7 novembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
17 juin 2022 | International, Terrestre
Israel will purchase hundreds of combat vehicles from Israel Aerospace Industries for the country's special forces in a deal worth more than $28 million.
21 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR
Mark Pomerleau The Air Force is realigning the cyber mission force teams it provides to U.S. Cyber Command as a way to have intelligence personnel work more closely with cyber operators. In the past, Air Forces Cyber was made up of cyber and intelligence personnel from 24th Air Force and 25th Air Force, respectively. However, the arrangement created difficulties with command relationships and oversight of teams since the intelligence operators served beneath a separate Air Force command with a separate commander. But in October, the Air Force decided to merge 24th and 25th Air Force into 16th Air Force/Air Forces Cyber, placing cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic warfare and weather capabilities under one commander, and creating the Air Force's first information warfare entity. The new organization also serves as the Air Force's component to Cyber Command. The new organization of teams moves intelligence forces from the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing to the 67th Cyber Operations Wing. “We looked at the intelligence squadron and focused on the position descriptions that really were supporting the cyber mission force ... so that we can merge those intelligence professionals into the cyber operations squadron in order to build the mission elements that supported the combatant command requirements,” Col. Lauren Courchaine, commander of the 67th Cyberspace Operations Group, told C4ISRNET in an interview. Specifically, these teams are combat mission teams – the teams that conduct cyber operations on behalf of combatant commands mostly in the offensive sphere – and cyber support teams, which provide intelligence, mission planning and other necessary support work for combat mission team. Officials at the creation of 16th Air Force said the integration would allow the service to provide more robust teams to Cyber Command. This new structure - with cyber operators, developers and intelligence forces in the same room and read in on the same missions - provides a tighter mission thread, Courchaine said. In the past, she said, when cyber operators needed intelligence support, they'd have to ask their intelligence teammates who weren't always privy to the mission or technical context, which created gaps. “Now when you have those conversations with intelligence airmen, operators and developers all in the same forum, sometimes in the same room with the same whiteboard, you come to integrated solutions up front in early vice having to work through a process where that one piece of information, potentially out of context, is levied on the intelligence requirement to somebody that you don't know in another place ... to try to understand truly what the intelligence piece that you're looking for,” Courchaine, said. “When you fuse all of them together, I think the output is significantly better and drives that operationally speed, the agility and flexibility that [16th Air Force commander] Gen. [Timothy] Haugh is looking after.” The final realignment package is still at the Air Staff awaiting final approval with details regarding new units still to be determined, to include a new group activated under the 67th Cyberspace Wing and three new squadrons. Gaining insights from joint operations The team realignment also extends to Air Force cyber teams that serve under commanders of other services under different Joint Force Headquarters-Cybers. The way cyber operations are structured within DoD is individual services do not have their own offensive teams. Instead, these teams work through several organizations, each formally known as Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber that exist beneath Cyber Command, which in turn provide planning, targeting, intelligence and cyber capabilities to the combatant commands to which they're assigned. The heads of the four service cyber components also lead their respective JFHQ-C. These organizations oversee combat mission teams and combat support teams. Courchaine said the Air Force teams, those that conduct operations in Central Command under Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber and operations focused on China under Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber Fleet Cyber, can bring a global perspective a back to the service. These teams conduct operations on behalf of European Command, Strategic Command, Transportation Command and Space Command. In some theaters, with the high tempo of operations, such as Central Command, the approach allows the teams conducting operations to bring back lessons learned to their respective services. “You can see how these three areas will really converge and enable Gen. Haugh from a 16th Air Force perspective to not just be successful in aligning the forces appropriately but driving that return on investment where we're able to converge target sets globally ... to drive operations so that we can influence our adversaries in support of national security objectives,” she said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2020/07/19/with-a-new-setup-the-air-force-hopes-to-improve-information-warfare-operations/
15 janvier 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Tony Osborne The complex nature of intercepting hypersonic weapons may predicate air-breathing propulsion technologies to provide additional range, speed and energy. European countries have linked arms to develop a counter to the emerging threat of hypersonic weapons and enhance their ballistic missile defense (BMD) capabilities. The Timely Warning and Interception with Space-based TheatER surveillance (Twister) project, led by France and supported by Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, is one of 13 new multinational programs that were given the backing of the EU's Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) initiative in November. It says it aims to develop a European system that can “detect, track and counter” more complex missile threats and give member nations a “self-standing ability to contribute to NATO's ballistic missile defense.” Currently, only a handful of European nations can counter ballistic missiles, including European users of the Raytheon Patriot (Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain), as well as France and Italy with the Eurosam SAMP/T. But none of those systems is ready to deal with the new generation of threats emerging from Russia and China, including hypersonic gliders, hypersonic and high-supersonic cruise missiles, and maneuverable next-generation combat aircraft. The U.S. has also begun examining technologies through its Regional Glide-Phase Weapon System (RGPWS), disclosed by Aviation Week in December, and the Hypersonic Defense Weapon System. “We have seen the hypersonic threat coming,” says Rainer Stockhammer, team leader for Twister at European missile manufacturer MBDA. “Over the last five years we have performed studies into these new threats, which are new in terms of both novelty and maneuverability, and now we are in a position to answer this PESCO call.” MBDA is now positioning itself for a role in developing the endoatmospheric interceptor that could be the backbone of the wider Twister system in the 2030s, describing the future system as “disruptive” and “technologically demanding.” The company will not discuss what architecture it is studying for the future interceptor, but Stockhammer says MBDA's experience with the Aster family of vertically launched surface-to-air missiles and the Meteor air-breathing, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile has given it a “good position . . . to be able to develop a solution.” The company's artist's impression depicts a missile clearly equipped with air intakes, which would suggest the use of a ramjet like on the Meteor. Use of a ramjet would provide not only more range and speed, but also more energy in the final stages of an engagement to maneuver against hypersonic gliders and other maneuverable reentry vehicles. “We know what kind of accuracy and range we need from the sensing part,” says Stockhammer. “Now we will look at a way to manage the unpredictability and look at engagement planning. . . . This is where we are investing.” MBDA has also been looking at the command-and-control mechanisms required for such a system and how it would interface with existing and future sensors. Individual governments will ultimately decide how they will equip with the future interceptor, but MBDA expects it to arm ships and a ground-based air defense system, with the expectation the system may have to squeeze into existing launch boxes and vertical launch tubes on surface ships. Securing the nod from PESCO is a major step forward for the program. The next step will be for the five nations to begin hammering out a concept and a high-level requirement. MBDA officials say they are working toward a timeline of the 2030s to produce an operational system. By working through PESCO, the five nations are hoping this will enable them to secure development funding from the European Defense Fund (EDF), which is expected to provide €13 billion ($15 billion) to support collaborative defense projects in 2021-27. It is unclear how much a program such as Twister could receive from the fund. Money will also be provided by national governments involved in the Twister program. Although MBDA lobbied in France for European nations to pursue an evolution of European BMD capabilities, prompting Paris to take a lead in what became Twister, the company is unlikely to be the only player in the program. The interceptor will be just one component of Twister. The PESCO initiative also calls for space-based early warning, but no details have emerged about the European industry approach to this yet. PESCO and EDF rules call for cooperation between industry, particularly small and medium-size enterprises, as well as between member states. “We would need to build an industry consortium that is clear, but it is too early to talk about how this might look,” notes Stockhammer. The PESCO initiatives allow for additional nations to join and observe the programs, although it remains unclear whether the EU will allow so-called third countries, which will include the UK after Brexit, to participate in such projects. Denmark, Malta and the UK remain outside of PESCO. Twister is the second missile initiative pursued by PESCO. The other is for a beyond-line-of-sight development of MBDA's MMP man-portable guided missile, a program proposed by France and supported by Belgium and Cyprus. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/european-states-plan-hypersonic-defense