17 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR, Sécurité
The Air Force has selected the Air National Guard's training and education center at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in Tennessee to be the focal point for training a cadre of defensive focused cyber teams, according to a news release.
These teams, called mission defense teams (MDTs), will protect critical Air Force missions and installations such as critical infrastructure or computers associated with aircraft and remotely piloted systems.
The teams are an outgrowth of the service's communications squadrons, which have performed much of the IT and cyber defense at the base or wing level. Now, with the Air Force outsourcing much of its IT management, the service was able to free up personnel and resources to focus on protecting these critical assets.
The new crews differ from the cyber protection teams that the Air Force, and other services, provide to U.S. Cyber Command as part of the cyber mission force.
At first, 20 students will participate in the mission defense team pilot class in mid-August. If that is successful, it will expand to six 20 student classes in 2021. The ultimate goal is to graduate 1,000 students each year across the service beginning in fiscal year 2023, the Air Force said.
These teams will be stationed at 84 locations around the world.
“This is an exciting moment for TEC and its future as an agile, innovative, and resilient center of learning for the total Air Force and the National Guard Bureau,” Col. Kenneth Lozano, the commander of the traning and education center, said.
The Air Force has taken a “total Air Force approach” to cyber, to include its cyber mission force teams and mission defense teams, meaning, these forces are made up of combined active duty, guard and reserve forces.
Prior training efforts for mission defense teams began at the 223rd Cyberspace Operations Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base with a Cyber-Protect and -Defend course. The first classes were held in August 2019.
The Air Force said to date, the schoolhouse has trained 160 airmen. The goal is for the training and education center at McGhee Tyson to assume 1,000 graduates a year, with the majority of training to transition there in 2022.
One of the biggest hurdles thus far, is procuring a range for trainees to operate on. The Air Force is working through the Defense Cybercrimes Center to procure a cyber range and certify instructors. The price tag associated with this for the initial 20 students is $1.5 million.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2020/07/16/air-force-wants-to-expand-training-for-cyber-teams/
18 décembre 2023 | International, Terrestre
Opinion: Europeans can help blunt the argument in Washington that U.S. resources are too stretched to focus on Europe and the Indo-Pacific at the same time.
10 septembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — As the defense department seeks billions in emergency funding to reimburse industry for costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pentagon's top acquisition official pledged not to rush that money out the door. Speaking at the annual Defense News Conference, Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said it will likely take five to six months before any reimbursements to industry under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) act will take place as the department seeks a “very data driven approach” to that money. Section 3610 of the CARES act allows firms serving the federal government to seek reimbursement for pandemic-related expenses, but Congress hasn't passed corresponding appropriations. Defense officials have said they need roughly $10 billion, and that without added funding from Congress, the Pentagon would have to dip into modernization and readiness funds. “We believe we need that appropriation to maintain readiness because if we do not get that what we are going to find is we are not going to get the number of units delivered, we are not going to maintain warfighter readiness, we're not going to move forward in modernization,” Lord said. “We would like to take the one-time hit and then see where we go from there.” Should Congress appropriate the requested funds, the Pentagon would issue a request for proposal, with the large primes gathering data from up and down their supply chains before returning with their requests to the Pentagon. That process will likely take two to three months, Lord said. “Then we want to look at all of the proposals at once. It isn't going to be a first-in-first-out and we have to rationalize using the rules we've put in place, what would be reimbursable, and what's not,” she added. “So overall, we think five to six months, in terms of a process.” When the COVID pandemic struck in March, hundreds of defense subcontractors had to close up shop. As of now, only 30 remain shuttered, Lord said, although she acknowledged that the department is keeping a wary eye on the situation. “What we are looking for is whether or not we're maintaining warfighter readiness for our production programs, and then relative to modernization, whether we are hitting key milestones relative to development programs,” she said. “We have seen some slowdowns. We are carefully monitoring, using monthly metrics, where we are.” While the most recent round of quarterly earnings reports from public defense companies did not show a major slowdown from COVID, Lord warned that those reports “in large part don't reflect the hits that were taken by business,” warning of a “delayed response” in terms of the diseases' economic impact on the sector. “I would contend that most of the effects of COVID haven't yet been seen, because most companies gave their employees time off, they stretched out production, paid a lot of people for working 100% when perhaps they were only getting 50% of the hours in and so forth,” she said. “So I think the system has absorbed it up to this point in time. Now when we get to the point where we're having payments and incentive fees and award fees earned, and if we haven't done the deliveries, that's where you're going to see the hit.” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2020/09/09/industry-could-wait-months-for-covid-reimbursements-from-pentagon
9 avril 2021 | International, Aérospatial
Le Figaro consacre un article à la montée en puissance de l'industrie spatiale chinoise et à ses enjeux stratégiques, notamment face aux Etats-Unis. La Chine a lancé plus de fusées dans l'espace que tout autre pays au cours des trois dernières années, ainsi que des missions vers la Lune et vers Mars, et développe des systèmes d'armement spatiaux capables de menacer les satellites militaires et commerciaux, relève Le Figaro. « Les activités spatiales de la Chine et de la Russie représentent des menaces sérieuses et croissantes pour la sécurité nationale des États-Unis », a déclaré le nouveau secrétaire américain à la Défense, Lloyd Austin, lors de son audition par le Sénat en janvier dernier. « Les doctrines militaires chinoises et russes indiquent également qu'elles considèrent l'espace comme essentiel à la guerre moderne et envisagent l'utilisation de capacités antisatellites comme un moyen de réduire l'efficacité militaire des États-Unis et de gagner les guerres futures », a-t-il souligné, ajoutant :« Si la Russie est un adversaire de premier plan, la Chine est une menace grandissante ». Le Figaro du 9 avril