U.S. Department of the Navy Awards Perspecta $657 Million Extension to Continue Providing IT Services on its Next Generation Enterprise Services (NGEN) Contract

On the same subject

• 

  August 20, 2024 | International, Aerospace

  Lockheed, Istari partner to demonstrate digital aircraft certification

  The firm will use its digital engineering platform to modify and certify a drone — in this case, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works' X-56A.

• 

  October 30, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  UAE could get up to 50 F-35s in $10B sale

  By: Joe Gould , Aaron Mehta , and Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department is backing the sale of as many as 50 F-35 joint strike fighters to the United Arab Emirates in an arms deal worth an estimated $10.4 billion, according to multiple reports. The news came as the Trump administration informally briefed Congress on its plan to sell the advanced F-35 fighter to the United Arab Emirates Thursday. It follows weeks of speculation and behind-the-scenes debates about how to structure an F-35 deal with the UAE without cutting into Israel's qualitative military edge. If the sale is permitted by Congress and the UAE opts to buy the full number of F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variants covered by the deal, it would have parity with Israel, which has 50 F-35 “Adir” jets under contract, although the country is considering buying 25 more. (The quantities and values of such deals often change from initial estimates.) Amid reports the Trump administration is fast-tracking the F-35 sales, key Democratic lawmakers are continuing to urge a deliberate approach, citing concerns for Israel's security and the security of the warplane's sensitive technology. “This technology would significantly change the military balance in the Gulf and affect Israel's military edge," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said in a statement. "The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a game-changing stealth platform boasting advanced strike capability and unique sensor technology. The export of this aircraft requires very careful consideration and Congress must analyze all the ramifications. Rushing these sales is not in anyone's interest.” The consultations came days after Israel said last week it will not oppose the U.S. sale of “certain weapon systems,” widely considered to mean the F-35. That followed an agreement between Israel and the United States to upgrade its capabilities to preserve its edge. Engel said he plans to weigh the U.S. legal obligation to maintain Israel's military superiority in the region, as well the question of whether the sale would drive demands from other Middle Eastern nations to buy the F-35 in exchange for normalized ties with Israel. (The Trump administration recently brokered such a pact between Israel and the UAE.) “Israel currently has exclusive access in the region to the F-35, which has guaranteed its military edge over the last several years. As Congress reviews this sale, it must be clear that changes to the status quo will not put Israel's military advantage at risk,” Engel said. “This technology also must be safeguarded from our greatest global adversaries. With Russia and China active in the region, the American people will require unimpeachable assurances that our most advanced military capabilities will be protected.” For decades, the State Department has informally consulted with the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees before formally notifying Congress of sales, which affords lawmakers a chance to block them. Though lawmakers typically consider such deliberations sensitive and rarely speak publicly about them, Engel broke the news Congress had been informally notified. Assistant Secretary Bureau of Political-Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper told reporters Wednesday the department plans to honor that process. Though Reuters has reported there is a goal to have a letter of agreement between the U.S. and the UAE by Dec. 2, Cooper said “there are no dates associated with the work that's being done.” He declined to provide specifics of a potential deal and the State Department declined to comment on Thursday. F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin referred questions to the State Department. Israeli opposition would be fatal to the deal in Congress, where Israel enjoys strong support. Two key Democrats introduced legislation earlier this month that would place restrictions on F-35 sales to Middle Eastern nations to address their concerns about both the Israel's security and the security of F-35 technology. On Thursday, Engel invited colleagues to join him in legislation, “to ensure that the sale of these types of weapons adhere to our most important national security goals.” https://www.defensenews.com/2020/10/29/uae-could-get-up-to-50-f-35s-in-10b-sale/

• 

  September 26, 2018 | International, Naval, C4ISR

  On the new battlefield, the Navy has to get software updates to the fleet within days, acquisition boss says

  By: David B. Larter The Navy has to get software updates and patches to the fleet within days if it's going to win in the future, the Department of the Navy's acquisition boss said Sept. 25 at Modern Day Marine. James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, acquisition and development, said the fleet has been working on the rapid development of software to get needed upgrades to the ships ahead of pier-side availabilities, a pace he said was too slow for the modern battlefield. “We recently did one of our proof-of-principles to say: ‘How do you take ... software, get it system certified, get it cyber certified then get it out over the airwaves, uploaded on to a ship and into the combat system in 24 hours,” Geurts said. “My view is unless we get to the point where I can identify a software requirement, whether it's an [artificial intelligence] algorithm or something, find the solution, get it checked out on the network, give it whatever cyber-proofing it needs and get it into the fight in less than a week, we are not going to be successful in the long run.” The Navy has increasingly found that its current systems are capable of adjusting to new threats through software upgrades rather than buying new systems and installing them, a time-consuming and cripplingly expensive process that has been the norm in years past. Geurts said the Navy had to have a software architecture that was amenable to rapid upgrades so that developers would not need to re-test the underlying architecture each time a patch or fix is uploaded. Furthermore, the service also has to develop cyber security standards that don't just weigh whether or not something can be compromised but begin to think of it more in terms of risks associated. “The answer isn't yes or no, it's ‘Commander here is your risk.' And then weigh the risk of doing that [upgrade] versus a potential cyber impact so that commanders can make reasonable command decisions. Because there is always a risk to not doing something. We often talk about the risk of doing something, we don't often talk about the risk of not doing it.” Geurts told a gaggle with reporters after the talk that he was not talking about uploading whole new programs that sailors might be unfamiliar with but more iterative upgrades. "Don't take that to an extreme to where we will load on something that nobody has ever seen before, but it could be that there is a particular issue or new need, and you can envision us testing and training that shore-side, making sure it's right – we don't want to wait for the ship to come home we could potentially blast that out [to the fleet.]" The Navy is also working more with having digital doppelgangers of its combat system on board its ships so that new technologies can be tested by the crew and commanders before its uploaded into the main combat system, a hedge against reaping unintended consequences by uploading a feature or patch without knowing exactly how it will fit into the ship's systems. "The other thing we are doing a lot with is digital twins, where [the ship] might have the combat system that it's fighting with as well as a digital twin,” Geurts explained. “So you might be able to upload that new feature in the digital twin so you could have both, then it's up to the commander whether it's something you adopt or not.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/digital-show-dailies/modern-day-marine/2018/09/25/on-the-new-battlefield-the-navy-has-to-get-software-updates-to-the-fleet-within-days-acquisition-boss-says