March 26, 2019 | International, Aerospace
By: Mark Pomerleau
The Air Force wants to start a new program to develop a series of offensive cyber tools, according to the White House's budget request for fiscal year 2020.
This project will provide advanced cyber warfare capabilities to the Air Force's cyber mission force personnel, who work on projects for U.S. Cyber Command. In the service's budget books, the program is named Cyber Mission Force Foundational Tools.
“Activities within the program deliver operations-ready cyberspace superiority capabilities through the research, development, testing, evaluation, accelerated prototyping, demonstration and fielding of cyber technologies and capabilities," Air Force research and development budget documents state. “This program enables Combatant Commanders the ability to operate in and through cyberspace to manipulate, disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy targeted computers, information systems and networks.”
In fiscal 2020, Air Force leaders want the program to expand on past efforts to produce a family of foundational tools, to develop additional tools and software factories and to deliver prototypes that are interoperable with Cyber Command's architecture. Cyber Command leaders have vowed that the services will no longer develop stove-piped tools or infrastructure for individual service use.
The budget documents note that these foundational tools will be incorporated into the Air Force's Distributed Cyber Warfare Operations portfolio.
“The DCWO portfolio enables delivery of cyber effects to Combatant Commanders to include cyber operational preparation of the environment, offensive counter-cyber, cyberattack, electronic warfare operations, mission planning, intelligence, cybersecurity products and services and Command and Control/Situational Awareness (C2SA) tools needed to attack enemy networks, telephony, Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS), command and control systems, and create cyber effects through the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS),” the document state.
Budget documents note that the program leverages previous efforts from Cyber Command and the Air Force for foundational tool development and were funded in other programs.
November 15, 2023 | International, Land
Today, Marie-France Lalonde, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, on behalf of the Honourable Bill Blair, highlighted the construction of a new Air Force Expeditionary Capability facility at Canadian Forces Base Bagotville.
September 10, 2020 | International, Land
KIELCE, Poland — Hyundai Rotem is offering Polish defense industry players the opportunity to jointly produce the K2PL main battle tank, a variant of its K2 Black Panther. The South Korean company hopes it could benefit from the current lull in Warsaw's talks with Berlin and Paris. Last year, Poland's Ministry of Defence declared it was ready to join the European Main Battle Tank project, an initiative spearheaded by Germany and France, but talks between the three countries have since stalled. A Polish military official told Defense News that Warsaw is unlikely to cooperate with Paris and Berlin on a joint tank program, and the Defence Ministry is looking for alternative partners. “We're open to cooperating with Polish companies, such as [the leading state-run group] PGZ. The tank would be produced in Poland, and we would provide Polish plants with our technology,” Lee Han-Soo, a senior manager at Hyundai Rotem's global defense sales and marketing team, told Defense News at the MSPO defense industry show. “Production of this tank began a few years ago, and our technology is cutting-edge in comparison with our rivals' products.” The Polish land forces operate some 247 Leopard 2 A4 and A5 tanks acquired from the German Bundeswehr, but the country's military urgently need to procure new gear to replace its Soviet-designed 500 T-72 and PT-91 tanks. Local observers said Warsaw could purchase up to 800 new tanks. Poland's plan to modernize its tank fleet is part of a regional trend. In the aftermath of Russia's invasion on Ukraine and Moscow's annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula in 2014, a number of Eastern European allies have launched similar efforts. Hyundai Rotem aims to offer the K2PL in other tenders across the region. “We're looking to offer our product in other tenders if the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and also other countries, decide to order new tanks," Lee said. “This is why the Polish project is so important to us.” https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/09/09/hyundai-rotem-eyes-polish-contractors-for-work-on-battle-tank
September 13, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Today