31 juillet 2024 | International, C4ISR, Sécurité
Chinese Hackers Target Japanese Firms with LODEINFO and NOOPDOOR Malware
Chinese APT10 group targets Japanese firms with LODEINFO and NOOPDOOR malware, Cybereason uncovers prolonged cyber espionage.
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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13 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial
Raytheon Technologies to train Afghan Air Force pilots
Orlando, Fla., May 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - The U.S. Army Contracting Command has selected Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a business of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), to train Afghanistan Air Force pilots under a three-year contract valued up to $145 million. Raytheon will conduct initial flight training for the U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation. The Afghanistan Air Force students will go through flight school in third-party nations in Europe and the Middle East. Raytheon will provide tailored training for the Afghanistan Air Force pilots, including classroom, fixed-wing and rotary aircraft instruction. "Raytheon training experts help the Afghanistan Air Force develop a pipeline of skilled flyers and officers," said Bob Williams, vice president of Global Training Solutions at Raytheon Intelligence & Space. "Our program uses the latest training techniques, and a focus on individual mentorship to produce well-rounded officers that will help create a secure future for Afghanistan." The Raytheon Afghanistan Air Force pilot training program began in 2010. The original mission for basic flight proficiency has expanded to advanced aircraft qualifications and flight techniques. Raytheon's focus on mentorship and leadership training helps the program maintain a 93 percent graduation rate with every student returned to Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Air Force Pilot Training program was awarded under the Enterprise Training Services Contract vehicle. Raytheon previously announced a related task order for the Aviation Maintenance Training program. About Raytheon Technologies Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide. With 195,000 employees and four industry-leading businesses - Collins Aerospace Systems, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense - the company delivers solutions that push the boundaries in avionics, cybersecurity, directed energy, electric propulsion, hypersonics, and quantum physics. The company, formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses, is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Media Contact Brad Bucher 571.250.2127 rispr@raytheon.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/raytheon-technologies-to-train-afghan-air-force-pilots-301057105.html SOURCE Raytheon Technologies
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7 septembre 2018 | International, C4ISR
Viasat wins contract for internet aboard Air Force One
By: Kelsey Atherton Air Force One's most important mission is to support managing an apocalypse. The daily function of the vehicles is, of course, regular transport of the president of the United States, an airborne White House that transports the functions of the executive branch to wherever it may travel. But it is as a command center in crisis, up to and including nuclear war, that the special modifications of highly customized Boeing 747s are most valuable. In all of that, it is the ability of the airplane to continue to communicate with people on the ground that matters most. On Sept. 6, the United States Defense Information Systems Agency awarded Viasat a contract worth $55.6 million a year to provide U.S. government senior leader and VIP aircraft with in-flight broadband and connectivity services. Valued at $559.8 million for the base year and seven follow-on years, the contract may, in a major crisis, prove that value in maintaining a consistent chain of command. Viasat first won a contract to provide the bandwidth in 2016. “The service enables an elite connectivity experience with the ability to use the in-flight broadband connection to stream full-motion high-definition video for en-route command-and-control (C2) missions,” says Viasat. It also, Viasat continues, allows the people on board the connected aircraft “to access real-time intelligence and other location-based, live-sensor data for critical decision-making and more.” With the broadband provided by the Viasat connection, a president on board Air Force One can receive the relevant intelligence reports, communicate with counterparts elsewhere in government and the military, and then respond to the crisis by crafting an appropriate response. Or even a tweet. https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2018/09/06/viasat-is-now-responsible-for-internet-aboard-air-force-one