July 23, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Maddy Longwell
The Defense Information Systems Agency has announced a program that it says will improve cyber capabilities and eliminate legacy network technology and infrastructure in the Pacific theater.
The program, known as Pacific Enterprise Services – Hawaii (PES-HI), will modernize the Defense Department's information networks and communications infrastructure in Hawaii. The program consists of three contract vehicles to buy information network infrastructure services and upgrade internet protocol technology.
The improvements will allow users of the DoD Information Network and communications technology in Hawaii to access features such as Voice over Internet Protocol and web conferencing.
“Long term, PES–HI will modernize communications infrastructure to meet DoD requirements and provide cost savings and survivability to Pacific Command customers,” Army Maj. Ernesto Gumbs, the deputy program manager, said in a July 18 news release.
PES–HI also will update technology provided under the previous contract vehicle, Joint Hawaii Information Transfer System (JHITS). AT&T had been the contractor on that program since 2006, when it won a $250 million deal. JHITS provided more than 45,000 Defense Switched Network telephone services for U.S. personnel in areas such as Singapore and Wake Island and 3,100 point-to-point intra-Hawaii transmission circuits for DoD telecommunications.
Legacy services provided by JHITS were absorbed into the PES – HI program when it started, Gumbs said.
July 23, 2021 | International, Aerospace
A model jet spotted on a fake aircraft carrier is the latest hint about what China's navy might have planned for its carrier air wings.
January 30, 2019 | International, C4ISR
By: Mark Pomerleau The intelligence community has unveiled its multi-pronged plan to compete in the increasingly digital and data-centric world. The strategy, titled “Augmenting Intelligence using Machines (AIM)” and released Jan. 16, outlines how the intelligence community will adjust its investments, personnel and practices to better incorporate associated technologies “To meet its vision of ensuring intelligence advantage, the IC must adapt to the rapid global technological democratization in sensing, communications, computing, and machine analysis of data,” Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence, said in the document. “These trends threaten to erode what were previously unique [IC] capabilities and advantages; going forward, we must improve our ability to analyze and draw conclusions from IC-wide data collections at scale.” During remarks at an August 2018 conference, Gordon said she wants the strategy to help focus on what the IC is trying to achieve rather than the technologies that they use.She described the need for getting machines as partners to help derive intelligence as one of the two most existential threats facing the community. The strategy lists four primary investment objectives ranked chronologically. They include: - Immediate and ongoing needs: Creating digital foundations, data and science and technical intelligence. - Short-term needs: Adopting commercial and open source narrow AI solutions, which are AI solutions that are designed with very specific tasks and functions. - Medium-term needs: Make investments in the gaps such as AI assurance and multimodal AI. - Long-term needs: Make investments in basic research focused on sense-making. The strategy notes that the “IC must be willing to rethink or abandon processes and mechanisms designed for an earlier era, establish disciplined engineering and operations practices, and maintain an absolute focus on assuring advantage in an intensely competitive global adversarial environment.” However, it also warns that artificial intelligence and associated technologies are not a panacea or a substitute for creating a digital foundation. Instead, the intelligence community must understand how AI algorithms may succeed and fail. The strategy also aims to bring together disparate efforts in artificial intelligence, process automation, and IC officer augmentation as a way to match investments in AI and data from other countries. One example includes the use of such technologies to create forgeries of audio and video, often referred to as deepfakes, which could lead to difficulties in deciphering fact from fiction. Gordon said in August that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is using AI to automate image processing and the National Reconnaissance Office is using artificial intelligence tools to automate analysis of streaming multi-intelligence data for detecting activity and automating tasks of scarce and expensive collection resources. The strategy also focuses on the workforce. It notes that it is much more than technology and implementing the strategy will entail addressing workforce challenges and understanding and shaping the policies and authorities governing how the IC deploys and uses AI. https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2019/01/28/how-the-intel-community-could-use-machines-and-ai
November 18, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — Ten winners have emerged from the first International Space Pitch Day, a joint venture between the U.S. and the U.K. designed to encourage and reward innovation that could benefit the two nations' military endeavors in space. The event was modeled on the U.S. Air Force pitch days — “Shark Tank”-inspired competitions where nontraditional companies can directly present their technology solutions to acquisition officials and walk away with same-day contracts. The Air Force has held dozens of topical pitch days over the last two years as officials try to identify “defense unicorns.” The first space-specific pitch day was hosted by the Air Force in November 2019, though the since-established U.S. Space Force has taken over those pitch days. “Pitch Days open the government's aperture to work with commercially-focused companies,” according to Will Roper, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. “Competing for technology outside of our fence lines has been a major U.S. Air Force and Space Force theme. Partnering with our allies to compete globally is the natural evolution.” Open to companies and entrepreneurs from all over the world, the inaugural International Space Pitch Day was jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force and the U.K.'s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and the British Royal Air Force. Representatives from those organizations, U.S. Space Force, U.K. Strategic Command and NATO worked through the various proposals, with 15 companies invited to present their solutions during the Defence Space Conference in London. Ultimately, 10 companies were awarded same-day contracts each worth up to $66,000, according to an announcement from the U.K. government. That funding will help the vendors fast-track their solutions. “It is the first time two nations anywhere in the world have come together to award defense contracts based around a pitch-style event, similar to Dragon's Den/Shark Tank,” said Vice-Marshal Harvey Smyth, the U.K.'s director for military space and air. “It is also the first time two nations have awarded joint defence innovation contracts to an overseas-based enterprise in this way.” While most of the winners are from the U.S. or the U.K., one company from India and another from Australia won contracts. The ten winners were: 114 AI Innovation Limited (India) Clearbox Systems (Australia) Clutch Space Systems (U.K.) Cognitive Space (U.S.) precursor SPC (U.S.) Riskaware Limited and Telespazio Vega UK (U.K.) Rocket Communications (U.S.) Slingshot Aerospace (U.S.) Spire Global UK (U.K.) Swim.ai (U.S.) https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/11/17/10-winners-chosen-in-international-space-pitch-day/