CACI Provides Canadian Armed Forces with Counter-Uncrewed Aerial Systems Technology

On the same subject

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  March 8, 2022 | International, Naval

  NORTHCOM needs better sensors to protect against Russian submarine, missile threat

  The technologies the U.S. needs to bolster its homeland defense against Russian submarines and missiles are currently available '€” meaning the Defense Department could move out quickly on buying and fielding them if they support these programs in the upcoming 2023 budget.

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  July 18, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Boeing Gets $3.9 Billion Contract for New Air Force One

  By Anthony Capaccio Capping off a contentious contracting tussle with President Donald Trump, Boeing Co. received a $3.9 billion contract to continue development, modification and testing of two new aircraft to serve as Air Force One, according to two people familiar with the decision. The planes, Boeing 747-8s, would be delivered by December 2024. That would be Trump's last full year in office if he wins a second term. Congressional committees were informed of the decision on Tuesday. Trump reached an informal deal in late February with Chicago-based Boeing for the fixed-price contract that a White House spokesman said at the time would save taxpayers $1.4 billion from an earlier projection for buying and outfitting two presidential jets. But public estimates suggest the savings would be far less -- perhaps a few hundred million dollars. Trump shook the defense industry -- and put all large U.S. companies with government contracts on notice -- when he began criticizing the Air Force One contract more than a month before he took office in January 2017. On Dec. 6, 2016 he wrote on Twitter that “Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!” That surprising statement was followed by talks with Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg. After a visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in January, Muilenburg said, “We're going to get it done for less than that, and we're committed to working together to make sure that happens.” Announcement of the contract came the same day Trump said in an interview with CBS that the new aircraft will be painted “be red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate,'' instead of its traditional white, blue and light-blue color scheme. The Air Force said last year that it saved some money when the president reached a preliminary deal with Boeing for two 747 jumbo jets to serve as Air Force One, taking advantage of an unusual limited-time discount on planes once bound for Russia. Much of the costs for the presidential plane come from pricey and complex modifications required to turn Boeing's iconic hump-backed jets into the flying fortresses that ferry U.S. presidents around the world. The jets would be outfitted with dual auxiliary power units, rather than the one electrical power system standard for commercial jets, along with a complex communications system, work and rest quarters for the first family, elevators to ease boarding, self-defense capabilities and other features, according to Air Force budget documents. The Air Force decided in 2015 to award Boeing a sole-source deal to build the Air Force One replacements without competition while insisting that subcontractors be allowed to bid on its specialized equipment. The service determined then that Boeing's aircraft was the only one manufactured in the U.S. “that when fully missionized meets the necessary critically important capabilities” that the president needs. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-17/boeing-said-to-get-3-9-billion-contract-for-new-air-force-one

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  August 17, 2020 | International, Naval

  The new strategy from Navy’s cyber command

  Mark Pomerleau The Navy's primary cyber outfit released its strategic plan for the next five years, a document that calls for using the service's networks as a warfighting platform. The document, released by 10th Fleet/Fleet Cyber Command in late July, covers the range of responsibility of the command, which is the only fleet with a global footprint in all the military domains, to include cyberspace operations, signals intelligence and recently, the Navy's component to U.S. Space Command. Much has changed since the last strategic plan was published in 2015, namely, the rampant activity of adversaries on a daily basis below the threshold of armed conflict to strategically harm the United States. “The long term competition we face today is between democracies and authoritarian regimes, freedom of navigation, and access to shared world markets. Our long-term strategic competitors are executing strategic cyber activities to alter the international order. This will not let up,” the document read. It added that adversaries learned the military's game but now the military must learn the adversary's game and play it on their terms. “Historically, to undermine a state's power required territorially-focused, overt armed attacks or physical invasion. While that is and will always remain a possibility, technology has provided our adversaries with the ability to achieve their objectives without traditional military force,” the document read. “Currently, our adversaries are engaging us in cyberspace and the costs are cumulative – each intrusion, hack or leak may not be strategically consequential on its own, but the compounding effects are tantamount to what would have been considered an act of war.” The Navy, and military by extension, must be prepared to contest this activity. “I am certain the opening rounds of a 21st century great power conflict, particularly one impacting the maritime domain, will be launched in the electromagnetic, space, or cyber domains. If the Navy is to fight and win, Navy networks must be able to survive those hits and ‘fight hurt,'” Vice Adm. Timothy White, who rarely speaks publicly, said in the forward to the strategy. “Our people must be trained and exercised to fight through those hits. This contest spans the continuum of competition and conflict. We must win this contest during the day-to-day competition of ‘peacetime operations,' where our networks are already in close contact, under constant probing and attack. If we do not, we will be at a severe disadvantage during crisis and lethal combat.” The plan, which continues to nest within the Navy's overarching vision of Distributed Maritime Operations, features a three pronged vision; acting first in full spectrum information warfare, fighting and winning in a fully contested battlespace and promoting modernization and innovation. Moreover, the plan tweaks the five goals outlined in the previous strategic plan 2015-2020. They include: Operating the network as a warfighting platform: Following several high profile network breaches, the Navy must tighten the screws on its IT. Fleet Cyber is responsible for operating, maintaining and defending the network and as part of that, service leaders recognize they must “fight hurt” when networks are strained. They are also working ton establish greater cyber situational awareness across the service and reduce the intrusion attack surface. Conducting fleet cryptologic warfare: Fleet Cyber published its cryptologic cyber warfare vision in 2019. As part of the new strategy, command officials said they will seek to expand and enhance capabilities in distributed signals intelligence as part of its contribution to Distributed Maritime Operations. Delivering warfighting capabilities and effects: Fleet Cyber wants to expand how it delivers effects on the battlefield to include accelerating and synchronizing information warfare capabilities across Maritime Operations Centers, advancing integration of cyber effects into Navy and Marine Corps concepts and creating tactical cyber teams along with a maritime fires cell to provide expertise across the fleet for delivering cyber effects. Accelerate Navy's cyber forces: Fleet Cyber needs to develop a plan to meet increased demand, both for its joint force requirements through U.S. Cyber Command and Navy specific requirements. Leaders are also looking to mature organizational structures and command and control relationships between various cyber entities that control forces across the globe such as Joint Forces Headquarters–DoDIN, Joint Force Headquarters–Cyber and Cyber Operations–Integrated Planning Elements. Moreover, with the additional importance of the space domain, Fleet Cyber will look to exploit the increasing convergence between space, cyberspace and electromagnetic spectrum. Establish and Mature Navy Space Command: The document states that Fleet Cyber's goal is to “maintain maritime superiority from the sea floor to space with a core emphasis on lethality, readiness and capacity,” and so officials must re-focus to provide the best space integration possible as the service component to Space Command. The strategy also articulates Fleet Cyber's role in enabling Distributed Maritime Operations, which is underpinned by assured command and control, battlespace awareness and integrated fires. All of those require robust networks, information and completion of the kill chain. https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2020/08/13/the-new-strategy-from-navys-cyber-command/