Safran and MTU Aero Engines create EURA joint venture to power the next generation of European military helicopters

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  4 novembre 2024 | International, Aérospatial

  Northrop Grumman Strengthens Commitment to Poland’s National Security and Interoperability with Allies

  The MOUs explore opportunities to enhance Poland’s national command and control capabilities with the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye through NATO interoperability and further collaboration amongst the organizations.

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  24 mars 2020 | International, Naval

  Qui est Pierre Eric Pommellet, numéro deux de Thales, futur patron de Naval Group

  Le successeur d'Hervé Guillou à la tête de Naval Group est désormais connu. L'Etat a désigné Pierre Eric Pommellet, actuel directeur général du groupe Thales, a-t-on appris le 24 janvier de sources gouvernementales. Le nouveau PDG de Naval Group a été désigné. Atteint par la limite d''ge, Hervé Guillou doit quitter le groupe français en mars. C'est Pierre Eric Pommellet, "directeur général opérations et performance" de Thales, qui a été choisi par l'Etat pour prendre la tête du constructeur naval, a-t-on appris vendredi 24 janvier de sources gouvernementales. “PEP”, favori pour la succession d'Hervé Guillou “Nous confirmons que le choix de l'Etat est Pierre Eric Pommellet, a déclaré une source du ministère des Armées. Il prendra la tête de Naval Group au départ d'Hervé Guillou, c'est-à-dire à la fin du mois de mars.” Vendredi 24 janvier, le comité des nominations de Naval Group s'est réuni pour valider ce choix. La candidature de Pierre Eric Pommellet doit encore passer devant le conseil d'administration de Naval Group en février. Si les administrateurs approuvent ce choix, une assemblée générale devrait avoir lieu en mars. Le nouveau patron devra ensuite être nommé officiellement par un décret du président de la République. Depuis plusieurs jours, des informations de presse présentaient “PEP” comme le favori pour la succession d'Hervé Guillou. Le nom de Benoît Ribadeau-Dumas, directeur de cabinet du Premier ministre Édouard Philippe, circulait également avec ceux de plusieurs profils internes. "Une vraie histoire personnelle avec le monde naval" “C'est un ingénieur qui a une vraie histoire personnelle avec le monde naval. Son père a construit Île Longue [la base de la Marine nationale pour les sous-marins nucléaires lanceurs d'engins située dans la rade de Brest, Finistère]. Son grand-père était le patron de l'usine d'Indret à la direction des constructions navales [ancêtre de Naval Group]”, fait valoir la source gouvernementale. Pierre Eric Pommellet lui-même n'est pas étranger au secteur naval. Diplômé de l'Ecole Polytechnique, de Sup Aero et du MIT aux Etats-Unis, il est aussi passé à la direction des constructions navales comme ingénieur de l'armement au début de sa carrière. A 52 ans, l'industriel est plus connu comme le directeur général opérations et performance de Thales. Il assume cette fonction depuis 2017 après avoir occupé divers postes de direction : président de Thales Underwater Systems, président de Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, directeur général de la division des systèmes de mission de défense... Autrement dit, Pierre Eric Pommellet est loin d'être un inconnu dans le monde de la défense et il avait l'avantage de cocher plusieurs cases : profil industriel, connaisseur du grand export et du milieu de défense. Malgré cette notoriété, il semble prêt à accepter un salaire un peu plus bas, plafonné par la loi à 450 000 euros par année. Un gage de motivation pour le gouvernement. Des syndicats hostiles à l'arrivée de Pierre Eric Pommellet ? L'arrivée chez Naval Group du directeur général de Thales ne va pas se faire sans complication. Le patron de Thales, Patrice Caine, va devoir trouver un nouveau numéro deux. Surtout, les critiques se sont faites entendre chez les représentants des salariés de Naval Group. Pressentant sans doute cette nomination, les syndicats Unsa et CFE-CGC ont publié un communiqué mardi 21 janvier pour dénoncer le poids de Thales dans la gouvernance de l'entreprise. Le groupe d'électronique est actionnaire à 35 % de Naval Group aux côtés de l'Etat qui détient plus de 62 % du capital. Selon les organisations syndicales, Thales “dispose de droits bien supérieurs à son poids actionnarial” et “se place régulièrement en concurrence de sa filiale Naval Group sur les offres export". "Les personnels de l'entreprise ne comprendraient pas que la succession du PDG actuel, Hervé Guillou, soit l'opportunité pour Thales de positionner un outil industriel de souveraineté comme Naval Group en situation de dépendance vis-à-vis d'un équipementier", ajoutaient-ils avant la nomination de Pierre Eric Pommellet. Vendredi 24 janvier, la source gouvernementale répond aux critiques. “Il n'y a pas d'agenda caché associé à la nomination de Pierre Eric Pommellet. La stratégie de Naval Group reste la même : être un leader mondial de conception et de construction de bateaux militaires fortement armés. Il n'y a pas d'infléchissement stratégique. Naval Group restera une entreprise indépendante, autonome et qui doit créer de la croissance avec une liberté d'entreprendre et d'innover”, assure-t-elle. L'actionnariat de Naval Group ne devrait ainsi pas évoluer. Une feuille de route conséquente Plusieurs grands projets attendent en tout cas le nouveau PDG de Naval Group. Parmi eux : la construction du sous-marin nucléaire lanceur d'engin de troisième génération à partir de 2023, la livraison à la Marine Nationale cette année du sous-marin d'attaque Suffren, mis à l'eau l'été dernier et l'important projet d'un nouveau porte-avions attendu pour 2038. “La feuille de route de Pierre Eric Pommellet, avant toute autre chose, est de livrer les programmes nationaux", affirme le cabinet de Florence Parly. https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/qui-est-pierre-eric-pommellet-numero-deux-de-thales-futur-patron-de-naval-group.N922724

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  27 juillet 2020 | International, C4ISR

  Memes, the pandemic and the new tactics of information warfare

  Mark Pomerleau WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic is evidence that Russia and China have accelerated adoption of their age-old influence and disinformation tactics to the modern era, national security experts and military leaders said. Those countries are leveraging U.S. laws, social media platforms and divisions within society to their larger strategic advantage and as a way to weaken the United States. “This pandemic crisis has made it very, very clear that Russia, China and others intend to strategically use cyber-enable information operations against the U.S.,” Lt. Gen. Mary O'Brien, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber effects operations, said during a Joint Service Academy Cybersecurity Conference webinar June 11. “They're injecting disinformation, which is not a new concept in itself, but now by incorporating cyber means, they're reaching millions of people to exacerbate existing tensions within the U.S. and between us, our allies and partners.” She said these efforts include spreading conspiracy theories and confusing messages about the virus such as its origins and risks. Such tactics are here to stay. “Our adversaries have made it very clear that this aspect of strategic competition will be enduring,” O'Brien added. These tactics, which include waging influence campaigns below the threshold of armed conflict, have forced the military, and U.S. government more broadly, to rethink its strategies and views toward conflict. Traditionally, the United States government has taken a binary view of war and peace, while adversaries such as Russia in particular have viewed conflict on a perpetual continuum. “In many ways, we have trained ourselves as a service at every Red Flag we've gone to that conflict begins when two fighters engage or we find a target on the battlespace. So we've really trained ourselves that conflict begins at that moment,” Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of 16th Air Force, the service's first information warfare command, said at a July 15 Mitchell Institute webcast. Red Flag is the Air Force's premier tactical training event. “Was the first element really when we got into conflict in the information environment ... the first day that one of our companies was hacked that the intellectual property theft of one of our weapon systems stole?” he said. “Was that really when conflict began? Was it the day that Russian hackers hacked into the DNC? Was that really the day that conflict began for our nation and how we should be thinking about it when the adversaries went to another level of using some level of malign activity that is outside of things that we would consider norms.” As such, the military is looking at ways to expose this activity abroad when it can. “Sixteenth Air Force units are focused on developing tactics, techniques and procedures and they're looking to identify, expose and when directed, countering the threat from the state sponsored disinformation campaigns,” O'Brien said. “This is continuing, I think we'll see it again as we address the racial discrimination.” Adversaries have exploited U.S. laws and principles, such as the freedom of speech with online platforms, which makes outright banning accounts difficult. They've also targeted existing divisions within society such as protests over police tactics and racial equality. “[Adversaries] also are in a position where they can take advantage of a lot of the disinformation/misinformation that's created right here at home in the United States by actual Americans who understand the language in a way Moscow couldn't at a native level,” Cindy Otis, vice president of analysis at Alethea Group, a start-up that counters disinformation and social media manipulation. told C4ISRNET. Experts explained that adversaries in many cases don't have to create content, although many choose to. “At the end of the day they're really just amplifying our existing social divisions. We suspect, especially lately, that they've really done enough amplification that they're just kind of allowing things to snowball now ...There's enough existing division that it really only requires tiny nudges at this point to amplify,” Maj. Jessica Dawson, research lead for information warfare and an assistant professor at the Army Cyber Institute, told C4ISRNET. One way they do this is called memetic warfare, which involves sharing memes on various social media platforms to stoke a particular reaction from various groups. “When we think about memetic warfare, what's really happening is we're taking these sort of deep seeded emotional stories and we're collapsing them down into a picture, usually it's something that has a very, very quick emotional punch,” she said. “They're collapsing these narratives down into images that are often not attributed, that's one of the things about memes is they really aren't, someone usually isn't signing them, going ‘I'm the artist.' There [are] these really emotional punches that are shared very, very quickly, they're self replicating in a lot of ways because you see it, you react and then you immediately pass it on.” While many experts noted that these tactics are nothing new, the difference is the internet. “The major change throughout history is today they're able to spread and amplify and reach people where they are all over the world in a way that was never possible before,” Otis, who previously was a CIA analyst, said. Previously, nations such as the Soviet Union had to prop up media outlets and place stories in newspapers around the world hoping they'd be picked up in English language outlets. Now, they just have to tweet. In some cases, they are overt social media channels and actors might not even hide their origin, but other more covert cases, states might use certain influencers or cut outs to do their bidding. What's the point? The goal of these operations varies slightly, but experts said they serve the ultimate purpose of put down the United States compared to their own nations. “For Russia it all goes back to the desire to undermine United States' global credibility but also show their own population ‘hey, you know that democracy you want, it's actually not a great thing ... look how it's turning out for the United States,‘” Otis said. She added that Russia tries to undermine the credibility of the United States on issues such as human rights, something the United States is active in promoting on the world stage, by highlighting social divisions such as potential police brutality and racial injustice. Dawson noted this can also distract from what Russia is doing abroad. Russia also wants to discourage citizens from voting, Otis said by making large swaths of the population feel disenfranchised. Often times, these actors will play both sides of an issue to maximize reach and discord. When it comes to China, Dawson noted that they are trying to appear more benevolent on the world stage to present itself as a world power, which is much harder. They are also good at making information disappear online, she said, citing information on the Tiananmen Square massacre. Otis pointed to Chinese benevolent efforts such as providing medical aid to nations such as Italy during the ongoing pandemic. Combating these efforts, including those focused internally at domestic populations and undermining government, can be difficult given the existing divisions within society and the broad speech freedoms guaranteed. Otis explained that the government can sometimes be mired in its own bureaucratic processes, noting it can be its own worst enemy. She provided the example of Taliban forces in Afghanistan publishing in their media channels that the United States and NATO forces bombed a school killing scores of children. Those stories would go viral in their circles and sometimes make their way to mainstream outlets. When questioned about those claims by reporters, U.S. officials would explain they have to conduct an investigation, which could take months. By the time the investigation is concluded and the claim is found to hold no truth, the damage is already done and the Taliban have successfully recruited against it. Dawson noted that one way to begin combating disinformation is building trust from the local to the national level while also addressing the underlying domestic problems adversaries are exploiting from abroad. https://www.c4isrnet.com/smr/information-warfare/2020/07/23/memes-the-pandemic-and-the-new-tactics-of-information-warfare/