Crew chiefs assigned to the 393rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, prep a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber for take off, at Lajes Field, Azores, March 16, 2021. Three B-2s, assigned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, arrived at Lajes to hot-pit refuel prior to supporting several bomber task force missions in the high north. Strategic bomber missions are conducted periodically to enhance the readiness necessary to respond to challenges, in coordination with partner and allied nations, around the world. Members assigned to U.S. European Command regularly train, fight and live with allies and partners from bases in Europe, to ensure timely and coordinated responses when needed. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Heather Salazar)
The B-2 Stealth Bomber Is One Amazing Weapon of War: According to aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman, the United States Air Force’s “B-2 stealth bomber is a key component of the nation’s long-range strike arsenal, and one of the most survivable aircraft in the world. Its unique stealth characteristics allow it to penetrate the most sophisticated enemy defenses.”
This aircraft indeed possesses remarkable stealth capabilities, but what about its firepower? Know that it was on full display when B-2 stealth bombers forged an attack on Serbia during the opening night of Operation Allied Force in 1999. It was also able to destroy Iraqi air defenses during 2003’s “Shock and Awe” and took out the Libyan fighter force in 2011.
The F-35, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is the U.S. military’s most technologically advanced fighter jet and is used by three American military branches — the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. File Photo by Alex R. Lloyd/U.S. Air Force
Jan. 26 (UPI) — The U.S. Navy said it began plans Wednesday to recover and salvage an F-35 fighter jet that crashed on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson early this week in the South China Sea.The crash on Monday injured multiple sailors after the sophisticated F-35C aircraft had conducted routine flight operations in the South China Sea. The pilot safely ejected and was in stable condition after being recovered by a military helicopter
The Navy said the $100 million airplane fell off the massive aircraft carrier into the South China Sea after the crash. Damage to the carrier was superficial and has already continued regular operations.
“The U.S. Navy is making recovery operations arrangements for the F-35C aircraft involved in the mishap,” said Brenda Way, spokeswoman for the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, according to ABC News.
U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan enters the Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. Sullivan delivered a U.S. response to the Russian demands for security guarantees over NATO and Ukraine. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration and NATO told Russia on Wednesday there will be no U.S. or NATO concessions on Moscow’s main demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine.
In separate written responses delivered to the Russians, the U.S. and NATO held firm to the alliance’s open-door policy for membership, rejected a demand to permanently ban Ukraine from joining, and said allied deployments of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe are nonnegotiable.
“There is no change, there will be no change,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Also not up for negotiation will be the U.S. and European response to any Russian invasion of Ukraine, he said, repeating the mantra that any such incursion would be met with massive consequences and severe economic costs.
The responses were not unexpected and mirrored what senior U.S. and NATO officials have been saying for weeks. Nonetheless, they and the eventual Russian reaction to them could determine whether Europe will again be plunged into war.
There was no immediate response from Russia but Russian officials have warned that Moscow would quickly take “retaliatory measures” if the U.S. and its allies reject its demands.
Seeking possible off-ramps that would allow Russia to withdraw the estimated 100,000 troops it has deployed near Ukraine’s border without appearing to have lost a battle of wills, the U.S. response did outline areas in which some of Russia’s concerns might be addressed, provided it de-escalates tensions with Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Blinken said Russia would not be surprised by the contents of the several-page American document that U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan delivered Wednesday to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“All told it sets out a serious diplomatic path forward. should Russia choose it,” he said. “The document we’ve delivered includes concerns of the United States and our allies and partners about Russia’s actions that undermine security, a principled and pragmatic evaluation of the concerns that Russia has raised, and our own proposals for areas where we may be able to find common ground.”
Blinken said he hoped to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the response in the coming days. But he stressed the decision about pursuing diplomacy or conflict rests with Russia and, more specifically, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We’ll see how they respond,” he said. “But there’s no doubt in my mind that if Russia were to approach this seriously and in a spirit of reciprocity with a determination to enhance collective security for all of us, there are very positive things in this in this document that could be pursued. We can’t make that decision for President Putin.”
Shortly after Blinken spoke, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels that the alliance had sent a separate reply to Russia with an offer to improve communications, examine ways to avoid military incidents or accidents, and discuss arms control. But, like Blinken, he rejected any attempt to halt membership.
“We cannot and will not compromise on the principles on which the security of our alliance, and security in Europe and North America rest,” Stoltenberg said. “This is about respecting nations and their right to choose their own path.”
“Russia should refrain from coercive force posturing, aggressive rhetoric and malign activities directed against allies and other nations. Russia should also withdraw its forces from Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, where they are deployed without these countries’ consent,” he said.
While flatly refusing to consider any changes to NATO’s open-door policy, its relationship with non-ally Ukraine, or allied troop and military deployments in Eastern Europe, Blinken said the U.S. is open to other ideas to ease Russia’s stated concerns.
We are writing to let you know that PartYard are closely monitoring global events related to the COVID-19 outbreak in order to safeguard personnel and minimise any potential impact to customers.
Consistent with ISO 22301 standards we have procedures which specifically address elements of crisis management tailored to pandemic events.
We are now implementing practical precautionary measures, in accordance with this plan and current government guidance, which includes restrictions on overseas travel, on visitor access to our facilities and maximising home working where possible. We will continue to monitor local and national government advice on additional measures which may become necessary in the future.
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After this War, the Future will came brighter then ever before.
Bruno Monteiro (CEO)
A recent innovation designed to renew obsolete, small calibre naval guns is set to hit the defence market
The new upgrade kit could revive outdated naval guns across global navies. Image: yukim
An innovative upgrade stabilising kit for obsolete small calibre naval guns has been developed by the Greek companies Miltech Hellas and Hellenic Instruments.
The new upgrade kit dubbed MLT-NGSS-2 can be installed easily on almost every existing old naval gun turret, dramatically increasing its effectiveness against surface targets such as speed boats, patrol boats, skiff vessels, unmanned surface vessels, low flying helicopters, aircraft, land targets and UAVs.
The companies say their system is a cost-effective solution for naval forces with limited budgets.
The cost of the kit and its installation – replacing obsolete equipment and electronic systems with new, light-weight, sophisticated systems – is said to be 10 per cent of the cost of a new naval gun turret.
The majority of small calibre naval guns are heavy, not stabilised, and have obsolete electrical and electronic systems. The major problem for users of these systems is that most OEMs no longer support old naval gun turrets and their subsystems, while finding spare parts is both difficult and expensive.
The MLT-NGSS-2 includes a digital gyro, compass, a new compact ruggedised computer, highly sophisticated software that allows the naval guns to neutralize moving surface, ground and aerial targets and a new electronic power supply system including new powerful motors.
The upgrade can include the MLT-TDR-10 cooled third-generation thermal camera (640x510px), a CCD day camera (Full HD 1080p), a laser range finder and GPS. The rest of the hardware remains the same, contributing to the further reduction in the cost of the package.
The creators behind the technology claim a trove of other benefits aside to cost reduction on use and maintenance, including a dramatic improvement of firing accuracy, expanded lifespan, improved self-defence capabilities for the vessels, and enhanced capability to neutralise aerial, surface, and land enemies through the of existing in-stock ammunition.
Furthermore, the new upgrade kit contributes to the reduction of weight and a lower risk of the naval gun turret malfunctioning as most of the obsolete mechanical and electronic equipment is replaced with fresh equipment that boasts the advantages of being lightweight and easy to maintain.
The development of the MLT-NGSS-2 is now at its final evaluation stage and Miltech Hellas and Hellenic Instruments will soon begin a 6-month testing period on a 40 year old gun turret.
The defence industry would be best served by maintaining ‘simplicity’ when dealing with increasingly complex cyber threats, say security experts
When it comes to managing highly sensitive information, the defence industry undoubtedly sits in the top bracket of at-risk sectors.
From the leak of personal details and correspondence through private companies like Stratfor and Niteworks, to the hacking of intellectual property on major programmes run by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, there is no sign of respite from hackers seeking compromising data. This week’s headlines are even spilling details on attempts to break into US voting machine manufacturers.
In spite of these enormous risks, the defence industry is notorious for being – compared to other commercial industries – slow to meet the rapid developments in the digital world. The information security sector is, in contrast, fast-paced and ever-changing. So can defence firms close the gap in time or will the gulf eventually become too vast to bridge?
The threat
“In the defence sector, whatever sophistication, technology or skillsets you are using to defend yourself, the attackers are as skilled, organised and as well resourced,” said Piers Wilson, head of product management at information software company Huntsman Security.
“As a defender you have to cover everything all the time but as an attacker you have to find one weakness on one day. The resource constraints, the skills shortages and the fact that people have to go home at the end of the day are your realities. The adversary doesn’t have to worry about those things.”
The concept of the advanced persistent threat (APT) typically describes an adversary that will target a specific system and pull out all the stops to steal the data inside. In many cases, attacks on defence companies are APT attacks and are often led or financed by a nation state – meaning the opponent’s skills and technologies are cutting-edge.
One of the defensive tactics that cyber security firms are taking is to engineer platforms that use a multi-layered approach to protection, from basic email filters through to cloud sandboxes that vet untested programs within a safe environment before they reach the server.
As an example, the WannaCry ransomware attack combined a sophisticated infection tool with modern encryption data that attempted to evade the sandbox by playing dead if it detected that it was running within a virtual machine rather than in a physical server. But this tactic was not fool-proof.
Chris Ross of Barracuda Networks, who have clients that were targeted by the worm, explained that the company’s sandbox is able to disguise itself as a full server – something many platforms do not do – and therefore WannaCry did not know it was being quarantined.
“When it subsequently tried to release its malware, we caught it,” said Ross.
“Aside to stopping the threat in the first instance, that action enabled our sandbox and APT cloud service to grow over 7,000 per cent during the weekend of the Wannacry outbreak. That meant we were able to block over 1.35 million of the same attacks on our customers.”
While technology is doing its best to get ahead of these threats, the human factor still remains the weakest link, with many breaches caused by people clicking on bad links or simply failing to patch their systems regularly. This means IT managers must enact increasingly strict regulations on who can access what.
“From an APT perspective, getting the segmentation policies right is vital,” says William Culbert, director of solutions engineering at Bomgar, which specialises in privileged access control.
“Once you have a credential, you have a foothold into the network. That account can be quickly elevated to a privileged account, at which point you have autonomy across the infrastructure. As APT attackers are frequently in place for just under a year before the actual attack happens, that allows plenty of time to undertake reconnaissance and find the protocols used for sharing files across the network and then exploit them.”
Most audits show there are typically three to four times as many privileged accounts as there is staff in an organisation, so the attack surface can be massive.
CyberArk, another security company that specialises in privilege controls and APT protection revealed that it recently undertook a ‘red team exercise’ on a large corporation to test its resilience to these types of exploits.
Matt Middleton-Leal, the company’s UK and Ireland director, said: “It took our guy just eleven minutes to take complete control of the domain controller (the server that responds to security authentication requests). There was no way to stop him.”
Keeping it simple:
In an environment reluctant to change, many defence companies assume that a complex threat will require a complex solution – or will at least require big sums to introduce and manage new technology. But infosec experts suggest simplicity will in fact offer the best return.
“Defence firms have to find vendors with solutions that are easy to deploy and easy to manage,” said Ross.
“They should be thinking about finding one vendor rather than several to protect multiple threat vectors from email to firewalls. Managing things from one central platform reduces the resistance to change that firms may experience because taking that approach will greatly reduce management overhead costs.”
“The reality is that they have to change the approach they take as businesses,” added Middleton-Leal.
“If you build simple, intuitive security that doesn’t compromise usability, people stop trying to find ways around the controls, which is often where the problems first arise.”
As Defence IQ’s recent report – ‘Countering violent extremism online: 2017’ – examines, there is a demand for new tactics when it comes to fighting the online war against radical groups. While some success has been made, many of the latest terrorist attacks are believe to have been at least partly facilitated through online engagement, be it in recruiting of impressionable people to undertake violent acts or in organising the logistics of these attacks.
The issue has become a key concern for world leaders. Theresa May told the United Nations general assembly last week that tech companies must go “further and faster” in reclaiming the internet from those with violent intentions.
From a technology standpoint, many governments and social media platforms are indeed focusing on developing new tools and resources that can be used to address a broad range of threats to law enforcement and to the public at large.
“There are a number of different and interesting avenues being built around this,” Defence IQ was told by an insider for social media activity at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) who asked not to be named.
“There are a lot of lessons we can learn from the way advertising companies approach audience identification and segmentation, and message delivery.”
“The hashtag database that was announced by Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter has great potential. And the Redirect method – developed by Google’s Jigsaw and UK-based start-up Moonshot CVE – has shown benefits.”
But the representative also admitted that the CVE Task Force has extremely limited funds to draw on while they look to develop information-sharing products. Even with the expertise of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which has been developing technology in this space to help identify the people behind extremist posts, there is still a limitation on what can be done.
“Truth be told, online CVE is still an area where I think there’s a lot of potential for technological solutions,” the NCTC source explained.
“One of the most interesting things over the last few years has been the increasing focus on advertising technology, with the likes of tracking software and chatbots. Those solutions are not necessarily a silver bullet, but the way they approach audience identification and segmentation, and message delivery, there are a lot of lessons being learned. We should be looking very closely at that.”
“The last few years have been interesting to watch this technology evolve, but the next few years are going to be even more exciting.”
The NCTC representative also pointed to developments now being made in artificial intelligence and machine-learning, calling them a potential “game changer” for CVE over the next few years.
”It will allow us to get into much better datasets,” the source said.
“Of course, that means the further we get into that space, the more we will invite a new basket of questions. Who is going to host these huge datasets? Is it appropriate for the government to hold that data? These are the questions on the horizon that we need to begin preparing to answer. The last few years have been interesting to watch this technology evolve, but the next few years are going to be even more exciting.”
With artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics on the cusp of revolutionising global business, the defence industry could be at risk of falling behind if vendors cannot adapt at pace, according to a recent deep-dive study by Defence IQ.
The report, to be published in October, examines the role intelligent enterprise (IE) technologies – including AI, the internet of things (IoT, robotic process automation, machine learning and data analysis – within the future defence industry, looking at which providers are investing, which areas are not – and considering where opportunities might lie.
Almost half of the defence professionals surveyed said they expected the impact of intelligent technological innovation to significantly affect the wider defence industry over the next two years – however the majority of those surveyed anticipated major hurdles to implementation – with internal culture within the defence industry found to be a particularly debilitating factor.
Almost half of defence professionals surveyed said they expected the impact of intelligent technological innovation to significantly affect the wider defence industry over the next two years
Other concerns include organisations’ struggles to keep up with the rapid pace of technological change and the inherent challenges involved in upgrading legacy systems.
The full report entitled ‘AI 2020: the future of defence and security’ is being produced in association with AIIA.net, a new portal designed to help companies build the intelligent enterprise.
The report is part of IQPC’s cross-sector market study on the adoption of IE technologies, which includes deep-dive analysis of the oil and gas, pharmaceutical and customer experience sectors.
US group will provide a range of simulation planning and technical support and to enhance synthetic training events
Cubic Global Defense – a division of US-based Cubic Corporation – has been selected as the primary contractor for the development and delivery of local and distributed simulation-enabled training events for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
The four-year contract – valued at US$7.1 million (AUD$9 million) – provides a wide range of simulation planning, technical support and professional interactors to enhance RAN’s multisite synthetic training events at the Navy Synthetic Warfighting Centre (NSWC).
The NSWC was recently established at the HMAS Watson Naval Base on Sydney Harbour. The NSWC will facilitate synthetic training events and focus on delivering local and distributed mission training activities in both land-based simulators and ships in an agile manner.
Source: Cubic Corporation
“We look forward to leveraging the expertise of our Australian simulation team and the best practices of our various global programs to aid the RAN in achieving world-leading capabilities for simulation-enabled individual and collective training,” said Miles Macdonald, general manager Cubic Defence Australia.
Cubic’s solutions and services are designed to further enhance warfighting capabilities and improve training for crews and ships throughout their evolution cycle. In addition, Cubic’s contract will increase the potential of live, virtual and constructive training integration across the RAN. Supporting both individual and collective training, Cubic will design and deliver synthetic training events and networks involving a combination of dedicated simulators, which will be distributed to naval vessels.
In addition to its partnership with the RAN, Cubic is the incumbent Simulation Support Service contractor for the Australian Defence Simulation and Training Centre (ADSTC), which supports joint collective training. Cubic also provides training as well as simulation systems and services to the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Air Force.
With consumer drones a growing threat to military assets, there is now a strong investment case for countermeasures
The Pentagon issued a classified policy to US forces in July declaring that military bases now have full legal rights to shoot down private or commercial drones deemed to be a threat. Local communities have since been notified that any unmanned aircraft system (UAS) trespassing in military airspace could be seized or destroyed.
As news of the rule came to light, the UK’s Royal Navy policies became subject to scrutiny when an amateur photographer managed to land his drone on the brand new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier while docked at Invergordon in Scotland. With no attempts made to stop the curious UAS from infiltrating the 70,000-ton warship, the security gap seems self-evident.
As Defence IQ has previously reported, consumer drones have now been employed on multiple occasions by ISIS forces in Syria and Iraq. Video footage has even emerged of the aircraft being retrofitted with grenades to destroy armoured vehicles from above or to provide makeshift, mobile booby-traps.
Even unarmed, the surveillance capabilities of most commercial drones present a significant threat in their own right, offering the chance for an adversary to use footage to coordinate a future attack. This is becoming all the more possible because the technology is experiencing rapid miniaturisation.
Settling on a single countermeasure is risky, particularly when many of the options have specific drawbacks depending on the environment in which they are used. It is therefore likely that many armed forces will be exploring layered defence shields, accounting for potential failure along the ‘soft kill’ to ‘hard kill’ chain.
Militaries must also consider issues of scale and modularity, as well as the ability to integrate these solutions alongside more conventional weapons suites. Each of these factors will have a considerable effect on both cost and operational relevance.
Fortunately, there is a raft of possible counter-UAS approaches already on the commercial shelf…
Blunt force
Perhaps the most obvious and most low-tech solution on the UAS mitigation market is to knock the drone out of the air with another object. Effectively, this is the equivalent of conventional anti-air and missile defence, but on a smaller and slower-moving scale.
One of the leading options in this category is the SkyWall100 system from OpenWorks Engineering. The device is a man-portable compressed air launcher that fires a 22-pound net to physically capture the drone before dropping it back to the earth by parachute. Although short in range, the benefit of this approach is that seizing the drone intact could allow for forensic analysis of the aircraft’s data, potentially offering vital intelligence.
Source: OpenWorks Engineering. Gif: Defence IQ
US-based Advanced Ballistic Concepts have taken a similar approach using 12 gauge and 40mm shells that deploy nets. Other US companies are simply selling standard 12 gauge shells as an ultra-basic short-range solution.
Signal hijacking
Military facilities and assets are not always isolated. There is often a risk that scrambling or destroying a drone can risk harming people on the ground, particularly if those drones have been rigged with explosives or other hazardous material.
Department 13’s MESMER – which competed in last year’s MITRE Counter-UAS challenge – actively hacks the connection between the pilot and the drone by manipulating the radio communication protocol. The operator can then force the drone to land or return home.
The UAV D04JA UAV Jammer from Chinese company Hikvision can also disable and take over remote control signals, including GPS and GLONASS positioning. It has been tested for use in sports stadiums and other urban areas where the danger to civilians is high, making it a popular consideration for civil authorities and private security firms.
Source: Hikrobotics. Gif: Defence IQ
Directional RF interference
Higher-grade, large-scale options are now being marketed for the rigours of military use in the form of multi-tiered, radar-based systems. These solutions are vital when there is a need for long-rage engagement and when GPS-spoofing alone is not enough.
Operating a high gain quad-band antenna system, the British-made Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS) combines electronic-scanning radar target detection, electro-optical (EO) tracking and directional RF inhibition capability. The system can not only detect a drone five miles (8 km) away, but will track it, classify it and disrupt its flight.
Source: Blighter. Gif: Defence IQ
Directed energy
For what could be the fastest and most decisive capability on the list, lasers are becoming a feasible option. However, directed energy weapons are still experimental from an operational standpoint and drawbacks include an inability to limit the distance of a shot and the general safety risks to operators.
Col. (R) John Haithcock, director of the US Army’s Fires Battle Lab, told Defence IQ that within the next five years, 30 – 50 kw lasers will likely be employed on vehicles to “defend against the full suite of air threats”. Meanwhile, the US Navy’s USS Ponce is already at sea boasting the Laser Weapon System (‘LaWS’) to target a range of possible threats from small boats to UAS.
As one of the leaders in this field, Rheinmetall has for several years been developing laser-based products for countering air threats, including commercial drones and military-grade UAVs.
Other types of directed energy are being explored, such as sonic waves. A team of Chinese researchers demonstrated a system at this year’s Black Hat security conference that uses audible sound and ultrasound emitters to disrupt the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) chips – including accelerometers and gyroscopes – that commercial drones use to orient themselves. This proved effective on a range of electronic devices, not just UAS.
Other drones
Using UAS technology to counter UAS technology seems a natural step – and indeed several organisations have taken this approach.
While some of these solutions employ electronic countermeasures, French company Malou Tech has developed the Drone Interceptor MP200, employing the much simpler concept of hanging a net off a drone before flying directly into the target’s path. While it may look cheap, demonstration footage shows that it can have the desired effect.
