Italy plans to slash half a billion dollars from defense in 2019

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  11 juin 2024 | International,

  Chinese Actor SecShow Conducts Massive DNS Probing on Global Scale

  New research reveals SecShow, a Chinese actor using DNS probes to measure responses from open resolvers.

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  2 octobre 2018 | International, C4ISR

  Happy new (fiscal) year! Feds want more electronic warfare and cybersecurity tools

  By: Justin Lynch As the new federal fiscal year begins, cybersecurity analysts and industry leaders predict that electronic warfare and managed services will top the U.S. government's priority list to improve cybersecurity during the next fiscal cycle. Lockheed Martin, one of the five major cybersecurity contractors for the federal government, told Fifth Domain that they are focusing on signals intelligence and electronic warfare in the new year, which began Oct. 1. Cybersecurity and electronic warfare “can disrupt, deny, degrade, deceive and destroy adversaries' electronic systems,” Deon Viergutz, vice president of Lockheed Martin's cyber division told Fifth Domain in an email. “The ability to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum allows militaries to not only establish control, but also keep soldiers out of harm's way by providing offensive and defensive techniques from remote locations.” Russia's use of electronic warfare during its 2015 invasion of Ukraine exposed how the Department of Defense needs to boost its own digital combat tools, Brad Curran, an analyst at Front & Sullivan previously told Fifth Domain. The White House's new cybersecurity strategy states that the federal government will boost efforts to lawfully gather evidence of criminal activity and disrupt criminal networks through new legislation. It could translate into a greater need for tools that can manage large amounts of data, such as artificial intelligence. But along with the expected increase in electronic warfare, analysts and firms are predicting a rise in managed and cloud based services. Raytheon, another of the five major cybersecurity U.S. government contractors, said they expected the federal government to need more managed security operations. “Concepts like security operations center-as-a-service, and others are gaining momentum due to the desire for scalability. Federal agencies will continue to look to contracted service providers for expertise and support,” John DeSimone, a vice president for cybersecurity and special missions at Raytheon told Fifth Domain in an email. Curran said he expects the federal government to save money by using more cloud-based services, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft's Azure. The Trump administration has seen an increased in shared services, said Suzanne Spaulding, a former undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Which services they will ultimately centralize is hard to see,” Spaulding said. She added the decision-space is “is tricky because at the end of the day, cabinet secretaries also need to be accountable for their own cybersecurity.” Distributed cloud-based communications is a key priority of the Department of Homeland Security, according to the agency's 2017 industry guide. The department also said they were looking to invest in metrics for cybersecurity effectiveness and data capture of networked devices. https://www.fifthdomain.com/industry/2018/10/01/happy-new-fiscal-year-feds-want-more-electronic-warfare-and-cybersecurity-tools

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  17 novembre 2020 | International, Terrestre

  QinetiQ Delivers Armed Scout Robot To Army: RCV-L

  The Robotic Combat Vehicle (Light), which can shoot missiles, launch mini-drones, and spot targets for artillery, combines a Marine Corps-tested unmanned vehicle with Army weapons and autonomy software. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. WASHINGTON: Robot-builder QinetiQ formally delivered the first of four experimental Robotic Combat Vehicles (Light) to the Army on Nov. 5, the company has announced. They will be used alongside four Textron-built RCV-Mediums in field tests. After their delivery, the Army plans to buy 16 more of each variant as it scales up to more complex experiments. Those 2022 exercises will determine the feasibility of the service's ambitious plans for a “forward line of robots” to precede human troops into battle. The RCV-Light is a “very collaborative effort” that pulls together technologies from QinetiQ, industry partner Pratt Miller, and the Army's Ground Vehicle Systems Center, QinetiQ's director of unmanned systems tells me in an email. It also builds on “years of testing” of earlier versions by the famed Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Va., Jonathan Hastie says. The platform itself is Pratt Miller's EMAV (Expeditionary Autonomous Modular Vehicle), a low-slung hybrid-electric vehicle with tracks to cover rough terrain, with a maximum speed of 45 mph. It's robust enough to carry 7,200 pounds of payload – more than its own 6,800 lbs — yet compact enough to fit aboard a Marine V-22 tiltrotor or an Army CH-47 helicopter. This is the system tested by the Marines. QinetiQ provided much of the electronics and software: “the core robotic control and computing system, network and communications systems, perception and vision systems; and the safety control,” Hastie told me. Less tangible but even more critical is QinetiQ's implementation of a Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA), compliant with the Pentagon-defined Inter-Operability Profile (IOP) for ground robotics. This is the set of technical standards and common interfaces that let RCV plug-and-play a wide range of different equipment packages for specific missions. This specific vehicle features a Kongsberg CROWS-J weapon station – basically, a remote-controlled mini-turret combining a machine gun and a Javelin anti-tank missile launcher. Normally CROWS is installed on a manned vehicle, allowing the crew to operate their weapons and sensors without exposing themselves in an open hatch, but RCV includes a long-range control link to let humans operate it from different vehicle altogether. The robot can't open fire without a human pulling the trigger. (It also can't reload the Javelin without human help, so it effectively has one missile per mission, although there's plenty of machine gun ammo aboard). The RCV-L also carries a mini-drone, the HoverFly Tethered Unmanned Aerial System, which it can launch to look over buildings, hills, and obstacles while the ground vehicle stays hidden. The drone is physically connected to the robot by a power and communications cable, even during flight – hence the term “tethered.” That does limit its range but effectively allows it unlimited flight time. The Army's Ground Vehicle Systems Center provides the software to control both the drone and the weapons station. GVSC also developed the autonomy package. It's a version of the common software the Army is developing for a variety of robotic vehicles, allowing them to navigate cross-country and around obstacles without constant human intervention. The less help the machines need from humans, the more useful they can be in battle. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/11/qinetiq-delivers-armed-scout-robot-to-army-rcv-l/