Experiment over: Pentagon’s tech hub gets a vote of confidence

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  10 octobre 2019 | International, C4ISR

  The data challenge of space-based hypersonics defense

  By: Nathan Strout Managing data is the biggest challenge to developing a new space-based sensor layer that would help detect hypersonic weapons, the director of the Missile Defense Agency said Oct. 7. The agency is working toward building the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, a layer of sensors on orbit that would be capable of detecting and tracking hypersonic weapons that the nation's current missile defense architecture was not designed to handle. The new system will be built into the Space Development Agency's constellation of low earth orbit satellites. For Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the director of the agency, designing the sensors for the system is a surmountable engineering issue and evolving commercial launch capabilities mean it will be easy to get the technology to space once its ready. The real challenge is “the passing of track data between different space vehicles and maintaining track and dealing with clutter.” Hypersonic weapons are dimmer than traditional ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect. The sensors will have to be able to remove that clutter, detect the threat and then pass their data to the next LEO sensor, which will pick up the object as it travels around the globe at hypersonic speed. Allowing for that data flow from sensor to sensor is essential to the effective operation of the system. Hill compared the complexity of that data transfer to his time in the Navy, where information had to go between moving vessels, but the data issue with satellites is magnitudes of order more difficult. “When you put yourself on a moving body that's moving, not at 30 knots but at a much higher speed, you know, maintaining the stability of that track, being able to pull the clutter out of it, determining how much you want to process up on orbit versus how much you want to feed down and process on the ground, then how you distribute. Do you distribute directly from the sensor? Do you control the weapon from space? Or do you take it to the ground station and do it there? There [are] different trades, and we'll probably do it differently in a lot of different ways because that adds to the overall resilience of the system,” Hill said speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event October 7. Finding the right answers to those questions will be a priority for the MDA as it works to works to get the system on orbit quickly. “It's going to be a great capability. We just need to get it up there as soon as we can and rapidly proliferate,” Hill said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2019/10/09/the-data-challenge-of-space-based-hypersonics-defense/

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  6 avril 2018 | International, C4ISR

  In Army’s newest unit, everyone learns cyber skills

  By: Mark Pomerleau Prior to its deployment to Afghanistan, the Army's newest unit received special assistance in cyber and electronic warfare techniques. The 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, or SFAB, is a first of its kind specialized group designed solely to advise and assist local, indigenous forces. As such, these units need specialized equipment and received training from Army Cyber Command on offensive and defensive cyber operations, as well as electronic warfare and information operations, Army Cyber Command commander Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone wrote in prepared testimony before the Senate Armed Services Cyber Subcommittee in early March. The distinct makeup of the unit ― smaller than a typical brigade and lacking all the resources and technical expertise therein ― means the operators at the tactical edge have to do the networking and troubleshooting themselves in addition to advising battalion sized Afghan units. The command's tailored support sought to advise SFAB personnel how best to leverage a remote enterprise to achieve mission effects, according to the spokesman. That means knowing how to perform electronic warfare and cyber tasks are part of every soldier's basic skill set. This was unique support with tailored training to meet the SFAB's advisory role mission, an Army Cyber Command spokesman said. Team members from Army Cyber Command specializing in offensive cyber and defensive cyber to serve as instructors during SFAB's validation exercise at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana in January, a command spokesman told Fifth Domain. Electronic warfare personnel from 1st SFAB were also briefed on how cyber capabilities in use in Afghanistan currently support U.S. Forces. Specifically, the trainers provided the unit's communications teams best practices to harden networks. The Army Cyber Command team discussed planning factors working with down-range networks and mission relevant cyber terrain with the SFAB, specifically, the need to maintain situational awareness of the blue network and ability to identify key cyber terrain, the Army Cyber Command spokesman said. The unit was also given lessons on implementing defensive measure using organic tools. https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/army/2018/04/05/in-armys-newest-unit-everyone-learns-cyber-skills/

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  15 avril 2024 | International, Naval

  AUKUS sub design deemed ‘mature’ as nations debate top technologies

  The SSN-AUKUS submarine design the U.K. and Australia will build is "mature" and should be completed in the next year or two.