December 31, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
Chinese APT Exploits BeyondTrust API Key to Access U.S. Treasury Systems and Documents
U.S. Treasury breached by Chinese APT actors via BeyondTrust API key; critical CVE-2024-12356 exploited.
September 16, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Posted By: Jason Reagan
French drone company Novadem announced delivery this week of its latest model of micro-drone as the centerpiece of a $2.2 million contract with French armed forces.
The Ministère des Armées purchased 55 micro-drones from Novadem's NX70 model line to provide security surveillance and reconnaissance over 24-hour periods.
“For several years, we have put in place all necessary processes and documentations to be able to face, when the day arrives, this increase of the production rate,” Novadem CEO Pascal Zunino. “This major contract has allowed us to refine and validate our organization in order to make it replicable in the future and to reach the quality standards expected by the [ministry].”
The contract includes training of more than a dozen users from France's 61st Artillery Regiment with a total of 100 or more trained operators expected to be trained in the future.
Last year, Novadem introduced the first iteration of the NX70 under contract with France's national police agency, Gendarmerie Nationale.
“Their feedback as well as feedback of other customers in France and abroad allowed us to continue research and development to develop the ‘Block 2' model of today,” Zunino said. “This marks a new step compared to the first generation.”
Zunino added, the next generation of the NX70 drone improves image stabilization and night vision capabilities. “Radiofrequency links have also evolved to meet military requirements: defense frequency bands, data encryption and a radio range increased to more than 5 kilometers,” he added.
French defense officials tested the micro-drones in June at the Mourmelon military camp.
Earlier this year, Novadem launched a new tethered UAV platform, the NXWIRE 2.0 during AUVSI XPONENTIAL, the world's largest UAS trade show. The drone model offers a ground-based power supply that can be connected to a main supply or auxiliary power unit and a 50-meter cable to sustain electrical power from the ground to the drone.
The company also produces LPS technology using terrestrial beacons much in the same way that GPS uses satellites to create a local positioning network.
https://dronelife.com/2019/09/13/french-drone-firm-scores-major-military-contract/
December 31, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
U.S. Treasury breached by Chinese APT actors via BeyondTrust API key; critical CVE-2024-12356 exploited.
June 25, 2019 | International, Aerospace
By Hope Hodge Seck When the Navy's F-35C Joint Strike Fighter embarks on its first carrier deployment in 2021, it's expected to take with it a pinpoint-accurate landing system that purports to make the terror of night approaches and high sea-state traps all but a thing of the past. Raytheon announced this week that the Navy awarded a $234.6 million contract for a low-rate initial production of 23 of its Joint Precision Approach and Landing Systems, or JPALS -- enough to outfit every carrier and L-class amphibious assault ship with the technology. The contract also will include retrofitting three earlier systems that had been installed, a Raytheon executive said. Delivering to the Navy will start late next year, and installation will begin shortly thereafter, retired Navy Rear Adm. C.J. Jaynes, Raytheon's JPALS technical executive, told Military.com this week. The work is expected to be completed by August 2023, according to a published contract announcement. The system, which uses shipboard-relative GPS to guide planes in for landings and communicates with the aircraft from the deck of the carrier up to 200 nautical miles out, is accurate within 20 centimeters, or about 8 inches, Jaynes said. "It hits the third wire every time," she said. "It's [reliable in] all-weather and all sea states, including Sea State 5 (waves of roughly 8 to 12 feet)." For Navy pilots, catching the third of four wires on tailhook landings (or the second of three wires) has historically been a game of skill and precision that becomes orders of magnitude more difficult in the dark or in low-visibility weather conditions. Marine Corps F-35B pilots, who use the aircraft's vertical-landing configuration to put it down on the smaller flight decks of amphibious ships, face the same problems. And those issues may actually be exacerbated by a number of F-35-specific issues pending resolution. The custom-made, $400,000-per-unit helmet that F-35 pilots wear -- a piece of technology that allows them to "see through" the plane via a display for better situational awareness -- features symbology that emits a green glow, interfering with pilots' vision in low-light conditions. A video that emerged in 2017 showed an F-35 pilot landing "in a fog" on the amphibious assault ship America at night, his vision obscured by the helmet display. A recent Defense News report highlighted another issue with the helmet display at night that obscures the horizon. JPALS, which has already deployed in an early-development version with F-35Bs aboard the amphibious assault ships Wasp and Essex, would decrease reliance on visibility for accurate landings. Another F-35C-installed tool, Delta Flight Path, will keep aircraft on a steady glide slope for carrier landings, reducing inputs and corrections required from pilots. Early reports from the JPALS deployments with the Marines have been extremely positive, Jaynes said. "The pilots absolutely love it. It's been 100 percent accuracy, always available, they haven't had any issues at all," she said. "We know they have not had to abort any missions due to weather or due to sea state." Raytheon is now pitching an expeditionary version of JPALS, easily transportable and designed to guide aircraft to safe landings on bare airfields. The whole system can fit in five transit cases, be transported by C-130 Hercules, and be assembled within 90 minutes, Raytheon says. The Navy's future tanker drone, the MQ-25 Stingray, will also be JPALS-equipped; Jaynes said Raytheon is in talks with the service now about selling expeditionary JPALS for the MQ-25 program for shore-based tanker landings at locations like Norfolk, Virginia, or Point Mugu, California. Meanwhile, she said, the Marine Corps is considering buying a single expeditionary JPALS system for testing in order to develop a concept of operations to employ it. But "the closest customer outside of MQ-25 is actually the U.S. Air Force," Jaynes said. "They'd be able to move their aircraft possibly every 24 to 48 hours and do island-hopping in the Pacific. We're going over to [United States Air Forces in Europe -- Air Forces Africa] in July to talk with them about the system," she said. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/06/21/all-navy-carriers-amphibs-get-f-35-precision-landing-system.html
September 8, 2020 | International, Land
by Ashley Roque Northrop Grumman remains under contract with the US Army to mature a critical component of its ground combat fleet ‒ the XM913 50 mm cannon ‒ even as the service weighs its cannon calibre requirements for the its future Bradley replacement fleet. As of late August the company had delivered four XM913 cannons to the service, with plans to deliver seven more by the end of October, Northrop Grumman spokesman Jarrod Krull told Janes. In addition to these weapons, he noted that the company is anticipating an “imminent order” for 10 additional cannons that would be delivered to the service in 2021 for qualification, testing, and integration activities. “The 50 mm cannon combines Bushmaster chain gun reliability with [a] next-generation effective range that will provide the warfighter with increased stand-off against near peer adversaries,” Krull wrote. The army is working with the company to further develop the cannon, in part, to support its Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) portfolio and allow soldiers to fire quicker and reach farther distances. The XM913 cannon can fire two munitions ‒ the XM1204 High Explosive Airburst with Trace (HEAB-T) and XM1203 Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot with Trace (APFSDS-T) ‒ and is central to the army's Advanced Lethality and Accuracy System for Medium Caliber (ALAS-MC) effort. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/northrop-grumman-charges-on-with-xm913-50-mm-cannon-deliveries-to-us-army