2 mai 2022 | International, Aérospatial
Shortage Of Veteran Aircraft Maintainers Is Growing And Concerning
Why are we still teaching dope and fabric repair in a gigabyte world?
21 juillet 2020 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Startups Need Free Data To Work With Army: Venture Capitalists
Because open-source software lacks the same kind of cyber certification that comes with more sensitive information, it is fertile ground for start-ups looking to work on military data, provided each service makes an open-source library available.
By KELSEY ATHERTONon July 20, 2020 at 7:01 AM
ALBUQUERQUE: Venture capitalists want the Pentagon to be a good market. But for an industry that makes many unsuccessful bets in the promise that just a few pan out spectacularly, marketing software exclusively to the Pentagon poses an almost unacceptable risk. To ease startups into contracting, investors suggest the Army should provide unclassified, open-source data as the Air Force already does.
Near the top of his investors' wishlist, says Stu Solomon, CTO of intelligence provider Recorded Future, is removing “a lot of the friction necessary to get innovation into the government without having to be directly aligned or affiliated with the big solution integrators.”
Hitching new technology to a company already firmly ingrained in the Pentagon's ecosystem is a popular way to shepherd new software through the acquisitions process. It is also partly explains how, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in military contracts going to Silicon Valley companies, tech adoption seems as slow from the Valley as elsewhere.
Solomon's remarks came during a panel at AFCEA's 2020 AFCEA Army Signal conference. Recorded Future was founded in 2008, received early funding from IN-Q-TEL, received a contract from DIU in 2017, and a contract from Cyber Command in 2020. Much of Recorded Future's product is built on ingesting open-source information and offering analysis. As a feature, that meant the company could sustain itself in the commercial market, selling enterprise software, while still planning long-term to contract with the military, DHS, and intelligence services.
“If you think this is eventually going to be a market that matters to you, you're not going to be able to wait four years for the procurement process to mature as your product matures,” said Elizabeth Lawler, founder of Founder of AppLand.
If a startup's focus is solely on processing classified data, the capital investors need to be aligned directly with that goal to fund it since getting certified to handle classified material is one of the major sources of cost and friction.
“My current startup, focused on providing real-time up-to-date software images, works on things that are less sensitive as a starting point,” said Lawler, “for example, some of the code bases in the Air Force's open source code repository.”
Because open-source software lacks the same kind of cyber certification that comes with more sensitive information, it is fertile ground for start-ups looking to work on military data, provided the service makes an open-source library available.
“When it comes to this Valley of Death, I really view what we do when we start companies as an awful lot like a really difficult special forces mission,” said Andy Palmer, co-founder and CEO of data management company Tamr. “When you go in, you drop onto the ground to start a company, with a small team of people, and limited resources, and what oftentimes feels like an unreasonable objective. It's hand to hand combat for much of it, it's not pretty. The goal is survival.”
So, if the Army wants to bring new data tools to the battlefields of the future, it could start by creating open-source environments that allow companies to solve problems, at a smaller scale and without the hurdles of classification, suggested several panelists
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/07/startups-need-free-data-to-work-with-army-venture-capitalists
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23 juin 2020 | International, Aérospatial
NATO’s new surveillance drone begins test flights over the Mediterranean
By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — The first of five new NATO surveillance drones began test flights over the Mediterranean Sea this month, nudging the alliance toward a new capability meant to relieve the demand for U.S. equipment. The flights took off from Sigonella air base in Sicily, Italy, the future headquarters of the Northrop Grumman-made Global Hawks of the Alliance Ground Surveillance program. The planes are owned by a collective of 15 NATO members. The alliance's supreme allied commander for Europe, a job currently filled by U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, has tasking authority over the new capability. The North Atlantic Council also gets a say in cases of missions outside of NATO territory. The first two drones arrived late last year. Officials expect the rest of the fleet to make the trip from the manufacturer's facilities in Palmdale, California, throughout the summer. Earlier this spring, travel restrictions spurred by the spread of the novel coronavirus had raised the possibility of a delay in getting the initial plane approved for its flight schedule. But the Italian government allowed a team of Northrop specialists into Italy in late May for acceptance testing, a key step in obtaining an airworthiness certificate for the drone. “COVID-related delays ended up only being a few weeks, but nothing that significant,” Camille Grand, NATO's assistant secretary general for defense investment, told Defense News in an interview, referring to the coronavirus disease. “We are now moving to a pattern of regular flight to enable the force to use the drone.” Officials have been tight-lipped about exactly where they intend to use the aircraft once they are fully operational. “You can imagine missions of looking into the situation on NATO's borders,” Grand said. “Both in the south, in the Middle East or the east. The drones enable you to collect intelligence beyond your airspace.” While the initial aircraft has already completed at least one nine-hour flight over the Mediterranean Sea, it remains to be seen if the the aircraft can get clearance from Italian regulators to fly over land, where air traffic is more crowded and a mishap could be catastrophic. The general idea is to use the Italian airworthiness approval to fly anywhere. “The beauty of the European airspace is that once your are certified in Italy, you can fly across the European airspace,” Grand said. He noted that the certification currently in effect is provisional, and that the scope of the process is “likely to expand over time.” For now, high-flying military surveillance drones traversing the continent must obtain permission from national airspace authorities for a restricted flight corridor to protect nearby civilian traffic. Such is the case, for example, when U.S. unmanned aircraft fly reconnaissance missions close to the Baltics. The Alliance Ground Surveillance program's ambition is to “lift any limitations,” Grand said. “It is a very interesting and fascinating challenge because it is the first time ever that we are incorporating those Global Hawks in what is usually a crowded airspace on a permanent basis.” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/transatlantic-partnerships/2020/06/22/natos-new-surveillance-drone-begins-test-flights-over-the-mediterranean/
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7 décembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial
Airbus pulls out of Polish helo tender due to offset requirements
By: Jarosław Adamowski WARSAW, Poland — Airbus Helicopters has decided to pull out of the Polish Defence Ministry's tender to acquire new copters for the country's Navy. The "offset requirements defined by the Polish MoD made it impossible for Airbus Helicopters to submit a competitive offer," the company said in a statement sent to the state-owned news agency PAP. “Airbus Helicopters continues to be interested in supporting the process of the modernization of the Polish Armed Forces in the field of helicopter fleet replacement,” the vendor said with respect to Poland's other helo procurement plans. Earlier this year, Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo placed their offers in the ministry's tender to purchase four helicopters. Leonardo, which is now the only active participant of the tender, owns Polish aircraft plant PZL Swidnik which makes the AW101 copter, among others. The new helos, enabled with anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and search-and-rescue (SAR) capabilities, are designed to replace the Polish Navy's Kaman SH-2G Super Seasprite copters, according to First Deputy Defence Minister Wojciech Skurkiewicz. Local observers have also said the new helos could replace the Navy's Soviet-designed Mil Mi-14 copters. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2018/12/04/airbus-pulls-out-of-polish-helo-tender-due-to-offset-requirements