Nouvelles

United Launch Alliance successfully launched two Air Force satellites aboard an Atlas 5 rocket from a launch complex at Cape Canaveral in Florida April 14. The Air Force's dual-payload mission included an experimental satellite bus, known by the acronym EAGLE, and a secretive communications satellite, the Continuous Broadband Augmented SATCOM spacecraft (CBAS). The Air Force had kept the identity of CBAS (pronounced “sea bass) under wraps until April 6. Even after acknowledging its existence, the service declined to identify the the contractor who built CBAS and only released a short description dressing the spacecraft's mission. “The mission of CBAS is to augment existing military satellite communications capabilities and broadcast military data continuously through space-based, satellite communications relay links,” the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center said in a release. In the lower position of the payload shroud, attached to aft of the CBAS, sat the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) Augmented Geosynchronous Laboratory Experiment satellite, dubbed EAGLE. Developed by Orbital ATK for the Air Force Research Laboratory, EAGLE is both a satellite and bus platform hosting a suite of other experiential payloads for the Department of Defense. EAGLE's primary mission is to demonstrate a maneuverable vehicle design which can transport up to six payloads to GEO, according to a ULA release. One payloads on board the EAGLE is the Mycroft satellite. Named after the older brother of Sherlock Holmes, the Mycroft is a mini satellite designed to deploy away from the EAGLE only to return within one kilometer of its parent spacecraft. From there it will evaluate the EAGLE's surroundings using an space situational awareness camera and sensors to perform guidance, navigation and control functions on the EAGLE, according to an Air Force fact sheet. “Together, EAGLE and Mycroft help train operators and development of tactics, techniques and procedures during exercises or experiments to improve space warfighting,” the fact sheet reads. “Other experiments hosted on the EAGLE will detect, identify and analyze system threats such as man-made disturbances, space weather events or collisions with small meteorites.” Mycroft is a follow-up to the ANGLES satellite which was launched in 2014 and ended its mission in November. ANGLES was used by the Air Force to evaluate space-based threats and to expand techniques used to maneuver closer to specific objects on orbit. The satellites launched Saturday were part of the Air Force's multi-manifested mission called Air Force Space Command (AFSPC)-11. The Air Force declared the launch a success shortly after 2 a.m. EDT on Sunday in a press release. Raytheon's Infrared Imaging Space Experiment (IRISX), was also included in the launch. The IRISX is an electro-optical instrument placed in geostationary orbit, to test new concepts for persistent Earth viewing, the company said. “IRISX will explore the applicability of advanced imaging and data processing techniques for Department of Defense remote sensing applications,” according to a release. “The results will be used to verify, validate, and update physics-based phenomenology models in order to advance the scientific knowledge underlying imaging techniques.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/satellites/2018/04/16/air-force-launches-experiment-to-boost-satellite-communications/

By: Burak Ege Bekdil ANKARA, Turkey — In an effort to boost indigenous defense programs, Turkey is providing incentives, which include generous tax breaks, tax reductions and exemptions from import duties. The incentives include additional levies and soft loans. In just the first two months of 2018, the government incorporated 13 defense investment projects submitted by 12 companies into its incentives program. These investments are worth $350 million. The largest investment program benefiting from the incentives during the January/February time frame was Roketsan's new production line. The state-controlled missile maker's investment plan is worth $217 million. Military electronics specialist Aselsan, Turkey's largest defense company, has won incentives support for its new $35 million investment in electronic systems and new $40 million investment in aerial and missile systems. Official figures show a boom in private defense investment, too. According to the Ministry of Economy, $1.9 billion of defense investment by private companies will be subsidized by government incentives this year. These investment plans include a total of $220 million for armored vehicles, a laser gun and unmanned land vehicles; and $125 million in diesel tank engines by armored vehicle producer BMC, a Turkish-Qatari private joint venture. Private firm Most Makina will receive government incentives for its planned $385 million investment in steel equipment for defense systems. Turkish Aerospace Industries, or TAI, will invest $1.2 billion in its TF-X program, an ambitious plan for the design, development and production of Turkey's first indigenous fighter jet. TAI is developing the TF-X with BAE Systems. https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2018/04/16/turkey-provides-tax-breaks-loans-to-attract-investment-in-local-defense-programs/

By: Mark Pomerleau The Army is upgrading how it tracks friendly forces to increase readiness. During the fiscal 2019 budget roll out in February, Army officials at the Pentagon indicated that the service would be accelerating its Joint Battle Command-Platform, which provides friendly forces awareness information known as blue force tracking, as well as encrypted data and faster satellite network connectivity. The change is intended to solve mounted mission command problems across all formations. The new budget request shows the service is serious about the issue. The Army asked for $431 million for the program in FY2019. That's up from a total of $283 million during the FY2018 budget. Moreover, the Army plans to procure 26,355 systems as opposed to 16,552 from the FY2018 budget. However, officials in the program office were careful to note this was not a “plus-up, so to speak,” but an effort to accelerate the fielding of the tracking systems. C4ISRNET's Mark Pomerleau recently spoke about the program's modernization efforts with Col. Troy Crosby, project manager for Mission Command, alongside Lt. Col. Shane Sims, product manager for JBC-P, assigned to Project Mission Command. C4ISRNET: How should we interpret the FY2019 budget request for this program? COL. TROY CROSBY: It's important to understand that there wasn't necessarily a plus-up. Really what happened is we shifted already approved authorizations to the left. We're just expediting sooner. The Army asked us what we could do to modernize faster ... essentially, we went back to them and said give us the funding and the resources to move a lot of those units to the left because every year the G-3/5/7 comes out with this priority list and we weren't able to get down to that priority list because of funding. That's really what you're seeing with that movement of money from the out years closer in to the left. C4ISRNET: What led to the decision to baseline the program across formations? CROSBY: The Army's looking to standardize their baselines not only on the platforms like JBC-P, but also a similar effort in the command post with software baseline reduction. Moving to the standard baseline on the platform-side helps with training, readiness and the physical constraints as we can depreciate the older versions of FBCB2/BFT [Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below/Blue Force Tracking] out of sustainment. C4ISRNET: How does standardization help the Army? CROSBY: Any time you're greatly standardized in a organization the size of the Army, you're going to get easier interoperability down at the tactical level. If Lt. Col. Sims is Sgt. Sims and he is in a unit at Fort Stewart and we were trained on the current systems in the force and then he gets [a permanent change of station] out to Fort Riley, he already has a base of knowledge when he hits the ground on what those systems are because they're the same across the force. So, the training burden for his new units greatly reduced. I think it also helps in readiness as units and soldiers move around the battlespace. The other reason the Army really wants to standardize on JBC-P is, like with all systems in the tactical network, we're always looking to improve cyber posture, and there were multiple improvements in our cyber posturing that the department felt were relevant to try to accelerate so we could get that capability to the entire force as quickly as possible. C4ISRNET: In terms of cyber, what are some modernization efforts you're undertaking to help this platform perform in the more dynamic environments? CROSBY: I think the best way that we can characterize it is looking to ... achieve a cyber posture that allows us to operate both in a counter-insurgency/counterterrorism role and a near-peer adversary role. We're looking to answer both sides of that coin. Yes, current fight, but we're also looking to make sure we're cyber postured for a near-peer. LT. COL. SHANE SIMS: You can probably draw some conclusions from what you know on the commercial side. Imagine having a computer that's over 20 years old — that's where some of our platforms are right now when you're talking about the FBCB2 that was fielded almost two decades ago. C4ISRNET: In terms of your FY19 funding, could it be characterized as investing in standards to help increase readiness and lethality? CROSBY: Very much so. The plus-up kind of touched a couple of areas. On the research and development side, the plus-up helps us in looking at ways to modernize and bring new capability for the blue force tracking network side. We're really looking to expedite that fielding for better cyber posture. C4ISRNET: It sounds like standardization is very important from an Army readiness and lethality perspective. SIMS: When talking JBC-P, there are really three components: the software, the hardware and then the network. Really, what we're doing on a couple fronts [is] we're expediting the fielding to get the hardware out there but that's going to set the conditions for what we're doing in the command post with the infrastructure. That same infrastructure is going to reside on our hardware that's in the platform. The commanders are in environments where they experience something completely different in the command post than you experience on the platforms. You hear repeatedly from the commanders, “Can I have the same type of user experience?” Data's really what we're addressing with the modernization of the command post and the mounted computing environment. That user experience is going to be one and the same for the commander when he or she is in the command post and then when they get in the vehicle. That is really what we're doing with modernization for JBC-P. C4ISRNET: The National Defense Strategy has stressed prioritization on great power competition. How does JBC-P modernization and standardization fit into that strategy? CROSBY: The first one is looking to modernize JBC-P mission command on the move at the platform level. How we continue to modernize and field as fast as we can so that we can maintain both that counter-insurgency/counterterrorism fight and near-peer adversaries is one piece of this. https://www.c4isrnet.com/thought-leadership/2018/04/13/how-the-army-plans-to-improve-its-friendly-force-tracking/

By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department is creating a new position to help formulate its software strategy and ensure it keeps pace with commercial advancements — and the most important resposiblity will be overseeing the F-35 joint strike fighter's agile software strategy. During a Friday roundtable with reporters, Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, announced that she has tapped Jeff Boleng to the newly created position of special assistant for software acquisition. Boleng, currently the acting chief technology officer at Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, will start April 16 as a member of Lord's team. “Jeff Boleng will spend over 90 percent of his time on F-35. He is going to be the individual who is working amongst all of the groups to enable us to bring the right talent onboard,” Lord said. “We have a challenge, I think both within the JPO [F-35 joint program office] as well as Lockheed Martin, in terms of getting a critical mass of contemporary software skill sets to begin to move in the direction we want to.” As the F-35 joint program office embarks on a new strategy called Continuous Capability Development and Delivery, or C2D2, which involves introducing agile software development, Lord wants to ensure that both the JPO and Lockheed have employees with the right training to execute the effort and that they can attract new professionals with additional software expertise. “This is something that [Lockheed CEO] Marillyn Hewson and I have talked about,” she said. “Lockheed Martin has some excellent software capability throughout the corporation. My expectation is that they're going to leverage that on the F-35. And as we within the Department of Defense really increase our capability for software development focused on C2D2, our expectation is that Lockheed Martin will do the exact same thing. “So they have the capability. I'm very energized about the leadership focus that I have seen in the last four to eight weeks, so I have great expectations that that will continue and that Lockheed Martin will keep pace or outpace DoD in terms of modernization for F-35 software development.” Boleng, a former cyberspace operations officer and software engineer who served more than 20 years with the Air Force, last held the position of teaching computer science at the Air Force Academy before moving to the private sector. At Carnegie Mellon, he is responsible for spearheading the institutes research and development portfolio, which includes software development, data analytics and cyber security activities in support of the Defense Department. As the special assistant for software acquisition, he will help develop department-wide software development standards and policies and “advise department leadership on latest best practices in commercial software development.” Boleng will also interface with Pentagon organizations charged with ramping up the department's software prowess such as Defense Digital Services, a small group of former private-sector tech professionals who led the department's “Hack the Pentagon” events and have conducted a few assessments of F-35 software. That starts with a meeting today between Lord, Boleng and a Defense Innovation Board group centered on software acquisition, which has been embedded both with the joint program office and Lockheed Martin, Lord said. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/04/13/pentagon-creates-new-position-to-help-guide-software-acqusition-f-35-development/

Le Canada, un chef de file mondial dans cinq secteurs de technologies émergentes, continue de mettre à profit ses forces Le 23 avril 2018, Ottawa L'industrie de la défense du Canada est saine et novatrice, alors que plus de 650 entreprises emploient plus de 60 000 Canadiens. Le gouvernement du Canada soutient cette industrie notamment au moyen de la Politique des retombées industrielles et technologiques (RIT), qui exige que, pour chaque acquisition d'importance, les fournisseurs qui remportent un marché de la défense effectuent des investissements au Canada d'une valeur égale à celle du contrat obtenu. Au cours des 30 dernières années, la Politique des RIT a entraîné des investissements de 30 milliards de dollars dans l'économie canadienne, et permet la création d'environ 40 000 emplois annuellement. Gr'ce à la politique de défense du Canada – Protection, Sécurité, Engagement, les milliards de dollars investis dans l'approvisionnement en matière de défense se traduisent par des retombées économiques et la création d'emplois pour la classe moyenne. Afin de tirer profit de cette situation, le ministre de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique, l'honorable Navdeep Bains, a annoncé aujourd'hui que le gouvernement se servira de la Politique sur les RIT pour inciter les détenteurs de contrats de défense à investir dans les capacités industrielles clés. Le Canada a de fortes capacités industrielles dans cinq domaines liés aux nouvelles technologies qui présentent un potentiel de croissance rapide. Il existe également 11 domaines où les capacités industrielles sont déjà concurrentielles à l'échelle internationale et des domaines où la capacité industrielle est essentielle à la sécurité nationale. Technologies émergentes Matériaux de pointe Intelligence artificielle Cyberrésilience Systèmes télépilotés et technologies autonomes Systèmes spatiaux Principales compétences et services industriels essentiels Systèmes et composantes aérospatiaux Blindage Intégration des systèmes de défense Systèmes électro-optiques et infrarouges Solutions en matière de véhicules terrestres Soutien en service Systèmes de mission et systèmes de plateforme navales Munitions Services de construction navale, de conception et d'ingénierie Sonars et systèmes acoustiques Formation et simulation Les capacités industrielles clés se marient bien au Plan pour l'innovation et les compétences du gouvernement, car elles permettent le développement des compétences et stimulent l'innovation dans le secteur de la défense au Canada. Citations « Notre industrie de la défense avait besoin de capacités industrielles clés et c'est ce que nous lui avons donné. En favorisant les investissements dans des secteurs présentant un fort potentiel de croissance rapide, nous permettons à nos forces armées d'être mieux équipées, à l'économie d'être plus forte et aux Canadiens de la classe moyenne d'avoir accès à des milliers d'emplois. » — Le ministre de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique, l'honorable Navdeep Bains « Pour l'industrie de la défense du Canada, les capacités industrielles clés constituent un important outil stratégique permettant de solidifier le partenariat entre le gouvernement et l'industrie. Ces capacités industrielles clés favorisent les investissements stratégiques dans des secteurs de la défense et de la sécurité, actifs ou émergents, pour lesquels le Canada est un chef de file mondial possédant des technologies concurrentielles. Les capacités présentées aujourd'hui sont le reflet des industries canadiennes de la défense et de la sécurité, industries de classe mondiale axées sur l'innovation. » — La présidente de l'Association des industries canadiennes de défense et de sécurité, Christyn Cianfarani « Par la définition de capacités industrielles clés, le gouvernement offre un autre outil important visant à utiliser les approvisionnements publics pour augmenter les investissements dans des secteurs où le Canada est bien positionné et offre diverses possibilités. L'importance de l'aérospatiale pour ce qui est des capacités industrielles clés définies par le gouvernement aujourd'hui démontre bien la vitalité de notre industrie, tout comme son potentiel à poursuivre sur sa lancée afin de conserver son avantage concurrentiel pour les années à venir. Nous sommes vraiment heureux que le gouvernement ait dévoilé ses capacités industrielles clés et nous félicitons le ministre Bains pour le lancement réussi de cet outil des plus utiles en matière d'approvisionnement. » — Le président et chef de la direction de l'Association des industries aérospatiales du Canada, Jim Quick Faits en bref La composition de la liste des capacités industrielles clés change au fil du temps, afin de tenir compte des avancées technologiques et des besoins changeants en matière de défense. La liste sera revue et mise à jour régulièrement. L'adoption de ces capacités industrielles clés a été proposée dans le rapport de 2013, Le Canada d'abord – Exploiter l'approvisionnement militaire en s'appuyant sur les capacités industrielles clés (aussi connu sous le nom de Rapport Jenkins). L'industrie de la défense est une industrie novatrice où il se fait 4,5 fois plus de R-D que la moyenne de ce qui se fait dans l'industrie manufacturière canadienne. Cette industrie est également axée sur l'exportation, avec 60 % de ses ventes destinées aux marchés internationaux en 2016. De 1986 à 2016, le portefeuille des obligations à l'égard des RIT avait à son actif 137 marchés dont la valeur a atteint 41,5 milliards de dollars, dont 28,3 milliards de dollars pour des projets d'activités commerciales terminés, 9,4 milliards de dollars pour des activités en cours et 3,8 milliards de dollars pour des activités à venir. Liens connexes Politique des Retombées industrielles et technologique (RIT) Capacités industrielles clés du Canada Guide d'acquisition de la Défense 2016 Protection, Sécurité, Engagement Plan pour l'innovation et les compétences Le Canada d'abord – Exploiter l'approvisionnement militaire en s'appuyant sur les capacités industrielles clés Personnes-ressources Suivez le Ministère sur Twitter : @ISDE_CA Renseignements : Karl W. Sasseville Attaché de presse Cabinet du ministre de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique 343-291-2500 Relations avec les médias Innovation, Sciences et Développement économique Canada 343-291-1777 ic.mediarelations-mediasrelations.ic@canada.ca https://www.canada.ca/fr/innovation-sciences-developpement-economique/nouvelles/2018/04/stimuler-la-creation-demplois-et-linnovation-au-canada-grace-a-des-investissements-en-defense.html

DAVE MISTICH In elections past, the integrity of the vote was protected by poll workers and election officials. But in 2018 and likely beyond, elections are being protected by people like the anonymous man who works in the basement of the West Virginia Capitol. He's member of the West Virginia National Guard who is a cybersecurity specialist responsible for monitoring any computer-related threats to the state's elections. Since August of last year, he's been attached full time to the office of Secretary of State Mac Warner. After Russian-backed hackers probed election-related systems in at least 21 states in 2016, election officials, whose focus has traditionally been on making sure that polling places run smoothly and that results are speedily reported, now have to focus on protecting their computer systems. Oftentimes lacking those resources in-house, National Guard specialists have been called in to monitor vital election systems in a handful of additional states, including Colorado, Ohio and South Carolina. Neither the West Virginia National Guard nor Warner's office would permit the soldier to speak on the record, but Warner emphasized how crucial the role is. "We, just like every other government entity and people in business, are getting pinged all the time. Somebody is checking to see are there any open doors [or] open windows for targets of opportunity," Warner said. Warner's current use of the National Guard builds upon his predecessor, Natalie Tennant, who enlisted their cybersecurity expertise to scan the state's election systems for vulnerabilities and patch them in the final stretch of the 2016 election. In January 2017, the outgoing Obama administration designated elections as part of the country's critical infrastructure. That meant new federal resources and scrutiny. The Department of Homeland Security is working to give security clearances to state officials so they can receive intelligence briefings and assessments. Warner, like other state-level election officials, is in the middle of a months-long process of getting cleared. Using Guard soldiers who already have a high-level clearance, "is a way to bridge the gap without causing a problem in that security system process," said West Virginia National Guard Adjutant General James Hoyer. State officials are trying to figure out how to prepare for a threat they had never before anticipated, said Eric Rosenbach, a former Defense Department official who now directs a program on election security at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "These state election officials are the pointy tip of the spear for nation-state actors like the Russians trying to attack our democracy. That's never before been their job," said Rosenbach. "If part of [the National Guard's] responsibilities is to protect the things most precious to a state — it kind of makes sense that you would want them to support an effort like that." While the regular military can't be involved in domestic law enforcement due to a post-Civil War federal law known as Posse comitatus, National Guard soldiers are under the jurisdiction of the governor unless they're activated by the federal government. "The threat is new and we need to evolve with the times — as long as it still fits in the right legal framework and we're doing something that, you know, all Americans would agree are part of our democratic traditions," Rosenbach said. Moving forward, Warner sees his office's partnership with the National Guard continuing. "The cybersecurity arena is one of those where we as public officials have to get it right every time. The hackers only have to penetrate one time to do substantial damage," Warner said. "So, it's a foot race that we have to stay one step ahead and it never ends. It just goes on and on." So far, the National Guard has monitored a few small local elections in West Virginia and Warner's office says they have yet to receive a threat that has risen to a level of what they called "actionable." With the state's primary election slated for May 8, the Guard's first big election cybersecurity test is already underway. https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601201517/states-turn-to-national-guard-to-help-protect-future-elections-from-hackers

By: Brandon Knapp Artificially intelligent systems must be able to explain themselves to operators if they are to be trusted, according to an expert from the Defense Advanced Research Agency, who voiced concern that methods used by current AI systems are often masked by mysterious algorithms. “A lot of the machine learning algorithms we're using today, I would tell you ‘good luck,” Fred Kennedy, the director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office during a panel at Navy League's Sea-Air-Space on April 10. “We have no idea why they know the difference between a cat and a baboon.” “If you start diving down into the neural net that's controlling it,” Kennedy continued, “you quickly discover that the features these algorithms are picking out have very little to do with how humans identify things.” Kennedy's comments were in response to Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Unmanned Systems Frank Kelley, who described the leap of faith operators must make when dealing with artificially intelligent systems. “You're throwing a master switch on and just praying to God that [Naval Research Laboratory] and John's Hopkins knew what the hell that they were doing,” Kelley said of the process. The key to building trust, according to Kennedy, lies with the machines. “The system has to tell us what it's thinking,” Dr. Kennedy said. “That's where the trust gets built. That's how we start to use and understand them.” DARPA's Explainable Artificial Intelligence program seeks to teach AI how to do just that. The program envisions systems that will have the ability to explain the rationale behind their decisions, characterize their strengths and weaknesses, and describe how they will behave in the future. Such capabilities are designed to improve teamwork between man and machine by encouraging warfighters to trust artificially intelligent systems. “It's always going to be about human-unmanned teaming,” said Kennedy. “There is no doubt about that.” https://www.defensenews.com/home/2018/04/10/darpa-official-to-build-trust-in-ai-machines-must-explain-themselves/

Communiqué de presse De : Défense nationale Le 9 avril 2018 – Ottawa, Ontario – Défense nationale/Forces armées canadiennes La résolution de problèmes, la créativité et la connaissance sont nécessaires pour affronter et atténuer les menaces en constante évolution en matière de défense et de sécurité. Gr'ce à l'innovation, nous développerons et maintiendrons des capacités permettant de relever les défis liés à l'environnement mondial actuel de la sécurité. En vue de transformer notre manière de créer des solutions aux problèmes complexes de défense et de sécurité, le ministère de la Défense nationale (MDN) a lancé aujourd'hui son nouveau programme Innovation pour la défense, l'excellence et la sécurité (IDEeS). Annoncé en juin 2017 au moment de la diffusion de la politique de défense du Canada, Protection, Sécurité, Engagement, le programme IDEeS sera à l'origine d'investissements de 1,6 milliard de dollars dans le milieu canadien de l'innovation au cours des 20 prochaines années. Au moyen d'IDEeS, le MDN se tournera vers les esprits les plus novateurs et les plus créatifs du Canada, qu'il s'agisse d'inventeurs, d'universitaires qui travaillent dans les laboratoires de leur établissement ou de scientifiques attachés à des sociétés de petite ou de grande envergure. Ces penseurs novateurs fourniront aux praticiens des Forces armées canadiennes (FAC) et du Canada en matière de sûreté et de sécurité des solutions inédites aux problèmes d'aujourd'hui. Le programme IDEeS stimulera l'innovation au moyen d'une gamme d'activités, dont des compétitions, des concours, des réseaux et des bacs à sable pour la mise à l'essai de concepts sur le terrain. Le ministre Sajjan a lancé aujourd'hui son premier appel de propositions dans le cadre de l'élément des projets concurrentiels d'IDEeS, dans lequel seize problèmes en matière de défense et de sécurité ont été recensés. Les parties intéressées disposent de six semaines pour présenter leurs propositions de solutions, qui doivent être transmises au plus tard le 24 mai 2018. Cet appel de propositions aborde les difficultés dans certains domaines, comme la surveillance, les cyberoutils de défense, l'espace, l'intelligence artificielle, les systèmes de télépilotage, l'analytique des données et la performance humaine. Les propositions seront examinées et feront l'objet d'un processus d'évaluation rigoureux. Les premiers contrats devraient être attribués à l'automne 2018. Les innovateurs sont invités à consulter le site Web d'IDEeS pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements sur cet appel de propositions et sur les appels subséquents à mesure qu'IDEeS prendra forme. Citations « Le programme IDEeS présentera aux Canadiens des occasions inédites de faire valoir leurs meilleures solutions aux problèmes de défense et de sécurité et de placer ces solutions entre les mains des femmes et des hommes des Forces armées canadiennes. Cet investissement appuiera la croissance et l'épanouissement du milieu canadien de l'innovation au cours des deux prochaines décennies. » – Harjit S. Sajjan, ministre de la Défense nationale Faits en bref Gr'ce au programme IDEeS, la Défense nationale : créera des réseaux d'innovateurs (universitaires, industrie, particuliers et autres partenaires) pour mener des travaux de pointe en recherche et développement dans des domaines essentiels aux futurs besoins en défense et en sécurité; organisera des concours et invitera les innovateurs à présenter des solutions viables à des problèmes précis en matière de défense et de sécurité; instaurera de nouveaux rouages d'acquisition qui lui permettront d'élaborer et de mettre à l'épreuve des concepts, dans le cas des idées les plus prometteuses. Le programme IDEeS aidera les innovateurs en appuyant l'analyse, en finançant la recherche et en élaborant des processus pour faciliter l'accès à la connaissance. Il soutiendra également les tests, l'intégration, l'adoption et l'acquisition de solutions créatives pour les milieux canadiens de la défense et de la sécurité. Liens connexes Documentation – Programme Innovation pour la défense, l'excellence et la sécurité (IDEeS) Documentation – Le gouvernement du Canada lance un appel aux innovateurs pour résoudre des défis en matière de défense et de sécurité IDEeS Protection, Sécurité, Engagement Personnes-ressources Byrne Furlough Attaché de presse Cabinet du ministre de la Défense nationale Téléphone : 613-996-3100 Courriel : Byrne.Furlough@forces.gc.ca Relations avec les médias Ministère de la Défense nationale Téléphone : 613-996-2353 Courriel : mlo-blm@forces.gc.ca https://www.canada.ca/fr/ministere-defense-nationale/nouvelles/2018/04/la-defense-nationale-lance-son-programme-idees-visant-a-resoudre-les-defis-en-matiere-de-defense-et-de-securite-grace-a-linnovation.html

By: Mark Pomerleau Advancements in electronics and tactics by high-end adversaries are forcing the Army to change the way it revamps and optimizes its communications network against current and future threats. The problem: adversaries have become more proficient and precise in the sensing and jamming of signals. “What we're looking for in terms of resilience in the future is not only making individual links more anti-jam and resilient, resistant to threats, but also having the ability to use multiple paths if one goes down,” Joe Welch, chief engineer at Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications Tactical (C3T), told reporters during a network demo at Fort Myer in early March. “Your phones work this way between 4G and Wi-Fi and that's seamless to you. That's kind of the target of what we're intending to provide with next-generation transport for the Army's tactical network.” Members of industry are now looking to develop radios to these specifications outlined by the Army. “We have an extensive library of waveforms — 51, 52 waveforms that we can bring to bear — that we can say look we can use this waveform to give you more resilience with this capability,” Jeff Kroon, director of product management at Harris, told C4ISRNET during an interview at the AUSA Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, in March. “Down the road, we need to talk about resilience and what's going on with the near-peer threats.” Next-generation systems, leaders believe, will be able to provide this necessary flexibility. “The radios that we're looking at buying now — the manpack and the two-channel leader radios — have shown themselves to be able to run a pretty wide range of waveforms and we think it postures us to run some changes to those waveforms in the future as we look at even more advanced waveforms,” Maj. Gen. David Bassett, program executive officer of C3T, told reporters at Fort Myer. While jammers have become more powerful and targeted in recent years, officials contend the entire spectrum can't be interrupted at once. The Army realizes links won't be jam-proof, Bassett told reporters at Fort Myer, so it is looking at how they can be either more jam-resistant or able to switch seamlessly across portions of the spectrum that are not being jammed. Kroon noted that one of the big developments within the radio community down the road will be radios that seamlessly switch frequencies or waveforms without direct user input. “I think, as we move forward, we'll start to have more cognitive capabilities that will allow [the radio] to adapt automatically, and keep the user focused on their own job and let the radio handle the rest,” he said. In addition to multiwaveform and a large range of spectrum coverage, Kroon said the Army is also really looking for multifunction capabilities within radios. Radios also have to have passive sensing capabilities to be able to understand the signals in the environment and provide some level of situational awareness of the spectrum environment. “They have to have visibility into what's going on around them ... not just for [electronic warfare] purposes but sometime just knowing what's going on in the spectrum around you as a planner is really important,” Kroon said. “What's actually going on out there, I don't know I was told this frequency was clear, how do I really know. Having a radio come back and say look what we hit ... it is actually very useful.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/global-force-symposium/2018/04/06/heres-what-the-army-wants-in-future-radios/