January 13, 2024 | International, Land
Britain pledges over $3 billion for Ukraine military aid in 2024
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said London would stand by its support commitment to Ukraine, as some allies are facing political headwinds at home.
February 11, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Northrop CEO forecasts ‘more consolidation’ for defense sector
By: Joe Gould
WASHINGTON ― The drive to rapidly develop defense technologies will spur more industry mergers and acquisition activity over the next two decades, and create new entrants in the realm of cyber and artificial intelligence, Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden said Tuesday.
“As a result, I believe the industry will look different in terms of its composition. There'll be more consolidation,” Warden said in a wide-ranging interview through the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She also foresaw increased government-industry collaboration.
“There will also be more new entrants, and so it's hard to say there will be fewer players, but the ones that exist today will likely continue to consolidate as we have seen in recent years and we've seen in other cycles,” she added.
New firms will adapt commercial AI and machine-learning applications for military surveillance as well as command and control, Warden predicted.
The executive's comments came after the new deputy defense secretary, Kathleen Hicks, said at her confirmation hearing this month that she is concerned by consolidation in the defense-industrial base and that competition is needed for the U.S. military to maintain an edge over China and Russia. Hicks' office will review deals that involve national security issues.
“Extreme consolidation does create challenges for innovation,” Hicks said. “We need to have a lot of different, good ideas out there. That's our competitive advantage over authoritarian states like China, and Russia. And so if we move all competition out, obviously that's a challenge for the taxpayer, but it's also a challenge in terms of the innovation piece.”
The U.S. faces a new space race, and the Biden administration should continue work to compete in that domain, said Warden, whose firm saw sales growth last year driven by its space division. Her comments also come in the wake of the Biden administration's affirmed support for Space Force, the military service created under the Trump administration.
“Many nations are demonstrating the capability to both operate in space but also have anti-satellite capability, so what we need to focus on is putting in place the norms and technologies that allow us to have freedom of operation in the space domain,” Warden said.
Last month, Northrop reported that its Space Systems segment led the company in sales for both the fourth quarter of 2020 and for the full year. The segment was driven by a higher volume on classified programs as well as the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared and NASA Artemis programs.
A ramp-up for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, launch vehicles and hypersonics programs drove the company's Launch & Strategic Missiles sales. Northrop won a $13.3 billion contract in September from the U.S. Air Force to build the GBSD, which replaces the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system.
President Joe Biden is expected to launch a review of the nation's expensive nuclear modernization portfolio. Reportedly, the GBSD program could cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $110.6 billion.
Warden defended the country's current track on nuclear modernization and said America's triad of nuclear weapons is “very important to keeping the peace.” More broadly, Warden offered a message that seemed calibrated to the new administration, saying the aerospace and defense industry provides platforms like the F-35 fighter as “an aid to diplomacy” and interoperability among allies.
“It's hard for anyone to say what would have happened had we not had ICBMs over the last 50 years,” she said, “but lots of very smart statesman, military personnel and civilians alike have studied this through multiple nuclear posture reviews and come out believing that the best posture for our nation is continuing to move forward with the modernization of all three legs of our triad.”
https://www.defensenews.com/2021/02/09/northrop-ceo-sees-more-consolidation-for-defense-sector/
On the same subject
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September 4, 2018 | International, C4ISR
Five Eyes Intel Alliance Urges Big Tech to Help Break Encrypted Messages
By Joseph Marks The U.S. and four major allies warn new legislation might be necessary to ensure law enforcement can access communications. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen joined leaders of the U.S.'s four major intelligence sharing partners Thursday in a statement urging tech companies to help law enforcement access otherwise-encrypted communications from criminals and terrorists. The joint statement stopped short of urging new laws to mandate that cooperation but warned that “should governments continue to encounter impediments to lawful access to information necessary to aid the protection of the citizens of our countries, we may pursue technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures to achieve lawful access solutions.” The statement from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, collectively known as the Five Eyes, describes law enforcement's inability to access encrypted communications as “a pressing international concern that requires urgent, sustained attention.” While “governments should recognize that the nature of encryption is such that there will be situations where access to information is not possible,” the statement notes, “such situations should be rare.” Obama and Trump administration officials have warned since 2014 that end-to-end encryption systems, which shield the content of communications even from the communications provider, are allowing criminals and terrorists to plan operations outside law enforcement's reach. Legislative proposals that would make it easier for police to access those communications have failed to gain traction, however, even after a 2015 showdown between the FBI and Apple over an encrypted iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. An inspector general's investigation in March found the FBI rushed to court in that case, seeking to compel Apple's assistance without exploring other options for cracking into the phone. Thursday's statement notes that: “Providers of information and communications technology and services ... are subject to the law, which can include requirements to assist authorities to lawfully access data, including the content of communications.” The statement does not go into detail, however, about what laws would justify those requirements and how they should be interpreted. The San Bernardino case was never decided in court because an unknown third party sold the FBI a method for breaking through the phone's passcode and accessing its encrypted contents. U.S. tech companies, for the most part, have resisted calls to cooperate with law enforcement. They argue that any effort to weaken encryption would be found and exploited by criminal hackers or foreign spies. Technologists, civil libertarians and many members of Congress have urged police to use other methods to break through encrypted communications without forcing companies to help or installing government backdoors into encryption systems. Those methods include obtaining a warrant to hack into the communications and building a case using unencrypted metadata. During the summit, Nielsen and other Five Eyes officials also agreed to strengthen cooperation between their nations' cyber centers and to cooperate on improving the cybersecurity of supply chains for critical infrastructure such as energy plants and airports. https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2018/08/five-eyes-intel-alliance-urges-big-tech-help-break-encrypted-messages/150961/
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August 3, 2024 | International, Aerospace
Army’s long-range tiltrotor aircraft moves to next development phase
The Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft is set to replace roughly 2,000 Black Hawk utility helicopters.