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Overall, costs of major DoD acquisition programs have grown by 54 percent over their lifetimes and schedule delays average two years, GAO's annual report finds. By THERESA HITCHENS WASHINGTON: Five years after the Pentagon demanded every weapon system include the requirement that it be able to fight through Russian and Chinese cyber attacks expected on future battlefields, DoD “does not often include cybersecurity” in key performance parameters (KPP) for major programs, says GAO in its annual defense acquisition review. Of the three services, the Air Force is the worst at fulfilling two of the three best cybersecurity practices, the report says. The congressional watchdog found “inconsistent implementation of leading software practices and cybersecurity measures” among high-dollar “major defense acquisition programs” (MDAPs) — 85 programs worth $1.80 trillion at the end of 2019. “This included longer-than-expected delivery times for software and delays completing cybersecurity assessments— outcomes disruptive to DOD's efforts to keep pace with warfighters' needs for enhanced, software-dependent capabilities and protect weapon systems from increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats,” GAO said in the June 3 report. Cybersecurity KPPs Left Out The GAO report explains that KPP “are considered the most critical requirements by the sponsor military organization, while key system attributes (KSA) and other performance attributes are considered essential for an effective military capability.” In 2015, DOD modified its main requirements policy—the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System Manual (JCIDS) rules on “survivability” requirements to include the ability to operate in a “degraded cyber environment.” Yet, GAO found that, at the end of 2019, 25 of the 42 major acquisition programs reviewed regarding cybersecurity practices failed to include cybersecurity as a parameter in their KPPs; “even more programs reported that their KSAs did not address cybersecurity.” GAO has targeted cybersecurity, software development and DoD-wide information technology (IT) improvement programs in its recent annual reviews because DoD weapon systems “are more networked than ever before — a change that while providing benefits for the warfighter also “has come at a cost” because “more weapon components can now be attacked using cybersecurity capabilities,” GAO explains. “Further, networks can be used as a pathway to attack other systems.” The watchdog has found consistently that failing to bake in cybersecurity requirements to system design and development ends up costing more money and time when program offices struggle to re-engineer systems once they hit production. This is a problem that affects most types of software development; and similarly trying to upgrade or replace software to improve cybersecurity often proves impossible. The 2019 report thus “looked at DOD's progress with developing: (1) strategies that help ensure that programs are planning for and documenting cybersecurity risk management efforts (cybersecurity strategies), (2) evaluations that allow testers to identify systems' weaknesses that are susceptible to cybersecurity attacks and that could potentially jeopardize mission execution (cybersecurity vulnerability evaluations), and (3) assessments that evaluate the ability of a unit equipped with a system to support assigned missions (cybersecurity assessments).” Most of the 38 MDAPs reviewed reported creation of cybersecurity strategies. However, of the 19 major programs that require cybersecurity vulnerability evaluations — under regulations set by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord — 11 have not completed them or failed to do so on time. Another three said they didn't have a schedule yet for doing so; and one — an unnamed Air Force program — told GAO it actually didn't know if it had undertaken the required evaluation. Indeed, the Air Force had the worst record on the evaluations, with none of its six programs having completed the evaluation processes. Of the 42 programs, 14 told GAO they had not finished their cybersecurity assessments. GAO also “found variation among the military departments in the rates they had completed these assessments. Specifically, among the three military departments, the Army reported the best rate for programs conducting cybersecurity assessments, while the Air Force had the lowest rate.” IT and Software Problems Plague Programs “Over the years, weapon acquisition program officials, through their responses to our questionnaires, have consistently acknowledged software development as a risk item in their efforts to develop and field capabilities to the warfighter, and this year is no different,” GAO reported somewhat wryly. GAO found that more than a quarter of the 42 MDAPs reviewed reported cost growth from software changes but admitted that “details are limited” in DoD reporting. Part of that uncertainty might be due to the fact that GAO found a number of major programs are transitioning to commercial approaches to software development, such as “agile development” that involves introducing incremental improvements over time. However, GAO found, “deliveries often lag behind industry standards.” Indeed, Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper told a webinar yesterday sponsored by Dcode, a tech innovation hub connecting commercial industry to government agencies, that while the Air Force can't go back and re-do old programs, “every new contract we do has to include DevSecOps.” “We are all in,” he added, “it's going to change the world.” DevSecOps stands for “development, security and operations,” and is a framework and tools for “designing in” software and cybersecurity. Roper long has been a key champion within DoD for moving to commercial practices and has repeatedly said he wants the Air Force to become a “software company.” GAO said that officials from 26 of the MDAPs regarding software development reported that software concerns had created risks at some point during their program's history. The biggest problem faced was — you guessed it — changes necessitated to ensure cybersecurity. The second biggest program was that the software development simply was “more difficult than expected.” Hardware design changes also played a big role in creating software problems, requiring subsequent changes in software configurations. Interestingly, while often bemoaned as a cause for program delays, requirements changes came in at the low of end of the reported issues troubling software development. Of the 15 major DoD IT programs reviewed, worth $15.1 million, 10 had delays in their original baseline schedules. But on the bright side, 11 showed decreased life cycle cost estimates. Further, all 15 have cybersecurity strategies as required by DoD regulations, and most reported having undertaken in 2019 at least one operational cybersecurity test. That said, “less than half reported conducting developmental cybersecurity testing,” GAO found. And according to DoD's own “Cybersecurity Testing and Evaluation Guidebook,” GAO scolds, “not conducting developmental cybersecurity testing puts programs at an increased risk of cost and schedule growth and poor program performance. Cost and Schedule Growth Stabilizes As it does every year, GAO also reviewed all 85 MDAPs for cost and schedule growth, and on that front the news is good: GAO found that the programs DoD Overview “have generally stabilized non-quantity related — (i.e. meaning not related to buy more stuff) — cost growth and schedule growth.” “Between 2018 and 2019, total acquisition cost estimates for DoD's 85 current MDAPs grew by a combined $64 billion (a 4 percent increase), growth that was driven by decisions to increase planned quantities of some weapon systems,” GAO found. “For example, DoD more than doubled in the past year the total number of missiles it plans to acquire through the Air Force's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile program.” And some programs actually lowered their year-average costs. GAO found that 55 MDAPs (more than half) “had lower average procurement unit costs since last year. Examples of programs with lower unit costs include the Navy's Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (16 percent decrease) and the Air Force's F-22 Increment 3.2B Modernization (15 percent decrease).” “Also between 2018 and 2019, capability delivery schedules for MDAPs increased, on average, by just over 1 month (a 1 percent increase),” GAO said. However, the report cautioned that cost/schedule performance looks “less encouraging as measured against their original approved program baselines.” The report found that the major acquisition programs “have accumulated over $628 billion (or 54%) in total cost growth since program start, most of which is unrelated to the increase in quantities purchased. Additionally, over the same time period, time required to deliver initial capabilities has increased by 30%, resulting in an average delay of more than two years. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/06/major-dod-acquisition-programs-flounder-on-cybersecurity-gao

Steve Trimble A new hypersonic weapon concept has emerged inadvertently on a social media page managed by U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy that describes a Mach 5-plus projectile with the ability to penetrate into defended airspace and dispense a multi-role loitering air system over a target area. The concept—labeled as the Vintage Racer Loitering Weapon System—reveals a solution to an operational problem for the Army: When high-speed munitions, such as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), enter service with the ability to strike targets thousands of kilometers away, how will the Army find the most elusive targets, such as road-mobile launchers for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) or radars for air defense batteries? The Vintage Racer concept, as revealed so far, suggests it may be possible to launch a hypersonic projectile into a general area without knowing the specific location of the target. As it reaches the target area, the projectile may be able to dispense a loitering air system, which is then uses its own sensors to find and identify the target. If the loitering system also carries a warhead, it may be able to strike the target by itself or transmit the target coordinates to another weapon. Once the existence of the Vintage Racer concept appeared, a Russian expert on military-political affairs noted such an idea has been discussed as a possibility within the hypersonic weapon community. “The fear is that [this] hypersonic ‘something' might reach the patrol area of road-mobile ICBM launchers [after] penetrating any possible air and missile defense, and then dispense loitering submunitions that will find launchers in the forests,” said Dmitry Stefanovitch, an expert at the Moscow-based Russian International Affairs Council. Only the broadest information about the Vintage Racer weapon is visible on the briefing paper describing the concept. The image appears in an album of photos from the Association of the U.S. Army convention posted to McCarthy's Flickr account last October. Most of the pictures from the event show McCarthy meeting attendees, giving speeches and receiving informal, standing pitches from industry officials in the exhibit hall. One picture shows McCarthy standing at a table across from an unidentified industry official in the exhibit hall. The table is covered with multiple objects, including a General Atomics press release, what appears to be a model of the LRHW and a rifled barrel of a 155mm artillery gun with a hole burned through the object. The table also is covered with at least four sheets of briefing papers, of which three are not visible. The only visible paper, which is partly obscured by McCarthy's right hand, is headlined “Vintage Racer - Loitering Weapon System (LWS) Overview.” The paper includes six main bullet points, which read “Hypersonic Ingress,” “Survivable,” “Time Over Target,” “Multi-role,” “Modular payload,” and “Cost Imposition Strategy.” Ten sub-bullets are also visible on the page, but the letters are not readable. At the bottom of the page, a tag line highlighted in yellow is partly obscured by McCarthy's hand, but the visible portion reads: “Long Range, Rapid Ingress.” A vague reference to Vintage Racer previously appeared in Defense Department budget justification documents released in February, but went unnoticed. Under a line item owned by the Office of Secretary of Defense for a “quick reaction fund,” Vintage Racer is described as a “recent success story.” “The project successfully validated aerodynamic design with wind tunnel testing and integrated a guidance subsystem for targeted kinetic effects before culminating in a fiscal 2019 flight test. Documentation and prototype technologies transitioned to the U.S. Army for additional development and follow-on acquisition activities,” according to budget documents. https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/sensors-electronic-warfare/us-army-flickr-page-inadvertently-reveals-new-hypersonic

Andrew Eversden The Air Force awarded a contract potentially worth $35 million to Wickr, a secure communications platform provider, the Defense Department announced June 1. Under the two-year contract, the Air Force will use Wickr's secure recall, alert and messaging services. The cloud-based application suite will provide end-to-end encrypted file, video, chat, text and voice services for end users. The Air Force is obligating $7.7 million in fiscal 2020 funds at the time of the award, according to the contract announcement. The award was made by the Air Force Installation Contracting Center at Hurlburt Field in Florida. Joel Wallenstrom, CEO of Wickr, told C4ISRNET in a June 4 interview that the award was the largest contract his company has won. The San Francisco-based company has already established a relationship with the Air Force through the service's Strategic Financing program, which includes several internal innovation and small business outreach hubs. In April, Wickr announced the program had awarded his company a contract as part of $550 million in awards it gave out to 21 companies. According to Wallenstrom, Wickr's platform includes a federated network capability that allows a network administrator to create temporary environments for users to communicate with allies or family members without increasing risk. The platform "not only secures things on a day-to-day basis, but in very special circumstances you can create temporary secure operating environments with people of choice, but that doesn't mean you bring them into ... your environment permanently,” Wallenstrom said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-networks/2020/06/05/air-force-awards-multimillion-dollar-secure-communications-contract

By Francois De Beaupuy and Tara Patel The French government will present a plan worth billions of euros to rescue its beleaguered aerospace industry, protect key suppliers from Chinese interests and may bring forward some defense orders, the transport minister said. The aid package to be presented Tuesday is aimed at European jet manufacturer Airbus SE, engine maker Safran SA, defense group Thales SA, and hundreds of French suppliers that have seen their businesses dry up during the coronavirus pandemic. The plan will be worth as much as 10 billion euros ($11.3 billion), Les Echos reported Monday, although it's not clear what will be included in the total. “We will invest several billions over a rather long period,” French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said on LCI television Sunday. “The state will be here, the European Union will be present.” The package will aim to kickstart air transport, relaunch manufacturing, and develop less-polluting “hybrid planes” toward 2027 and “carbon neutral” aircraft by 2035, the minister said. In exchange, the industry will have to create or relocate as many jobs as it can in Europe, he said. However, the minister said the industry will probably have to cut jobs. With airlines grounding their fleets worldwide because of the health crisis, Airbus faces a 40% drop in its activity over at least two years, he said. Airlines around the world are struggling to survive, with European giants Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Air France-KLM getting state bailouts and carriers desperate to salvage business from what is normally the busy summer. The French government has extended loans and guarantees worth 7 billion euros to Air France-KLM, tying the funds to a reduction in carbon emissions and services on its domestic routes. The rescue will include the creation of several funds to consolidate the industry and to prevent key suppliers from being acquired by foreign investors, Djebbari said. Chinese companies are making “offers” to small and medium-sized companies with “critical skills” that are currently weakened by the crisis, he said. Many of the companies that have been hardest hit are small and medium-sized. While they have limited access to commercial bank funding, some are considered strategic because they are also defense suppliers. Read More: Macron Is Set to Unveil Rescue Package for French Aerospace Many European nations will probably agree to reopen air travel in the so-called Schengen area from June 15 assuming that the coronavirus crisis continue to recede, Djebbari added. The number of Air France's flights may rise from 5% of its usual level to 15% from June 15, and to 40% in mid-August, he said. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-07/france-plans-billions-of-euros-to-rescue-aerospace-industry

Australian company BlueScope Steel AIS has signed a contract with ASC Pty Ltd Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of BAE Systems Australia , for the Hunter-class Frigate program. Xavier Vavasseur 05 Jun 2020 Under the $2.6 million contrac, BlueScope is set to deliver more than 1500 tonnes of steel plate which will be used to construct five ship blocks in the prototyping phase of the program. The blocks will then test processes, systems, tools, and facilities prior to construction commencing on the first of nine frigates by end 2022. This is the first of a number of contracts ASC Shipbuilding will award to Australian businesses in the lead up to the Hunter program's prototyping phase and realises the company's commitment to use Australian steel for the $35 billion Hunter Class Frigate Program. During prototyping, five representative ship ‘blocks' will be built at the world-class Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia. During this phase, the processes, systems, tools, facilities and workforce competencies will be extensively tested and refined before construction commences on the first frigate in 2022. ASC Shipbuilding will design and build nine Hunter-class ships, which will be among the world's most advanced anti-submarine warfare frigates, for the Royal Australian Navy. The Hunter-class will begin entering service in the late 2020s replacing the eight Anzac Class frigates, which have been in service since 1996. About Hunter-class Frigate The Hunter Class FFGs will be built in Australia by ASC Shipbuilding at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia, based on BAE System's Global Combat Ship design (also selected for the Type 26 City-class of the Royal Navy and Canadian Surface Combatant or CSC for the Royal Canadian Navy). According to the Royal Australian Navy, the Hunter Class will provide the Australian Defence Force with the highest levels of lethality and deterrence our major surface combatants need in periods of global uncertainty. They will have the capability to conduct a variety of missions independently, or as part of a task group, with sufficient range and endurance to operate effectively throughout the region. The frigates will also have the flexibility to support non-warfare roles such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Incorporating the leading edge Australian-developed CEA Phased-Array Radar and the US Navy's Aegis combat management system, with an Australian interface developed by Saab Australia, the Hunter Class will be one of the most capable warships in the world. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2020/06/australias-hunter-class-frigate-program-steel-contract-signed/

Les trois partenaires du programme MGCS (Main Ground Combat System), les groupes allemands Rheinmetall et Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) et le groupe français Nexter, ont signé fin mai le premier contrat d'études avec le BAAINBw (l'office fédéral allemand de l'Equipement, des Technologies de l'information et du Soutien en service de la Bundeswehr), établissant le partage de la charge de travail industriel, rapporte l'Usine Nouvelle. L'Usine Nouvelle du 8 juin

David Axe The Russian defense ministry has insured its new stealth drone and its control station for 1.4 billion rubles. That's $20 million. And it's probably worth every ruble. The S-70 Hunter-B, a jet-powered flying-wing drone, perhaps is the most significant new warplane to emerge in Russia since the Su-57 stealth fighter that first flew in 2010 and now is in low-rate production. The Hunter-B first appeared in January 2019 on the ground at an airfield in Novosibirsk in southern Russia. It flew for the first time on Aug. 3, 2019. The Sukhoi-designed drone zoomed over the airfield for more than 20 minutes at a maximum altitude of around 2,000 feet, according to TASS, the state news organization that also reported the value of the robot's insurance. It's easy to dismiss the Hunter-B as a developmental dead-end, owing to Russia's poor track record when it comes to fielding unmanned aerial vehicles and the satellite infrastructure that helps controllers on the ground direct a UAV's flight. But the likelihood of Hunter-B eventually entering front-line service with the Russian air force is "big," said Tom Cooper, an author and independent expert on Russian military. "The Russian military is running multiple UAV-related projects," Cooper said. "Thus the emergence of this project is perfectly normal." "At this point, it is going to be the heaviest and fastest UAV [in Russian service] if and when fielded,” said Samuel Bendett, an analyst with the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. Bendett estimated the Hunter-B's weight at around 20 tons and its top speed at more than 600 miles per hour. The drone is in the same class as a manned lighter fighter. The Russian air force reportedly is considering assigning Hunter-Bs as robotic wingmen for Su-57 pilots, extending the coverage of an Su-57 flight's sensors and adding to the manned pilots' firepower. On Sept. 27, the sole Hunter-B prototype flew in formation with an Su-57. The U.S., Japanese and Australian air forces are developing their own wingman drones. But Sukhoi has its work cut out for it completing the Hunter-B. “A a host of aerodynamic, electronic and high-tech issues need to be worked out,” Bendett said. And to be stealthy, the drone needs a new engine layout. In its current configuration, the Hunter-B's AL-31F motor projects from the rear of the airframe, creating a major source of radar reflectivity. Sukhoi has tinkered with a new version of Hunter-B that buries that engine deep inside the airframe, in the same way that Western firms do with their own stealth drones. As the high-stakes development continues, Sukhoi at least can take comfort that its drone is fully insured. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2020/06/05/how-much-does-it-cost-to-insure-your-russian-made-stealth-drone/#5a88c68023aa

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By: Tom Kington ROME – Italy and France are to fund half the cost of new cutting-edge technology projects launched by Naviris, the joint venture between the countries' leading shipyards. The money will be used for development work on computer-aided engineering, vessel lifecycle simulation, energy efficiency, fuel cells for surface vessels, logistics and new technologies for helping sail in rough weather. Naviris is a 50-50 joint venture launched in 2019 by Italy's Fincantieri and France's Naval Group to develop common vessels including a new European corvette which has attracted interest from Spain after Greece signed up. The deal on funding for new research, announced on Thursday, will see the injection of state cash overseen by OCCAR, the European procurement organization which is used by nations to manage multinational programs. “Through this deal, managed by OCCAR, Naviris will provide half the funding for the research, while the defense ministries of Italy and France will provide the other half,” said a Fincantieri source. “Naviris will have the intellectual property of the results, which can be exploited by Italy and France for their navies,” he added. No value was given for the three-and-a-half-year contract. In a statement, Naviris said that three Naval Group sites will be involved in the projects – Nantes-Indret, Ollioules and Lorient, as well as its subsidiary SIREHNA. Fincantieri facilities at Genova and Trieste will work on the project, along with its subsidiaries Cetena and Seastema. OCCAR said that the contract would be followed by a successive deal involving the European organization in upgrade work undertaken by Naviris on Horizon frigates operated by France and Italy. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/06/04/french-italian-naval-joint-venture-invests-in-future-technologies/