24 septembre 2018 | International, C4ISR

New head of Strategic Capabilities Office wants to focus on AI

WASHINGTON — The Strategic Capabilities Office is under new management, and its new director intends to doubledown on the agency's emphasis on artificial intelligence.

In his first interview since taking over the office, Chris Shank, the new SCO director, made it clear he sees artificial intelligence as a sweet spot for his office.

Roughly one third of SCO projects deal with autonomous systems, machine learning or AI in some way, Shank said, including long-range fires programs, cyber programs and some assorted with special forces.

Shank is the the group's second leader, following Will Roper, the office's founder who is now the Air Force's top civilian acquisitions official. But don't expect major changes in how the office works.

“My job is to keep momentum going,” Shank explained. “It's a very high ops tempo group that [Roper was] able to recruit and attract into the office, in terms of working synergistic teams around that. What I am trying to do is take it from a startup organization to a long-term sustainable one.”

Although they share some DNA, the SCO's mission is different from that of the Pentagon's technology office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Where the latter is focused on finding and prototyping the game-changing technologies for future battles, the SCO is trying to understand existing needs and address them in new ways.

Getting those projects from tests to prototype to a tool used by the services remains a central challenge, Shank acknowledged, but he said that is one of the office's core function.

“Where SCO lives is the valley of death,” Shank said, referencing a term for when technologies infamously tend to fail.

The SCO had been reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense, but under the Pentagon's recent reorganization, it now reports to Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin.

Shank acknowledged the importance of coordination within that office, particularly with AI, which now has a number of different centers of gravity within the Pentagon – a $2 billion push by DARPA, an AI center under Chief Technical Officer Dana Deasy, a directorate under the R&E enterprise, as well as various service-level initiatives.

The R&E enterprise has weekly meetings to deconflict investments in AI, Shank said, emphasizing the different business models and goals between the groups.

Shank described two programs — each named after pieces of the Iron Man movie mythos — as examples of how SCO can use AI to assist the services in the near-term. Paladium is a broader Navy logistics effort, which involves “smart sustainment” in support of fourth-generation fighter aircraft. A sub project for that is JARVIS, which involves putting a robotics suite out into the field with maintainers that can scan existing parts and quickly re-manufacture them.

Shank said the office identified two parts that would require around 2,000 man hours to build out; JARVIS should be able to quickly recreate those, saving both time and the potential errors that come from human-machined pieces.

Perhaps those projects aren't as shiny as some of SCO's other programs, such as the Perdix drone-swam, but finding areas where AI can be injected onto existing system and where “the human brain doesn't have to work” as hard will have benefits across the Pentagon, Shank said.

The office is primarily focused on the Indo-PACOM and European Command theaters, Shank said. However, he expects to soon provide an update on the Sea Mob/Ghost Fleet initiative, which involves converting existing naval vessels into unmanned systems. He also indicated that there would be unmanned projects in air and land that are unveiled in 2019.

One looming cloud for the office: an attempt earlier this year by members of the House Armed Services Committee to kill the SCO by 2020. However, when asked if he was concerned about that proposal, Shank flatly said “no.” He traveled to the Hill shortly after taking office to address that specific issue. In describing the conversation with lawmakers, Shank said, “'I know this wasn't your intent, but this impacted both morale and my ability to recruit talent into the organization,'” he said, “and they [said] ‘that wasn't our intent.'”

The SCO is working on a report for Congress on the future of the organization.

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/09/21/new-head-of-strategic-capabilities-office-wants-to-focus-on-ai

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14 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - November 13, 2019
NAVY BAE Systems, Jacksonville Ship Repair, Jacksonville, Fla. (N40027-17-D-1001); Colonna Shipyards Inc., Norfolk, Virginia (N40027-17-D-1002); East Coast Repair & Fabrication LLC, Norfolk, Virginia (N40027-17-D-1003); Metro Machine Corp., Jacksonville, Fla. (N40027-17-D-1004); North Florida Shipyards, Jacksonville, Fla, (N40027-17-D-1005); and Tecnico Corp., Chesapeake, Va. (N40027-17-D-1006), are each awarded a maximum-value $270,601,012, firm-fixed-price modification to their respective previously-awarded contracts to exercise Option Year Three for the accomplishment of fixed-priced delivery orders for emergent and continuous ship maintenance availabilities for ships homeported in Mayport, Fla. These six companies will have the opportunity to provide offers for individual delivery orders. Work will be performed in Mayport, Fla., and is expected to be completed by November 2020. No funding will be obligated at time of award. The Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity. East Coast Repair & Fabrication, Norfolk, Va., is awarded a maximum value $83,087,424 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract N40027-19-D-1001 to exercise Option Year One for the accomplishment of fixed priced delivery orders for docking and non-docking Chief of Naval Operations scheduled availabilities. Work will be performed in Mayport, Fla., and is expected to be complete by November 2020. No funding will be obligated at time of modification. East Coast Repair & Fabrication will have the opportunity to compete on individual delivery orders. The Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity. BAE Systems, Jacksonville Ship Repair, Jacksonville, Fla. (N00024-17-D-1007); Colonna Shipyards Inc., Norfolk, Va. (N40027-17-D-1008); and Metro Machine Corp, Jacksonville, Fla. (N40027-17-D-1009) are each awarded a maximum value $83,087,424 firm-fixed-price modification to their respective previously awarded contracts to exercise Option Year Two for the accomplishment of fixed priced delivery orders for docking and non-docking Chief of Naval Operations scheduled availabilities. These three companies will have the opportunity to provide offers for individual delivery orders. Work will be performed in Mayport, Fla., and is expected to be completed by November 2020. No funding will be obligated at time of award. The Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, Jacksonville, Fla., is the contracting activity. Sedna Digital Solutions LLC,* Manassas, Va., is awarded a $9,340,931 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously-awarded contract N00024-18-C-6264 to exercise and fund options for Navy engineering services and required material. Work will be performed in Manassas, Va., and is expected to be completed by December 2020. Fiscal 2020 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy); and fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,660,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity. General Dynamics, Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Conn., is awarded a $7,702,536 cost-plus-fixed-fee, level of effort modification to previously awarded contract N00024-15-C-4305 for the operation, maintenance and protection of the floating dry dock Shippingport (ARDM-4). Work will be performed in Groton, Conn., and is expected to be complete by November 2020. Fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,900,000 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE ManTech International Inc., Fairfax, Va., has been awarded a $32,266,994 modification (P00017) exercising Option Year One to the previously awarded contract FA8819-18-C-1001 for security support. This modification provides for the exercise of an option for the sensitive compartmented information (SCI)- and Special Access Program (SAP)-level security services to the Space and Missile Systems Center and Air Force Space Operational Units. Work will be performed at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.; Vandenberg AFB, Calif.; Peterson AFB, Colo.; Schriever AFB, Colo.; Buckley AFB, Colo.; and Kirtland AFB, N.M., and is expected to be complete by Nov. 16, 2020. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and three offers were received. The total cumulative face value of the contract is $374,000,000. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 research and development funds in the amount of $3,000,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Special Programs Directorate, Los Angeles AFB, Calif., is the contracting activity. ARMY L3 Fuzing and Ordnance Systems, Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded a $15,899,762 modification (P00003) to contract W15QKN-19-C-0040 to procure a total of 53,237 Melody II application-specific integrated circuit chips. Work will be performed in Cincinnati, Ohio, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2021. Fiscal 2020 procurement of ammunition, Army funds in the amount of $15,899,762 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, N.J., is the contracting activity. *Small Business https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2015992/source/GovDelivery/
20 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

What’s industry role in DoD information warfare efforts?
Mark Pomerleau Government leaders are telling industry they need help with integration as the Department of Defense and individual services push toward a unifying approach to information warfare. Information warfare combines several types of capabilities, including cyber, intelligence, electronic warfare, information operations, psychological operations and military deception. On a high-tempo battlefield, military leaders expect to face against a near peer or peer adversary. There, one-off solutions, systems that only provide one function, or those that can't feed information to others won't cut it. Systems must be multi-functional and be able to easily communicate with other equipment and do so across services. “A networked force, that's been our problem for years. Having built a lot of military systems, a lot in C4 and mission command, battle command, we build them and buy them in stovepipes. Then we think of integration and connecting after the fact,” Greg Wenzel, executive vice president at Booz Allen, told C4ISRNET. “My whole view ... networking the force really is probably the best thing to achieve overmatch against our adversaries.” Much of this networking revolves around new concepts DoD is experimenting with to be better prepared to fight in the information environment through multi domain operations or through Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). The former aims to seamlessly integrate the capabilities of each domain of warfare – land, sea, air, space and cyber – at will. It also aims to integrate systems and capabilities across the services under a common framework to rapidly share data. While not an official program, JADC2 is more of a framework for the services to build equipment. “It's more likely a mish-mash of service level agreements, pre-scripted architecting and interoperability mandates that you got to be in keeping with those in order to play in the environment,” Bill Bender, senior vice president of strategic accounts and government relations at Leidos, told C4ISRNET of JADC2. “It's going to take a long journey to get there because, oh by the way, we're a very legacy force and ... a limited amount of technology has the interoperability that is absolutely required for that mission to become a reality.” The “information warfare” nomenclature can fell nebulous and hard to understand for industry officials that provide solutions to the Pentagon. “It's a pretty broad definition. I think it's something that the DoD is struggling with, that's what we're struggling with in industry and it also makes it challenging because no one really buys equipment that way,” Anthony Nigara, director of mission solutions for electronic warfare at L3Harris, said. “No one really buys stuff to an abstract term like information warfare.” Others agreed that the term “information warfare” may be too broad, an issue that's further complicated as each service tackles information warfare in their own way. Most members of industry C4ISRNET talked with on the need to integrate described the key theme of a more networked force as a unifying way to think about the new push to information warfare. “There's a lot of discussions about the Joint All Domain Operations or the multidomain operations. When we look at that and we want to say ‘okay, what is information warfare really mean to everyone?” Steven Allen, director of information operations and spectrum convergence at Lockheed Martin rotary and mission systems, told C4ISRNET. “We look at it as how can we get the right information to warfighters in order to fight or how do we get the right information for them to plan? How do we move all that data across whether it's different levels of security or different levels of the warfighting and the data associated with it.” Others expressed the need for contractors to be flexible with how DoD is describing its needs. “Industry has learned to be flexible in responding to messaging calling for new situational awareness capabilities while other established capabilities were being mandated for use in cyber exercises,” Jay Porter, director of programs at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, said. The push to a more information warfare-centric force under the guise of larger concepts to defeat adversaries is pushing the DoD as a whole to fight in a more joint manner. Paul Welch, vice president and division manager for the Air Force and defense agencies portfolio at Leidos, explained that there's a consistent view by the services and the department that they must integrate operations within the broad umbrella of activities called information warfare just as they're integrating warfighting capabilities between the services and across the domains. This goes beyond merely deconflicting activities or cooperation, but must encompass true integration of combat capabilities. Some members of industry described this idea as one part of convergence. “When I talk about convergence, my observation is there is a convergence in terms of of a family of technologies and of a family of challenge problems and how do they come together,” Ravi Ravichandran, chief technology officer of the intelligence and security sector at BAE, told C4ISRNET. Ravichandran provided five specific challenge problems the military may have in which a married suite of technologies can help provide an advantage against adversaries. They include JADC2, overmatch or the notion of assembling technologies in a way better than enemies, joint fires where one service's sensors may be acquiring a target and passing that target off to another service to prosecute it, sensing in the electromagnetic spectrum and strategic mobility to get forces and resources to a particular place at a particular time. Similarly, Welch provided the notional example of an F-35 flying over an area, seeing something on its sensors and sending that information to either an Army unit, a carrier strike group, a Marine Corps unit, or even a coalition partner to seamlessly and rapidly understand the information and act upon it. These sensors must be incorporated into a joint kill chain that can be acted upon, coordinated and closed by any service at any time. Allen noted that when looking at information warfare, his business is examining how to take a variety of information from sensor information to human information to movement information and pull it all together. “There's a lot of discussion on [artificial intelligence] AI and machine learning and it's very, very important, but there's also important aspects of that, which is hey what's the technology to help the AI, what's that data that's going to help them,” he said. “We tend to look very closely with the customers on how do we really shape that in terms of the information you're getting and how much more can you do for the warfighter.” By bringing all these together, ultimately, it's about providing warfighters with the situational awareness, command and control and information they need to make decisions and cause the necessary effects, be it cyber C4ISR, intelligence or electronic warfare, Nigara said. Porter said at Raytheon's Intelligence & Space outfit, they view information warfare as “the unification of offensive and defensive cyber missions, electronic warfare and information operations within the battlespace.” Integrating EW and IO with cyber will allow forces to take advantage of a broader set of data to enable high-confidence decision-making in real time, he added, which is particularly important in the multi-domain information environment to influence or degrade adversary decision making. From a Navy perspective, the ability to share data rapidly across a distributed force within the Navy's distributed maritime operations concept will be critical for ensuring success. “We will certainly have to include the mechanisms with which we share information, data and fuse that data from node to node. When I say node to node, a node may be a ship, a node may be an unmanned vehicle and a node may be a shore based facility,” Kev Hays, director of information warfare programs at Northrop Grumman, who mostly supports the Navy, said regarding areas Northrop is investing. “Linking all those participants into a network ... is critically important. We have quite a bit of technology we're investing in to help communicate point to point and over the horizon and a low probability of intercept and low probability of detection fashion.” Ultimately, the information space is about affecting the adversary's cognitive space, they said. “When it comes to information warfare, it's a lot less tangible ... It's not tank on tank anymore. You're trying to affect people's perception,” James Montgomery, capture strategy lead for information operations and spectrum convergence at Lockheed Martin rotary and mission systems, told C4ISRNET. As a result, he said, it is critical to take the time with the customer to truly understand the concepts and capabilities and how they all fit together in order to best support them. “Really spending time with them [the customer] and understanding what it is that they're attempting to get at. It helps us better shape the requirements but it also helps us better understand what is it they're asking for,” he said. “When you're moving forward and attempting to come together with both a software hardware based solution to something, it takes a lot of talking time and a lot of touch time with that customer to understand where their head's at.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/information-warfare/2020/07/19/whats-industry-role-in-dod-information-warfare-efforts
11 août 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

India to ban imports of 101 defence products
by Jon Grevatt India, one of the world's biggest defence importers, has announced a ban on procuring more than 100 military products from foreign suppliers. The new policy – announced on 9 August – is line with a government campaign to achieve self-reliance and is intended to “apprise India's defence industry about anticipated requirements ... so that they are better prepared to realise the goal of indigenisation”, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. The new ‘import embargo list' features 101 defence products, with emphasis mainly on land and sea-based equipment including artillery, armoured vehicles, destroyers, submarines, and a range of related components. However, although the list includes some air platforms – such as light combat aircraft and light combat helicopters – that are currently being produced by Indian defence firm Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, it also features some advanced technologies – including electronic warfare systems and air-to-air missiles – that would be integrated on to these platforms. The MoD said the banned list will be “progressively implemented” over the next few years. Accordingly, the list names items that will be barred for import from December 2020 (69 products), December 2021 (11 products), and December 2022 (21 products). The MoD added that the embargo list would be expanded progressively. “This is a big step towards self-reliance in defence,” said the MoD. “It offers a great opportunity to the Indian defence industry to rise to the occasion to manufacture the items ... by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting technologies designed and developed by [state-owned] Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).” https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/india-to-ban-imports-of-101-defence-products

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