April 17, 2023 | International, Other Defence
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June 26, 2019 | International, Other Defence
This wearable Marine tech can boost human performance and track physiological status
By: Shawn Snow
No, it's not going to turn you into Marvel's Iron Man or Captain America, but you might run a better PFT or have fewer fitness-related injuries.
The Corps is on the hunt for new wearable gear with biosensing technology that can boost human performance and help build a more lethal battlefield force.
On Monday, the Corps posted a request for information to the government's business opportunities website to glean information from industry leaders on available tech to address the Corps' focus on human performance augmentation.
The Corps is looking at a number of possibilities from T-shirts, watches, wristbands or chest straps with embedded biosensing technology that can link to and download performance and physiological information to a database.
The new biosensing tech will afford battlefield commanders information about the “physiological status and readiness” of Marines, according to the RFI.
The new tech will also help commanders to "tailor conditioning and operational training in order to minimize injuries and optimize strength building and overall operational performance,” the posting reads.
But with any new tech — especially gear that can track, collect, store and upload data — comes with various operational security, or OPSEC, concerns.
In August 2018, the Defense Department banned the use of Fitbits and other fitness tracking devices for troops deployed overseas following data firm Strava's posting of a heat map that revealed the location and details of a number of U.S. bases and military outposts.
“The rapidly evolving market of devices, applications and services with geolocation capabilities presents a significant risk to the Department of Defense personnel on and off duty, and to our military operations globally,” then-Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Robert Manning III, said in a command release.
Manny Pacheco, a spokesman with Marine Corps Systems Command, told Marine Corps Times that there are “OPSEC concerns with any effort” to procure new gear for Marines and that the Corps will look for “ways to mitigate those concerns.”
“In this particular case we are just looking at technologies for potential future use and will address the OPSEC issues as they arise,” Pacheco said about the RFI for the new wearable tech.
The Corps listed human performance augmentation as a key focus area headed into 2020.
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October 29, 2021 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Women take charge of key portfolios in Justin Trudeau's new cabinet | CBC News
For the first time in Canada's history, women will lead each of the departments of Finance, Defence and Foreign Affairs.
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July 9, 2019 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
BAE nets $4.7M by DARPA to integrate machine learning into RF signals detection
By Allen Cone July 8 (UPI) -- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded BAE Systems a contract worth up to $4.7 million to integrate machine learning into intelligence gathering involving radio frequency signals. The technology will be used in platforms to decipher the signals, BAE said in a news release Monday. Signals intelligence, or SIGINT, provides to the military advanced signal location and exploitation capabilities "to counter the threats of today and tomorrow," according to BAE. The total contract is dependent on successful completion of milestones and includes hardware delivery, as well as integration and demonstration support. The setup, which is called Controllable Hardware Integration for Machine-learning Enabled Real-time Adaptivity, or CHIMERA, provides a reconfigurable hardware platform for machine learning algorithm developers to make sense of radio frequency signals. BAE says the system is necessary "in increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum environments." The contract is the second BAE has received under the Radio Frequency Machine Learning systems program. The first was a contract to develop data-driven machine learning algorithms. "CHIMERA brings the flexibility of a software solution to hardware," said Dave Logan, vice president and general manager of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance -- C4ISR -- Systems at BAE Systems. "Machine-learning is on the verge of revolutionizing signals intelligence technology, just as it has in other industries." The new system is capable of adapting to RF configurations in real time, offering better, easier control and improved performance that was not previously available. The system's open architecture interfaces also allow for third-party algorithm development, which BAE said will make it easier to upgrade and less likely to become obsolete. And communications, radar and electronic warfare also can benefit from the new hardware platform, BAE said. https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/07/08/BAE-nets-47M-by-DARPA-to-integrate-machine-learning-into-RF-signals-detection/5261562595628/