May 27, 2024 | International, Land
July 28, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
Discover how a malicious PyPI package targets macOS users' Google Cloud credentials. Learn about the sophisticated attack and its implications.
October 2, 2019 | International, Land
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The bids are in for a chance to build prototypes for the Army's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle that will replace its Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Among them is a Raytheon and Rheinmetall team putting forward Rheinmetall's Lynx 41 Infantry Fighting Vehicle, and General Dynamics Land Systems, which showcased its Griffin III technology demonstrator equipped with a 50mm cannon a year ago at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual exposition. It is currently unknown if any other teams submitted bids by the service's set deadline of Oct. 1. None have come forward publicly despite rumors of a dark horse or two. Absent from the usual brood of combat vehicle manufacturers is BAE Systems. Defense News broke the news earlier this year that the company wouldn't compete in the OMFV competition. Textron has joined the Raytheon and Rheinmetall team with plans to, if chosen to build the new vehicle, build Lynx here in the United States at its Slidell, Louisiana, manufacturing facility. Raytheon and Rheinmetall announced a joint venture Oct. 1 — calling it Raytheon Rheinmetall Land Systems LLC — to pursue the OMFV competition. “General Dynamics Land Systems submitted our OMFV proposal and bid sample to the US Army on 27 September. GD's bid sample was purpose built to address the desired system lethality, survivability and mobility as substantiation of our response to the Army's request for proposal,” the company said in a statement sent to Defense News. The company did not provide details on the submission. GDLS did note, however, that it is proposing a “purpose built vehicle” using technologies from other platforms and “years of investment in advanced capabilities to include a 50mm cannon,” according to the statement. The Army released its request for proposals in March opening a competition to build prototypes. The service plans to choose from the pool of bidders up to two teams to build 14 prototypes each. The service will choose a winner that will start replacing Bradleys in 2026 that is designed to better operate in future environments that would allow soldiers to maneuver to a position of advantage and “to engage in close combat and deliver decisive lethality during the execution of the combined arms maneuver,” according to an Army statement issued along with the RFP release. Some of the threshold requirements for OMFV are a 30mm cannon and a second-generation, forward-looking infrared system, or FLIR. Objective requirements are a 50mm cannon and a third-generation FLIR. Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman, who is in charge of Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) modernization efforts, said at the Defense News Conference in September that he is confident the requirements set for OMFV are right and had no plans to change them. The selected prototypes will go through “rigorous” operational testing and soldier assessments. The Army plans to downselect to one vehicle for low-rate initial production following the assessments and testing. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2019/10/01/pencils-down-bids-are-in-for-armys-bradley-fighting-vehicle-replacement
March 20, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
DARPA aims to apply the power of social networks to research and development via a novel social media platform purpose-built to quicken the pace of U.S. technology development. Polyplexus, which was recently launched as a public platform, is designed to increase access to scientific evidence and accelerate hypothesis development, research proposal generation, and research sponsor engagement. The platform's real-time interactions and functionality are designed to dramatically shorten the time between the emergence of concepts and the submission of worthy proposals. The platform facilitates connections among experts across academic disciplines so they can propel novel research opportunities together. Beta-launched for academics only in 2018, Polyplexus is now open to the broader research and development community and features an initial offering of research topics for collaboration and potential funding. DARPA seeks participation from anyone who is interested in sharing and learning about emerging science and technology including researchers, practitioners, and even retirees. “Crowdsourcing on the internet works when the solution exists and can be found,” said John Main, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “However, no amount of crowdsourcing will ever work if it's a research and development problem that must be solved, because the solution does not yet exist. That's why we built Polyplexus as a productivity platform rather than a crowdsourcing platform.” Polyplexus is composed of three integrated components: a public information feed where users can promote interesting research and connect it to other research via tweet-like summary statements called micropubs; a private tool for synthesizing new ideas, known as micropub portfolios; and an incubator environment. Incubators allow research sponsors in government and industry to post specific topics of interest and find research and development specialists to address their challenges. Following a 2018 test phase that was restricted to academic researchers, Version 1 of Polyplexus is now open to the public. Researchers and research sponsors across disciplines and industries are invited to sign up and become “Plexors” at https://polyplexus.com/users/login. During the Beta test phase, DARPA awarded funding to multiple proposals generated by founding members on the platform. Recipients included researchers from the University of Arkansas, Arizona State University, University of North Carolina, University of Miami, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. With the public launch of Polyplexus, DARPA's Defense Sciences Office intends to fund up to 30 one-year seedling efforts developed through Polyplexus incubators over the next 18 months. These funding opportunities are capped at a maximum of $100,000 each. They will roll out at a pace of approximately two per month. DARPA just announced the first three Polyplexus incubators focused on Quantum Machine Learning (https://go.usa.gov/xEFpV), Human Learning (https://go.usa.gov/xEFpA), and Strategic Technological Surprise (https://go.usa.gov/xEFpm). To learn more about the incubator topics visit the incubators section on https://Polyplexus.com. Abstracts and proposals resulting from DARPA incubators will be submitted directly to DARPA as specified in the Polyplexus BAA: https://go.usa.gov/xEFpE. Abstracts and proposals are not submitted on the Polyplexus site. Anyone may create an account and contribute to the public areas of the site. Retired scientists, engineers, and researchers are especially encouraged to continue to share their expertise by engaging as Plexors. Plexors can also contribute suggestions for new features that will be included in Polyplexus Versions 2 and 3, which are planned for development over the next 18 months. “Polyplexus maintains a balance between public information exchange and protection of private intellectual property,” Main said. “It also creates an avenue for broader participation in DARPA research and development, including by those who aren't looking for a research project but who have knowledge to contribute, such as retirees.” Researchers should monitor the announcement and evolution of each individual incubator on the platform to fully understand the topic, opportunity, and requirements. Follow @polyplexors on both Instagram and Twitter for updated information. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-03-19