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  February 28, 2020 | International, C4ISR

  French Defence Ministry chooses Thales for its “Defence Platform” intended for the development of new applications

  February 25, 2020 - Thales has been selected for the French Ministry for the Armed Forces “Defence Platform” project. This project, which serves all of the Ministry's users (military, civilian defense and affiliated personnel), enables the design, development in “agile mode” and the immediate production release of data-driven applications for new use cases, as well as their secure storage and exchange. Since 2018, the Ministry for the Armed Forces has been engaged in a digital transformation aimed at making routine tasks simpler for users, by offering them new online services accessible from desktop computers and mobile devices: equipment orders, tracking of benefits, annual leave and transfer requests, administrative forms, etc. In this context, the mission of the "Defence Platform" project of the General Directorate for Digital and Information Systems (DGNUM) is to support the Ministry's departments in defining the needs of its users, and in identifying, developing and pooling new technical resources to enable the implementation of new digital services, in a shared and controlled manner. This project will also support the development of the Socle Numérique de Défense (Digital Defence Base), whose piloting has been entrusted to the French Armament General Directorate (DGA) and the DIRISI. Following the "Defence Platform" call for tenders issued by the Joint Department of Infrastructure Networks and Information Systems (DIRISI), Thales was chosen to support the modernisation of the software development platforms. Under the agreement, Thales will deploy its “Athena software factory”, which is entirely based on open-source components from the software development environments set up by the Group's engineering department for its own in-house needs. The solution applies DevSecOps methods to support design and continuous integration for fast and secure software development. Thales will also provide its expertise in cloud environments, data protection technologies and secure communications. Finally, the Ministry for the Armed Forces will benefit from Thales's experience in agile project management, with Thales software developers working as part of integrated Ministry teams when appropriate. This project will thus support the design and rapid production release of new cloud-ready digital services, capable of running in the Ministry's future cloud environments, with guaranteed levels of security and trust for the Ministry and its users. View source version on Thales : https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/market-specific/critical-information-systems-and-cybersecurity/news/french-defence-ministry-chooses

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  September 24, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Pentagon Mulls F-35 Sustainment Proposal

  The Pentagon is assessing Lockheed Martin's proposal to reduce Joint Strike Fighter sustainment pricing by 16% over five years through a performance based logistics (PBL) contract, but the largest F-35 customer, the U.S. Air Force, says there are several things that must be worked out before signing the dotted line. The company delivered a white paper to Ellen Lord, under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, in August outlining how a five-year PBL contract could save the military money on F-35 sustainment, Ken Merchant, F-35 sustainment vice president for Lockheed Martin, told reporters last week at the Air Force Association's annual conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Current F-35 sustainment contracts are annual and do not allow the Joint Strike Fighter's supplier base to conduct forward planning, he said. “What a PBL would do for us is give a five-year contract with [the] government and it would allow our suppliers to make those investments knowing that they have five years worth of business guaranteed,” Merchant said. The F-35 program has delivered over 425 aircraft to the fleet and will continue to grow; in fact it will double over the next few years. This is something the Pentagon must consider before entering a PBL with Lockheed Martin, Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics, told Aerospace DAILY in an exclusive Sept. 18 interview. “Normally a performance-based logistics contract makes sense when you have a majority of the fleet fielded, then you can start doing stable buys,” Roper said. “Those are the details that we'll need to look at. It's not just, would the performance-based logistics contract make sense if the fleet size were frozen? Does it make sense as the fleet size grows?” The Pentagon also must consider supply chain issues and software for the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) as the fleet size grows, he said. “Those problems might grow linearly as the fleet size grows [or] we might get a non-linear effect where they compound,” Roper said. “Those are the things we'll need to think through.” In a perfect world, Lockheed Martin would like to negotiate a multiyear sustainment contract for the F-35, but executives admit the construct would be hard to sell on Capitol Hill. “Multiyear contracts that are performance based can be very successful because they invite industry to make the upfront investment so that they can recoup their investment in terms of profit at a predictable period without worrying about the variability and the vacillations of the budgeting cycle,” Roper said. “The theory is sound, it's just the practice that has to be reviewed.” Roper worries about F-35 software the most because it is not only needed to sustain the system but also is integral for modernization. “Agile software development is so critical on our programs and I think it's not going to be a ‘nice to have' for the F-35, it's going to be an absolute ‘must have,'” he said. Under Roper's direction the Air Force launched Mad Hatter, a software coding project tackling ALIS that has delivered initial applications to the flightline at Nellis AFB in Nevada. “I'm really pleased that new [F-35 Joint Program Office] leadership under [Lt. Gen.] Eric Fick have viewed that as a very favorable direction for all of F-35 software that goes forward,” Roper said. “We're making the results available to them—not just the results in the field, but the process that produced them.” Lockheed Martin has pledged to migrate ALIS to the cloud by 2020 and Roper agrees this is paramount for the future of the program because the enterprise must use cloud-based development tools. This is the way the commercial industry is heading and it provides security benefits, he added. “I've directed numerous programs in the Air Force to move to our cloud-based DevSecOps stack, which is called Cloud One. F-16, F-22, B-21, [Ground Based Strategic Deterrent]—these are programs that need to write a lot of cloud quickly and securely,” Roper said. “Cloud-based development, if done correctly ... you can write secure code really quickly and get it accredited quickly, which we also want.” https://aviationweek.com/defense/pentagon-mulls-f-35-sustainment-proposal

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  May 15, 2018 | International, Aerospace, Naval, C4ISR, Security

  Japan focuses on maritime security in new ocean policy

  Japan approved Tuesday a new ocean policy that highlights maritime security, amid perceived growing threats from North Korea and China, in a reversal from the previous version which focused largely on sea resource development. The ocean program cited threats from North Korea's launching of ballistic missiles, and operations by Chinese vessels around the Japan-controlled and China-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. “Amid an increasingly severe maritime situation, the government will come together to protect our territorial waters and interests at sea,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a meeting of the government panel on ocean policy. The contents of the third Basic Plan on Ocean Policy are expected to be reflected in the government's defense buildup guidelines that are set to be revised in December. Since its first adoption in 2008, the ocean policy has been reviewed every five years. The policy pointed out that the maritime security situation facing the nation is “highly likely to deteriorate, if no measure is taken.” The government also plans to make use of coastal radar equipment, aircraft and vessels from the Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Coast Guard, as well as high-tech optical satellites of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, to strengthen the nation's intelligence gathering abilities. The policy underscores the need for cooperation between the coast guard and the Fisheries Agency to enhance responses to illegal operations by North Korea and fishing vessels from other countries, amid a surge in the number of such cases in the waters surrounding Japan. To ensure sea lane safety, it also stipulates the government's promotion of the “free and open Indo-Pacific” strategy advocated by Abe for maintaining and strengthening a free and open order in the region based on the rule of law. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/05/15/national/politics-diplomacy/japan-focuses-maritime-security-new-ocean-policy