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  13 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial, C4ISR

  Air Force to link F-35, F-22 in ‘connect-a-thon’ experiment

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force is preparing an experiment it hopes will link the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, the first in a series of experiments that service acquisition head Will Roper has dubbed “connect-a-thons.” The experiments are to happen every four months, starting in December. The goal is to identify a fleet of aircraft with a communications issue, invite voices from inside and outside the Pentagon to offer solutions, and then test those offerings in a live experiment. “We're making it up as we go, right? There's never been anything like this,” Roper said at a breakfast hosted by the Defense Writers Group. “We need a way for people to propose connections and get into the pipeline. So I wouldn't be surprised at all if it ends up being like a pitch day ... having a proposal process where we review the maturity of the tech versus the benefit to the war fighter. We would do the former, our operators would do the latter." “And what I love about this is it's kind of a competition within the joint force," he added. "We're going to be looking for the fast movers to volunteer, then we'll be looking at the fast followers.” The first event, hosted by North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, will feature an attempt to allow the F-22 and F-35 to share battlespace — a long-sought capability. The F-22 was built with an older data link that can't match up with the Multifunction Advanced Data Link, or MADL, system used on the newer F-35; while the F-35 can receive data through Link 16, it can't share the data back — a key capability given the envisioned role of the F-35 as a major sensor for the future Air Force. For the test, the service will use what Roper called a “Babel Fish-like translator” under the working name of GatewayOne to serve as a “universal translator” for the two jets. The first test, in December, will feature the equipment on a pole on a test range, with the jets pinging their information back and forth from that fixed location. Should that system work well, in four months Roper plans to put GatewayOne onto a Valkyrie drone, a system designed by Kratos to be cheap enough to be disposable in a battlefield situation. It's not the first time a drone has been used as a link between the two fighters: In 2017, Northrop Grumman pitched its Global Hawk unmanned system, equipped with a new radio, to act as a translator between the aircraft. Future connect-a-thons currently planned include linking SpaceX's Starlink satellites with KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft in an effort to show commercial communications can work with military aircraft; Roper said the KC-135 community volunteered because the tanker aircraft is perpetually seeking more bandwidth. Roper also expects the F-16 community — which he called “very innovative, agile operators” who understand they need to keep an aging plane relevant — to “sign up wholesale” for tests in the future. The acquisitions chief said he is committed to keeping the four-month schedule going, in part because it means if the technology isn't satisfactory, the service will know quickly and be able to move onto something else. “The good news about that is [Congress and the Pentagon] don't really have to believe us for very long. Just let us get through a few connect-a-thon cycles,” Roper said. “And if we're failing miserably, then that should tell you something about the future of the program.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2019/11/12/us-air-force-to-link-f-35-with-f-22-in-connect-a-thon-experiment/

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  6 août 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité

  New England guardsmen test their skills in Cyber Yankee 2020

  Mark Pomerleau Members of the National Guard from New England states concluded a two-week cyber exercise that sought to test the cyber skills of guardsmen and critical infrastructure operators. Cyber Yankee 2020, which took place July 21-31 in New Hampshire, involved more than 200 National Guard members and their civilian counterparts from across New England states, along with some active-duty partners and participants from local, state and federal agencies. In its sixth year, there was less attendance than previous years due to the coronavirus pandemic, but several were able to participate remotely. “Cyber Yankee is primarily a hands-on keyboard cyber incident response exercise for National Guard soldiers and airmen in FEMA Region 1, which are the six New England states,” said Lt. Col. Woody Groton, a member of the New Hampshire National Guard and the director for Cyber Yankee, according to a Facebook post by the New Hampshire Air National Guard. Groton said in a video that the exercise is primarily focused on the electrical and water sector. The exercise is “a great training opportunity for us to work with those people who would actually own the network that we would potentially respond on and for our soldiers and airmen to get that experience and for the engineers from those various entities, they get the training in working with us,” he said. The Guard units within the various states are a critical resource to defend against cyberattacks when they overwhelm localities. “If a large-scale attack happened against a power company, water company, or any other critical department around the state, we would be able to get activated and help them mitigate the threat,” Capt. Frederick Bond, 103rd Air Control Squadron cyberspace operator and exercise Team 3 lead from the Connecticut National Guard, said in a release. “It's similar to when a storm comes and we help remove fallen trees or shovel snow from roofs to help get critical infrastructure going again.” The friendly blue team had to deal with simulated attacks from an opposing red team. Social media posts were used to simulate a real internet environment, where forces must sift through the noise and discern what information is needed to make decisions and identify threat actors. In one case, these actors defaced a public website. “We found some discrepancies including website, it looks like it may have been defaced. The team is digging into finding the source of that defacement and then making steps to correct it,” Master Sgt. Eric Lewis, a blue team member in the New Hampshire Air National Guard, said in a video. Other actions tested included protecting computer files from being stolen or manipulated. “We received intel that potential threat actors may be using a certain capability to transfer files,” said Senior Airman Stephen LaLuna, 103rd Communications Flight cyber systems operations specialist with the Connecticut National Guard. “We see the traffic that's using it, that sets off a flag on our end to look deeper into that. If we determine it is malicious, we send it up the chain with our findings and recommendations to block it.” Officials explained that one of the most critical aspects of these training events is the partnerships built between Guard units, critical infrastructure operators and government entities so that when a crisis breaks out, everyone is acquainted. “We have built enduring partnerships with state government and the critical infrastructure sector. Something that if we did have a major cyberattack against one of those, we would be ready to respond and already know each other,” Groton said. Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Lt. Col. Woody Groton. He is with the Army National Guard. https://www.c4isrnet.com/cyber/2020/08/03/new-england-guardsmen-test-their-skills-in-cyber-yankee-2020

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  20 juin 2023 | International, Aérospatial

  Boeing wants to boost KC-46 defenses as Air Force weighs tanker path

  The Air Force wants its next tankers to be able to survive in the contested airspace likely in the nation's next war.