Opening Statement by CISA Director Jen Easterly | CISA

On the same subject

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  September 16, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  Dassault Aviation, un modèle à toute épreuve

  HASSAN MEDDAH Le modèle de Dassault Aviation fondé sur la coexistence d'une activité militaire avec les Rafale et d'une activité civile avec les jets d'affaires a encore montré toute sa pertinence. Gr'ce à cette dualité, l'avionneur traverse la crise du marché de l'aviation d'affaires sans perdre une plume. Il vient d'annoncer de solides résultats financiers pour le premier semestre 2019. Son chiffre d'affaires progresse à 3,1 milliards d'euros (contre 1,71 milliard au premier semestre l'an passé), et son résultat net est en hausse de 54 % à 286 millions d'euros. Dans le domaine de l'aviation d'affaires, Éric Trappier, le PDG du groupe, a pourtant évoqué "un début d'année difficile et un semestre particulièrement plat" avec seulement sept commandes au 30 juin, contre dix-huit à la même période de l'an passé. Il peut toutefois miser sur le Rafale pour effacer cette contre-performance. Dassault a remporté le juteux contrat Ravel de maintenance de l'avion de combat passé par le ministère français des Armées. Cette prestation englobe le pilotage de toute sa supply chain et court sur dix ans. En matière de livraison, l'export a pris le relais à point nommé puisqu'aucun Rafale ne sera livré aux forces françaises en 2019. Depuis le début de l'année, Dassault a livré quinze appareils aux forces qataries. L'avionneur a même confirmé qu'il envisageait d'assembler des Rafale en Inde s'il était sélectionné pour livrer de nouveaux appareils au-delà des trente-six premiers commandés. https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/dassault-aviation-un-modele-a-toute-epreuve.N882100

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  July 25, 2019 | International, Other Defence

  Newly installed SecDef: The budget deal provides a ‘good’ number for defense

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON – Newly installed U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says he is happy with the two-year budget deal's recommendation for the Pentagon, despite it being $12 billion less than what the White House requested for fiscal 2020. Speaking to press just hours after taking office, Esper also said he is focused on filling empty spots at the Pentagon as quickly as possible to “make sure we have that civilian control of the military” firmly in place. The Trump administration's request for defense in FY20 was $750 billion, a number Democrats in Congress tried to reduce to $733 billion. The nearly $1.4 trillion spending plan announced Monday — which would prevent a government shutdown this fall and do away with the final two years of budget caps known as sequestration — includes about $738 billion in military funding for FY20. That's a 3 percent increase from current-year levels, which seems fine with the man now running America's military. “$738 [billion] is a good number. We also have two years. We expect to see two years' worth of numbers. To the degree we have predictability, to the degree we can avoid [continuing resolutions], those things allow us to plan and make more efficient use of our dollars,” Esper said. “So I'm good with those dollars. No complaints.” Esper is the first confirmed defense secretary since Jim Mattis resigned at the end of last year. But a number of spots — including 14 of 59 political spots, and four of the top six roles in the department — are still filled by acting individuals, something Esper highlighted as an issue he's hoping to quickly address. “My perspective was from a service secretary and I think it's always challenging — people in acting jobs, when you don't feel the full confidence in the role, sometimes folks tend to maybe not behave as confidently because you're unsure and you also don't want to bind the person-who-may-actually-be-confirmed's hands,” he said, adding he does not think the open spots impacted operations. “We need to get staffed up quickly,” he said. “We have to get stable leadership.” One of those empty spots is Army secretary, now vacant with Esper's promotion. Ryan McCarthy, the service undersecretary, has been nominated to fill the full role. Asked about advice for his successor, Esper joked that he hopes McCarthy won't “break anything,” before saying he expects McCarthy's nomination to arrive at the Senate in a “matter of days.” “His paperwork is at the White House, and everybody we put forth needs to be thoroughly vetted. So I think he should soon be coming out of the process,” Esper said. “The question is if it will be soon enough for the Senate Armed Services Committee to do its due diligence in a timely matter.” The secretary has also asked for new guidance to be issued to the field to inform service members on the “very important role of media and press” in society. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2019/07/24/newly-installed-secdef-the-budget-deal-provides-a-good-number-for-defense/

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  January 17, 2019 | International, Aerospace

  The Army wants drones that make their own networks

  By: Kelsey D. Atherton Eventually, the Shadow will come to pass. The Army is looking for replacements to the venerable drone, first flown in 1991, through its Future Tactical UAS program. In the nearly three decades since, every aspect of drone technology has seen some improvement, including materials used, sensors to communication hardware and software, and even the batteries that power those computers and sensors. The Army has also seen the limitations of what it can and cannot do with a drone that has to either operate from a runway or be launched from a rail and caught on a hook. Into this mix of requirements and new possibility flies the Resolute Eagle, made by PAE ISR, complete with an ad hoc network system from Persistent Systems. The Army is looking at a range of drones for possible Shadow replacement, and the Resolute Eagle will have to compete with designs as varied as Insitu's ScanEagle and Integrator, Martin UAV's V-Bat, Endeavor Robotics' Firstlook and SUGV, QinetiQ's Talon and Dragon Runner. This is a somewhat crowded field, and to compete in it Resolute Eagle has a VTOL model, which essentially grafts booms with rotors to the drone's wings, allowing it to take off and land like a quadcopter. The VTOL configuration is listed as having 12 hours of endurance, compared to 18 hours for the purely fixed-wing version, and the booms are detachable, giving some flexibility when forward deployed. “Our reconfigurable platform (from fixed wing to VTOL), large payload capacity, and reduced ground support equipment requirements offers significant mission flexibility, both as a Shadow replacement for BCT expeditionary forces and as a complement to the existing platforms currently in use for military and civilian uses,” said Beth Beach, vice president of business development at PAE ISR. Besides military customers, PAE ISR is targeting the Resolute Eagle at a broad range of law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, humanitarian and commercial missions, according to Beach. Its ISR abilities could be used for pipeline and railway inspection, as well as evaluating the area after a natural disaster and looking for people in search and rescue. Key to this is an ability to operate beyond line of sight through satellite communications. Relying on satellites is a safe bet for civilian applications going forward, but across the Pentagon people are looking for other ways to retain or set up communications networks on the battlefield in the event that the satellite communication becomes untenable. One way to ensure communication via drones is equipping the drones with tools for an ad hoc network. For the Resolute Eagle, that comes in the form of Persistent Systems' MPU5 Wave Relay mobile ad hoc networking (MANET). “The beauty of the MANET is that it can be setup and deployed with ease,” said Robert Regan, sales engineer at Persistent Systems. “Users can leave and enter the network seamlessly due to its self-healing and self-forming nature. When dealing with RF it is important to remember that every use case is different. So when dealing with distances there are lots of variables that can affect distance: RF environment, terrain, frequency band selected and antenna selection, just to name a few. With our auto-tracking antenna system we have reached out to UAV's at 130 miles.” This MANET is platform agnostic, and could operate not just from Resolute Eagle drones, but from multiple drones, ground robots, and in systems carried by people on foot. To keep the communication secure, MPU5 radio operates with AES 256-bit Suite B encryption, ensuring that only those with the right decryption tools (or the proper key) can access it. As the Army looks for its Shadow replacement, the capabilities on offer are what's most compelling, since they suggest the full range of possibility for a new mid-sized tactical drone. Crossing over from offering to contract is a not insignificant task, and in November 2018 US Naval Air System Command awarded PAE ISR a $173 billion contract for ISR services by Resolute Eagle. https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/2019/01/16/resolute-eagle-brings-ad-hoc-networks-to-the-shadow-fight