Storied Coast Guard ship can’t be fixed, shipyard says, highlighting yet again, Canada’s shipbuilding problem

Sur le même sujet

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  8 décembre 2017 | Local, Naval

  French and Italian governments endorse long-shot bid for 15 new ships for Canada's navy

  DANIEL LEBLANC OTTAWA PUBLISHED DECEMBER 8, 2017UPDATED 3 DAYS AGO The French and Italian governments are officially backing an unsolicited proposal to supply 15 military vessels to the Royal Canadian Navy outside of the ongoing competition for the $60-billion contract, documents show. The French and Italian ministers of defence submitted a letter last month to their Canadian counterpart, Harjit Sajjan, stating that they "fully support" the joint bid by Naval Group and Fincantieri to replace the RCN's existing frigates and retired destroyers. The support from the French and Italian governments could give additional weight to the long-shot proposal, which aims to bypass the official procurement process for new Canadian Surface Combatants. "Under the umbrella of an intergovernmental agreement, we will provide project management support so that the Royal Canadian Navy can operate the purchased warships, sustain their operational capabilities and manage their evolving capabilities throughout their entire lifecycle," said the letter from French Defence Minister Florence Parly and Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti. The submission from Naval and Fincantieri has shaken up the process put in place by the federal government to acquire 15 new vessels. Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding Inc. is the government's prime contractor, with a competition under way to select a warship design. Defence-industry sources said the leading contender in the process is a joint bid by U.S.-based Lockheed Martin and British-based BAE Systems. The same sources said only three of the 12 prequalified bidders submitted a formal proposal by the Nov. 30 deadline, a number the federal government will not confirm. Under Canada's defence policy unveiled earlier this year, the federal government is planning to get its first Canadian Surface Combatant in 2026, with the entire project costing between $56-billion and $60-billion. Under the Franco-Italian proposal, the 15 vessels would also be built at the Irving shipyard. Based on production costs in Europe, the two companies said they could provide the vessels to the Canadian government for $20.9-billion (€13.8-billion), with construction starting in late 2019. The bid from Naval and Fincantieri was unsolicited, essentially relying on the possibility that none of the bidders under the existing process will be deemed compliant. The defence-industry sources described the offer as a "Hail Mary" that could succeed if the ongoing process unravels, like many previous military procurements. "Everything depends with what happens with the process that is under way right now," said David Perry, senior analyst at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "If they can get two compliant bids or ideally all three ... I wouldn't see a need to go back and do a comparison with the [Naval/Fincantieri] bid." The federal government said this week that it will not even analyze the unsolicited bid. "To be clear, any proposals submitted outside of the established competitive process will not be considered," Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) said in a statement. "The submission of an unsolicited proposal at the final hour undermines the fair and competitive nature of this procurement suggesting a sole-source contracting arrangement. Acceptance of such a proposal would break faith with the bidders who invested time and effort to participate in the competitive process, put at risk the government's ability to properly equip the Royal Canadian Navy and would establish a harmful precedent for future competitive procurements," the statement said. In addition, the government rejected the notion that the Franco-Italian bid could generate significant savings, stating that the acquisition of the ships accounts for only about half of the price tag. "It is important to note that a warship project budget must cover more than just delivering the ships. It must also include the costs associated with design and definition work, infrastructure, spare parts, training, ammunition, contingencies and project management," PSPC said. The Naval/Fincantieri proposal is based on the European multimission frigate program, under which the two firms are supplying 18 ships to the French and Italian navies. The two companies said their "off-the-shelf solution" is less risky than other projects still in development. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/french-and-italian-governments-endorse-long-shot-bid-for-15-new-military-ships/article37275099/ CSC

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  26 mars 2020 | Local, C4ISR, Sécurité

  All-volunteer cyber civil defence brigade assembles to fight COVID-19 hackers

  Number of online attacks on health care institutions jumped 475 per cent in one month, says one report Murray Brewster Civil defence used to involve air raid wardens, ambulance drivers and rescue teams. That was at the height of the Cold War, and the hot wars of the 20th century that preceded it. These days, it means taking the fight online — against hackers and cyber criminals looking to take down or ransom critical infrastructure, such as hospitals. The COVID-19 crisis has prompted Canadian IT professionals to form an all-volunteer cyber defence team to protect Canada's hospitals, health-care providers, municipalities and critical infrastructure from online attacks during the COVID-19 crisis. The SecDev Group, which has pioneered advanced analytics and cyber safety, has been spearheading the recruitment effort and has asked information technology professionals to step up and provide preventative measures and remedial services. 'Preying on fear' "Hackers are targeting hospitals and health care providers, preying on their distraction, fear and anxiety and their hope for a cure," said Rafal Rohozinski, principal and CEO of the SecDev Group "Posing as public health officials from the World Health Organization, [the] Centers for Disease Control and UNICEF, cyber criminals are flooding hospitals, medical laboratories, vaccine testing facilities, municipalities and critical service providers with phishing emails, forcing some to shut down." Trudeau leaves door open to using smartphone data to track Canadians' compliance with pandemic rules Twelve companies and associations have signed on to the initiative. Together, they plan to set up a secure online exchange to match high-tech professionals — who will volunteer their services free of charge — with agencies and institutions that need help to shore up their cyber protection, or to deal with an intrusion. "It's both a patriotic and public service reflex," said Rohozinski. "If the internet goes down, and in particular if critical institutions that we count on — like hospitals, like cities, like utilities — start to be ransomed or start to go down because of cyber malfeasance, we're all in a lot of trouble." The exchange website is still in the process of being built, but Rohozinski said it will launch within days. Online attacks exploded since pandemic began Across the globe, the number of coronavirus-related attacks on health-care institutions has increased by 475 per cent in just the past month, according to a SecDev Group assessment. At the moment, no Canadian hospitals or institutions have reported being attacked. Rohozinski said there have been signs of trolling by both cyber criminals and so-called "state actors" — including some of the Russian groups identified by U.S. intelligence as being behind the tampering in the 2016 presidential election. The Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada's electronic intelligence service, has said it has taken down some fake websites that were posing as government departments and institutions and trying to scam people. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department was recently targeted and the FBI has warned that hospitals in the states with the highest rates of infection — California, New York and Washington — should be on the alert for attacks from foreign actors. Hammersmith Medicines Research, a British company that is on standby to perform medical trials on any potential COVID-19 vaccine, was hit with an online attack last week, according to published reports. Over the last few days, according to a Bloomberg news report, hackers targeted hospitals in Paris with a major cyberattack. A hospital in the Czech Republic was also hit last week in what is thought to have been a ransomware attack, which forced administrators to take the network offline. Forbes Magazine reported late last week that the cybercrime groups behind the DoppelPaymer and Maze ransomware threats had promised not to target health care organizations during the COVID-19 crisis — but at least one of the groups was reportedly linked to a recent attack. Remote work networks are vulnerable An executive at one of the companies now volunteering for the cyber civil defence initiative said one area where institutions likely need help is in protecting the virtual private networks (VPNs) of employees who've been forced to work from home because of the crisis. Robert Mazzolin, the chief cyber security strategist at the RHEA Group, said the VPN systems used by most hospitals, power plants and other utilities were never designed to support so many secure connections outside the workplace. "The world is fundamentally different than it was a week ago and I don't think any large corporation or institution realistically would have been prepared to see virtually its entire workforce be working from home via remote connections," said Mazzolin, a former brigadier-general who was responsible for cyber operations in the Canadian military. Canada's cyber spies taking down sites as battle against COVID-19 fraud begins Canada's health sector at risk of cyberattacks as COVID-19 fear spreads: CSE "That places a large stress on an institution's communications workforce. The threats out there, including ransomware — it's important to be able to defend VPNs that are stretched well beyond their normal capacity and limits." He said his company and staff, who regularly work for the European Space Agency, will be able to provide insight and capability that will complement existing networks. The mandate of CSE is to protect the federal government's electronic network and — through its cyber security centre — to provide advice and guidance to people and businesses looking for cyber security information. Rohozinski said there's a difference between providing advice and actively helping in the defence and the initiative has CSE's support. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid19-cyber-companies-1.5508570

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  1 novembre 2018 | Local, Aérospatial

  CDR: Team Artemis

  http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/46cfb3a8#/46cfb3a8/18