January 17, 2019 | International, C4ISR, Security

DARPA Explores New Computing Architectures to Deliver Verifiable Data Assurances

Program seeks to create new software and hardware architectures that provide physically provable assurances around data security and privacy

Whether a piece of information is private, proprietary, or sensitive to national security, systems owners and users have little guarantees about where their information resides or of its movements between systems. When a user enters information on a phone, for example, it is difficult to provably track that the data remains on the phone or whether it is uploaded to a server beyond the device. The national defense and security communities are similarly left with few options when it comes to ensuring that sensitive information is appropriately isolated, particularly when it's loaded to an internet-connected system.

“As cloud systems proliferate, most people still have some information that they want to physically track – not just entrust to the ether,” said Walter Weiss, DARPA program manager. “Users should be able to trust their devices to keep their information private and isolated.”

Keeping a system completely disconnected from all means of information transfer is an unrealistic security tactic. Modern computing systems must be able to communicate with other systems, including those with different security requirements. Today, commercial and defense organizations often leverage a series of air-gaps, or breaks between systems, to keep the most sensitive computing devices and information secure. However, interfaces to such air-gapped systems are typically added in after the fact and are exceedingly complex, placing undue burden on systems operators as they implement or manage them.

To create scalable solutions that provide safe, verifiable methods of tracking information and communications between systems, DARPA launched the Guaranteed Architecture for Physical Security (GAPS) program. The goal of GAPS is to develop hardware and software architectures that can provide physically provable guarantees around high-risk transactions, or where data moves between systems of different security levels. DARPA wants to ensure that these transactions are isolated and that the systems they move across are enabled with the necessary data security assertions. The intended outputs of this program are hardware and software co-design tools that allow data separation requirements to be defined during design, and protections that can be physically enforced at system runtime.

GAPS is divided into three research areas that will address: 1) the creation of hardware components and interfaces; 2) the development of software co-design tools; and, 3) the integration of these components and tools, as well as their validation against exemplar Department of Defense (DoD) systems. The new hardware components and interfaces are designed to provide system designers with a library of hardware tools to securely isolate data during transactions. The software co-design tools could someday allow developers to easily employ GAPS hardware components without requiring changes to their existing development processes and frameworks. Finally, the integration and validation of the hardware and software architectures on DoD systems could be used to demonstrate the capability and maturity of the GAPS approach for the kinds of problems DoD system integrators currently face, and expect to see in the future.

Commercializing the resulting technologies is also an objective of the program. The verifiable security properties created under GAPS may also help create safer commercial systems that could be used for preserving proprietary information and protecting consumer privacy.

GAPS is part of the second phase of DARPA's Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) - a five-year, upwards of $1.5 billion investment in the future of domestic, U.S. government and defense electronics systems. Under ERI Phase II, DARPA is exploring the development of trusted electronics components, including the advancement of electronics that can enforce security and privacy protections. GAPS will help address the DoD's unique requirements for assured electronics while helping to move forward ERI's broader mission of creating a more robust, secure and heavily automated electronics industry.

DARPA will hold a Proposers Day on January 23, 2019 from 9:00am to 2:30pm (EST) at the DARPA Conference Center, located at 675 North Randolph Street, Arlington, Virginia 22203, to provide more information about GAPS and answer questions from potential proposers. For details on the event, including registration requirements, please visit: http://www.cvent.com/events/gaps-proposers-day/event-summary-34cbadc0ab2248bb860db3df8223a2f6.aspx.

A Broad Agency Announcement that fully describes the GAPS program structure and objectives can be found here: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=cfecfe762954149924ec59c95ec6a7b8&tab=core&_cview=1.

https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-01-16

On the same subject

December 19, 2018 | International, Aerospace

Start of Air Force’s light attack plane competition pushed back until next year
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — If the Air Force moves forward on a proposed initiative to buy light attack planes, it won't happen by the end of 2018. The service intended to put out a final request for proposals this month for a potential light attack aircraft program, but the date has now slipped into 2019, an Air Force official confirmed Tuesday. “The Air Force does not anticipate release of the final Light Attack Request for Proposal by the end of the calendar year as we complete additional analysis,” said Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Hope Cronin in an emailed response to Defense News. The service released a draft solicitation on Aug. 3, following two experimentation campaigns that brought the Sierra Nevada Corp.-Embraer A-29 Super Tucano, Textron's Scorpion jet and AT-6 attack plane, and L3's AT-802L Longsword to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico for several rounds of test flights. The second set of flight experiments between the A-29 and AT-6 were curtailed this summer after an A-29 crashed, killing its pilot. However, the Air Force maintained that it could garner the data it needed on aircraft maintenance and network operations while testing the planes on the ground. Air Force acquisition officials have shied away from declaring whether a program of record will begin in the fiscal year 2020 budget, but the August presolicitation seems to limit the contenders to the A-29 and AT-6, stating that SNC and Textron “are the only firms that appear to possess the capability necessary to meet the requirement within the Air Force's time frame without causing an unacceptable delay in meeting the needs of the warfighter.” The goal of the light attack experiments is to prove whether the Air Force can quickly bring industry to the table to experiment with off the shelf equipment and rapidly make a decision about whether to buy it. In that light, the delay in releasing the final request for proposals is at least a slight setback, as it's unclear whether the wait for a final RFP could also push back the Air Force's proposed due date for awarding a contract — before the start of the 2020 fiscal year on Oct. 1. But it remains unclear whether the Air Force will have the money to buy it. Officials have maintained that a light attack capability is “additive," meaning that they would not be willing to sacrifice procurement dollars designated for aircraft in existing or planned programs of record so that it could buy the AT-6 or A-29. However, the Pentagon's topline budget is still uncertain. Defense Department budget officials had geared up for a $733 billion budget in FY20, only to have President Donald Trump call for a cut to $700 billion. Now, it appears that number is growing after intervention from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and congressional hawks, and could be as high as $750 billion. Whether the light attack aircraft program fits into any of those topline budgets is currently unknown. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/12/18/start-of-air-forces-light-attack-plane-competition-pushed-back-until-next-year
December 3, 2023 | International, Land

Exclusive: Boeing eliminated from US Air Force's 'Doomsday Plane' competition | Reuters
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December 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace

This company wants to launch satellites into space via drone
Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — Could drones hold the answer to putting satellites on orbit faster? Space logistics company Aevum is betting on it with its new Ravn X drone, which it built in the hopes of launching rockets into orbit every three hours. “Aevum is completely reimagining access to space,” said Jay Skylus, Aevum's founder and chief executive, said in a statement unveiling the new launch solution Dec. 3. “U.S. leadership has identified the critical need for extremely fast access to low Earth orbit. We're faster than anybody. “Through our autonomous technologies, Aevum will shorten the lead time of launches from years to months, and when our customers demand it, minutes,” he added. Founded in 2016, the company has been developing its product in stealth mode for years. On Dec. 3, they officially unveiled the new Ravn X autonomous launch solution ― an 80-foot long drone designed to launch small payloads into low Earth orbit. The company has yet to conduct its first test flight but is working toward airworthiness certification. Leaders hope to launch a payload for the military before the end of 2021. “We have a small launch vehicle that's more or less designed from scratch to be reusable and for responsive space access,” Skylus told C4ISRNET in an interview. “We do this by operating this sort of three stage launch vehicle stack. The first stage is an unmanned aircraft that is completely autonomous. The second and third stages are rocket systems.” Following take off, the drone rises to between 30,000 and 60,000 feet, where the rocket separates and ignites, launching the payload into orbit. Ravn X can take off and land horizontally on any airstrip at least one mile long. “The entire system is designed for a turnaround time and response time of about 180 minutes,” Skylus explained. The idea of launching satellites into space from the air isn't a new concept. For example, Northrop Grumman's Pegasus rocket ― designed to be launched into orbit from a carrier aircraft ― has been used for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Air Force and NASA missions since the 1990s, with the most recent mission taking place in October 2019. A more recent entrant into the air-launch-to-orbit arena is Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket. The company's first test flight, which failed to reach orbit, was conducted in May 2020. Aevum thinks of itself as taking the concept one step further by adding autonomy to the launch process. “This entire process is more or less fully autonomous, and this allows us to basically reduce the cost of labor that's required by about 90 percent,” said Skylus. Aevum's approach also gets at one of the most frustrating issues with launch: weather. In 2018, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced the DARPA Launch Challenge, where small launch companies were asked to show that they could put a payload into space within just 30 days. While about 50 companies applied, by 2019 their were only three companies remaining in the competition. By 2020, there was just one: Astra Space. The company came close to achieving its goal, ultimately failing after inclement weather forced them to scrub multiple launch attempts. Ravn X is largely impervious to those issues. “Because of the architecture, we're really not dependent on weather and those types of things. We expect to be available more than 96 percent of the year,” said Skylus. The company is already drawing attention from the Department of Defense. Ravn X's first mission will be the ASLON-45 mission for the U.S. Space Force, a $5 million contract. With that mission, the focus is on showing how the company can get a payload into orbit in 24 hours or less, said Skylus. That launch is expected to be complete before the end of 2021. In addition, the company has received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research award, a classified contract, and is one of eight company's to receive a $986 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for Orbital Services Program-4. “I'm excited to see the bold innovation and responsiveness in development today by our small launch industry partners to support emerging war fighter needs” said Lt. Col. Ryan Rose, Chief of the Space and Missile Systems Center's Small Launch and Targets Division, in a statement coordinated with Aevum's announcement. “The U.S. Space Force is proactively partnering with industry to support U.S. space superiority objectives. Having a robust U.S. industry providing responsive launch capability is key to ensuring the U.S. Space Force can respond to future threats.” The Pentagon has been pushing industry for responsive launch solutions, ensuring that they can place payloads into orbit with little notice. Aevum's focus on software and automation gives them an edge in meeting those elusive responsive launch requirements, Skylus said. “The responsive space launch type of problem has been a problem for several decades now, and the government has been seeking a solution to this. While others, our peers, are trying to tackle this from a technology/engineering perspective, Aevum is really tackling the problem from a system level perspective,” said Skylus. That's meant taking proven hardware solutions and applying autonomous software solutions to the ground processes and mission assurance elements. “If you look at our financials and things like that, we really do look more like a software company as opposed to a launch company,” said Skylus. “Which is great, because that means we're profitable right out of the gate.” For Aevum, the focus is on being that dependable, responsive launch service, and that may come at a premium for prospective customers, including the Pentagon. “We're not looking to be the lowest cost provider. That was never something that we claimed to be,” said Skylus. “Our focus has been: How do we make sure that we can go when our customers need to go? “Our niche market is going to be composed of customers like the Department of Defense who can't afford to wait a week to gather intel ... Or a customer like a commercial constellation customer who if they're down for over a week, they're going to lose more in revenue than they would be willing to pay for a launch,” he continued. “Those are the customers that we're really targeting.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/12/03/this-company-wants-to-launch-satellites-into-space-via-drone/

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