Raytheon to make seven missile-tracking satellites for US space agency

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  October 1, 2020 | International, Land, Other Defence

  US Army scraps ERCA autoloader plans, heads back to the drawing board

  Ashley Roque Weight and mobility challenges have forced the US Army to abandon a government-designed autoloader for its Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) programme and the service is now looking for help from six tech companies. Brigadier General John Rafferty, the head of the Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team, spoke at a virtual Fires Conference on 29 September and provided an update of programmes under his purview. One notable change is an army's decision not to move forward with an autoloader that it had been developing for the new weapon based off BAE Systems' Paladin M109A7 self-propelled howitzer. “The integration challenge for [it] was too much of a trade with mobility and durability, and some of the results from putting 3,000 miles on a combat vehicle [out at Yuma Proving Ground] weighted up with the centre of gravity issue that we had,” the one-star general told the audience. “It was an easy decision to say that we can't do that.” Instead the army is looking to a group of six companies previously picked to help find artillery munition resupplying solutions – Actuate, Apptronik, Carnegie Robotics, Hivemapper, Neya Systems, and Pratt Miller. Although Brig Gen Rafferty did not provide in-depth information on the path ahead, he noted that a future capability may not be an autoloader at all. ”I've learned that it was really stupid to go into this saying, ‘Hey, we want an autoloader'. I don't want an autoloader; What we want is an improved rate of fire,” he added. ”What I told them is I don't care if there's cannoneer there setting fuses if we're able to get the six to 10 rounds a minute,” Brig Gen Rafferty furthered. https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/us-army-scraps-erca-autoloader-plans-heads-back-to-the-drawing-board

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  May 13, 2020 | International, C4ISR, Security

  DIU awards $45M contract for weapon systems cybersecurity

  Andrew Eversden The Defense Innovation Unit awarded a $45 million to a Silicon Valley-based tech startup to perform cybersecurity testing on Defense Department weapon systems' applications, the company announced May 11. The company, ForAllSecure, has been prototyping its cybersecurity testing platform, known as Mayhem, with DoD components for more than three years. DIU made the award on the five-year contract April 23, a ForAllSecure spokesperson said. ForAllSecure is working with the Air Force 96th Cyberspace Test Group, the Air Force 90th Cyberspace Operations Squadron, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and the U.S. Army Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center (C5ISR). The same DoD users have worked with ForAllSecure throughout the prototyping process for the company's platform, which finds bugs in applications and shows the user how they can be triggered. The platform will allow for a continuous testing for vulnerabilities in weapons systems. “One of the problems that [the department] run[s] into is this idea that there's a point in time when you're done" with cybersecurity," said David Brumley, chief executive officer of ForAllSecure. "It all comes down to how quickly can you test and retest.” In the last few years of prototyping, the company went through 10 iterations of Mayhem. One significant piece the company added to those iterations were cybersecurity tutorials for users. ForAllSecure's work on Mayhem started before a troubling report from the Government Accountability Office that highlighted several cybersecurity challenges and shortfalls that the Defense Department's weapons systems faced in light of potential advanced cyberattacks. “If you look at the GAO report, they simply weren't embedding cybersecurity testing in the process at all," Brumley said. “So this is adding this common sense measure and it's automating it.” In 2016, the company's Mayhem platform won the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Cyber Grand Challenge, an automated defensive cybersecurity competition. That victory came with a $2 million prize. Since that victory, Brumley said that the company has run into a few unique challenges working with other DoD components, particularly around installing the platform. “When DARPA has their contest, it really only has to work for the developers,” Brumley said. “When you go to a product, you have to go to an unknown site, you have to install. You have to repeatedly do that.” https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2020/05/12/diu-awards-45m-contract-for-weapon-systems-cybersecurity/

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  May 20, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Contracts for May 19, 2021

  Today