NATO Support and Procurement Agency orders additional Airbus A330 MRTT

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  February 26, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  US Army wants $364 million for Defender Pacific in FY21

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is requesting $364 million to conduct a division-sized exercise in the Indo-Pacific region in fiscal 2021, the service confirmed to Defense News. Yet, the cost breakout details are classified, according to an Army spokeswoman. The exercise is fueled by a rising China, characterized in the National Defense Strategy as a long-term, strategic competitor of the United States. The NDS lays out a world where great power competition rather than counterterrorism will drive the Defense Department's decision-making and force structure. While the U.S. Army has 85,000 permanently stationed troops in the Indo-Pacific region and is already conducting exercises such as Pacific Pathways with allies and partners, the service is aiming to practice rapid deployment from the continental United States to the Pacific. In FY20, the Army will conduct a smaller version of Defender Pacific while Defender Europe will get more investment and focus. But then attention and dollars will swing over to the Pacific in FY21. Defender Europe will be scaled back in FY21. The Army is requesting just $150 million to conduct the exercise in Europe, according to the Army. This year it has been reported that Defender Europe, already underway with troops and equipment arriving at ports on the continent this month, will cost about $340 million, which is roughly in line with what the service is requesting in FY21 for the Pacific version. The only specific funding lines broken out for the FY21 Defender Pacific exercise is home station training; it's unclear if those numbers are included in the total cost. The Army is requesting $150,000 for home stationing training devoted specifically for Defender Pacific and is also asking for another $214,252 for an “expanded level deployment exercise that demonstrates employment of [Continental United States]-based forces into the Pacific Theater,” according to budget documents. The funds include additional transportation, maintenance and operations for the exercise. Defender Pacific will build upon the U.S. Army's expanding role in the region. The service is already growing its Pacific Pathways exercise series and plans to focus on reinforcing the Oceania region this year. The series began in 2014 and has supported training efforts that satisfy bilateral needs between the U.S. Army and its allies and partners in the region in roughly three rotations each year for about 10 months total. Last year, Pacific Pathways shifted from shorter rotations that involved more countries to longer visits that involve fewer countries as a way to improve bilateral relations. And participation has grown from a battalion-sized task force to roughly the size of a brigade. The Defender series is intended to be a regular exercise each year in the Pacific and Europe with the regions trading off being the larger exercise every other year. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/02/25/army-wants-364-million-to-put-on-defender-pacific-in-fy21/

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  July 24, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  New leader wants Cyber Command to be more aggressive

  By: Mark Pomerleau In his first public comments since assuming the head of U.S. Cyber Command, Gen. Paul Nakasone said the Department of Defense is taking a more aggressive approach to protect the nation's data and networks and aims to stay ahead of malicious cyber and information-related activity. The command's new vision, called “Achieve and Maintain Cyberspace Superiority," published in April, describes the notion of “continuous engagement” and “defending forward” to understand adversary weaknesses and impose “tactical friction and strategic costs.” “Through persistent action and competing more effectively below the level of armed conflict, we can influence the calculations of our adversaries, deter aggression, and clarify the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable behavior in cyberspace,” the document reads. Nakasone speaking July 21 at the Aspen Security Forum, said adversaries have long worked below the threshold of war to steal intellectual property, personally identifiable information and undermine societal discourse. While individually, these activities don't appear sensational, taken in aggregate, Nakasone said, they have grave national economic and security implications. Many academics have criticized the U.S. response to Russian election interference and noted that the United States tends to view conflicts through the binary lens of war or peace while competitors such as Russia see themselves constantly engaged in a state of war. From the U.S. perspective, many cyber acts are considered beneath the threshold of war, denoting a lesser response. But Nakasone said the philosophy of continuous engagement is more in line with the new National Defense Strategy, one that suggests the return of great power competition with nations such as Russia and China. In practice, Nakasone articulated a more aggressive approach, one that involves entering an adversary's network to learn what they are doing as a means of improving defenses. The philosophy is “this idea that we want to have our forces to be able to enable our defensive capabilities and to act forward,” Nakasone said. “Act outside of the boundaries of the United States to understand what our adversaries are doing and be able to engage those adversaries and obviously [be] able to better protect our networks, our data and our weapon systems. Such action, penetrating a network or sovereign territory, has not typically been an action a military organization has taken outside an engaged hostility with an organization or nation vice a covert action finding. Nakasone's predecessor told Congress that the command was mulling over cyber operations in nations where the United States is not actively involved in a conflict. Then Adm. Michael Rogers, explained he is comfortable with his authorities to use offensive cyber tactics in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, however, he added that they need more speed and agility in employing these capabilities “outside the designated areas of hostility.” https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/cybercom/2018/07/23/new-leader-wants-cyber-command-to-be-more-aggressive/

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  February 26, 2021 | International, C4ISR

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  IAI, Matrix to Establish an AI Development Center for Automated Target Detection