September 13, 2023 | International, C4ISR
Electronic warfare in Ukraine informing US playbook
“Both sides are doing the cat-and-mouse game very, very well,” said Col. Josh Koslov, the commander of the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing.
November 30, 2020 | International, C4ISR
US Army solicits bids for new cryptographic technologies
by Carlo Munoz
The US Army is soliciting industry proposals to develop new cryptographic technologies, designed to ensure secure and compartmentalised communication capabilities in the wake of rapidly advancing cyber warfare and electronic warfare threats to those operations.
The proposals being sought by the service's Program Manager Tactical Radios (PM TR), under Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communicate – Tactical (PEO C3T), will assist in the development of the advanced variant of the Next Generation Load Device-Medium (NGLD-M). Army officials anticipate developing and fielding a maximum of 265,000 NGLD-M units, at an estimated cost of USD850 million, according to the service's 18 November request for proposals (RFP).
The new NGLD-M systems will replace the army's more than decade-old fleet of Simple Key Loaders (SKLs), which are designed to transfer, issue, fill, and manage electronic cryptographic keys to highly sensitive End-Cryptographic Units (ECUs), used by combat units to transmit and receive secure communications transmissions.
Designed to meet the Type 1 cryptologic standards for secured data transmissions established by the National Security Agency (NSA), the NGLD-M will provide “the functionality of legacy fill devices while providing network connectivity to support Over the Network Key (OTNK) distribution”, the RFP stated. The new NGLD-M will also provide end users with a “reprogrammable crypto subcomponent to meet future modernisation requirements”, it added.
“The NGLD-M will enable delivery of the strongest NSA-generated cryptographic keys to tactical, strategic, and enterprise network systems operating from secret to the highest levels of security classification,” according to a PEO C3T statement, issued shortly after the RFP's release.
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September 28, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval
Lockheed Martin to perform ‘unique sea trials' of F-35 for non-US customers
Gareth Jennings The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has contracted Lockheed Martin to conduct aircraft carrier trials of its F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) for potential international operators. The award, announced on 24 September, is part of a wider USD245.5 million developmental support contract for DoD and international operators of the F-35 that will run through to March 2022. “[Additional to the wider developmental support work], this modification provides unique sea trials on aircraft carriers for non-DoD participants,” the contract notification stated. Though no further details pertaining to the aircraft carrier trials were disclosed, they are likely to relate to the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B variant of the aircraft. To date, the US Marine Corps (USMC), United Kingdom Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Air Force (RAF), and Italian Navy (Marina Militare Italiana: MMI) have procured the F-35B to equip their respective amphibious assault ships and aircraft carriers, while current F-35A customers, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and South Korea, have all expressed interest in the STOVL jet's carrier capabilities over recent years, as had Turkey before it was disbarred from the wider JSF programme. Australia was reporting its interest in the F-35B for the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) two Canberra-class landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious assault ships as far back as 2014. The two 27,800-tonne LHDs – HMAS Canberra and HMAS https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/lockheed-martin-to-perform-unique-sea-trials-of-f-35-for-non-us-customers
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October 15, 2021 | International, Aerospace
New products featured at NBAA-BACE 2021 - Skies Mag
Skies caught up with six companies at the 2021 NBAA convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, who have launched new products in the past year.