31 juillet 2018 | International, Aérospatial
BY PATRICK TUCKER
A research team is training computers to find and fuse clues from wildly different rivers of digital data.
Hiding illicit nuclear programs might be getting harder, thanks to new ways of gleaning and combining clues from various rivers of digital data. That's the conclusion of new research funded in part by the U.S. Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Satellites offer one kind of information; social media another — particularly inside countries that may be trying to flout inspections. But large volumes of satellite imagery and social media data aren't similar. You can have one analyst examine satellite pictures and another look at social media posts to see if they align, but the process is time-consuming and generally far from comprehensive. The study's authors developed a method for fusing different types of data in a machine-readable way to offer a much clearer picture.
“In light of their ubiquitous emergence, social media increasingly promise to be of great value even though associated applications have thus far remained simple, and their fusion with other data has been largely ad hoc,” the team from North Carolina State University writes in “Fusing Heterogeneous Data: A Case for Remote Sensing and Social Media.” Only by creating a new statistical method for fusing the outputs of satellite data and social media data do you get something you can use to predict what might happen next within a given area of interest, such as a specific nation's nuclear enrichment or weapons development.
The researchers looked at satellite and social media data from August 2013, when deadly floods killed eight people and caused widespread damage in Colorado. They sought to show that if you could algorithmically identify which imagery showed the flooding from space, and which geotagged tweets described it on the ground, you could could much more quickly verify one data set against another — that is, you could determine whether incoming social media data supports the conclusions you might be reaching from your satellite data, and vice versa.
“Next steps for the project include evaluating nuclear facilities in the West to identify common characteristics that may also be applicable to facilities in more isolated societies, such as North Korea,” notes a press release on the paper.
One of the authors, NCSU computer and electrical engineering professor Hamid Krim, said the team would try to “address the insufficient knowledge in general in areas of great interest (e.g. N. Korea and Iran). The goal is to come up with systematic methodologies to transport knowledge about nuclear environments available in other areas (e.g., in the West) to these domains where there is very little available. Creating such an environment in these places of interest will help them detect potential undesired activity.”
Of course, there are limitations to media monitoring in Iran and North Korea. The former's social media environment is largely underground, thanks to bans on Twitter and many other social networks. The latter has virtually no social media environment at all. Krim noted that the “adversarial strategy” of social-media censorship makes his team's analysis harder. But even social posts from nearby countries can help illuminate their more secretive neighbors, he said — think tweets from Japan after earth tremors are felt.
14 avril 2022 | International, Aérospatial
'It's a process, it won't happen immediately, but there is a deep willingness by political and defense players for big opportunities of this kind in Europe,' Alessandro Profumo told reporters in Rome.
20 janvier 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY US Foods Inc., Port Orange, Florida, has been awarded a maximum $390,000,000 fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-quantity contract for full-line food distribution. This was a competitive acquisition with two responses received. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. Locations of performance are Florida, Cuba and Bahamas, with a Jan. 18, 2026, ordering period end date. Using military services are Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy and Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2026 defense working capital funds. The contracting agency is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE300-21-D-3312). Federal Prison Industries Inc.,** Washington, D.C., has been awarded a maximum $24,708,000 modification (P00011) exercising the first one-year option period of a one-year base contract (SPE1C1-20-D-F056) with four one-year option periods for various types of trousers. This is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Locations of performance are Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Washington, D.C., with a Jan. 20, 2022, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army and Air Force. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2021 through 2022 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NAVY General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut, is awarded a $41,554,227 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for engineering and technical design effort to support research and development concept formulation for current and future submarine platforms. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $305,521,179. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut (96.1%); Bremerton, Washington (1.7%); Kings Bay, Georgia (1.7%); and Newport, Rhode Island (0.5%), and is expected to be completed by September 2021. If all options are exercised, work will continue through September 2025. Fiscal 2021 research, development, test and engineering (Navy) funds in the amount of $250,000 (80%); and 2020 research, development, test and engineering (Navy) funds in the amount of $63,000 (20%), will be obligated at time of award, of which funding in the amount of $63,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured and is a sole-source award pursuant to 10 U.S. Code 2304(c)(3) – Industrial Mobilization. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Sundance-EA Associates II,* Pocatello, Idaho, is awarded a maximum-value $30,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for environmental compliance services at Joint Region Marianas, Guam. The work to be performed is for a full range of environmental support activities for naval installation environmental compliance programs to ensure the supported components, tenant commands and facilities and contractor operations demonstrate and maintain compliance with all applicable federal, U.S. territory, and local statutes, and with Department of Defense and Navy policies, permits, instructions and guidance. Environmental compliance programs include clean air, safe drinking water, clean water, hazardous waste, pollution prevention, solid waste management, pesticide compliance, emergency planning and community right-to-know act, ozone-depleting substances management, storage tank management, environmental quality assessment, environmental sampling and analysis and overall environmental compliance oversight. Future task orders will be primarily funded by operation and maintenance (Navy) funds. Work will be performed in the Joint Region Marianas area of responsibility and is expected to be completed by January 2026. Work under the initial task order will be performed in Guam and is expected to be completed by January 2022. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $1,447,016 will be obligated under the initial task order at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.SAM.gov website, with six proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Marianas, Guam, is the contracting activity (N40192-21-D-1820). Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Melbourne, Florida, is awarded a $29,776,196 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee order (N00019-21-F-0064) against previously issued basic ordering agreement N00019-20-G-0005. This order procures five aerial refueling retrofit kits and installation on the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye. Work will be performed in Ronkonkoma, New York (44.53%); Baltimore, Maryland (16.62%); Irvine, California (6.48%); Hauppauge, New York (5.85%); Columbia, Maryland (4.75%); Dorset, England (3.17%); East Aurora, New York (2.64%); North Hollywood, California (2.02%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (13.94%), and is expected to be completed in May 2022. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $29,776,196 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Range Generation Next LLC, Sterling, Virginia, has been awarded a $14,600,345 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P000327) to contract FA8806-15-C-0001 for a telemetry end-to-end processing system. This modification supports an increase in launch and test range requirements. Work will primarily be performed at Eastern Range, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida; Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida; and Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and is expected to be completed May 11, 2023. Fiscal 2020 Air Force space procurement funds in the full amount are being obligated at the time of award. Space and Missile Systems Center, Peterson AFB, Colorado, is the contracting activity. ARMY Transportation Management Services Inc., Sandy Spring, Maryland, was awarded a $13,874,720 firm-fixed-price contract to provide transportation services throughout the National Capital Region from Jan.16, 2021, through Jan. 31, 2021. Bids were solicited via the internet with eight received. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C., with an estimated completion date of Jan. 31, 2021. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance (National Guard) funds in the amount of $13,874,720 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army National Guard Bureau, Operational Contracting Division, Arlington, Virginia, is the contracting activity (W912R1-21-F-0002). *Small business **Mandatory source https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/2476202/source/GovDelivery/
15 novembre 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Central European defence companies are negotiating new deals to sell more weapons, military equipment and related services in Africa as they seek to poach customers looking for alternatives to Russia, companies and government officials say.