November 8, 2022 | International, C4ISR
Zero trust is often likened to 'never trust, always verify.' Or, as Pentagon CIO John Sherman put it: 'You truly trust no one or no thing.'
https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2022/11/08/pentagon-to-unveil-zero-trust-cyber-strategy/
February 12, 2024 | International, Security
This company-financed project represents investment volume in the €300 million range. Rheinmetall is therefore shouldering the entire cost of constructing the factory, with no government involvement
October 25, 2019 | International, Aerospace
By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — A European consortium has pitched the idea of grooming intelligent drone swarms to confuse, disable and destroy enemy air defenses. The proposal is part of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research effort by the European Union to improve collaboration on among member states. Under the heading “Emerging Game Changers,” EU officials asked companies earlier this year to submit ideas for “promising breakthrough technologies” in the field of artificial intelligence for defense applications. The idea behind “SEAD Swarm” is to create the necessary algorithms that would enable a mass of aerial drones to inspect the characteristics of air defense systems, distribute the information within the swarm and derive a plan of attack against weak points. Actions taken could include blinding radar sensors, overwhelming anti-aircraft fire with kamikaze-type tactics, or attacking sites with explosive or electronic-warfare payloads. The acronym SEAD is short for “suppression of enemy air defenses,” military platforms that often expose pilots of manned aircraft to significant risk of getting shot down. The proposed project comes in the wake of Finland designating advances in AI a key objective for its six-month term leading the Council of the European Union. The idea is backed by a consortium of 12 private companies, national research institutions and universities from six countries, with Finnish company Insta as the lead. A decision from European decision-makers on the award of an approximately $2 million grant to start the project is expected in the next few months. Consortium officials stress that nothing would be built during the initial phase of the project. Instead, the idea is to incubate the necessary “swarm logic” and learning algorithms in a simulation environment, where scenarios can be gamed out and quickly adapted, Ari Kosonen, a senior systems engineer at Insta, told Defense News. Letting the drone swarm and air defense systems battle it out in a controlled cyberspace environment would yield patterns of problem-solving that can continuously improve both the attackers' and the defenders' performance, Kosonen said. In addition, thinking through the idea on a purely theoretical level would allow proper consideration for ethical and legal questions that arise whenever AI is weaponized, he added. If adopted by the EU, the participating countries of Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, the Netherlands and Austria would detail military officials to an advisory board to help ensure the planned simulations reflect real-world combat situations. That includes resisting the urge of crafting scenarios that are too clear-cut in allowing judgments about when to apply force and when to stand down, said Christian Brandlhuber, a senior adviser at consortium member Reply AG in Munich. “Does this work in an environment where our situational awareness is less than perfect?” Therein lies the novelty of the SEAD Swarm idea, Brandlhuber argued: Working through the rules of engagement first, only later considering requirements and finally establish concrete acquisition plans could help bring AI-enabled military technology into the EU-wide defense conversation. “There were heated discussions in the consortium about how pronounced the legal and ethical side should be,” Brandlhuber said. Dicey situations could arise, for example, when drones are cut off from communicating with human decision-makers in the final phase of an attack, while the prerequisite is to have a person in the loop for pulling the trigger. “There is a lot of uncertainty in this,” Brandlhuber said, though he argued analysts should strive to understand the complexity that comes with combining drones and AI in a military context. “You can't determine any of this a-priori.” Notably, the consortium includes sensor and hardware manufacturers, like Diehl Defence of Germany and Milrem of Estonia, that could be tapped to build prototypes if the SEAD Swarm project is selected to go forward. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/10/22/europeans-propose-siccing-self-learning-drone-swarms-on-air-defenses/
July 24, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Le premier des Lockheed Martin C-130H de l'Armée de l'Air doté de la nouvelle avionique Collins Aerospace a débuté sa campagne d'essais en vol et de certification sur la base aérienne de Bordeaux-Mérignac. L'avion est équipé de la solution avionique Collins Aerospace Flight2™ et du double affichage tête haute (HUD), HGS-4500, avec système de vision améliorée multibande, EVS-300, pour améliorer la perception des pilotes de leur environnement. Une caméra infrarouge pour la détection d'objectifs a également été intégrée au HGS. Ensemble, ces solutions permettent d'améliorer les capacités opérationnelles des appareils pour répondre aux besoins spécifiques des missions. “Avec Flight2™, l'Armée de l'Air française dispose d'une avionique de dernière génération et d'une solution optimisée de support et de maintenance pour mener à bien ses missions exigeantes dans le monde entier,” a déclaré Olivier Pedron, directeur général, avionique de Collins Aerospace en France. Après le premier vol et la qualification par la direction générale de l'armement (DGA) des deux premiers appareils rénovés, Collins Aerospace et Sabena Technics fourniront des kits de modification au Service industriel de l'aéronautique (SIAé) pour l'installation en série sur les 12 C-130H restants de la flotte française. Le contrat de modernisation avait été attribué en septembre 2016, par la DGA, à Collins Aerospace pour la maîtrise d'ouvrage, conformément à sa certification FRA-21J, aux côtés de ses partenaires Lockheed Martin et Sabena Technics. Flight2™ permettra aux C-130H français un accès sans restriction à l'espace aérien mondial tel que défini par l'Organisation de l'Aviation Civile Internationale (OACI), leur procurant des capacités tactiques accrues tant sur les thé'tres d'opérations que dans l'espace aérien civil. De plus, il permet une communalité pour le support et la maintenance avec les autres plateformes de l'Armée de l'Air telles qu' E-3, AWACS, et KC-135 ainsi qu'une communalité avec les HUD du C-130J. https://www.air-cosmos.com/article/arme-de-lair-campagne-dessai-pour-les-c-130h-moderniss-par-collins-aerospace-21508