10 mars 2021 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
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4 juillet 2019 | International, Sécurité, Autre défense
U.S. Security Requires Multiple Elements of Deterrence
In the context of U.S. defense policy, "deterrence" is typically understood to mean "nuclear." And America's nuclear triad — ground-based missiles, air-delivered bombs, and submarine-launched missiles — serves as America's biggest form of deterrence, which underwrites everything its men and women in uniform do.
But according to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson, nuclear weapons are just one of multiple elements of deterrence the U.S. must consider either for itself, or for being aware that other nations might be using them. During a July 2 breakfast presentation hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in Washington, Richardson laid out five such elements of deterrence already in use or that must be considered more deeply.
Nuclear
"It's an incredibly powerful military capability where potentially everybody gets destroyed," Richardson said. "We must maintain our ability to be competitive and relevant in this domain ... [and] strike back at anybody who can pose an existential nuclear threat to the homeland."
The triad itself includes ground-based missiles — commonly referred to as intercontinental ballistic missiles; submarine-launched ballistic missiles; and air-launched cruise missiles dropped from bomber aircraft. In all three areas the U.S. is underway with modernization efforts.
But the nuclear environment globally is changing, Richardson said.
"More nations are seeking to join the club," he said. Some of those nations can bring high-tech weapons, while some are using low-tech, including dirty bombs and systems that can be manufactured with 3-D printers. Additionally, not all nuclear weapons are "strategic" in nature. Some are smaller "tactical" weapons.
"The nuclear element of this mix remains very relevant, very active, and deserves a lot more attention in my mind," Richardson said.
Cyber
Richardson said when it comes to cyber as a deterrent, the U.S. can't maintain only defensive capabilities. "We have to have an ability for offensive cyber to truly achieve a sense of deterrence there," he said.
Recent cyber provocations, he said, are "multidimensional in ways that may or may not have been expected." Included there, he said, are theft of intellectual property, invasion of privacy, invasion of identity, distortion of identity, "and most recently, perception management. This perception management idea ... might be kind of our new Sputnik moment."
Space
"The competition is absolutely heating up in space," Richardson said. "Of these elements that are going to constitute a tailored strategic deterrent approach, space has got to be one of those."
Richard posited that in space, it might become apparent that, using directed energy weapons, it proves far easier to destroy something in space than it is to put something back up into space. "These things operate really fast ... and space goes away as an asset," he said. "You can see kind of a mutually assured destruction scenario in space pretty easily. Have we thought about that going forward?"
Chemical, Biological Capabilities
Increasingly, Richardson said, chemical and biological deterrence will come into the mix, especially as technologies such as CRISPR — a genome editing tool — allow for more tailored capabilities.
"One of the self-deterrent aspects of chemical/biological is that it's very hard to control. It goes viral, if you will," he said. "But with these tailoring things, you can get a lot more specific. It becomes a lot more targetable. And so, it's something we have to mind."
Conventional Weapons
U.S. deterrence advantages in conventional weapons have relied, so far, on superior targeting ability, Richardson said. But that may become less important.
"We have better sensors, better satellites, better ways to connect that data with our command and control systems, our targeting systems," he said. "We had an advantage in terms of precision."
Now, he said, such sensors are ubiquitous, and commercial and military sensors are going up into space. There are cameras everywhere.
"This idea of being able to locate things with precision is becoming more ubiquitous," he said. "It's less of an advantage. It's really the team that can manage that information better that's going to achieve the advantage."
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9 septembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
Eurofighter Typhoon defensive aids sub-system enhancement study contract awarded
The EuroDASS consortium, which comprises Leonardo, Elettronica, Indra and Hensoldt, will spend 18 months exploring future upgrades for the Eurofighter Typhoon's world-class electronic warfare system. The Praetorian Defensive Aids Sub System (DASS) is highly-regarded by users and has kept Eurofighter Typhoon crews safe throughout peace-keeping operations in Libya and Syria. The study will support the ability of the Eurofighter Typhoon's defences to keep pace with new technology and techniques employed by rapidly-developing threat systems. Leonardo, on behalf of the EuroDASS consortium, has received a contract from BAE Systems that will see the consortium explore the future of the Eurofighter Typhoon's ‘Praetorian' Defensive Aids Sub System (DASS). The ‘Praetorian Long Term Evolution (LTE)' study will lay the groundwork for future development work which will ensure that the Typhoon's Electronic Warfare system will remain one of the most advanced in the world for decades to come. The contract is a key part of the wider Eurofighter Typhoon LTE study, which aims to identify a suite of technology enhancements for the Eurofighter Typhoon's weapons system infrastructure and propulsion to provide a clear road map for the future of the platform. The Praetorian DASS is provided by the EuroDASS consortium, which comprises Leonardo, Elettronica, Indra and Hensoldt. It equips the Eurofighter Typhoon with advanced protection from threats including Infra-Red (IR or heat-seeking) and radar-guided missiles. The system is well-regarded by users and has been battle-tested on peace-keeping operations in Libya and Syria. The LTE project will enable Eurofighter Typhoon to be a survivable and effective combat aircraft out to 2060 against a background of accelerating technology development by potential adversaries. The Praetorian Defensive Aids Sub System (DASS) is the Eurofighter Typhoon's protection system, which integrates sensors and jamming equipment to provide exceptional situational awareness and a digital stealth capability for the aircraft, achieved through advanced electronic deception techniques. The Praetorian LTE study will evaluate potential future DASS requirements, enabling the aircraft to cope faster, easier and more affordably with new threats as they arise in the future. The study is expected to deliver options for long-term technical solutions and enablers which will sustain the growth path of the platform in the future. Options are likely to coverboth improved architecture, which new capabilities can be added to in a more agile and lower-cost fashion, and improvements to the exploitation and fusion of sensors to support the multi-role flexibility of the platform. A number of options will be explored and presented to the Eurofighter partner nations to support informed decision making. https://www.eurofighter.com/news-and-events/2019/09/eurofighter-typhoon-defensive-aids-sub-system-enhancement-study-contract-awarded
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7 septembre 2018 | International, Terrestre
Can soldiers use their own movement, marching to charge the batteries they carry? The Army’s working on it
By: Todd South Scientists with the Army's communications and electronic research group are looking to the soldier's own footsteps, and other means, to potentially increase battery life and lighten the load for increasingly tech-laden troops. Army researchers are forecasting that the battery load for a dismounted soldier could double by 2025, given the need for more sophisticated and powerful electronic systems being used by soldiers. That load currently runs from 15 to 25 pounds for a three-day mission, no small amount when every ounce counts, and soldiers will strip rations and cut a toothbrush handle to save weight. New battery and power requirements could come from augmented reality equipment and the more sophisticated Next Generation Squad Weapon program, which will add new targeting capabilities to the soldier's rifle but also need power that's not there now. Julianne Douglas, the Energy Harvest lead with the Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center said in an Army release that the “added weight means soldiers can get fatigued much more easily, are more susceptible to injury and are less able to maneuver nimbly.” Full article: https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/09/06/can-soldiers-use-their-own-movement-marching-to-charge-the-batteries-they-carry-the-armys-working-on-it