Can the Army protect essential but ‘unloved’ programs in future budgets?

Sur le même sujet

• 

  13 septembre 2018 | International, C4ISR

  DISA opens a new operations floor in Utah to boost resiliency

  By: Daniel Cebul WASHINGTON — The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has opened a second operations watch floor to help operate and secure global information-sharing and command and control capabilities, according to a Sept. 12 press release from the agency. The organization opened the new floor July 15 at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The center is now known as DISA Global West. The original operations watch floor, DISA Global Operations Command, headquartered at Scott AFB, Illinois will now be known at DISA Global East. Opening a second watch floor improves the survivability and redundancy of global network operations, the DISA statement said, and allows for what's described as 24/7 “Active-Active” operations. “Active-Active” means that DISA is continuously available to provide operational and security capabilities, even if one of the two operation centers goes down. This added layer of redundancy is viewed as critical in an increasingly hostile cyber environment. “In a world where our cyber adversaries are becoming more and more sophisticated in their abilities to infiltrate networks and interfere with services, Active-Active operations allows DISA Global to reduce continuity risks and make the Defense Information Systems Network and DISA services more agile and responsive,” said Laura Williams, the agency's Active-Active program manager. While dividing the work force between locations introduces new difficulties to operations, the agency is confident the move will improve resiliency without compromising capability. “It's always a challenge when you have a geographically separated work force,” said Army Col. Lisa Whittaker, DISA Global commander said in the release. “But we are a tremendous team coming together for this effort. The teammates that work at DISA Global West are closely integrated with those at DISA Global East. They work in the same divisions, have the same leadership, and use the same tools, techniques, tactics, and procedures on a daily basis.” One reason teammates are able to stay on the same page despite being over 1,300 miles apart is the agency's use of an Enterprise Virtual Watch Desk, which provides organizations across the agency a common picture of the operational network. https://www.c4isrnet.com/disa/2018/09/12/disa-opens-a-new-operations-watch-floor-in-utah-to-boost-resiliency

• 

  19 octobre 2022 | International, Aérospatial

  Space Force may seek commercial fleet to augment wartime needs

  The service will hold an industry day in January to hear feedback on its concept for a Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve.

• 

  7 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

  It’s Now Possible To Telepathically Communicate with a Drone Swarm

  BY PATRICK TUCKER DARPA's new research in brain-computer interfaces is allowing a pilot to control multiple simulated aircraft at once. A person with a brain chip can now pilot a swarm of drones — or even advanced fighter jets, thanks to research funded by the U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. The work builds on research from 2015, which allowed a paralyzed woman to steer a virtual F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with only a small, surgically-implantable microchip. On Thursday, agency officials announced that they had scaled up the technology to allow a user to steer multiple jets at once. “As of today, signals from the brain can be used to command and control ... not just one aircraft but three simultaneous types of aircraft,” said Justin Sanchez, who directs DARPA's biological technology office, at the Agency's 60th-anniversary event in Maryland. More importantly, DARPA was able to improve the interaction between pilot and the simulated jet to allow the operator, a paralyzed man named Nathan, to not just send but receive signals from the craft. “The signals from those aircraft can be delivered directly back to the brain so that the brain of that user [or pilot] can also perceive the environment,” said Sanchez. “It's taken a number of years to try and figure this out.” In essence, it's the difference between having a brain joystick and having a real telepathic conversation with multiple jets or drones about what's going on, what threats might be flying over the horizon, and what to do about them. “We've scaled it to three [aircraft], and have full sensory [signals] coming back. So you can have those other planes out in the environment and then be detecting something and send that signal back into the brain,” said Sanchez. The experiment occured a “handful of months ago,” he said. It's another breakthrough in the rapidly advancing field of brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, for a variety of purposes. The military has been leading interesting research in the field since at least 2007,. And in 2012, DARPA issued a $4 million grant to build a non-invasive “synthetic telepathy” interface by placing sensors close to the brain's motor centers to pick up electrical signals — non-invasively, over the skin. But the science has advanced rapidly in recent years, allowing for breakthroughs in brain-based communication, control of prosthetic limbs, and even memory repair. https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/09/its-now-possible-telepathically-communicate-drone-swarm/151068