General Dynamics wins Army IT contract worth billions

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  24 mai 2023 | International, Terrestre

  Czech government approves purchase of 246 armoured combat vehicles

  The Czech government on Wednesday approved a plan to buy 246 infantry fighting vehicles for the country's army, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said.

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  18 mars 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  BAE nabs next-gen seeker design work for US Army’s missile defense system

  By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin, which builds the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon system for the U.S. Army, has awarded BAE Systems a contract to design and manufacture a next-generation seeker for the system's interceptors, according to a BAE announcement posted March 17. “The sensor design work will improve the missile defense system's ability to neutralize more threats and improve its manufacturability,” the statement read. The company did not disclose the contract amount or timelines to develop a design. The THAAD weapon system is part of the Army's layered approach to missile defense, now with its ability to defeat ballistic missile threats in the terminal phase of flight, but the Missile Defense Agency also wants to make it part of its future homeland defense architecture. BAE already provides the seeker for the THAAD system, which uses infrared imagery to guide the interceptors to threat targets, and the company has delivered more than 500 THAAD seekers to date, according to the statement. While the seekers are built in Nashua, New Hampshire, and Endicott, New York, the company plans to conduct design work for the next-generation seeker in Huntsville, Alabama, home of Redstone Arsenal and the Army's missiles and space programs. BAE Systems is building a state-of-the-art facility that will house a “cutting-edge” design program in Huntsville, the company noted. While the Army plans to continue using THAAD far into the future, the MDA is, in fiscal 2021, planning to allocated $273.6 million for THAAD development efforts, including the THAAD homeland defense tier. Specifically, the agency is asking for $139 million in FY21 to start the development and demonstration of a new interceptor prototype for THAAD, which could support a tiered and layered approach to homeland defense. BAE Systems did not say whether the next-generation interceptor design work includes efforts related to MDA's desire to produce a new interceptor prototype. The agency is “challenging ourselves” to figure out how to develop a THAAD interceptor that would work against an intercontinental ballistic missile, Vice Adm. Jon Hill, the MDA's director, said when the FY21 defense budget request was released in February. To do that, the MDA is seeking to draw lessons from building THAAD batteries for Saudi Arabia, he said. The agency is also looking at the existing engineering trade space. “We may consider an upgraded propulsion stack to give [THAAD] extended range, don't know yet,” he said. “It could be that we don't want to update the propulsion. Maybe there is something in the seeker that would buy us more in the trade space now.” The THAAD interceptor program is a new start in the FY21 budget request, Hill noted. “We are working our way through what that program would look like.” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/army-modernization/2020/03/17/bae-nabs-next-gen-seeker-design-work-for-us-army-missile-defense-system/

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  23 avril 2018 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  States Turn To National Guard To Help Protect Future Elections From Hackers

  DAVE MISTICH In elections past, the integrity of the vote was protected by poll workers and election officials. But in 2018 and likely beyond, elections are being protected by people like the anonymous man who works in the basement of the West Virginia Capitol. He's member of the West Virginia National Guard who is a cybersecurity specialist responsible for monitoring any computer-related threats to the state's elections. Since August of last year, he's been attached full time to the office of Secretary of State Mac Warner. After Russian-backed hackers probed election-related systems in at least 21 states in 2016, election officials, whose focus has traditionally been on making sure that polling places run smoothly and that results are speedily reported, now have to focus on protecting their computer systems. Oftentimes lacking those resources in-house, National Guard specialists have been called in to monitor vital election systems in a handful of additional states, including Colorado, Ohio and South Carolina. Neither the West Virginia National Guard nor Warner's office would permit the soldier to speak on the record, but Warner emphasized how crucial the role is. "We, just like every other government entity and people in business, are getting pinged all the time. Somebody is checking to see are there any open doors [or] open windows for targets of opportunity," Warner said. Warner's current use of the National Guard builds upon his predecessor, Natalie Tennant, who enlisted their cybersecurity expertise to scan the state's election systems for vulnerabilities and patch them in the final stretch of the 2016 election. In January 2017, the outgoing Obama administration designated elections as part of the country's critical infrastructure. That meant new federal resources and scrutiny. The Department of Homeland Security is working to give security clearances to state officials so they can receive intelligence briefings and assessments. Warner, like other state-level election officials, is in the middle of a months-long process of getting cleared. Using Guard soldiers who already have a high-level clearance, "is a way to bridge the gap without causing a problem in that security system process," said West Virginia National Guard Adjutant General James Hoyer. State officials are trying to figure out how to prepare for a threat they had never before anticipated, said Eric Rosenbach, a former Defense Department official who now directs a program on election security at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "These state election officials are the pointy tip of the spear for nation-state actors like the Russians trying to attack our democracy. That's never before been their job," said Rosenbach. "If part of [the National Guard's] responsibilities is to protect the things most precious to a state — it kind of makes sense that you would want them to support an effort like that." While the regular military can't be involved in domestic law enforcement due to a post-Civil War federal law known as Posse comitatus, National Guard soldiers are under the jurisdiction of the governor unless they're activated by the federal government. "The threat is new and we need to evolve with the times — as long as it still fits in the right legal framework and we're doing something that, you know, all Americans would agree are part of our democratic traditions," Rosenbach said. Moving forward, Warner sees his office's partnership with the National Guard continuing. "The cybersecurity arena is one of those where we as public officials have to get it right every time. The hackers only have to penetrate one time to do substantial damage," Warner said. "So, it's a foot race that we have to stay one step ahead and it never ends. It just goes on and on." So far, the National Guard has monitored a few small local elections in West Virginia and Warner's office says they have yet to receive a threat that has risen to a level of what they called "actionable." With the state's primary election slated for May 8, the Guard's first big election cybersecurity test is already underway. https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601201517/states-turn-to-national-guard-to-help-protect-future-elections-from-hackers