29 juillet 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

COVID-19 is changing the Air Force’s cyber training

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is ensuring its mission essential cyber training goes on during the global COVID-19 pandemic but officials are also delaying some training related to the service's networks.

“When all this kicked off, we prioritized all of the mission essential courses that are supplying operators to the cyber mission force. We wanted to make sure that those units continue to get the trained operations that they needed so that their readiness levels didn't suffer,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Williams, commander of the 39th Information Operations Squadron, which provides intermediate cyber weapons system training to airmen, told C4ISRNET.

The cyber mission force are the teams each of the services provide up to U.S. Cyber Command. In addition to training cyber mission force personnel, the 39th IOS also trains specific weapon systems for the Air Force network (AFNET), which were either postponed or reduced class size to ensure students are safe.

The reduction in those Air Force specific courses have allowed the mission essential courses to reduce in person class sizes for classified work that can't be done remotely to ensure the proper social distancing measures are taken.

To learn outside the classroom, the schoolhouse is relying on a partnership with Carnegie Mellon for an entirely online cyberspace fundamentals course, Microsoft Teams and WebEx.

Students also don't have to necessarily travel to the 39th in Hurlburt Field, Florida for some training. They can remotely take courses such as the cyber fundamentals course online saving money for temporary duty travel.

Williams said he expects to see more of that in the future.

The remote tools have also allowed students to gain a unique experience with members of the operational force, while simultaneously saving the taxpayer money.

Students are able to hear from operational commanders and operators and even participate in exercises with units. Previously, the students would have to travel to those units to participate, but now, they can dial in.

“That helps us in the classroom hit it home. We get those war stories to use in the classroom and the students actually, those light bulbs start to turn on and it really starts to hit home,” TSgt Jonathan Zinski, a course instructor, said. “Now that we have more of an eye-opening capability to use some of our virtual tools, we've actually been able to enroll and participate an entire team of instructors and cadre here at the 39th IOS to participate in a no-kidding virtual exercise with an operational unit to not only hone our skills and help some of our instructors here bring the lessons learned into the classroom but to also help the operational units from our standpoint and help them get better at their jobs.”

This experience also gives the students a flavor of what to expect at their units prior to arriving.

Officials explained that while the actual courseware didn't change, the schoolhouse shifted the courseware and maneuvered the syllabus to accommodate students doing a combination of distance learning and in person classes. They looked at what courses needed to be conducted in person, then worked around that to ensure the class sizes were small enough while supplementing with remote learning tools.

The pandemic has also accelerated certain initiatives the school planned to undertake at a later date. Williams said one includes combining cyber mission force and AFNET defensive cyber training.

He said they are re-imagining the defensive cyber training pipeline with something they're calling defensive cyber operations initial qualification training.

“Instead of creating a blanket training for each of these weapon systems, we're trying to integrate the AFNET systems with the CMF where it makes sense and also tailor the training,” he said, noting this should be up and running in October regardless of COVID-19.

This re-imagining was always planned, but Williams said COVID accelerated it.

The adaptations the 39th has been forced to make as a result of the pandemic has rendered some valuable lessons as well.

Williams said some initiatives never would have been considered if the pandemic didn't hit. He explained officials are turning a conference room into a recording studio so instructors can either deliver training to students in a separate room or record lectures for students to view later.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2020/07/27/covid-19-is-changing-the-air-forces-cyber-training/

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8 juillet 2019 | International, Autre défense

Pentagon Looks into Virtual Reality to Prepare Troops for Nuclear War
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16 février 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

Bordeaux : la chaire « Défense et Aérospatial » renouvelée
Les partenaires de la chaire Défense et Aérospatial (Sciences Po Bordeaux et l'université de Bordeaux) ont souhaité poursuivre leur engagement au sein de la chaire pour trois années supplémentaires, à compter du 1er janvier 2021. La chaire est le fruit d'une coopération entre deux établissements de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche, Sciences Po Bordeaux et l'université de Bordeaux, et cinq acteurs majeurs de la base industrielle et technologique de défense : ArianeGroup, le CEA et sa Direction des Applications militaires, Dassault Aviation, Safran et Thales. Initiée fin 2013 par le général Jean-Marc Laurent, la chaire est devenue opérationnelle le 1er janvier 2015, pour trois années initiales. Ses partenaires industriels se sont déjà réengagés pour une deuxième période de trois ans (2018-2020). Sur le plan opérationnel, la chaire développe des actions innovantes de formation (création de formations initiales, continues, spécifiques), de recherche (travaux sur la conflictualité entre puissances et le spatial de défense) et de diffusion des savoirs. Aerobuzz du 16 février
30 octobre 2019 | International, Aérospatial

In newly inked deal, F-35 price falls to $78 million a copy
By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON —The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have finalized a $34 billion deal for the next three lots of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, setting the price of an F-35A jet below $80 million. The fresh price tag has come a year earlier than expected. The deal includes 478 F-35s for U.S. and international customers across lots 12, 13 and 14. On average, the price per aircraft will fall about 12.8 percent across all variants from Lot 11 to Lot 14, according to the Pentagon. “This is the first time the F-35 Joint Program Office will award a significant F-35 aircraft procurement in the same fiscal year as the congressional appropriation year,” Pentagon acquisition head Ellen Lord told reporters Tuesday. “We will reach a unit-recurring flyaway-cost-per-aircraft target of $80 million for a U.S. Air Force F-35A price by Lot 13, which is one lot earlier than planned — a significant milestone for the department,” she added. The F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing model — which is used by the U.S. Air Force and most international users — is set to decrease from a Lot 11 price of $89.2 million to $82.4 million in Lot 12; $79.2 million in Lot 13; and $77.9 million in Lot 14. The F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing model will fall to $108 million in Lot 12, $104.8 million in Lot 13 and $101.3 million in Lot 14. The F-35C variant, which can take off and land on aircraft carriers, also decreased in price, dropping to $103.1 million in Lot 12, $98.1 million in Lot 13 and $94.4 million in Lot 14. Lockheed will deliver 149 F-35s in Lot 12, 160 aircraft in Lot 13 and 169 for Lot 14. Neither Lord nor Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, the Pentagon's F-35 program executive, could explain why the size of the Lot 12 buy had dwindled from the 157 jets announced in June as part of the handshake deal to 149 jets in the definitized agreement. However, it's likely that the decrease is due to Turkey's removal from the program. After the handshake agreement was announced, a source with knowledge of the deal told Defense News that it included Turkish jets to the order of about five to 10 F-35s per lot. The Pentagon announced the contract definitization on Monday, awarding Lockheed Martin a $7 billion modification to a previous contract vehicle for the F-35. The Defense Department previously obligated funding to Lockheed through undefinitized contracts for about 255 aircraft, Fick said. The award, which comprises some Lot 12 jets as well as Lot 13 planes added by Congress in the fiscal 2019 budget, includes 114 F-35s: 48 F-35As for the U.S. Air Force 20 F-35Bs for the U.S. Marine Corps Nine F-35Cs for the U.S. Navy 12 F-35As for Norway 15 F-35As for Australia Eight F-35As and two F-35Bs for Italy Funds for obsolescent parts, software data loads, critical safety items, nonrecurring and recurring engineering, and the Joint Strike Fighter Airborne Data Emulator. “We are still left, then with about 100 aircraft to go and about another $7 billion to go associated with the work to be done for U.S. services in accordance with the [FY20 budget],” Fick said. “We don't have that budget yet. We can't make that contract award for the final aircraft until such time as we have this new statutory authority to do so.” In a statement, Lockheed's F-35 program head hailed the progress on the aircraft's price reduction. “With smart acquisition strategies, strong government-industry partnership and a relentless focus on quality and cost reduction, the F-35 enterprise has successfully reduced procurement costs of the 5th generation F-35 to equal or less than 4th generation legacy aircraft,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed's F-35 program vice president and general manager. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/10/29/in-newly-inked-deal-f-35-prices-fall-to-78-million-a-copy/

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