Contracts for September 20, 2021

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  15 septembre 2020 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR

  Army to award contract for GPS alternative by end of September

  Nathan Strout The Global Positioning System of satellites remains the prime source of positioning, navigation and timing for the military, but it's increasingly vulnerable as adversaries develop capabilities that can undermine the signal. Delivering capabilities that allow the war fighter to verify such data or replace it in a degraded or denied environment is a major problem that the Army now wants to solve. Col. Nickolas Kioutas — program manager for position, navigation and timing, Army Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors — is leading the Army's efforts to develop anti-jamming and anti-spoofing technology and get it into the hands of war fighters as soon as possible. Kioutas and Director of the Assured PNT Cross-Functional Team Willie Nelson held a media roundtable Oct. 4 announcing the fielding of one such solution: the Mounted Assured Position Navigation and Timing System (MAPS). Kioutas sat with C4ISRNET Oct. 15 at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference to discuss MAPS, the Military Encrypted GPS Signal and what he would like to see from industry as he looks for assured PNT solutions. C4ISRNET: Your office recently announced that you fielded MAPS with 62 Stryker vehicles in the Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Germany. What's next in the development of the MAPS program? COL. NICKOLAS KIOUTAS: We've got two generations right now that we're working with. Generation 1 is really an anti-jamming capability that we fielded to 2CR second cavalry unit in Germany just this last month, and we're looking to upgrade now to our Gen. 2 capability, which would add the spoof protection. Right now we're doing prototyping with the Gen. 2 and we're actually going to compete the Gen. 1. Hopefully, it can integrate some spoof protection, but we'll be competing the Gen. 1 against the Gen. 2 to ask, “Hey, is that really the right capability to go forward with,” and field a lot more. Obviously, we just fielded 62. We still have in the pipeline some fielding of Gen. 1 before we make that final decision. And then we'll field either Gen. 2, or we'll decide to go to a Gen. 3 and continue fielding more of the Gen. 1 with upgraded spoof capabilities. C4ISRNET: And what did you learn with the fielding of the Gen. 1 capability? KIOUTAS: It's great to get a chance to do a little bit of something before you have to do a lot of something. You kind of learn some lessons and figure out what did the soldiers really like? What did they have problems with? Where can we make those little tweaks that allow us to do really well when we go to do the much broader army. C4ISRNET: Are there lessons from MAPS that can be applied to DAPS? Where is that program now? KIOUTAS: We are learning from what we're doing. It's really a change in the construct of how we do acquisitions. Instead of having the one huge program that's been perfectly thought out, perfectly tested and built, and then we get it to the field and it's 10 years too late and it's really not what we want, we're doing more iterative learning steps. So, everything that we learn even on the MAPS side — [which] is very similar technology — will apply to the DAPS side. With DAPS we're also developing some prototypes. We've got three vendors right now that we're working with to give us early prototypes, get them to the soldiers, let them touch and play with them, tell us what they like and what they didn't like, and then we'll do an initial capability set. And then we'll decide, hey, was there something that we can do different, better and then upgrade? So, [we're] constantly going to try to do that approach. C4ISRNET: The Air Force is working to develop M-Code, a military-grade GPS code with anti-jamming capabilities. How does the eventual delivery of that impact the development of anti-spoofing capabilities in the here and now? KIOUTAS: M-Code is important. It's a much better capability than the existing Selective Availability Anti-Spoof Model, or SAASM. However, it's not the complete answer, and what I always say is PNT does not equal GPS, because it's not just about GPS capability. It's about layering technologies with each other in order to be able to operate in a denied or degraded environment. C4ISRNET: M-Code delivery may be a ways out, but a limited version called M-Code Early Use is supposed to be available in the near future. How does that interim solution factor into assured-PNT solutions being developed now? KIOUTAS: There's probably two answers to that. One is we are already working with the M-Code to put it into the MAPS Gen. 2, as well as the DAPS system. So, we're going to have M-Code from the get-go. The other thing is, the Army has really got to decide how many M-Code modules are we going to buy between now and say 2028, when we're really going to get the increment 2 M-Code capabilities. So, we've really got to project out how many systems are we going to buy, what are they going to look like, [and] there's three different vendors so which vendor do we need to buy [from]? C4ISRNET: Let's talk about the Army's need for a modular open systems architecture as you develop APNT capabilities. How does that inform your acquisitions strategy? What do you want industry to know? KIOUTAS: For a modular open systems architecture, what we're really going to is [a] change from the previous way we did acquisition. Again, we're not going to do the one megalithic program that is perfectly designed and takes 10 years to build and then it gets to the field too late, we need a modular open systems architecture that allows us to be agile, that allows us to constantly take what industry is developing and integrate it to the solution to pace the threat. We're working with the CMOSS architecture to be able to put a bunch of different cards for our MAPS, maybe Gen. 3 capability. We're also working on a similar approach to the DAPS program. So, again, [we're] always looking for, not what is the best integrated solution, but what are the best individual solutions that we can take from across industry back to breed and integrate together. C4ISRNET: We're speaking at AUSA and around us many companies are showing off their assured PNT solutions. What are some of the APNT solutions you're excited to see from commercial industry? KIOUTAS: That's a good question. I don't really know the answer until we do some more testing. Of course, software-defined things are always great. The problem is there's sometimes problems with security and cybersecurity of those systems. And, so, there's probably a balance between do you really want a lockdown solution, where do you want that lockdown solution and where can you accept some risk and have a little more flexibility in software. https://www.c4isrnet.com/thought-leadership/2019/11/29/the-armys-position-on-next-generation-navigation/

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  6 avril 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Video conference of foreign affairs ministers (defence), 6 April 2020

  We agreed to explore how we could use the military expertise at EU level to support exchange of information and sharing of best practices among Member States. To do so, we could set up a task force with the European External Action Service, led by the EU Military Staff. Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy EU Ministers of defence today held a video conference, chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. Ministers discussed the defence implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing in particular on military assistance in the fight against the crisis, and the situation in the EU's military and civilian missions and operations in the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Defence ministers shared examples of how their armed forces have contributed to the efforts to counter the Covid-19 crisis by providing transport and logistic support, building hospitals in record time, deploying their medical staff, and supporting the police and other national services. In this context it was decided to explore setting up a task force led by the EU Military Staff to better exchange information and share best practices among EU member states. This would be done in full coordination and complementarity with NATO. EU Defence ministers also discussed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the 17 EU CSDP missions and operations around the world, focusing on the six military operations and missions. Ministers highlighted the importance of maintaining EU's presence on the ground, especially in those countries and regions that are already fragile and affected by instability. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/fac/2020/04/06/

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  20 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Missile Defense Agency director lays out hurdles in path to layered homeland missile defense

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — The Missile Defense Agency is planning to develop a layered homeland intercontinental ballistic missile defense architecture, but it must clear a range of hurdles to get after an approach that addresses emerging threats and fills a gap while a next-generation interceptor is developed, according to the agency's director. The agency unveiled plans in its fiscal 2021 budget request in February to create a more layered homeland defense system that would include regional missile defense capability already resident with the Navy and Army to bolster homeland defense against ICBMs. The plan would include establishing layers of defensive capability relying on the Aegis Weapon System, particularly the SM-3 Block IIA missiles used in the system, and a possible Aegis Ashore system in Hawaii. The underlay would also include the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. The Army is already operating a THAAD battery in South Korea and Guam. The layered approach would buy time while the Pentagon scrambles to field a new interceptor to replace older ground-based interceptors — after canceling its effort to redesign the kill vehicle for the GBIs — in its Ground-based Midcourse Defense system located primarily at Fort Greely, Alaska. With little detail conveyed in MDA's budget request for a layered homeland missile defense plan, Congress is pressuring the agency to come up with a strategy and approach to putting the architecture in place in both the House and Senate passed FY21 defense authorization bills. Much is riding on the success of an upcoming test of the SM-3 Block IIA missile, Vice Adm. Jon Hill said during a Heritage Foundation virtual event on Aug. 18. The missile has seen several test failures in the recent past. “We're going to really stress the SM-3 Block IIA outside its design space,” Hill said. “It was designed for medium and intermediate range. Now we're going against long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. The analysis says we'll be successful, but nothing is real to any of us until we actually get the empirical data from being out in the flight range.” The test will involve several time zones on several different ranges and the same ICBM target used in the most recent GMD test, Hill said. And while the test is still on track to happen by the end of the year, Hill said, challenges in coordination and travel due to the coronavirus pandemic could possibly have an impact on schedule. When the pandemic hit, “we were ready and postured to go to the Pacific to execute” Flight Test Maritime-44, Hill said, “so we did get the target on station. So the target's out there in the Pacific and it's ready to roll.” Following FTM-44, the agency would like to execute another test against a very complex ICBM target unlike the “simple” one being used in the upcoming test. That target will have “a lot of separation debris and that has a lot of countermeasures,” Hill said. “We want to make sure that the system in total, from the space assets to the radar to the engage-on-remote capability that passes that information to the ship, that ship can actually sift through all that and say, ‘That's the [reentry vehicle] and that's the where the missile's going to go,‘” he added. Success in the upcoming test doesn't mean the agency's work is done, Hill said. Upgrades will be required based on threats, combat system certifications will need to be conducted and work with the Navy to determine where Aegis ships would deploy will have to occur. The agency will also have to determine how quickly it can ramp up its production line for SM-3 Block IIA missiles. Then “if we succeed with Aegis, then we'll go right down the path with THAAD,” Hill said. The second big challenge, after ensuring all the parts work to provide layered coverage, is developing engagement coordination between the different layers, according to Hill. “Let's just say that step one is a ship off the coast as a complement to GMD. Those systems today talk already, but they're not talking in terms of being layered defenders,” Hill said. “So if GMD, for example, decides he's going to wait this first shot out and let the ship take it, we have to have the communication network to go do that. We have to have the technical architecture with the Command and Control Battle Management system, but in that context of layered defense and engagement coordination.” Aegis ships are already able to do engagement coordination among each other and the work the Pentagon is doing to get THAAD and the Patriot air-and-missile defense system to coordinate are “extensible to that problem,” Hill said, “but we still need to do that kind of engineering and that sort of architecture work.” And while a layered missile defense architecture for the homeland is an intricate one, “you don't have to solve the whole problem” at once, Rebecca Heinrichs, a missile defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, said during the Heritage Foundation event. But she cautioned that she did foresee challenges in establishing such an architecture on the political front rather than on the technical side. “Congress always wants to vet these kinds of things, so even though it is Congress that wanted the SM-3 Block IIA test, whenever you start talking about which district it is going to be in, where it's going to go and that kind of thing, that is a political challenge that takes a lot of debate and conversation.” https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/2020/08/18/missile-defense-agency-director-lays-out-hurdles-in-path-to-layered-homeland-missile-defense/