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July 23, 2018 | International, Aerospace

Boeing serait "ravi" de participer au Tempest britannique

PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing serait "ravi" de participer au nouveau programme d'avion de combat britannique, même si le projet doit encore être précisé, a déclaré vendredi à Reuters Leanne Caret, patronne de Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

La Grande-Bretagne, qui n'a pas développé d'avion de combat seule depuis les années 1960, a dévoilé lundi son futur avion "Tempest" au salon de Farnborough, près de Londres, parallèlement au programme franco-allemand piloté par Paris à horizon 2040.

"Ils sont encore en train de mener leurs propres études militaires et de déterminer où ils vont", a dit Leanne Caret au salon de Farnborough. "S'il y a une opportunité pour Boeing de participer et de jouer un rôle, nous serons absolument honorés et ravis d'être du voyage".

Eric Trappier, PDG de Dassault Aviation a raillé jeudi le "réveil" des Britanniques vis-à-vis des avions de combat, tandis que ce projet crée une nouvelle lutte fratricide comme celle que se livrent actuellement le Rafale, l'Eurofighter et le Gripen suédois..

Il reste à savoir si les deux projets pourraient fusionner à la suite de la sortie de la Grande-Bretagne de l'Union européenne prévue en mars 2019 ou si Londres nouera de nouvelles alliances, peut-être avec le suédois Saab, constructeur du Gripen.

Une alliance entre le britannique BAE Systems, Saab et peut-être le brésilien Embraer, récemment allié à Boeing, pourrait faire émerger un sérieux concurrent au projet franco-allemand.

Boeing, qui construit les F/A-18E/F et F-15, pourrait ainsi trouver l'occasion de revenir dans un programme de développement d'avion de combat après avoir perdu le contrat du F-35 au détriment de Lockheed Martin en 2001.

On the same subject

  • Qatari research center chooses Leonardo for cyber range

    February 4, 2021 | International, C4ISR, Security

    Qatari research center chooses Leonardo for cyber range

    Agnes Helou BEIRUT — A Qatari cyber research center has selected Leonardo to provide a cyber range and training system to support security operations, the Italian firm announced Feb. 3. The Qatar Computing Research Institute, or QCRI, was established by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. The training platform ordered by the QCRI is capable of simulating cyberattacks so users can assess the resilience of digital infrastructure. “The training is completely to be performed in Qatar, and it is expected, through an approach oriented to ‘train the trainers,' to provide courses to a significant number of operators involved in the cybersecurity framework,” Tommaso Profeta, managing director of Leonardo's Cyber Security Division, told Defense News. He noted that training and exercise scenarios can be customized using a drag-and-drop graphical interface. The platform can also analyze and classify the results of simulated attacks based on data collected during real-world offensive campaigns. Scenarios can be used for individual training or classroom experiences, and they provide practice for security operations centers and incident response activities. This training tool “will allow the QCRI to deliver a complete cyber training process, from the design of the learning path to specific training sessions. Users will be able to practice their skills in simulated attack and defense scenarios, employing both information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT). The training will produce qualified teams of operators equipped with up-to-date knowledge and techniques, ready to face ever-evolving cyber threats,” according to a company statement. “The best cyber training/testing environments are in theory real production systems. But in practice for such environments, institutions, enterprises and organizations cannot easily experience critical situations without paying high, sometime unaffordable prices,” Profeta said. “Training and testing are therefore the two essential, human-driven processes that can effectively support the overall cyber ‘protection' loop, but only if they can cope with real threats and highly realistic systems in highly realistic situations.” Cyber ranges provide a controlled environment where cybersecurity experts can practice their technical and soft skills in emulated complex networks and infrastructures to learn how to respond to real-world cyberattacks. In these environments, cyber tools can be stressed to reveal their limits and vulnerabilities before deployment into cyberspace. Leonardo's platform challenges such assets and provides digital twin environments for predeployment testing. Asked whether other Gulf countries have expressed interest in this training system, Profeta said it “has already been presented to other high-level Middle East stakeholders, and a significant level of interest has been registered for the platform.” What scenarios are available? Those using the cyber range will try to defend against simulated but realistic cyberattacks. According to Profeta, these include: Man-in-the-middle attacks. Botnets. Exploitation of client and server vulnerabilities with lateral movements in search of sensitive data. Distributed denial-of-service attacks (HTTP flooding or domain name system reflection) designed to disrupt connections to a targeted server. Ransomware via multiple vectors, such as spear-phishing via email or drive-by downloads, relying on DNS-based covert channels. Data exfiltration of personally identifiable information and intellectual property. Though it's difficult to measure the potential effectiveness of this platform for Qatar, the company official predicted the system will reduce the cost of and improve the user experience in cyber training. Leonardo also supplies the NATO Computer Incident Response Capability, a cyber defense product. https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2021/02/03/qatari-research-center-chooses-leonardo-for-cyber-range

  • First round of Replicator to heavily feature Army systems, Bush says

    March 20, 2024 | International, Land

    First round of Replicator to heavily feature Army systems, Bush says

    Army acquisition chief Doug Bush said the service is the "biggest player" in the first tranche of the Pentagon's Replicator effort.

  • Why the U.S. could lose the next big war - and what that means for Canada

    November 19, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR

    Why the U.S. could lose the next big war - and what that means for Canada

    Murray Brewster · CBC News It was more than the usual sky-is-falling rhetoric we're used to seeing in national security reports out of Washington. It came from some pretty sober, respected voices in the defence community. A special commission report, presented to the U.S. Congress this week, delivered one of the most stark — even startling — assessments in the last two decades of the limits of American military power. The independent, nonpartisan review of the Trump administration's 2018 National Defence Strategy said the U.S. could lose future wars with Russia or China. "This Commission believes that America has reached the point of a full-blown national security crisis," reads the 116-page document written by 12 leading defence and security experts and released Wednesday. "If the United States had to fight Russia in a Baltic contingency, or China in a war over Taiwan, Americans could face a decisive military defeat." Those are sobering words for Canada, in light of this country's contribution of over 450 troops to the NATO-led deterrence mission in Latvia. Time for a defence policy rewrite? And it has prompted a call from at least one Canadian defence expert for a re-assessment — perhaps even a full-blown rewrite — of the Liberal government's own defence policy. More than simply another rote, boilerplate plea for fatter U.S. defence budgets, the commission's report lays out in precise detail the kind of geopolitical threats Washington — and, by extension, other Western capitals — are facing from rivals and enemies at many levels and in multiple spheres. "The security and well-being of the United States are at greater risk than at any time in decades. America's military superiority — the hard-power backbone of its global influence and national security — has eroded to a dangerous degree," says the report. "America's ability to defend its allies, its partners, and its own vital interests is increasingly in doubt. If the nation does not act promptly to remedy these circumstances, the consequences will be grave and lasting." The report acknowledges that the U.S. and its allies may be forced to fight a localized nuclear war in the future, given how Russia has restored the once-unthinkable concept to its military planning and training exercises. The commission also paints various grim scenarios that could confront Western allies between now and 2022, including an invasion of the Baltics under the guise of a "peacekeeping" mission to protect Russian minorities: "As U.S. and NATO forces prepare to respond, Russia declares that strikes against Russian forces in those states will be treated as attacks on Russia itself — implying a potential nuclear response. "Meanwhile, to keep America off balance, Russia escalates in disruptive ways. Russian submarines attack transatlantic fibre optic cables. Russian hackers shut down power grids and compromise the security of U.S. banks." The consequences, said the report, would be severe: "Major cities are paralyzed; use of the internet and smartphones is disrupted. Financial markets plummet as commerce seizes up and online financial transactions slow to a crawl. The banking system is thrown into chaos." While the report doesn't mention U.S. President Donald Trump by name, it notes the effect of his bruising rhetorical fights with world leaders and criticism of international institutions, such as NATO. "Doubts about America's ability to deter and, if necessary, defeat opponents and honour its global commitments have proliferated," said the report. Cautious optimism At this weekend's Halifax International Security Forum, Canada's marquee defence conference, some leading experts struck a less pessimistic note and suggested that the West still has a major technological lead on Moscow. "Russia is a great country. It is a great country, historically. But Russia is also a failing country," said Peter Van Praagh, president of the Halifax Security Forum, at the opening of the event on Friday. "Russia does not have the same advanced tools that NATO has, that Canada and NATO and the American alliance [have]." Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan also expressed cautious optimism about the threat. "In NATO we're taking this extremely seriously. We're learning from the various missions that are ongoing," he said. A former military adviser to one of Sajjan's predecessors said Canada could learn from the commission exercise, which was meant to challenge the Trump administration's defence plans. "It's certainly something we don't have," said Richard Cohen, an ex-army officer who served as former defence minister Peter MacKay's adviser. "Our government would never dream of inviting anyone to come and criticize its defence policy." The current government sought extensive input before the new Canadian policy was presented 18 months ago. The U.S. commission report calls on NATO and its allies to "rebuild" substantial military forces in Europe, among things. Cohen said that, if anything, should trigger a fresh look at the Liberal government's own defence policy. "Our defence policy is predicated on the kind of asymmetric warfare we have faced since the end of the Cold War and it really ignores the looming strategic threats that Russia, China and maybe some others pose as well," he said. "At least the United States realizes this growing strategic threat," Cohen added, noting that the current Liberal defence policy makes only passing mention of China "in very gentle terms" and limited references to Russia. "If the United States is in a national security crisis, then we're in a national security crisis." https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/defence-policy-trump-china-russia-1.4910038

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