16 février 2022 | International, Autre défense
Amentum closes $1.9 billion acquisition of PAE
This is at least the second acquisition by Amentum in recent years.
8 janvier 2019 | International, Naval, C4ISR
3 ways the Navy wants to protect its weapons from cyberattacks
By: Justin Lynch
They have been hacked, tricked and stolen from. Now the message is clear -- no more.
The Navy is looking to support research in 36 areas that can help protect weapons systems from cyberattacks, Naval Air Systems Command said in a Jan. 7 update to a broad agency announcement.
“It's not necessarily cutting edge research, but it is the first step in cybersecurity quality control that should have already been done,” said Bryson Bort, the founder and chief executive officer of Scythe, a cybersecurity platform.
The Navy had admitted as much.
Research into protecting the department's weapons comes amid reports that the American military suffers from sustained cyberattacks. In December, an Inspector General report found that some in the Pentagon were not taking basic cybersecurity steps to protect its ballistic missile system. Although the Pentagon's weapons are worth roughly $1.66 trillion, an October report from the Government Accountability Office found that “nearly all” American missiles, jets, ships and lethal equipment in development are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
The announcement comes after Congress has mandated the Pentagon address its cyber vulnerabilities.
Three of the research areas the Navy is interested are commonly described as the pillars of strong cybersecurity, no matter the institution. They include:
Dynamic reconfiguration
In an effort to confuse attackers, the Navy wants to research “dynamic reconfiguration.” The National Institute of Standards and Technology defines the term as “changes to router rules, access control lists, intrusion detection/prevention system parameters, and filter rules for firewalls and gateways.”
"Organizations perform dynamic reconfiguration of information systems, for example, to stop attacks, to misdirect attackers, and to isolate components of systems, thus limiting the extent of the damage from breaches or compromises,” NIST officials wrote.
Research by the University of Maryland's Christian Johnson found that pairing predictive analytics with dynamic reconfiguration tactics, the new approach can lead to the "successful development of learning models that identify specific classes of malware such as ransomware,” Johnson wrote in a paper for the RSA conference.
Deception tactics
Experts have long used strategies of physical war in digital battles, including with the use of denial and deception tactics. The Navy wants to boost understanding of this area to better secure its weapons systems.
In 2015, researchers at MITRE, which conducts federally funded research, advocated for a 10-step process for planning and executing deception operations.
“Leveraging classical denial and deception techniques to understand the specifics of adversary attacks enables an organization to build an active, threat-based cyber defense,” a team of researchers wrote.
But the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity, the intelligence community's research arm, says that the use of deceptive software and hardware in cybersecurity is still in its infancy.
“Many techniques lack rigorous experimental measures of effectiveness,” the organization said, adding that “information is insufficient to determine how defensive deception changes attacker behavior.”
Artificial intelligence
If there was a common denominator of the federal government's investment in cybersecurity it is the use or artificial intelligence.
The Navy has embraced artificial intelligence since its Task Force Cyber Awakening project in 2015.
“We see that the more we automate our networks and the more we use machines to do the heavy lifting, the better. Our brains do not have the intellectual capacity to process all of that information,” Rear Adm. Danelle Barrett, Navy Cyber Security Division Director,told Defense Systems, a trade publication, in a 2017 interview.
More than half of the challenges and research opportunities announced by IARPA in 2018 involved machine learning, according to an analysis by Fifth Domain.
Cyber Command has embraced the technology in a short time period, Capt. Ed Devinney, director of corporate partnerships at the body, said during the November Cyber Con conference hosted by Fifth Domain.
“If you talked to anyone at the command two or three years ago about a system that would be all autonomous, you probably wouldn't get much traction. But I think there is a growing understanding and consensus that we need to operate at machine speed, especially when talking about active defense of the network,” Devinney said.
He said that everyone likes to use the phrases “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning,” however “there aren't that many people who do AI very well.”
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13 novembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial
White House radio spectrum access plan may benefit internet, drones
As much as 2,786 megahertz of spectrum may be repurposed for wireless broadband, drones and satellites.
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10 décembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - December 09, 2019
AIR FORCE The Korean Airlines Co. Ltd., Aerospace Division, Seoul, South Korea, has been awarded a $213,000,000 ceiling indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for A-10 Pacific Air Force depot support. This contract provides depot support for A-10 aircraft that are stationed in South Korea. Work will be performed in Buson, South Korea, and is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, 2029. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and one offer was received. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $166,361 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA8202-20-D-0001). ARMY LOC Performance,* Plymouth, Michigan, was awarded a $70,987,890 firm-fixed-price contract for Bradley Engineering Change Proposal kits, spare parts and installation. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 3, 2024. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Michigan, is the contracting activity (W56HZV-20-F-0014). Raytheon Co., Woburn, Massachusetts, was awarded a $26,000,840 firm-fixed-price Foreign Military Sales (Poland and Romania) contract for field artillery C3, Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System. One bid was solicited via the internet with one bid received. Work will be performed in Woburn, Massachusetts, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 19, 2021. Fiscal 2020 Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $9,235,884 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W91CRB-20-C-5008). HNTB Corp., Kansas City, Missouri, was awarded a $10,213,080 modification (P00007) to contract W91236-17-F-0012 for architect and engineer services. Bids were solicited via the internet with seven received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 10, 2022. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity. Chustz Surveying LLC,* New Roads, Louisiana (W912EE-20-D-0001); Johnson-McAdams Surveying and Mapping LLC,* Greenwood, Mississippi (W912EE-20-D-0002); and Seaside Engineering & Surveying LLC,* Baker, Florida (W912EE-20-D-0003), will compete for each order of the $10,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for surveying and mapping services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 10 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 9, 2024. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Mississippi, is the contracting activity. CACI Inc. – Federal, Chantilly, Virginia, was awarded a $9,908,767 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for design, development and to validate system prototypes for a combined arms squad. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Chantilly, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2019 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funds in the amount of $5,668,581 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912CG-20-C-0004). NAVY PAE Applied Technologies Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $47,364,653 modification (P00088) to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost reimbursable contract (N00019-14-C-0038). This modification extends the period of performance and increases the ceiling to continue providing services in support of range engineering, operations and maintenance support to the Atlantic Test Range and the Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations Division of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division. This work will employ disciplines embracing various types of system operations, laboratory and field testing, marine operations and target support services, engineering, range sustainability, maintenance, data reduction and analysis. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland, and is expected to be completed in June 2020. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test, evaluation; and working capital (Navy) funds for $12,645,500 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Konecranes Nuclear Equipment and Services LLC, New Berlin, Wisconsin, is awarded a $46,014,523 firm-fixed-price contract to provide one 175-ton portal crane at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The work to be performed provides for the contractor to design, fabricate, assemble, shop test, deliver, install, inspect, field test and make ready for use one 175-ton heavy-lift portal crane to be installed at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The crane shall be a portal type with a rotating superstructure, luffing boom, main hoist and an auxiliary hoist designed to meet the dimensional and functional requirements of the specification. The contract also contains six unexercised options, which if exercised, would increase cumulative contract value to $329,923,447. Work will be performed in New Berlin, Wisconsin, and is expected to be completed by November 2023. Fiscal 2020 other procurement, (Navy) funds in the amount of $46,014,523 are obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online and Federal Business Opportunities websites with two proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N62470-20-C-0002). Alion – IPS Corp., Burr Ridge, Illinois, is awarded a $44,721,438 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only modification to a previously awarded contract N00024-18-C-0015 to procure professional support services for the Naval Sea System Command's Deputy Commander for Surface Warfare. This procurement is for professional support services in the areas of program management, administrative support, surface ship modernization, inactive ships, surface ships readiness, surface training systems, business and financial management, records management and information technology support. Work will be performed in Washington, District of Columbia (54.7%); Norfolk, Virginia (19%); San Diego, California (17.3%); Mayport, Florida (2.1%); Yokosuka, Japan (1.5%); Sasebo, Japan (1.2%); Manama, Bahrain (1.2%); and various locations of less than 1% each in the U.S. and Europe (3%), and is expected to be complete by August 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding for $5,300,000 will be obligated at time of award and funds for $5,300,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity. Fincantieri Marine Systems North America Inc., Chesapeake, Virginia, is awarded an $18,006,438 contract modification to exercise Option Year Three of a previously awarded firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity N55236-17-D-0009 contract to provide maintenance support for the Mine Countermeasure-1 Class main propulsion diesel engine and ship service diesel generator. Work will be performed in the homeports of San Diego, California; Sasebo, Japan; Manama, Bahrain; and ports-of-call as required, and work is scheduled to be completed by January 2021. No funding is being obligated at time of award. In accordance with 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(1), this contract was not competitively procured. The independent contractor, under the direction of the Regional Maintenance Center and not as an agent of the government, shall provide diesel engine technical, engineering, and field service support for Mine Countermeasure-1 Class ships homeported in San Diego, California; and forward deployed in Japan and Bahrain. Obligated funding will cover preventive maintenance services and travel in the base year and subsequent option years in accordance with work item specifications and work item plans, drawings, other references, the delivery schedule and all other terms and conditions set forth in the contract. The Southwest Regional Maintenance Center, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded an $11,548,231 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price modification (P00025) to a previously awarded fixed-price incentive firm contract (N00019-18-C-1048) to provide work and training necessary for the Autonomic Logistics Information System 3.5 software rollout to the fleet under the low rate initial production Lot XI. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida (57%); and Fort Worth, Texas (43%), and is expected to be completed in January 2021. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy); non-Department of Defense (DoD) participants; and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) funds in the amount of $11,548,231 are being obligated at time of award, $6,498,614 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract modification combines purchases for the Air Force ($3,043,659; 26%); Marine Corps ($1,476,651; 13%); Navy ($1,978,304; 17%); non-DoD participants ($3,060,938; 27%); and FMS ($1,988,680; 17%). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., San Diego, California, is awarded a $9,140,087 cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order (N00019-20-F-0457) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-15-G-0026) in support of the MQ-8C Firescout unmanned aircraft system. This order is for the production and delivery of eight AN/ZPY-8 radar modification kits, eight forward access panel modification kits and all associated non-recurring engineering and qualification efforts in support of mission processor unit upgrades. Work will be performed in Santa Clarita, California (38%); San Diego, California (37%); Fort Worth, Texas (22%); and Lititz, Philadelphia (3%). Work is expected to be completed in April 2021. Fiscal 2018 and 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds for $9,140,087 are being obligated at time of award, $3,921,389 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2035907/source/GovDelivery/