing resolution. Further, Congress and the administration must come to grips with the elephant in the room — the strict annual spending caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011, as amended. To mix metaphors, this law is no longer just an elephant, it's an emperor who has no clothes. Congress has modified the BCA's statutory spending caps a number of times over the past decade (thus, the above caveat “as amended”). Now we're about to face the final year of the law's spending caps, and what do we find? The caps are a joke. The caps were meant to limit discretionary spending each year, but Congress has repeatedly found ways around them. This has usually been done in one of two ways. The first is by including some amount of normal baseline defense spending under the category of overseas contingency operations, or OCO, which is “wartime” funding; this occurs even when unrelated to America's overseas/wartime military efforts. OCO spending is exempt from the BCA caps, so funding part of the base Defense Department budget this way enables the law's defense-spending cap to be technically met while also understating the Pentagon's non-wartime expenditures. The second way is by designating certain spending as “emergency” expenditures. Yes, these are almost always for valid, unforeseen emergencies, but it is still spending that would otherwise exceed the discretionary caps. Only Congress can wave a wand and say: “No, it doesn't exceed the cap — it's for an emergency.” To be honest, the caps painted an unrealistic picture of efforts to control federal spending anyway. By only being applied to discretionary spending, exempting massive entitlement expenditures and interest on the debt, the caps presented a partial picture of true federal-spending restraint to begin with. And now the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in multiple legislative packages being enacted, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates could add over $2.7 trillion to the current year's deficit. But because they are loans or designated as “emergency” spending, they don't violate the caps. They just add to the deficit. In reality, true federal spending has soared far past the stable level of spending that the caps were purported to achieve when the BCA was first enacted. Yet, the caps are still in place for next year, which will impact the congressional appropriations process by either preventing the spending needed to address current needs, or leading to further contortionist efforts by legislators to circumvent the caps. So let's quit pretending. Congress and the administration should agree to repeal the final year of the caps as part of the next COVID-19 legislative package so appropriators can be upfront about the spending needed without having to hide so much of that spending behind the “emergency spending” loophole. Be transparent, and admit the country is, like during World War II, spending a whole lot more than anticipated to meet the crisis. And most of all, get the job done by acting in a bipartisan fashion to pass appropriations bills by Oct. 1, 2020, that accurately reflect our real needs and expenditures. Admittedly, that may not be easy to do in an election year, but the nation and the federal contracting community are depending on Congress to be able to manage the COVID-19 crisis response, while simultaneously conducting its regular business. Robert DuPree is manager of government affairs at Telos Corporation. He focuses on political developments in Congress and the executive branch, including the federal budget, appropriations process, national defense and cybersecurity. He previously served as legislative director for a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives. https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/05/13/a-delicate-balancing-act-the-us-government-must-juggle-a-pandemic-and-the-fy21-budget/