July 26, 2023 | International, Security, Other Defence
Building networked air-defense capabilities is a priority for a region deemed vulnerable on the alliance's eastern flank.
October 16, 2023 | International, C4ISR, Security
The best cybersecurity software in the world cannot prevent an employee from giving out the wrong information to the wrong person over the phone.
September 15, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Steve Trimble Lockheed Martin F-35 deliveries postponed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain will not fully recover by the end of 2021, a company executive told Aerospace DAILY. In June, Lockheed announced that 18-24 F-35s in production Lot 12, which are scheduled for delivery in 2020, will be delayed, reducing the overall delivery target to 117 to 123 jets this year. Although Lockheed's final assembly plant in Fort Worth is now at full operations, the impact on the supply chain will drag out the recovery for another year, said Michelle Evans, executive vice president of Lockheed's Aeronautics business. “We're still looking somewhere between 15-20 aircraft that we will be behind by the end of the year,” Evans said in an interview. “It is going to take a while for the supply chain and, thus, Lockheed Martin to recover. So it will take us longer than next year. We'll probably be staring at two years to recover those jets.” Lockheed's supply chain is in recovery while the company continues negotiating separate deals with the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) for the next three years of airframe production and converting the annual sustainment contracts into a multiyear performance-based logistics (PBL) agreement. In October 2019, the JPO and Lockheed agree to an economic order quantity of 478 aircraft for lots 12-14, which are delivered from 2020 to 2022. The agreement includes a firm order from the U.S. government for Lot 12 aircraft, with priced options for Lots 13 and 14 resulting in an overall total of 291 F-35s. The international customers added orders for 187 aircraft under a related, three-year production order. A similar approach will be followed for the U.S. and international orders in Lots 15-17, which will include the first jets to receive upgraded Technical Refresh-3 hardware, Evans said. Separately, the JPO and Lockheed are continuing to negotiate a long-term PBL to sustain the F-35s, with an overall goal to reduce the cost per flight hour of the F-35A to $25,000 by 2025. Lockheed sees an opportunity to reduce sustainment costs by $18 billion or more over the term of the PBL, Evans said. Lockheed expects to make an initial investment of $1.5 billion in cost-saving projects once the deal is signed. https://aviationweek.com/shows-events/afa-air-space-cyber-conference/full-covid-19-recovery-f-35-deliveries-pushed-2022
October 29, 2020 | International, C4ISR
Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army's new top military IT official has its eyes on several priorities to ensure that the service is prepared for multi-domain operations. Lt. Gen. John Morrison, the Army's first deputy chief of staff for the G-6, a new position created after the Army announced it would be splitting its CIO/G-6 office over the summer, told reporters Tuesday that his new office will focus on strategy, network architectures, and implementation of command, control, communications, and cyber operations efforts. To achieve that, Morrison laid out four pillars that will shape the role of the new G-6 office, which reached initial operating capability after he took over in August. The four pillars are establishing a unified network, positioning cyber and signal forces for multi-domain operations, reforming the cybersecurity process, and driving efficient and effective investments across the network and cyber. The unified network pillar is focused on vertical integration of the tactical network and enterprise networks to create a unified network that can meet the globally dispersed warfighting operations of the service. Right now, Morrison said, the enterprise network is focused on modernizing bases, posts, camps and installations, while the tactical network is centered around brigade combat teams. The unified network will be “imperative” for multi-domain operations, Morrison said. His office will work with Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems; PEO Command, Control, Communications-Tactical; and the Network Cross-Functional Team to establish the unified network he said the Army needs to enable Joint All-Domain Command and Control. “We break down the individual theater architectures, and we make it easy for formations that are actually in [the contiguous United States] to rapidly deploy to any area of operations and immediately plug in and start conducting operations, whether that's in competition or conflict,” Morrison said. “That needs to be ... our goal.” As for aligning cyber and signal forces for multi-domain operations, Morrison said that he will be looking at the training, talent management and operational frameworks while adjusting them over time to ensure those soldiers are used effectively during future battles. “That means making sure that we have signal and cyber, underpinned by intelligence, operating in a combined arms fashion in cyberspace to include electromagnetic spectrum,” Morrison said. The three-star also wants to take a “hard look” at the service's risk management framework (RMF) as part of reforming and operationalizing its cybersecurity process. He wants to move the Army away from a bureaucratic system with intermittent reviews to a system where cybersecurity is baked into a system before it's added to the network, then going back “periodically” to make sure there are no new vulnerabilities to the system. As the service works toward enabling multi-domain operations, Morrison is also focused on ensuring that the service is making effective and efficient investments in its network and cyber infrastructure so that it can make the JADC2 concept a reality. For example, Morrison said, his team is looking at what the joint force is doing with cyber so the Army makes investments to develop cyber capabilities that the service needs while ensuring it has links back to the joint force. It's especially important for the Army to be meticulous with its cyber and network investments as the Department of Defense as a whole prepares for flat budgets as the government funds are increasingly directed toward recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Morrison said. “We are probably entering into a time where budgets may not be all that they have been in the past,” he said. “And quite frankly, we owe it to taxpayers to force ourselves to be efficient and effective.” Before former Army CIO/G-6 Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford retired, he told reporters that the Army split the CIO/G-6 office to take better advantage of technology, saying that the way his office was structured had become outdated as technology advanced. The Army has yet to nominate a new CIO, but Morrison will work closely with the next official named to that position, he said. “Think of it in this way, the CIO establishes the policies," Morrison said. "We're responsible for the planning and the actual implementation of those policies, and then supporting Army organizations worldwide as they go out and actually execute the policies.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/10/27/us-armys-top-uniformed-it-official-lays-out-priorities-for-new-office/