British, Polish firms sign $5 billion deal for Poland’s air defense

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  August 20, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security

  Hackers Exploit PHP Vulnerability to Deploy Stealthy Msupedge Backdoor

  Msupedge, a new backdoor exploiting a PHP flaw, targets a Taiwanese university using DNS tunneling for communication.

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  November 1, 2019 | International, Naval

  Fincantieri, Naval Group dub their joint venture ‘Naviris’

  By: Tom Kington ROME – Italy's Fincantieri and France's Naval Group announced the name of their new naval joint venture will be ‘Naviris' on Wednesday, the day after Fincantieri lashed out at reports that its takeover of French ship yard Chantiers de l'Atlantique faces EU anti-trust opposition. The new name for the JV was announced after a quarterly steering committee meeting of the 50-50 alliance, which was launched in June and is set to be incorporated by year's end. The two state-controlled shipbuilding firms aim to use the joint venture to build and market naval vessels, as well share supply chains, research and testing. As part of the deal, France is using an Italian design for its new logistics vessel, while the two yards will work together on upgrading the Horizon frigates jointly built by Italy and France and operated by both countries. There are also plans for the JV to work on a new European Patrol Corvette. The two yards have promoted the JV as a way to create synergies in Europe's fractured naval industry to allow it to compete globally, and it came on the heels of Fincantieri's takeover of France's Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard — a deal which will allow the two yards to share work on cruise ships. This month the drive for more synergy appeared be bearing fruit when Fincantieri said that it would be building forward sections for the new French logistics ships. The four vessels, part of the FLOTLOG (Flotte logistique) program, which are based on the Italian Vulcano design, are being built by a temporary consortium between Chantiers de l'Atlantique and Naval Group. Fincantieri said it would build the sections at its Castellammare di Stabia shipyard in southern Italy, with deliveries to Chantiers de l'Atlantique, which it controls, scheduled between 2021 and 2027. The only potential hitch to the cross-border cooperation is the European Union, which is studying the Fincantieri takeover of Chantiers de l'Atlantique for anti-trust violations, and has yet to give a green light. On Tuesday Fincantieri attacked press reports suggesting the anti-trust probe had been extended, claiming it “strongly disapproves of such rumors, which have also negatively affected its share price today.” In a statement, Fincantieri said that if the rumors were true, it would “firmly” disapprove of such a decision by the EU. The company challenged reports that the deal would cut the number of cruise ship builders in Europe to two, claiming the real number would be three. Correction: This story was updated on Nov. 1 to correct the name of the new joint venture. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/10/31/fincantieri-naval-group-dub-their-joint-venture-navaris

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  August 14, 2020 | International, Land

  AM General CEO on acquisition by a private equity firm

  WASHINGTON ― KPS Capital Partners is acquiring Humvee-maker AM General, the private equity firm announced last month, marking a new chapter for the South Bend, Indiana-based vehicle maker. AM General President and CEO Andy Hove will continue to lead the company, and KPS Partner Jay Bernstein said the firm would continue to build on the ubiquitous Humvee, leveraging the company's “research, technology, innovation and new product development, as well as its heritage and iconic brand name.” The Humvee appears to have some growth ahead. For one, U.S. Army budget documents call for $1.5 billion through 2025 to pay for modernization of its fleet of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles and their up-armored variant. That can include replacing major components, applying new technologies or replacing vehicles entirely. After the Army reaches its procurement objective for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, made by Oshkosh, it will have an enduring requirement for 54,800 Humvees. Otherwise, AM General ― which has advertised both its Brutus 155mm and Hawkeye 105mm mobile howitzers ― is expected to participate in the Army's mobile howitzer shoot-off evaluation at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, next year. Meanwhile, the Army is expected to complete a new tactical wheeled vehicle strategy in fiscal 2021, which has thus far received congressional support, per the House and Senate versions of the annual defense policy bill. Hove, who has said KPS will continue to execute AM General's existing strategy, spoke with Defense News on Aug. 6. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Private equity firm KPS Capital Partners is in the process of acquiring AM General. At this preliminary stage, what would you say are KPS' plans and vision for the company? I think [KPS partner] Jay Bernstein represented it in his quote in the announcement that they feel really good about the capabilities of AM General and the strategy we've been executing. We've discussed with them where we can go. They're confident in our business and the growth prospects of AM General. They feel good about and stand behind our strategy, and we're going to work together with them. Will the company focus more on the Humvee, or do you see it becoming more flexible? What is the future for the Humvee? Who are its customers these days? To say we're only focused on the Humvee today would not be a correct premise. We've made investments across the board, in base automotive systems, and then automotive systems that have a particular special use. Our core focus is in solving very complex mobility challenges for customers. So the Humvee has a great future. I would offer that you turn to not what I say about what the Army will do but what the Army says they're going to do on the Humvee fleet, which is to steadily and systematically manage a very large fleet by systematic replacement of that fleet and recapitalization of that fleet going forward. They've been buying new-built Humvees to replace old Humvees over the last four years at a pretty heavy clip and have announced their intention to continue to do that going forward. We're obviously going to focus on the Humvee because there's significant demand. It is today the world's leading military 4x4 in its class, and we build more of them than any other military vehicle manufacturer in the world, and especially more than anybody in our weight class. That won't be the only thing we invest in. You can see our investments in the Hawkeye, which brings game-changing breakthrough technology [in relation to] how artillery systems are moved around and employed on the battlefield, together with a whole other range of implementing technologies such as autonomous navigation, off-board power and those kind of things. The U.S. Defense Department is an important customer, but a considerable portion of our businesses is global business, so we take a global view of how we solve mobility challenges for our customers around the globe. The Army recently issued a request for information about replacing heavy trucks. Is that a potential opportunity? We certainly feel like we have something to offer, a range of things to offer there, and that RFI's only been out for a couple of weeks. We'll will certainly take a closer look at that. We're also taking a look at the JLTV competition they announced back in February. Defense News recently characterized AM General as “largely stagnant” since losing the competition for the JLTV in 2015 to Oshkosh. Do you want to push back at all to talk about AM General's time under McAndrew & Forbes? The JLTV decision was 2015, and the four years since the announcement on the JLTV competition we've built more military vehicles than Oshkosh or any other military vehicle manufacturer by a long shot, and sold them to more customers around the globe than anyone else. I think that's far from being stagnant. There are a lot of adjectives you can apply to the company. “Stagnant” would not be the one I would apply. Private equity firms will typically set up companies they buy for faster growth, and then potentially that'll lead to a future sale. Do you think that's something that might happen here, and what do you predict? Is there any indication of time horizons for KPS? KPS has made a lot of smart investments, they have a pattern, but they're not going to be pigeonholed into a particular time frame for a next-step strategy. https://www.defensenews.com/interviews/2020/08/13/am-general-ceo-on-acquisition-by-a-private-equity-firm/