Missile defense info sharing with allies still a challenge as need to operate together grows

On the same subject

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  July 9, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Airbus va développer la constellation d'observation de la Terre CO3D du CNES

  Avec AFP Airbus Defense and Space et le CNES, l'agence spatiale française, ont annoncé lundi avoir signé un contrat pour développer une constellation de quatre satellites d'observation de la Terre en 3D, à vocation civile et militaire. La constellation CO3D (Constellation optique en 3D) sera composée de quatre satellites électriques de 300 kilos chacun environ qui seront lancés en 2022. Elle "permettra de fournir des images stéréoscopiques (image prise par deux capteurs légèrement distants, NDLR) de résolution submétrique (50 cm), à vocation mondiale", précient le CNES et Airbus Defense and Space dans un communiqué commun. Avec les quatre satellites Pléiades Neo qui seront lancés à partir de 2020, voire avec les deux Pléiades lancés en 2011 et 2012 s'ils fonctionnent encore, "la constellation CO3D offrira une capacité de revisite inégalée pour l'imagerie à haute résolution", affirment-ils. En orbite héliosynchrone, à environ 800 km d'altitude, cette flotte de satellites permettra en effet de repasser plus fréquemment au-dessus d'un point donné pour voir l'évolution de la situation. Le budget est d'environ 200 millions d'euros, réparti pour moitié entre le CNES et Airbus, selon une source proche du dossier. Airbus Defense and Space, qui sera chargé de la construction et de la gestion des satellites, l'a emporté sur Thales Alenia Space. L'entreprise fournira notamment un "Modèle numérique de surfaces (MNS) global de haute précision" qui permet la modélisation 3D de carte ainsi que les images à "l'utilisateur final qui est le gouvernement français", à travers le CNES, selon Airbus Defense and Space. L'agence spatiale, pour qui c'est un projet dual, civil et militaire, s'en servira pour la gestion des risques naturels, la recherche scientifique ou encore pour les besoins des armées. "C'est une gouvernance très originale, un partenariat entre le public et le privé, un coinvestissement équilibré qui permet d'associer des besoins publics et des besoins commerciaux. Le CNES n'est pas propriétaire de l'infrastructure, ce qui est une première", a-t-on souligné à l'agence spatiale. "Ce contrat conforte Airbus en tant que partenaire de confiance pour le CNES et les autorités françaises et renforce notre position de leader du marché en Europe et dans le monde", se félicite le président d'Airbus Defense and Space France, cité dans le communiqué. Pour le président du CNES Jean-Yves Le Gall, également cité dans le communiqué, la constellation CO3D ouvre "une nouvelle ère dans l'observation de la Terre", permettant "notamment un plus haut débit de réactualisation, une plus grande résilience ainsi que des performances élevées". https://www.journal-aviation.com/actualites/42786-contrat-entre-airbus-et-le-cnes-pour-une-constellation-de-satellites-d-observation-en-3d

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  August 29, 2019 | International, Land

  Swiss seek package deal of ground-based weapons, combat aircraft

  By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — The Swiss government plans to make the integration of combat aircraft and ground-based air defense assets a key benchmark in its planned $8 billion Air 2030 program, according to officials. Program leaders disclosed the desire for a high degree of interplay between the two competing missile-defense offers and four possible aircraft types during a news conference in the capital Bern earlier this month. The comments reveal a new front in the selection criteria for one of Europe's most prized defense acquisitions, where the air and ground portions had always existed as separate tracks. Fear of fratricide in Switzerland's small and crowded airspace is one of two key factors driving the need for close integration between ground and aerial assets, said Swiss Air Force Col. Marco Forrer. Given the country's alpine terrain and the requirement to hit targets more than 50 kilometers away and over 12 kilometers high, official are concerned about erroneously downing civilian planes, he said. “That's why BodLuv has to be integrated into the Air Force operational picture and command-and-control network,” Forrer said, referring to the German-language acronym for the ground-based program Bodengestützte Luftverteidigung. Forrer added that a high level of integration also is crucial to keeping costs down, enabling air defenders to engage targets with greater precision and — hopefully — fewer misses. Of the total Air 2030 program, $6 billion is slated for a new fleet of aircraft, while $2 billion is budgeted for ground-based defenses. In the aerial segment, the planes in play are the Airbus Eurofighter Typhoon, the Lockheed Martin F-35, Dassault's Rafale and Boeing's F-18 Super Hornet. In the ground segment, Swiss officials are left with choosing between Raytheon's Patriot and the SAMP-T system, which is made by an MBDA-Thales consortium called Eurosam. Israel's Rafael, which was also invited to bid with its David's Sling system, never responded to the invitation, presumably following pressure by the Israeli or American governments to stay out of the race. Swiss officials have complained that they never got a straight answer explaining Rafael's abstention, and the company's non-response has left them worried about the losing an element of competition in the race that could make for lower costs. “It can have a negative impact on the competitive situation,” said Christian Catrina, who oversees Air 2030 at Switzerland's defense ministry. “We will never know if so and how strongly. We would have appreciated having three contenders.” Following a similar wave of aircraft tests in Switzerland over the spring and early summer, evaluations of the two ground-based systems, namely regarding their radar sensors, began this month. First up is the Patriot system with a two-week test, which will end Aug. 30; SAMP-T is next, beginning Sept. 16. The tests will take place at an army range near Menzingen, central Switzerland, where the Swiss operated the Bloodhound weapon system until its retirement in the late 1990s. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/08/28/swiss-seek-package-deal-of-ground-based-weapons-combat-aircraft/

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  June 21, 2019 | International, Naval

  Navy Looking for Better Ways to Share Data

  By: Ben Werner WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Navy is grappling with how to securely share the vast amounts of data ship designers, operators and sustainers collect, a panel of engineers said Wednesday. Shipyards have the design systems they use to transmit plans from engineers to the shipbuilders. Once delivered, modern ships, submarines and even aircraft generate tremendous amounts of data gauging their performance. The Navy has more data than it knows what to do with, but Rear Adm. Lorin Selby wants to change this. “The problem we have is we don't do a great job of linking those together,” Selby said of the various data points. “That's what I'm driving for trying to link those together.” Selby, the chief engineer and deputy commander for ship design, integration and naval engineer at the Naval Sea Systems Command, was speaking as part of a panel discussing how the Navy and shipbuilding industry can use digital plans at the American Society of Naval Engineering's annual Technology, Systems & Ship symposium. Selby was joined by Rear Adm. Eric Ver Hage, the commander of the Naval Surface Warfare Center and Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and Zac Staples, a retired commander and current chief executive of Austin, Texas,-based maritime analytics firm FATHOM5. Staples' final tour in the Navy was the director of the Center for Cyber Warfare at the Naval Postgraduate School. “Today, we know the liability of many of our systems. We know the ship loadout. We know the type of baseline the ships have. We know the performance of tactical action officers and other key watchstanders when they're in the basic training cycle. We know the proficiency of the strike group when they go to sea,” Ver Hage said. “You have all this data; the problem is, we put missiles on ships, but the combat systems can't unlock all the capability that missile has in some instances,” he said, referring the possibility communications between ships and missiles could improve targeting. When quantum computing is developed, the ability to process this massive amount of data will become much easier, Selby said. Quantum computing is still being researched, with several nations trying to develop a way to tackle large data sets quickly, Selby explained. Within a year or two of mastering quantum computing, he predicts everyone will be able to use quantum computing. For the U.S. to have a decisive quantum computing edge, Selby said requires being ready now. “The key to being the one who can actually lever that technology and really take a huge leap forward in this century is going to be the nation that lays the foundation to be able to lever the capabilities of quantum with a software delivery mechanism,” Selby said. However, as the ability to analyze data speeds up, the importance of protecting this data also grows. “If we're going to build capabilities in the era of great power competition, we have to assume our adversaries are trying to steal them – because they're trying to steal them,” Staples said. “The exact copy Chinese joint strike fighter is a good indication that whatever our shipboard capabilities might go for will be equally targeted.” The current secure method of transferring data classified up to the secret level is over the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet). However, SIPRNet has limitations, such as the expense of operating the network and creating secure terminals so everyone has access to a SIPRNet terminal to send and receive classified secret information. A cloud-based data vault could prove to be a good solution. Under such a program, access can be restricted, Staples said. Vault monitors will also know which adversaries are denied access to the valuable data being stored. “When you think about encrypting data, there's probably a more efficient way to do that than on SIPRNet,” Staples said. https://news.usni.org/2019/06/20/navy-looking-for-better-ways-to-share-data