Government-private sector cooperation vital in cyberwar: Senator King

On the same subject

• 

  October 21, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  Japan to export defense tech to Vietnam under new agreement

  HANOI, Vietnam — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, in his first overseas summit since taking office last month, agreed with his Vietnamese counterpart to step up defense and security cooperation in the face of China's expanding influence in the region. In talks in Hanoi on Monday, Suga and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc set a basic agreement allowing Japan to export defense equipment and technology to Vietnam. Japan has been pursuing such pacts in recent years to bolster ties with Southeast Asian countries and sustain its own defense industry. Suga said his four-day trip to Vietnam and later Indonesia was key to pursuing multilateral economic and security cooperation to counter China's growing power and protect sea lanes in disputed areas of the South China Sea. “Vietnam is crucial to achieving our vision of ‘the Free and Open Indo-Pacific,' and our valuable partner,' ” Suga told a news conference after his meeting with Phuc. “Japan, as an Indo-Pacific nation, will continue to contribute to the peace and stability in this region.” Suga said Vietnam, at the center of the region, was the most suitable destination for his first trip abroad as Japan's leader. Neither of the two leaders mentioned China by name in their news conference. Phuc said the peace and stability of the South China Sea should be protected by the rule of law, not unilaterally by force or threats. “Vietnam appreciates that Japan, one of the world's leading powers, is actively contributing its efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region and in the world,” Phuc said. In a speech later Monday at Vietnam-Japan University, Suga said that Japan's “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” concept and “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific,” formulated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2019, share values such as rule of law, openness, transparency and freedom. Suga expressed strong support for their vision, and said together Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations can achieve a peaceful and prosperous future. “Unfortunately in this region, there is a move in the South China Sea that goes against the rule of law and openness stated in this ASEAN Outlook, and Japan strongly opposes any attempt that escalates tensions in the South China Sea,” Suga said in his speech, hinting at China's growing assertiveness in the area. Japan already has defense equipment transfer deals with the U.S., Britain and Malaysia, among other countries. Vietnam is a 12th partner, while Japan is still negotiating deals with Indonesia and Thailand. In its first actual delivery of such exports, Japan in August exported a radar surveillance system to the Philippines. Details of possible equipment sales were not mentioned, but Suga called the agreement “a major step” for a bilateral defense cooperation, saying he expects further developments. Japan partially lifted its ban on military equipment and technology transfer in 2014 as part of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to build Japan's defense capabilities. Suga and Phuc signed other agreements to cooperate in a range of economic fields and on anti-terrorism measures. The two sides also agreed to ease entry bans and allow short-term business visits and reopen flights between Vietnam and Japan. Such travel has been very tightly restricted due to the pandemic, but both countries have managed to somewhat stabilize COVID-19 outbreaks. Suga also promised to provide support for Vietnamese workers in Japan affected by the pandemic's hit to the economy. Vietnamese accounts for more than half of the foreign workers Japan has accepted in recent years to make up for its declining and aging population. Japan is one of Vietnam's top trading partners with two-way trade of $28.6 billion so far this year. Japan is also Vietnam's largest overseas aid donor, providing $23 billion as of 2019 and accounting for more than a quarter of Vietnam's foreign loans. The government has been trying to entice Japanese companies to invest in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries to lessen Japan's dependence on manufacturing and other businesses in China. On Monday, Japan and Vietnam agreed on the need to cooperate on diversifying supply chains — a lesson Japan learned from its dire shortages of surgical masks and protective gowns earlier this year due to heavy dependence on Chinese imports. In August, Vietnam agreed to buy six coast guard patrol boats worth $345 million from Japan. The country is seeking to improve its maritime defenses amid China's continuing development and militarization of artificial islands in contested waters of the South China Sea. Progress in talks between ASEAN and China over the disputes appears to be at a standstill. Suga's predecessor Abe also chose Vietnam as the first country he visited after taking office. Suga is the first foreign head of a state to visit Vietnam since the country closed its borders to contain COVID-19. https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/10/19/japan-to-export-defense-tech-to-vietnam-under-new-agreement/

• 

  October 18, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  AIR2030: A la rencontre de Dassault et du Rafale

  Alexis Pfefferlé Une industrie de la défense en Suisse ? Existe-t-il une industrie de la défense en Suisse ? Cette question, pertinente, fut posée par certains parlementaires à l'heure de décider si le programme AIR 2030 devait être conditionné à des affaires compensatoires. La réponse à cette question en Suisse n'est pas aussi claire que ce qu'elle pourrait être en France ou en l'Allemagne, pays qui possèdent des industries lourdes dévolues entièrement au secteur sécurité & défense. En Suisse, dont on rappelle que le tissu économique se compose à 90% de PME, l'industrie de la défense se compose d'une myriade de PME/PMI qui produisent principalement des machines ou des composants qui rentrent dans la chaine de production de groupes étrangers actifs dans le domaine. Par exemple, nos machines à haute précision sont aussi utiles et demandées dans le domaine civile que militaire. Selon SWISSMEM, l'association faîtière des PME et des grandes entreprises de l'industrie suisse des machines, des équipements électriques et des métaux (industrie MEM), l'industrie MEM concerne près de 320'000 emplois en Suisse et un chiffre d'affaire à l'export trois fois supérieur à celui de l'industrie horlogère. La part de l'industrie de défense est nettement plus faible mais permet de maintenir en Suisse des postes de travail à très haute valeur ajoutée. A la lecture de ces chiffres, les affaires compensatoires prévues dans le programme AIR2030 sont indiscutablement une opportunité exceptionnelle pour l'économie suisse. Dassault – Safran – Thalès, l'excellence industrielle française Retour à Lausanne le mercredi 16 octobre, 0800, pour la seconde journée BtoB entre les industriels suisses et les avionneurs retenus dans le cadre du programme AIR2030. Au menu de ce jour, le Rafale du consortium Dassault – Safran – Thalès. Le Rafale est un biréacteur de 4ème génération voire 4ème génération +, selon les classifications, en vertu d'une certaine furtivité active et tactique. C'est le fleuron de l'armée de l'air française et probablement le chasseur européen le plus avancé en matière technologique. La présentation est dirigée par Monsieur Florent SEYROL, responsable du Business Développement et Coopération Internationale pour Dassault Aviation et par Monsieur Pascal DIDIERJEAN pour le groupe Safran. Le programme Rafale étant un programme achevé en matière d'étude et bien rodé en matière de production, la présentation de Dassault est principalement axée sur la compensation indirecte. Les maîtres mots de la présentation sont l'innovation et la recherche. Poids lourd de l'industrie française et mondiale, Dassault c'est 4.8mia de chiffre d'affaire dont 20% sont alloués à la recherche et au développement. Hormis les pharmas, peu de sociétés suisses ont accès à un tel niveau de financement. Le fil conducteur semble tout trouvé et le consortium formé par Dassault, Safran et Thalès, au travers de leurs divisions combinées, offre de nombreuses possibilités pour les sociétés suisses et des perspectives intéressantes en matière de croissance dans des secteurs allant de l'aéronautique à l'optique en passant par la motorisation et l'électronique. Monsieur Florent SEYROL le souligne, Dassault a une taille internationale, l'expérience de la croissance et des grands contrats, et c'est également cette expérience que le groupe transmet à ses partenaires pour que ceux-ci puissent exploiter pleinement leur potentiel économique. Monsieur Pascal DIDIERJEAN, pour le groupe Safran, abonde dans ce sens, illustrant son propos avec l'exemple de la technologie VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing aircraft), où la Suisse, je l'apprends, à une carte à jouer, surtout aux cotés d'un motoriste comme Safran. Premier avionneur à le souligner, Dassault est également très sensible à l'innovation dans le milieu académique et les succès suisses des EPF ne sont pas passés inaperçus. A l'heure des difficultés rencontrées par ces institutions dans le cadre des projets européens, des financements indirectes de ce type dans le cadre des affaires compensatoires seraient pertinents et bienvenus. Pour Dassault, la force de la Suisse c'est l'innovation et investir dans notre pays et nos entreprises c'est investir dans les technologies du futur, un win win français. On notera enfin que plusieurs sociétés suisses présentes se sont félicitées du contact franc et direct qu'ils ont pu avoir avec les représentants du consortium Rafale, plus faciles d'accès et moins rigides que certains concurrents. RAFALE, points forts et points faibles Points forts Dassault-Safran-Thalès ont les moyens de leurs ambitions en matière de R&D et l'innovation suisse pourrait en profiter pleinement Des coûts à l'export réduits compte tenu de la proximité géographique Un calcul politique intéressant avec un allié influent à Bruxelles Points faibles Faible implantation en Suisse à l'heure actuelle Certains cantons où il faudra être très persuasif lors de la votation https://blogs.letemps.ch/alexis-pfefferle/2018/10/17/air2030-a-la-rencontre-de-dassault-et-du-rafale/

• 

  April 24, 2018 | International, Land, C4ISR

  How the Army plans to improve its friendly force tracking

  By: Mark Pomerleau The Army is upgrading how it tracks friendly forces to increase readiness. During the fiscal 2019 budget roll out in February, Army officials at the Pentagon indicated that the service would be accelerating its Joint Battle Command-Platform, which provides friendly forces awareness information known as blue force tracking, as well as encrypted data and faster satellite network connectivity. The change is intended to solve mounted mission command problems across all formations. The new budget request shows the service is serious about the issue. The Army asked for $431 million for the program in FY2019. That's up from a total of $283 million during the FY2018 budget. Moreover, the Army plans to procure 26,355 systems as opposed to 16,552 from the FY2018 budget. However, officials in the program office were careful to note this was not a “plus-up, so to speak,” but an effort to accelerate the fielding of the tracking systems. C4ISRNET's Mark Pomerleau recently spoke about the program's modernization efforts with Col. Troy Crosby, project manager for Mission Command, alongside Lt. Col. Shane Sims, product manager for JBC-P, assigned to Project Mission Command. C4ISRNET: How should we interpret the FY2019 budget request for this program? COL. TROY CROSBY: It's important to understand that there wasn't necessarily a plus-up. Really what happened is we shifted already approved authorizations to the left. We're just expediting sooner. The Army asked us what we could do to modernize faster ... essentially, we went back to them and said give us the funding and the resources to move a lot of those units to the left because every year the G-3/5/7 comes out with this priority list and we weren't able to get down to that priority list because of funding. That's really what you're seeing with that movement of money from the out years closer in to the left. C4ISRNET: What led to the decision to baseline the program across formations? CROSBY: The Army's looking to standardize their baselines not only on the platforms like JBC-P, but also a similar effort in the command post with software baseline reduction. Moving to the standard baseline on the platform-side helps with training, readiness and the physical constraints as we can depreciate the older versions of FBCB2/BFT [Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below/Blue Force Tracking] out of sustainment. C4ISRNET: How does standardization help the Army? CROSBY: Any time you're greatly standardized in a organization the size of the Army, you're going to get easier interoperability down at the tactical level. If Lt. Col. Sims is Sgt. Sims and he is in a unit at Fort Stewart and we were trained on the current systems in the force and then he gets [a permanent change of station] out to Fort Riley, he already has a base of knowledge when he hits the ground on what those systems are because they're the same across the force. So, the training burden for his new units greatly reduced. I think it also helps in readiness as units and soldiers move around the battlespace. The other reason the Army really wants to standardize on JBC-P is, like with all systems in the tactical network, we're always looking to improve cyber posture, and there were multiple improvements in our cyber posturing that the department felt were relevant to try to accelerate so we could get that capability to the entire force as quickly as possible. C4ISRNET: In terms of cyber, what are some modernization efforts you're undertaking to help this platform perform in the more dynamic environments? CROSBY: I think the best way that we can characterize it is looking to ... achieve a cyber posture that allows us to operate both in a counter-insurgency/counterterrorism role and a near-peer adversary role. We're looking to answer both sides of that coin. Yes, current fight, but we're also looking to make sure we're cyber postured for a near-peer. LT. COL. SHANE SIMS: You can probably draw some conclusions from what you know on the commercial side. Imagine having a computer that's over 20 years old — that's where some of our platforms are right now when you're talking about the FBCB2 that was fielded almost two decades ago. C4ISRNET: In terms of your FY19 funding, could it be characterized as investing in standards to help increase readiness and lethality? CROSBY: Very much so. The plus-up kind of touched a couple of areas. On the research and development side, the plus-up helps us in looking at ways to modernize and bring new capability for the blue force tracking network side. We're really looking to expedite that fielding for better cyber posture. C4ISRNET: It sounds like standardization is very important from an Army readiness and lethality perspective. SIMS: When talking JBC-P, there are really three components: the software, the hardware and then the network. Really, what we're doing on a couple fronts [is] we're expediting the fielding to get the hardware out there but that's going to set the conditions for what we're doing in the command post with the infrastructure. That same infrastructure is going to reside on our hardware that's in the platform. The commanders are in environments where they experience something completely different in the command post than you experience on the platforms. You hear repeatedly from the commanders, “Can I have the same type of user experience?” Data's really what we're addressing with the modernization of the command post and the mounted computing environment. That user experience is going to be one and the same for the commander when he or she is in the command post and then when they get in the vehicle. That is really what we're doing with modernization for JBC-P. C4ISRNET: The National Defense Strategy has stressed prioritization on great power competition. How does JBC-P modernization and standardization fit into that strategy? CROSBY: The first one is looking to modernize JBC-P mission command on the move at the platform level. How we continue to modernize and field as fast as we can so that we can maintain both that counter-insurgency/counterterrorism fight and near-peer adversaries is one piece of this. https://www.c4isrnet.com/thought-leadership/2018/04/13/how-the-army-plans-to-improve-its-friendly-force-tracking/