• Japan’s government decided to ease its arms exports policies set in the 60s and 70s.

• The United Kingdom may involve the private sector in running defense procurement. Chief of Defence Materiel Bernard Gray and Minister for Defence Equipment Peter Luff will discuss options under consideration today on BBC Radio 4.

• Finland arrests 2 Ukrainian crew of the British-flagged M/S Thor Liberty, which was en route to China with 69 Patriot surface-to-air missiles and explosives. Germany says “hey, that was our legitimate sale to South Korea!”

• The US Navy’s departure from standard ship class-naming conventions, and insertion of political figures instead (vid. “John P. Murtha” for LPD-26, instead of a city name), has raised a few eyebrows in recent years. USNS Cesar Chavez [T-AKE-14] may have tipped a backlash in Congress. This is so even though that example has far more merit. The T-AKE ships have honored other pioneering political figures, and Chavez was a Navy veteran.

• Northrop Grumman’s LN-251 GPS/INS will fly on the USMC’s forthcoming CH-53K heavy-lift helicopters.

• Manufacturers are working on ground control stations that could let a single pilot manage several UAVs at once.

• Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel had an entire system of encrypted short-range radio relays around their territories, in what amounted to a military communication infrastructure. The NPR report adds that some of their kidnappings have even been designed to get technical expertise – though holding highly technical people hasn’t always gone well for them.

IEDs: The Aftermath

JCREW 3.1 contract for USMC. (Dec 15/11)

The US military is working on the next-generation of jammers to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that pose such a grave threat to US forces deployed overseas. The jammers are called Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device (RCIED) Electronic Warfare (JCREW) devices. They are high-power, modular, programmable, multiband radio frequency jammers designed to deny enemy use of selected portions of the radio frequency spectrum. They come in 3 varieties – fixed, mounted, and dismounted.

The first generations of JCREW devices were developed and deployed quickly to meet an urgent need in the field. The next generation of JCREW devices, known as 3.x, are being developed to increase capabilities and tap into the power of the network to enhance their effectiveness. The JCREW 3.1 version is a dismounted device, the 3.2 version is a mounted device, and the 3.3 version is being developed to work in mounted, dismounted, and fixed-installation roles, using a common open architecture of electronics…

USS Philippine Sea

A quick look at almost any modern warship shows a bewildering array of gear on its mast and upper surfaces. These “topside apertures” serve an array of functions, from communications, to data transmission, to electronic listening and defense. Not only do they disrupt ship smoothness, and hence radar profiles, when installed, but they can also be extremely difficult to integrate together so that object A’s transmissions aren’t interfering with critical service B. While firms like Thales in Europe pursue “integrated modular mast” technologies, the US Navy is aiming to go one step beyond. They’re funding “Integrated Topside” R&D to go beyond just a pre-packaged array, and turn all of these little bolt-ons into one common, smooth-running, and upgradeable basic architecture.

InTop for surface ships will be based on AESA radar technology, and aims to become an innovative, scalable suite of electronic warfare, information operations, and line-of-sight communications hardware and software. Its performance goals are to improve ships’ anti-radar profiles, increase communications bandwidth, and resolve electromagnetic interference and compatibility issues…

Taking on the Cyber Enemy

DARPA’s programs. (Nov 8/11)

In response to the growing threats to US military and civilian networks, the Pentagon has unveiling its first formal cyber strategy.

This follows a series of events over the last few years that have escalated cyber attacks against networks and infrastructure to warlike events. For example, an unidentified foreign national penetrated the internal networks of the Department of Defense (DoD) with an infected thumbdrive in 2008. In 2009, a virus known as Stuxnet, suspected of being the product of Israeli-US government collaboration, shutdown an Iranian nuclear power plant. And in 2011, defense contractor Lockheed Martin suffered a major cyber attack that was suspected of being carried out by the Chinese government.

While the Pentagon has struggled to combat these threats, it has also had to fight some within its own ranks, as well as other agencies, for authority in cyberspace. This article focuses on the growing cyber threat to US military and civilian infrastructure and the efforts being made by the Pentagon to deal with these threats.

• Stuxnet and Beyond
• The China Connection
• The Best Defense is Offense
• Attribution: The Devil’s in the Details
• Cyber Turf Wars
• Integration Efforts
• Future War
• Key Contacts
• Additional Reading
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• Former Secretary of Transport Philip Hammond is replacing Liam Fox as the UK’s Minister of Defence, a position that has seen a lot of turnover in past years. Fox resigned under pressure because of the access he gave to his friend Adam Werritty. FT, Guardian, BBC.

• The ADS British trade association surveyed Britain’s security sector. It found domestic sales to account for 81% of the total. 91% of the ~$235M goods and services exported to the US were for cyber security.

• The AP reported on Saturday that all US troops would leave Iraq by year’s end but Defense Department press secretary George Little then denied such a decision had been made. At stake is the number of troops that would remain involved in training the Iraqi military, if any.
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US “Chair” Force?

$65M to General Atomics. (September 30/11)

UAVs have played a crucial role in gathering intelligence in the US military’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are thousands of UAVs gathering and distributing valuable data on the enemy, but each system uses its own proprietary subsystem to control the air vehicle as well as receive and process the data. Yet commanders need access to information gathered by all types of UAVs that are flying missions in their area of operation.

Recognizing this shortcoming, the Pentagon began an effort in 2008 to break down the proprietary barriers between UAV systems and create a single GCS that will fly all types of drones.

This free-to-view DID Spotlight article examines the problem of proprietary UAV systems and efforts to break down barriers to sharing vital UAV-generated information.

• Ground Control to Major Tom: The Role of GCS
• Come Together: The Pentagon’s UCS-WG
• Are You Going STANAG?: NATO’s Standard
• One is the Loneliest Number: AAI’s OneSystem
• Red ROVER, Red ROVER: The ROVER Datalink
• Masters of the Universe: Raytheon’s CGCS
• Too Close to the Sun: ICARUS and Autonomy
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
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• The United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA) think tank argues in a new report [PDF] that the country’s defense spending should be a higher priority and consume 3% of GDP, a significant increase from current levels. The threat that registers most with the British press: losing the Falklands; Daily Mail, Guardian (related reading: a series on the naval war in the Falklands). Meanwhile the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) warns that keeping the UK’s defense funding on a sound footing is far from a done deal [PDF].

• Blue Screen of Death? Citing recent articles by Defense News and Politico, Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) sent a letter to the US Army Secretary and its Chief of Staff to attract their attention to the DCGS-A program’s actual performance. Facing numerous crashes and reboots sound a lot less attractive than being portrayed as the “Army’s cornerstone intelligence system for intelligence processing, exploitation and dissemination.” Civilian cloud computing and web application vendors have found time and again that scalability and availability are, by themselves, a feature.

• The US Coast Guard awarded a delivery order for about $13M to Metal Shark Aluminum Boats for the production of 38 Response Boats-Small (RB-S). Overall the plan is to replace up to 500 boats.

• US DOD acquisition leadership: in his farewell letter [PDF] to the AT&L community, now Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter wrote: “I leave you in the best of all capable hands in Frank Kendall.”

• US DoDI 5000.02 acquisition rule clarification: can a production RFP be issued before Milestone C? Yes, with caveats.

• The US GAO thinks that the many people who are involved in defense acquisition but do not fall under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) should be more systematically tracked and trained by the Department of Defense.

• Today (Thursday) US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta meets military commanders to discuss spending scenarios. The Office of Management and Budget at the White House is said to ask for $25B in additional cuts. The Army already announced it will contribute by preparing to reduce its number of soldiers by 50K over 5 years – though 22K or 44% of that number is made of a relatively recent troop surge in Afghanistan that was always meant to be temporary.

• The US House Armed Services Committee’s prediction that deep defense budget cuts could lead to reinstating the draft is not convincing think tanks. Something for Buck McKeon’s just-hired communications director to ponder.

• Today’s video: C-17 Globemaster helps B-1 find the way home (embedded below):
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E-2C Hawkeye

On Dec 4/07, the US DSCA announced the United Arab Emirates’ official request for 3 used, refurbished E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft with radar and antennae. When combined with the UAE’s $9 billion request for Patriot missiles, and other recent initiatives, it would appear that the UAE is taking strong steps to beef up its defensive and surveillance capabilities.

Making that happen requires more than just planes. It requires extensive back-end systems that help turn information from platforms like the Hawkeye into a coherent whole, and allow command staff to direct battles based on that information. DID explains what happened to that Hawkeye sale, how it fits into a larger picture, and where things stand now, as the UAE continues its strong Command, Control, Computing, & Communications (C4) push:

• The UAE’s Quest for Hawkeyes
• Contracts & Key Events, 2002 – Present [updated]
• Additional Sources [updated]
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In September 2011, General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, AZ won an estimated $64.6 million, 5-year indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-incentive-fee and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Wideband Networking Waveform software in-service maintenance, upgrades, and enhancements. WNW is the COFDM digital waveform protocol developed for the USA’s range of JTRS software-programmable radios, with data rates up to 12.1 Mbps. It’s part of the Network Enterprise Domain set that underlies all of the specific JTRS radio programs for aircraft, ships, vehicles and soldiers.

GDC4S has been involved with JTRS programs for some time, and is also the lead for the soldiers’ JTRS HMS program, working alongside Thales Communications et. al. WNW work will be performed in Scottsdale, AZ, and is expected to be complete by September 2016, but contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, on Sept 30/11. The contract was competitively procured via the FBO.gov website and the SPAWAR E-commerce website, with 2 offers received; GDC4’s most likely competitor was the L-3 Communications conglomerate. The US Space and Naval Warfare Systems (SPAWAR) Center Atlantic in Charleston, SC manages this contract (N65236-11-D-4806).

• Harris Corporation opens a 573,000 square-foot plant in Henrietta near Rochester, NY in to consolidate production of tactical radios and other communication systems. About 1,100 people will work there.

• DFARS clarification: a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) must be an employee, military or civilian, of the U.S. Government, a foreign government, or a NATO/coalition partner, in other words private contractors cannot serve as a COR. This rule denies a request from Headquarters NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A) to permit the designation of non-U.S. Government employees as CORs in support of the NTM-A’s efforts to train the Afghan National Security Force (ANSF).

• US Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) tweaks its acquisition process by introducing the Acquisition Milestone Agreement (AMA) to replace the Milestone Tracking Report by January next year. This change is meant to reduce the number of missed milestones by making contracting officers team with their requiring counterparts earlier. MICC plans, awards and administers contracts for Army Commands, Direct Reporting Units and other organizations.
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