19 juin 2018 | International, Terrestre, C4ISR
The Marine Corps has shelved several new, small drones – at least temporarily – amid a Pentagon ban and assessment on the cybersecurity of commercial, off-the-shelf, unmanned aerial systems, a service spokesman told USNI News on Monday.
The Department of Defense issued a ban last month on the purchase and use of all commercial off-the-shelf drones until the Pentagon develops a plan to mitigate security risks. The online site sUAS News obtained a copy of the May 23 memo written by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan ordering the temporary ban due to “unmanned aerial vehicle systems cybersecurity vulnerabilities.”
Military.com reported on the memo's effect on the Marines last week.
The Marine Corps officials are asking defense officials to exempt eight systems so Marines can continue to use and train with the drones, Capt. Joshua Pena, a Marine Corps Combat Development Command spokesman, told USNI News Monday.
Pena said exemption requests were being drafted and reviewed by senior leaders and for submission to the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for these systems: Black Hornet 2 and Black Hornet 3, manufactured by FLIR Systems, Inc.; SkyRanger (Aeryon Labs); InstantEye Mk-2 Gen-3 and InstantEye Mk2 Gen-5 (Physical Sciences Inc.); Indago (Lockheed Martin); and DJI Phantom 3 Pro and DJI Phantom 4 Pro (DJI).
InstantEye is a centerpiece of the “Quads for Squads” initiative driven by the commandant, Gen. Robert Neller, to equip infantry units with innovative, high-tech capabilities to make Marines more lethal and effective in a cyber battle space, including micro and small drones. The small quadcopter, manufactured by InstantEye Robotics, a division of Andover, Mass.,-based Physical Sciences, Inc., is getting fielded to squads across the Marine Corps' three infantry divisions.
Neller, speaking June 12 at the 69th Current Strategy Forum held at the Naval War College, touted the service's push to bolster its cyber capabilities to include using the small quadcopter, according to the Fifth Domain newsletter.
But the Pentagon's decision has forced Marines to stop using InstantEye until it can get the green light from the Pentagon. It's considered a COTS product, Pena said, and “the system has been grounded.” The ban “also applies to all UAS ground command and control elements including smartphones or tablets with associated software and hardware,” he added.
So far, the first battalions have received 600 of the Marine Corps' initial buy of 800 Mk-2 Gen-3 drones for the “Quads for Squads,” and the remaining 200 are pending shipment, he said. “The policy has not affected that schedule,” he added.
In suspending all COTS unmanned aerial systems, Shanahan cited a May 14 DoD inspector general finding that “the DoD has not implemented an adequate process to assess cybersecurity risks associated with using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).”
“Effective immediately, you must suspend purchases of COTS UAS for operational use until the DoD develops a strategy to adequately assess and mitigate the risks associated with their use. In addition, you must suspend the use of COTS UASs until the DoD identifies and fields a solution to mitigate known cybersecurity risks,” he wrote in the memo.
Shanahan noted his authority to approve any “requests for exemptions, on a case by case basis, to support urgent needs.” He directed military officials and agencies to report to him within 30 days “to identify and account for all COTS UAS.”
The memo doesn't indicate what prompted the suspension of the military's use of drones, which include some popular commercially-available drones sold to consumers and manufactured by U.S. or foreign companies. However, last month, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wrote to Defense Secretary James Mattis about “a potential national security threat” in products manufactured by DJI, or Da-Jiang Innovations, a technology company based in China.
In his letter, dated May 7, Murphy cited an Army decision last year to halt the use of DJI commercial UAS and an “intelligence bulletin” issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “asserting that DJI was using its products to provide critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government.”
“These vulnerabilities pose a tremendous national security risk, as the information obtained by the Chinese government could be used to conduct physical or cyber-attacks against U.S. civilian and military targets,” wrote Murphy, whose Senate committee assignments include appropriations and foreign relations.
DJI, or SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd., as noted on the company's website, is based in Shenzhen, China, and manufactures drones, including several popular with consumers and drones hobbyists and used by military and federal agencies, and interest remains in recent UAS solicitations including by the Army.
Murphy didn't cite any specific example of a security breach or hacking by DJI but raised concerns about vulnerabilities particularly with foreign-made systems. “I encourage you to, at a minimum, consider a DoD-wide directive banning the use of UAS owned or manufactured in a foreign nation until further threat-assessments can be completed,” he wrote. He noted the “deluge of foreign-made military equipment” the military has bought and opined that “if the hundreds of DJI drones purchased by the U.S. government in the last several years had been American-made, we would not have subjected ourselves to this massive potential intrusion and exploitation of sensitive U.S. sites.”
Two years ago, security concerns about DJI products prompted the company to issue a statement that “DJI does not routinely share customer information or drone video with Chinese authorities' and cited its privacy policy.
https://news.usni.org/2018/06/18/pentagon-grounds-marines-eyes-sky-drones-cyber-security-concerns
22 février 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Collins will provide its extensive Unmanned Aerial Systems or UAS integration experience to SRB Aerial Systems
12 septembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial
The Swedish government is considering donating Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine to help it fight Russia, Swedish public radio (SR) reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
24 avril 2020 | International, Terrestre
While some prototype deliveries and field tests are being delayed, Army leaders said, there's enough slack in the schedule that combat units will still get the new tech on time. By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.on April 23, 2020 at 2:40 PM WASHINGTON: The Army and its contractors are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic so well that the service expects no delay in the fielding of future weapons, the Army Secretary and his two top modernization officials told reporters today. The “rigorous” review of acquisition programs for the 2022 budget request is also still on schedule, Sec. Ryan McCarthy said. “It's just amazing how quickly they've adapted, kept their workforce engaged, and are protecting cost, schedule, and performance on these weapons systems,” said McCarthy, recently returned from a visit to BAE and General Dynamics facilities in Detroit. “Also I'm very proud of Dr. Jette's and Gen. Murray's performance during this crisis, working on things like progress payments for manufacturers, trying to help them get access to small business loans, the managing of second- and third-tier suppliers.” “Right now, all the companies that were closed for any period of time are reopened,” said Assistant Secretary Bruce Jette, the service's civilian acquisition chief. One BAE worker was infected, resulting in a week-long shutdown of a combat vehicle assembly line – you can't weld armor plate over your telephone, Jette noted – but the company has now restarted production with new precautions in place. The company and the union have agreed to give up their traditional week-long shutdown for summer vacation to catch up. The Boeing CH-47 helicopter plant in Philadelphia also shut down for 10 days, Jette reported, but they're back up and running as well. He's most worried about smaller subcontractors, where a single COVID-19 case can force the entire workforce to be quarantined for 14 days, so he's tracking that closely. “I keep track on a daily basis of 63 pages of supply chain [data],” Jette said. “Our industry partners have been really good about opening their books all the way down to their sub-suppliers and keeping us well-informed — they contractually don't have to do that but they have.” Some deliveries of prototypes have been delayed, said Gen. John “Mike” Murray, chief of Army Futures Command. But, so far, those delays are measured in weeks and there's sufficient slack in schedules to catch up later this year, he said, which means programs will proceed to production and fielding on time. What's particularly tricky for the Army is that, after decades of dumping “good ideas” on soldiers only to find they didn't actually work, it's now systematically letting soldiers try out prototypes hands-on. These soldier touchpoints require troops to work together in the field, often side-by-side with contractors who record their feedback and make some fixes on the spot. That's difficult given pandemic precautions – but not impossible. Other types of testing allow a little more social distance, and work from engineering design to budget reviews can take place entirely online. Gen. Murray gave a rundown of key programs: The next flight test of Lockheed Martin's Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) will take place as scheduled on April 30th, Gen. Murray said. “I'm very confident,” he declared, to the point he's already planned his flight to go observe. On the other hand, the third big soldier touchpoint test for the IVAS targeting goggles, scheduled for this summer, has been delayed to the fall. That's not just because of social distancing, Murray said, but also because a Microsoft subcontractor ran into COVID-19 problems (they'll be back in operation this week). Because this would have been the first test of a fully militarized and ruggedized “form factor” of IVAS, which began life as a modified Microsoft HoloLens, it's too important to cut corners, he said. The program will be able to make up the lost time and deliver the final production version to troops on schedule, he said. There's been a six week delay in delivery of the three competiting prototypes for Next Generation Squad Weapon, meant to replace the M249 SAW. Once the weapons arrive, however, the Army will now get them into soldiers' hands in just two weeks, a month faster than originally planned, making up for most of that lost time. Field-testing of one contender for the new FTUAS drone is already underway at Fort Riley, as we've previously reported. Testing of another drone design at Fort Campbell is “a little bit delayed,” Murray said, but should start by the end of the month. The Limited User Test of the IBCS missile defense network has been postponed (again, as we've reported). But the equipment remains in place at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Murray said, software updates continue, and the soldiers who spent months training to operate it will be back to do the test “this summer or early fall.” (The Army also previously announced it would postpone field tests of promising new Robotic Combat Vehicles). “In general,” Jette said, “we don't see any FUEs changing”: That's military jargon for “First Unit Equipped,” the crucial moment when enough of a weapon has been built to equip a significant combat unit. “We are tracking each program,” Jette said, not just the service's top priorities “but all of our over 600 programs, [and] none of them are at risk” of a delay so severe they can't recover. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/covid-19-wont-slow-new-army-weapons-mccarthy-murray-jette/