28 février 2020 | International, C4ISR
February 25, 2020 - Thales has been selected for the French Ministry for the Armed Forces “Defence Platform” project.
This project, which serves all of the Ministry's users (military, civilian defense and affiliated personnel), enables the design, development in “agile mode” and the immediate production release of data-driven applications for new use cases, as well as their secure storage and exchange.
Since 2018, the Ministry for the Armed Forces has been engaged in a digital transformation aimed at making routine tasks simpler for users, by offering them new online services accessible from desktop computers and mobile devices: equipment orders, tracking of benefits, annual leave and transfer requests, administrative forms, etc.
In this context, the mission of the "Defence Platform" project of the General Directorate for Digital and Information Systems (DGNUM) is to support the Ministry's departments in defining the needs of its users, and in identifying, developing and pooling new technical resources to enable the implementation of new digital services, in a shared and controlled manner.
This project will also support the development of the Socle Numérique de Défense (Digital Defence Base), whose piloting has been entrusted to the French Armament General Directorate (DGA) and the DIRISI.
Following the "Defence Platform" call for tenders issued by the Joint Department of Infrastructure Networks and Information Systems (DIRISI), Thales was chosen to support the modernisation of the software development platforms. Under the agreement, Thales will deploy its “Athena software factory”, which is entirely based on open-source components from the software development environments set up by the Group's engineering department for its own in-house needs.
The solution applies DevSecOps methods to support design and continuous integration for fast and secure software development. Thales will also provide its expertise in cloud environments, data protection technologies and secure communications.
Finally, the Ministry for the Armed Forces will benefit from Thales's experience in agile project management, with Thales software developers working as part of integrated Ministry teams when appropriate.
This project will thus support the design and rapid production release of new cloud-ready digital services, capable of running in the Ministry's future cloud environments, with guaranteed levels of security and trust for the Ministry and its users.
View source version on Thales : https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/market-specific/critical-information-systems-and-cybersecurity/news/french-defence-ministry-chooses
21 juin 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Tony Osborne LONDON—Brussels may delay a decision on its selection of a future fighter to examine proposals from France and options to upgrade its existing F-16 http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/brussels-may-delay-future-fighter-selection
20 avril 2023 | International, C4ISR
Tucson, Ariz., April 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) was awarded a $237 million U.S. Army contract for Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensors (KuRFS) and Coyote? effectors to detect...
20 avril 2018 | International, Naval
By: Mark Pomerleau With a relative dearth of cyber expertise in the military, Congress mandated last year the services begin direct commissioning pilot programs. The Navy, however has been doing direct commissioning for highly skilled software engineers for a few years, albeit on a small scale. The cyber warfare engineer (CWE) program is a highly competitive program with officers on five year rotations performing software or tool development for cyber operators. CWEs serve as members of the cyber mission force, the Navy's cyber mission force teams that serve as the cyber warriors for U.S. Cyber Command, producing cyber tools, but can also conduct target analysis, vulnerability research, and counter-measure development against malicious cyber activities. Since 2011, the Navy has only recruited 25 of these commissioned officers to its ranks. “Twenty-five developers in the Navy as military officers is definitely not enough,” Lt. Christopher Liu, the most senior cyber warfare engineer told Fifth Domain in an interview at the Navy League's Sea Air Space conference April 9. With a relative dearth of cyber expertise in the military, Congress mandated last year the services begin direct commissioning pilot programs. The Navy, however has been doing direct commissioning for highly skilled software engineers for a few years, albeit on a small scale. The cyber warfare engineer (CWE) program is a highly competitive program with officers on five year rotations performing software or tool development for cyber operators. CWEs serve as members of the cyber mission force, the Navy's cyber mission force teams that serve as the cyber warriors for U.S. Cyber Command, producing cyber tools, but can also conduct target analysis, vulnerability research, and counter-measure development against malicious cyber activities. Since 2011, the Navy has only recruited 25 of these commissioned officers to its ranks. “Twenty-five developers in the Navy as military officers is definitely not enough,” Lt. Christopher Liu, the most senior cyber warfare engineer told Fifth Domain in an interview at the Navy League's Sea Air Space conference April 9. “We definitely need to increase the billets and increase the amount that we can hire ... to have more talents to be able to work on the cyber mission,” he said. “As soon as the number increases, we'll be able to expand the program rather than just five years to eight years, hopefully make it into a 20 year career so people can get trained up and work on missions and not be forced into different fields.” The Pentagon has been besieged by concerns about the DoD's ability to both retain and attract cyber talent among its ranks when similar jobs in the private sector pay significantly more. Vice Adm. Michael Gilday, commander of 10th Fleet/Fleet Cyber Command, acknowledged in recent congressional testimony that the military is not competitive with the private sector and noted that the base pay for the CWE position is around $37,000 a year. “That's what we pay somebody to answer the phones around here,” Senator Claire McCaskill, responded to Gilday interrupting him in frustration. “We're asking them to have incredible expertise. That seems to me totally unrealistic.” Some current CWEs feel the work they're doing inside the Navy has greater meaning than similar work they did in the private sector. “I find that this is a lot more fulfilling,” Ensign Jordan Acedera, the most junior CWE told Fifth Domain. “You finish a project, you're given something that's a lot more challenging and that really tests you.” For Lt. (j.g.) George John, who was formerly writing software at a stock trading company, work with the CWE provides a better environment that's not driven so much by profit margins and hitting quarterly revenue targets. “We don't have to worry about profitability or bringing to market,” he said. “We can pursue a little more ... what's possible. Throw stuff against the wall, see what sticks, take our time to figure out a plan of action.” One of the biggest challenges, however, is lack of knowledge of the program, even inside the Navy. “You still walk across captains and commander who say 'CWE, what in god's name is that,” John said. With more CWE personnel in the force, the Navy could build a more informed and skilled software engineering cadre, the group said. “There's tons of software. Everybody has some type of software pet project,” John said. “To be able to get more CWEs on those things and coordinate with one another and say here's what [Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services] is doing with their communications and their infrastructure. How are we doing that differently on the base side? You can talk and address security concerns with one another. Just within the cyber operations realm, Liu said, as the headcount increases, the CWEs could work on the requirements the operational community within the cyber mission force rather than having to prioritize projects. They could even start to look at developing capability prior to a specific requirement coming in as a means of staying ahead of the game as opposed to waiting for and reacting on requirements from operators. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/navy-league/2018/04/11/why-the-navy-wants-more-of-these-hard-to-find-software-developers/