5 septembre 2024 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Chinese-Speaking Hacker Group Targets Human Rights Studies in Middle East
Tropic Trooper cyberattack targets Middle Eastern government entities with Crowdoor malware and China Chopper
24 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial
The Air Force's new military leaders, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass, made their first trip with Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett Thursday.
The leadership team traveled to Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas, where they were shown Air Education and Training Command's plans to take lessons from its virtual reality and artificial intelligence-infused pilot training experiment, called Pilot Training Next, and incorporate them into a new version of undergraduate pilot training, which the Air Force is calling UPT 2.5.
In a conference call with reporters Friday, Barrett said the leadership team was “celebrating innovation” and airmen during their trip. The trio also visited AFWERX, the Air Force's innovation hub in Austin, and saw some of the programs it is working on. One of those, Agility Prime, aims to improve logistics and transportation with “flying cars, very Jetsons-like,” Barrett said.
Barrett said the Air Force expects virtual pilot training not only will produce pilots cheaper and faster, but also better.
Brown, who became the 22nd chief of staff Aug. 6, said that taking care of airmen and their families, and ensuring their quality of service and quality of life remain high, are among his top priorities. That is why he, Barrett and Bass decided to come to Randolph for their first trip together, he said, to see how the Air Force develops its future leaders.
“We start leadership development the first day they walk in the door,” Brown said. “That, to me, is important, particularly when you look at the dynamics of what we're dealing with, whether it's COVID, racial disparity, potential budget pressures, high-end fight.”
 
					5 septembre 2024 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Tropic Trooper cyberattack targets Middle Eastern government entities with Crowdoor malware and China Chopper
 
					24 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial
July 22, 2020 - BAE Systems has received a $33 million multi-year contract from the U.S. Army to further develop its Long Range Precision Guidance Kit (LR-PGK) for 155mm artillery shells, enabling the Army to conduct long range precision strikes in challenging electromagnetic environments. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200722005518/en/ LR-PGK is a critical program in the Army's 155mm Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) munitions suite, designed to deliver accurate, lethal fires at greater ranges than near-peer adversaries. The BAE Systems solution builds on proven, mature technology, offering greater performance than current guidance kits through increased maneuverability and an incorporated anti-jam capability. “We're helping the Army meet its precision strike objectives with this critical long range artillery capability,” said John Watkins, vice president of Precision Strike at BAE Systems. “Our experience in precision guidance, rugged electronics, and artillery platforms has helped us develop a kit that improves mission effectiveness.” Under the new contract, BAE Systems will produce a series of LR-PGK fuzes for live-fire testing, further validating the solution and demonstrating its accuracy and reliability in challenging battlefield conditions. Prior to the award, BAE Systems successfully demonstrated the LR-PGK capability and performance at Yuma Proving Ground in September 2019. The company committed significant investment to deliver on the Army's modernization goals by intentionally designing the LR-PGK's modular architecture for low-cost production and upgradeability. LR-PGK is one of several BAE Systems programs that support Long Range Precision Fires, one of the U.S. Army's top modernization priorities. In addition to designing and manufacturing the M109 family of Self-Propelled Howitzers, BAE Systems has developed and delivered guidance systems for precision munitions for decades and is a major supplier of artillery round explosives and propellants. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200722005518/en/
 
					24 avril 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is working on a plan to stand up an artificial intelligence center in order to streamline the department's myriad AI programs. The idea, which comes as defense officials are increasingly concerned about China's investments in AI capabilities, has now been embraced by both Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. Speaking at the House Armed Services Committee April 12, Mattis said “we're looking at a joint office where we would concentrate all of DoD's efforts, since we have a number of AI efforts underway right now. We're looking at pulling them all together.” In hearings Tuesday and Wednesday, Griffin elaborated on the state of that AI center, saying it is very much in the early stages. “I'm working right now with folks on my staff to answer questions like ‘who should lead it, where should it be, what projects should it do, and most importantly how does such a center fit into the overall AI strategy for the department and the nation?'” Griffin said on April 18. He added that the department counts 592 projects as having some form of AI in them, but noted that not all of those make sense to tie into an AI center. And Griffin wants to make sure smaller projects that are close to completion get done and out into prototyping, rather than tied up in the broader AI project. On Tuesday, Eric Schmidt, the former Google executive who chairs the Defense Innovation Board, said he hoped the AI center would be stood up in conjunction with one or more universities, in order to maximize the number of cutting-edge voices involved. The biggest benefit from creating an AI center may come from creating a clearing house of information which can be input into training an artificial intelligence, something Schmidt, who has previously been critical of how DoD handles data, said is vital. “The DoD, broadly speaking, has a great deal of data, which is not stored anywhere. It's stored in places which the programmers are no longer alive, [that] kind of thing,” Schmidt said. “And getting all that data in a place that's usable and discoverable and useful for the mission at hand is crucial.” Artificial intelligence is one of the key technologies, along with hypersonics and directed energy, identified by Griffin as a major focus for his time as the R&E head for the department. Part of that drive comes from the reality that Russia and, in particular, China have made whole-of-government efforts to invest in and develop AI capabilities. Schmidt himself has warned that by 2025, China will have surpassed the U.S. in AI capabilities, and has called for a “Sputnik moment” around AI. Those comments have been echoed by former deputy secretary of defense Bob Work. Members of the defense committees appear open to the Pentagon's goal of getting an edge on AI, with Rep. Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, having already introduced a bill to develop a new all-of-government commission to AI. https://www.defensenews.com/intel-geoint/2018/04/18/pentagon-developing-artificial-intelligence-center/