October 22, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
Security Flaw in Styra's OPA Exposes NTLM Hashes to Remote Attackers
Security vulnerability in Styra's OPA could expose NTLM hashes; patch released to mitigate risks.
February 1, 2021 | International, Aerospace
France begins backfilling its Rafale fleet after selling some to Greece
PARIS – The French Air and Space Force will be getting 12 new Rafales to replace those being removed from its inventory to sell to Greece, Defense Minister Florence Parly said on Friday.
The announcement comes a few weeks later than originally planned. Florence Parly had told the National Assembly's Defense Commission last fall that the order would be placed with Dassault Aviation, the Rafale's manufacturer, before the end of 2020. But that was on the provision that the $3 billion contract with Greece for 18 Rafales had been signed by then.
That Greek contract was signed four days ago so Parly took the opportunity of a visit to Dassault Aviation's flight controls factory in Argonay, in the French Alps on Jan. 29 to announce the new order. Eric Trappier, Dassault's CEO, had earlier underlined the fact that “Dassault is the only aircraft manufacturer in the world to design and produce its own flight controls.”
Contracts to Dassault Aviation, Safran (the engine manufacturer) and Thales (the electronics) will be sent out by the DGA procurement agency in the next few days. While no price tag was given during Parly's announcement, Trappier has previously said one fully equipped fighter costs around 100 million euros, or $121 million, which would put the total package at just under $1.5 billion.
Parly said the 12 new aircraft would be built to the latest F3R standard. She added, “We sold 18 Rafales to Greece so it is indeed 18 Rafales that Dassault will have to produce.” Speaking at the factory, the defense minister said one Rafale would come off the production line per month, “which represents 7,000 jobs, jobs within Dassault of course, but also within the 500 or so small and medium enterprises that work with you.” She added that in the current economic context “this is good and reassuring news”.
The French Air and Space Force will have its 12 new aircraft by the end of 2025. Together with the 28 Rafales that Dassault is to deliver between 2022 and 2024, this will bring the total to 129, as projected in the 2019-2025 military program law.
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September 9, 2021 | International, Aerospace
Did Pakistan drop Leonardo as lead on Sea Sultan aircraft conversion?
A source with knowledge of Pakistan's defense programs tells Defense News that Paramount Group is now the lead contractor on the conversion project, with Leonardo relegated to supplying hardware.
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May 22, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
BAE Makes Big Bet On Small Companies: FAST Labs
By THERESA HITCHENS BOSTON: BAE Systems, the third-largest defense contractor in the world, is funding innovative small startups to get innovative technology quickly to its Defense Department customers. Through an initiative called FAST Labs, BAE is both providing seed capital directly to startups and funding a number of accelerators to widen the potential market. The standard tactics include simply buying a smaller company to gain its technology or investing in a startup in order to control the direction of its research. Instead, BAE's FAST Labs is attempting to serve as a middle man connecting startups with DoD customers and BAE's various units. “By giving [the startups] the feasibility money, we can expose them to those harsh requirements that exist in the aerospace and defense world, but we can also in turn do social engineering inside our company,” Jerry Wohletz, the vice president and general management of BAE FAST Labs, told me. The idea is to introduce the startups' designs to BAE's factory and engineering work force, he said, “because we need to get it out of R&D land and get it into those products and services” that BAE knows its defense customers are looking for. FAST Labs is focused on research related to next-generation electronics, intelligent autonomous systems, cyber, electronic warfare, and sensors and processing. Wohletz explained that BAE does in-house research on capabilities that are solely of interest to DoD and the Intelligence Community, but it is reaching out to startups in order to partner on products and services based on commercial market needs. “A lot of aerospace and defense companies have venture capital funds,” Wohletz said. “That's not what we are trying to do. This is not an equity play to drive bottom line performance. We talk here about innovation velocity. We want speed to market.” Therefore, BAE is also putting its money — but more importantly its time — into a number of technology accelerators, such as Techstars in Boston, Capitol Factory in Austin, Texas, and MASSChallenge with hubs in both cities. FAST Labs has a team of scouts whose job is to attend pitches all across the country. “This is not based on ownership. We leave them their freedom,” Francesca Scire-Scappuzzo, who heads the scout team, told me. “We want innovation not just to support our market, we want to support their own innovation” for the commercial market. “Other defense contractors are trying to get involved with venture capital, but they for the most part don't really get it. BAE was in early, and they had the benefit of being linked with us,” Lt. Col. Dave Harden, chief operating officer of AFWERX, the Air Force's innovation hub, told me during the Techstars Air Force Accelerator Demo Day here last Thursday. Indeed, BAE cosponsored the event, and put upfront investment in at least three of 10 start-up companies participating. Neither Wohletz or Scire-Scappuzzo would tell me the size of BAE's budget for startup investment, but Wohletz said “it's getting bigger every year.” Further, the company is using accelerators not just to help itself innovate, Wohletz said, but also to find foreign companies to partner with in bids where the buying country requires offsets, such as India. “It's a completely different way of looking at this than we have done in the past,” he summed up. https://breakingdefense.com/2019/05/bae-makes-big-bet-on-small-companies-fast-labs/