L3Harris Technologies awarded third LRIP order on US Army’s HMS Manpack IDIQ contract

On the same subject

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  February 21, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security

  How many users were affected by the DISA breach?

  Andrew Eversden A breach of a system hosted by the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Department of Defense's primary IT support agency, affected “approximately 200,000” users after a malicious actor may have gained access to names and Social Security numbers, according to a Pentagon spokesman. Chuck Prichard, a DoD spokesman, said there is “no evidence to suggest that any of the potentially compromised [personally identifiable information] was misused.” DISA is sending letters notifying potentially affected users, in line with agency policy. He added that affected individuals “will subsequently receive additional correspondence with information about actions that can be taken to mitigate possible negative impacts.” The news of the breach was first reported by Reuters. Prichard said the breach was discovered during summer 2019. According to Reuters, which viewed a copy of the letter sent out to DISA officials, the breach occurred between May and July 2019. Affected users will also receive free credit monitoring, Prichard said. Prichard declined to specify what network was breached, only that it was hosted by DISA. He also declined to comment on how long the actor was in the network. “DoD and DISA take the security of our people, information (or data) and operations very seriously and actively monitor potential threats," Prichard said. “For operational security reasons, the department does not comment on the actions taken to mitigate risks or vulnerabilities.” He did add that “DISA ... conducted a thorough investigation of this incident and taken appropriate measures to secure the network.” According to its website, DISA employs over 8,000 military and civilian employees. The agency's mission includes protecting the Department of Defense Information Network, a global DoD network used for sharing and storing information. DISA runs a variety of other systems, including combat support, DoD enterprise email and other communication networks. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2020/02/20/how-many-users-were-affected-by-the-disa-breach/

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  November 30, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - November 27, 2020

  NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Rotary and Mission Systems, Syracuse, New York, was awarded a $14,108,019 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to previously awarded contract N00024-18-C-5300 to exercise options for AN/SLQ-32(V)6 design agent engineering services. Work will be performed in Syracuse, New York, and is expected to be completed by November 2021. Fiscal 2021 other procurement (Navy) (91%); and 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) (9%) funding in the amount of $3,008,846 will be obligated at time of award, of which, $281,857 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Awarded Nov. 24, 2020) *Small business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2428811/source/GovDelivery/

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  January 7, 2019 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  Pentagon Seeks a List of Ethical Principles for Using AI in War

  BY PATRICK TUCKER An advisory board is drafting guidelines that may help shape worldwide norms for military artificial intelligence — and woo Silicon Valley to defense work. U.S. defense officials have asked the Defense Innovation Board for a set of ethical principles in the use of artificial intelligence in warfare. The principles are intended to guide a military whose interest in AI is accelerating — witness the new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center — and to reassure potential partners in Silicon Valley about how their AI products will be used. Today, the primary document laying out what the military can and can't do with AI is a 2012 doctrine that says a human being must have veto power over any action an autonomous system might take in combat. It's brief, just four pages, and doesn't touch on any of the uses of AI for decision support, predictive analytics, etc. where players like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others are making fast strides in commercial environments. “AI scientists have expressed concern about how DoD intends to use artificial intelligence. While the DoD has a policy on the role of autonomy in weapons, it currently lacks a broader policy on how it will use artificial intelligence across the broad range of military missions,” said Paul Scharre, the author of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War. Josh Marcuse, executive director of the Defense Innovation Board, said crafting these principles will help the department “safely and responsibly” employ new technologies. “I think it's important when dealing with a field that's emergent to think through all the ramifications,” he said. The Board, a group of Silicon Valley corporate and thought leaders chaired by former Google and Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt, will make the list public at its June meeting. Defense Department leaders will take them under consideration. Marcuse believes that the Pentagon can be a leader not just in employing AI but in establishing guidelines for safe use — just as the military pioneered safety standards for aviation. “The Department of Defense should lead in this area as we have with other technologies in the past. I want to make sure the department is not just leading in developing AI for military purposes but also in developing ethics to use AI in military purposes,” he says. The effort, in part, is a response to what happened with the military's Project Maven, the Pentagon's flagship AI project with Google as its partner. The effort applied artificial intelligence to the vast store of video and and image footage that the Defense Department gathers to guide airstrikes. Defense officials emphasized repeatedly that the AI was intended only to cut down the workload of human analysts. But they also acknowledged that the ultimate goal was to help the military do what it does better, which sometimes means finding and killing humans. An employee revolt ensued at Google. Employees resigned en masse and the company said that they wouldn't renew the contract. Scharre, who leads the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said, “One of the challenges for things like Project Maven, which uses AItechnology to process drone video feeds, is that some scientists expressed concern about where the technology may be heading. A public set of AI principles will help clarify DoD's intentions regarding artificial intelligence.” Full artcile: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/01/pentagon-seeks-list-ethical-principles-using-ai-war/153940/