April 14, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
By Anthony Capaccio
The Pentagon's contractors have largely avoided widespread closings or “major impacts” so far from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a running tally compiled by its contracts management office.
Of 10,509 locations tracked or monitored by the Defense Contract Management Agency, 135 had closed at some point as of Wednesday. Forty-nine of those reopened after an average of about 10 days.
“These closures have generally been short-term in order to clean facilities” or to “reduce the potential exposure of employees,” agency spokesman Matthew Montgomery said in a statement.
The agency doesn't track how many workers are affected, he said. And the numbers on closings don't reflect defense contractors that have cut back their operations -- or the outsized impact of Boeing Co.'s shutdowns.
Boeing, the No. 2 U.S. defense contractor, has indefinitely halted assembly of the KC-46 refueling tanker and the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft at its facilities in Washington State, the initial U.S. center of the pandemic.
Last Friday, the company began a two-week shutdown of the Philadelphia-area factory where it manufactures military rotorcraft, including the Chinook CH-47 cargo helicopter and the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey.
By contrast, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., has had no closings to this point, according to spokeswoman Beci Brenton. With 42,000 employees, it's the sole U.S. builder of aircraft carriers and the co-contractor of Navy attack submarines and DDG-51 destroyers.
Montgomery said the Defense Department “has worked closely with local and state governments to ensure that the defense industrial base is considered critical infrastructure to help minimize the impact of statewide closures.”
Impacts from closings “are being seen across all sectors including but not limited to clothing and textiles, aerospace, shipbuilding, and ground vehicles,” he said.
Many Pentagon contractors “are struggling to maintain a mission-ready workforce due to work site closures, personnel quarantines and state and local restrictions on movement” that can't “be resolved through remote work,” Kim Herrington, the Defense Department's pricing and contracting director, said in a memo Wednesday.
To support the defense industry, the DCMA has modified about 1,400 contracts to increase the rate for “progress payments” for work completed on time from 80% to 90% of costs incurred for large businesses and from 90% of cost to 95% for small businesses.
The move resulted in $3 billion being advanced to industry, according to Herrington.
That's in addition to $882 million that the Air Force is providing to Chicago-based Boeing. The funds were being withheld until the company corrected or provided sufficient plans to correct numerous deficiencies with KC-46 tankers. Most of those flaws remain unresolved.
Also, the Pentagon issued guidance Thursday that lets military contracting officers reimburse companies for documented payments to employees who can't work because of coronavirus facility closings or related restrictions.
October 10, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
CISA flags a critical Fortinet flaw under active exploitation. Palo Alto Networks and Cisco also release urgent security patches.
November 19, 2018 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
By: Kelsey D. Atherton Russia's Defense Ministry announced Nov. 6 that the nation had extended the range on its drone-carried jammers to 100 km, or over 60 miles. Drones as a platform for, and not just the target of, electronic warfare means that the sight of a flying robot overhead could signal incoming strikes as well as a sudden inability to call for help. “Russia has been using a UAV-mounted cellphone jammer for a number of years now,” said Samuel Bendett, a research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses. The drones operate in a two- or three-vehicle pod with a ground station, collectively grouped as a “Leer-3” system. “When these UAVs fly in teams, one acts as a signal-and-comms relay while another acts as a jammer,” Bendett said. “These Leer-3 systems have been around for about two years at this point.” What is changed is the range of the jammer. The Orlan-10 drones already have a range of 75 miles, which means that, with the latest update on the jammer, the drone pod can interfere with signals up to 135 miles away from where the drone was launched. TASS reports that the 60-mile range is a 3.5 times increase in distance from the initial range. In addition, Bendett said there's a chance this capability, or an earlier version of it, has already been witnessed in conflict. “Ukrainian forces claim to spot Leer-3 systems in eastern Ukraine, while there is potential evidence that Leer-3 was used in Syria as well,” Bendett said. “Russian forces are constantly training with Leer-3 UAVs as they practice adversary signal and cell comms suppression, identification and eventual destruction of the enemy force. In fact, this kind of training is part of the official [tactics, techniques and procedures] in electronic warfare and other forces across the Russian military.” Advancements in electronic warfare are one of the key components guiding the development of autonomous systems for the military. For now, drones are conducting electronic warfare against cellular communications, but it's not hard to imagine the same doctrines applied with new technology. In that scenario, it easy to picture other vehicles transforming into jamming machines on future battlefields ... and maybe even present ones. https://www.c4isrnet.com/newsletters/unmanned-systems/2018/11/16/russian-drones-can-jam-cell-phones-60-miles-away
July 2, 2024 | International, Security
Australian man charged for creating fake Wi-Fi hotspots on flights to steal personal data. Learn how to protect yourself from 'evil twin' Wi-Fi attack