Florence Parly, ministre des Armées, lance la fabrication d’une série de nouvelles frégates à Lorient

Sur le même sujet

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  9 juillet 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Cyber Command will get a new version of its training platform this fall

  Mark Pomerleau U.S. Cyber Command's new training platform is slated to deliver the second iteration this fall providing additional capabilities and user capacity, program officials said. The Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE) is an online client that allows Cyber Command's warriors to log on from anywhere in the world to conduct individual or collective cyber training as well as mission rehearsal. The program is being run by the Army on behalf of the joint cyber force and Cyber Command. Officials delivered the first version of the program to Cyber Command in February and the environment was used for the first time in Cyber Command's premier annual tier 1 exercise Cyber Flag in June. The second version is expected to include additional capabilities, including allowing more users to conduct team or individual training. “Things like to be able to schedule, have a calendar to be able to auto-schedule things, to be able to allocate resources because right now it's you can get in and you can do it but how do you deconflict? If you're running a team based event across x number of services how does somebody else come in and do an individual training,” Amit Kapadia, chief engineer for the program, told C4ISRNET in an interview. “Do you have the right infrastructure underneath?” Kapadia added that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a surge in platform use due to the remote working, thus, by the end of this year, the program seeks to push additional compute and network capabilities. Leaders are targeting final testing in September and then a roll out in late fall for version 2.0. The program has also sought to deliver incremental capability along the way through what it calls cyber innovation challenges. These are competitions to awards and layer new technologies onto the platform. There was a notice informing industry of the fourth such innovation challenge released recently. Officials told C4ISRNET they expect to release a formal solicitation around August, with plans to award contracts by the end of the year or early next year. The officials noted that just like with the previous innovation challenges, there could be multiple vendors awarded and specifically non-traditional defense vendors. Moreover, they also anticipate to continue these challenges for the foreseeable future even when a vendor is selected to be the integrator for PCTE through what's known as the Cyber Training, Readiness, Integration, Delivery and Enterprise Technology (TRIDENT), a contract vehicle to offer a more streamlined approach for procuring the military's cyber training capabilities. The contract is valued at up to $957 million. This approach, officials said, prevents vendor lock and ensures the program is at the tip of the technological spear. The fourth cyber innovation challenge seeks to ask industry for assistance in traffic generation – which means emulating fake internet traffic on the platform – and assessment, which was a key requirement directly from Cyber Command. “I would say what we've been driven towards right now are high priorities coming down from [Cyber Command commander] Gen. [Paul] Nakasone and Cyber Command for things like CMF assessment,” Kapadia said. “They want to be able now ... all these reps and sets that are happening within PCTE, how am I assessing the performance of the individuals in my teams.” An integrated and agile approach Since the platform was delivered to Cyber Command in February, command leaders have officially taken the burden of running training exercises from the program office, freeing it up to focus on pursuing new technologies and fixes as well as the overall acquisition. In the past, the program office worked with specific units to conduct training events in order to stress the platform and gain valuable feedback. Now, Cyber Command has created what is called the Joint Cyber Training Enterprise, which is the non-material companion to the PCTE platform and seeks to operate and synchronize training hosted by PCTE for the joint force. “The JCTE is a lot like the combat training center ops group where they are managing the platform, they are running the platform, they are running the training,” Lt. Col. Thomas Monaghan, product manager of cyber resiliency and training at Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, told C4ISRNET. “So we delivered the platform to them and they're using it I would probably say on a weekly basis. They're doing cyber training events that we don't manage that anymore. We don't stand them up. The platform is being used, we're able to concentrate on specific capability, platform enhancements.” JCTE has formalized the cyber training and use of the environment while also coordinating which cyber mission force units need to conduct which types of training, something the program office wasn't equipped to do. Monaghan said his office is in almost hourly, or at least daily, contact with JCTE to better understand what users like, don't like or needs to be fixed. “We've got the program office, we've got the user community, we've got the operational arm of the user community, which is JCTE, we've got the Army capability manager codifying the requirements all working together. We literally talk to each other at least daily,” Monaghan said. “That direct feedback loop is one continuous circle of information. That's the only way a program this robust can be successful.” Program officials said they gained valuable insights from the recently concluded Cyber Flag, which created roughly six months worth of data. They explained that while not every element worked exactly as planned, the nature of the program allows for incremental and ongoing adjustments to be made. By leveraging specific flexible acquisition tools, the program is not as rigid as other typical military platforms, such as tanks. “It's a perfect one for PCTE because it created that box basically saying in laymen's terms we have no idea what this specifically looks like but we have some eye level things that it should do,” Liz Bledsoe, deputy product manager, told C4SIRNET, regarding the types of acquisition mechanisms PCTE is being run under. Monaghan added: “That's the way the platform and the program were structured when the requirements were written, some of them were listed as evolving or threat based or capability ... They're ever evolving, ever enhancing based off the needs of the cyber mission force.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2020/07/07/cyber-command-will-get-a-new-version-of-its-training-platform-this-fall/

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  27 avril 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  Why the U.S. Air Force Won't Follow the F-35 Model for Future Aircraft

  No one likes the idea of reliving the troubled development process that produced it.

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  29 octobre 2019 | International, Aérospatial

  Pentagon and Lockheed Martin reach agreement reducing F-35A cost by 12.8 per cent

  The F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin finalized a US$34 billion agreement for the production and delivery of 478 F-35s at the lowest aircraft price during the history of the program. This contract includes all U.S., international partners and foreign military sales aircraft in Lots 12, 13 and 14. In the agreement, the F-35 Enterprise meets and exceeds its long-stated cost reduction targets for each variant – and the F-35A unit price, including aircraft and engine, is now below US$80 million in both Lot 13 and Lot 14, the F-35A unit cost represents an estimated overall 12.8 per cent reduction from Lot 11 costs for the conventional landing variant, and an average of 12.7 per cent savings across all three variants from Lot 11 to 14. “Driving down cost is critical to the success of this program. I am excited that the F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin have agreed on this landmark three-lot deal. This agreement achieves an average 12.7 per cent cost reduction across all three variants and gets us below US$80 Million for a USAF F-35A by Lot 13 — one lot earlier than planned,” said Air Force LGen Eric Fick, F-35 program executive officer. “This US$34 billion agreement is a truly historic milestone for the F-35 Enterprise.” The agreement includes 291 aircraft for the U.S. Services, 127 for F-35 international partners, and 60 for F-35 foreign military sales customers. Price details include: F-35A — Lot 12: US$82.4M; Lot 13: US$79.2M; Lot 14: US$77.9M; % reduction from Lot 11: 12.8 per cent F-35B — Lot 12: US$108M; Lot 13: US$104.8M; Lot 14: US$101.3M; % reduction from Lot 11: 12.3 per cent F-35C — Lot 12: US$103.1M; Lot 13: US$98.1M; Lot 14: US$94.4M; % reduction from Lot 11: 13.2 per cent “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 fifth generation F-35 to equal or less than fourth generation legacy aircraft,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin, F-35 program vice-president and general manager. “With the F-35A unit cost now below US$80 million in Lot 13, we were able to exceed our long-standing cost reduction commitment one year earlier than planned.” The sub US$80 million unit recurring flyaway cost for an F-35 represents an integrated acquisition price for the fifth generation weapon system. With embedded sensors and targeting pods, this F-35 unit price includes items that add additional procurement and sustainment costs to legacy fourth generation aircraft. Program Progress With more than 450 aircraft operating from 19 bases around the globe, the F-35 is playing a critical role in today's global security environment. More than 910 pilots and 8,350 maintainers have been trained, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 220,000 cumulative flight hours. Eight nations have F-35s operating from a base on their home soil and seven services have declared initial operating capability. In addition to strengthening global security and partnerships, the F-35 provides economic stability to the U.S. and international partners by creating jobs, commerce and security, and contributing to the global trade balance. The F-35 is built by thousands of men and women in America and around the world. With more than 1,400 suppliers in 46 states and Puerto Rico, the F-35 Program supports more than 220,000 direct and indirect jobs in the U.S. alone. The program also includes more than 100 international suppliers, creating or sustaining thousands of jobs. https://www.skiesmag.com/press-releases/pentagon-and-lockheed-martin-reach-agreement-reducing-f-35a-cost-by-12-8-per-cent