Bokha's defence

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Boeing Unveils Cyber Effort

Long quiet about its cybersecurity capabilities and business, Boeing is starting to get more vocal about one of the few defense sectors expected to grow in the upcoming budget crunch.
The public push into cyber comes in the form of a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Boeing's new Cyber Engagement Center located little more than 100 yards from Fort Meade, Md., which houses the headquarters of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. Boeing Vice President Brian Palma noted the significance of the center's proximity.
"There's absolutely an important part of this that is about being close," Palma said. "Obviously, the government is an important customer for us."
Boeing's name is hardly synonymous with cybersecurity; the market has been dominated by General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and SAIC, among others. At Boeing's quarterly earnings call Oct. 26, the profitable commercial aviation business received most of the attention, while cybersecurity was barely mentioned.
"The perception is that they haven't talked about it," said Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners. "Other people have been talking about it for a while, and that might be a signal in and of itself, that they're not placing the same emphasis on cyber as others are."
However, Steve Grundman of Grundman Advisory said that while Boeing has not been very public about cyber, its other capabilities may prove a major asset.
"It's manifestly correct to say that Boeing has a relatively small IT business compared to its competitors, but it would not surprise me to learn that they have very advanced capabilities in protecting their communications networks," Grundman said.

New Cyber Center

At the Oct. 25 ceremony, Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing's defense division, said the new facility will house one of Boeing's three major network monitoring offices, and help develop products and collaborate with customers.
"This is the first time that we're bringing it all together in an engagement center where not only can we do the work of protecting Boeing's network and developing new products, but we can also bring customers in to experience those products," Muilenburg said.
As part of the opening ceremony, the company showed off four capabilities:
■ Secure Mobile Enterprise. Still in its infancy, the Secure Mobile Enterprise program is designed to provide platform agnostic security for mobile systems. Boeing would not disclose the means employed to secure the systems but said it had not created some of the products used in the security scheme. The company was describing the capability as a service. The system is designed to secure an entire device as opposed to operating through an individual application, giving greater flexibility to the user.
■ VSOC. Already in circulation for years, the Virtual Security Operations Console (VSOC) has integrated security camera and alarm feeds with 2-D and 3-D maps. Boeing has added the ability to feed network data into VSOC so that attacks on a network can be associated with a particular server on a map. Boeing said this feature will be especially useful in combating on-location attacks using thumb drives or similar devices.
■ TAC. The TripWire Analytic Capability (TAC) system works to mine data looking for connections. Internal documents or publicly available information can be compared to threat data to find correlations. The system uses a list of 500,000 queries that are constantly performed and expanded. Boeing said that although security experts typically spend 80 percent of their time searching for information on threats and 20 percent of their time analyzing threats, the TAC system inverts those percentages.
■ NarusInsight. One of the fruits of Boeing's July 2010 acquisition of Narus, NarusInsight is a network monitoring program that provides a dashboard that can visualize data. The program presents a map with network activity, as well as listings of activity deemed suspicious that are color-coded and organized by the seriousness of the threat. The software does not gather data, and is designed to be integrated into a pre-existing security scheme.

Emphasizing Cyber

While the company is publicly emphasizing cyber, its interest is not new, Palma said.
"We believe we're at an inflection point," he said. "We saw this coming, and this gives us a capability and a way to engage with customers that's different than we've had before, but we're not getting into the cyber business for the first time."
Company officials described cyber as a 100-year business, likening it to the aviation business that has been the backbone of Boeing since its creation.
"This is an area where we've been investing, and we will continue to invest," Muilenburg said.
The new cyber center probably does not reflect the strength of the company's business, Callan said.
"These are kind of iconic facilities, but I think cyber is still a business that gets down to individuals, as opposed to plants and facilities," he said. "It's always a hard market. It's not the same as visiting a factory. That's why you talk about intellectual prowess in cyber."
Even if the cyber business is growing, Callan said he doubted it could lift companies faced with cuts in nearly every other segment.
"It's going to be an important market, but from an investment standpoint, is cyber going to be something that is going to move the needle for these guys? My guess is, probably not."

The Boeing Co.: company profile

■ Headquarters: Chicago.
■ 2010 revenue: $30.8 billion.

Pakistan gets hi-tech for F-16

Islamabad – Pakistan has bought the American ALQ-211 AIDEWS (Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite) pod for their F-16 fighters.
The ALQ-211 allows the aircraft to detect radar, jamming and laser signals hitting the aircraft, as well as the presence of chemical weapons. ALQ-211 also provides some jamming of its own, and assistance on where the signal is coming from, so the pilot can move the aircraft away from the threat, said a report published in U.S. magazine.
ALQ-211 is also installed in helicopters, but not as a pod. Rather, the individual components are installed in the helicopter where space is available.
Components of ALQ-211 are programmable, so that the system can quickly be updated for newly discovered enemy equipment. Pakistan will receive ALQ-211(V) 9 (version 9), which costs about $3.5 million per pod.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Secret Pakistan BBC

U.S. Air Force To Upgrade 300 F-16s

The U.S. Air Force will upgrade between 300 and 350 F-16C Block 40 and 50 fighters with new avionics and increased airframe life, a three-star general said before Congress.
Testifying Nov. 2, Lt. Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, Air Force deputy chief for operations, plans and requirements, also said the service doesn't have enough trained UAV pilots, and that the U-2 isn't quite ready for retirement.
"You hear an announcement fairly quickly from the United States Air Force, we're going to [service life extension program (SLEP)] and avionics modernize probably in the vicinity 300 to 350 F-16s,".
That number could climb to 600 aircraft, Carlisle said, but it is not likely the Air Force will have to upgrade so many jets.
The modernized jets will be crucial to maintaining the Air National Guard (ANG) and Air Force Reserve fighter force. It will also help maintain the Air Force's dwindling arsenal of tactical fighters before the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) becomes operational.
Although the service doesn't yet know when the F-35 will become operational, the aircraft will likely miss the current projected date of 2016. The aircraft will likely become fully operational in 2018, Carlisle said, but the service is not naming an official date until the new master schedule is complete.
There is money in fiscal 2012 budget to develop a modernization program for the F-16, Carlisle said. The Air Force will start developing the avionics modernization plan soon, he said.
Maj. Gen. Jay Lindell, Air Force director of global power programs, said the airframe life of the F-16 would be increased from 8,000 to "at least" 10,000 hours. That would afford the Air Force eight more years of operations using the old aircraft, he said.
"We're looking at capability through the next decade, which would be through 2030," Lindell said.
Each plane would cost $9.4 million, he said, so the Air Force wants to get its money's worth.
The scope of the modernization plan for the F-16 fleet and the fielding of the stealthy new F-35 depends on the forthcoming integrated master schedule for the new jet, Carlisle said. The F-35 will be fielded to ANG units, starting with the Vermont ANG, he said.
With the upgrades, the F-16 could be serving for decades to come.
The Navy and Marine Corps are also working on extending the life of 150 of their F/A-18 Hornets, said Marine Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, the U.S. Marine Corps' deputy commandant for aviation. The upgraded F/A-18s are slated to hold the sea services over until the F-35 becomes operational.

Pilots for UAVs

In his testimony, Carlisle said the Air Force doesn't have enough pilots for its growing fleet of drones. He said the service was on its sixth surge for providing Predator and Reaper combat air patrols (CAPs). But to attain the required 60 CAPs, the Air Force has had to press instructor pilots into active service and shut down its elite Weapons School course for the unmanned planes, he said.
"Our issue today is our ability to train our sensor operators and pilots," Carlisle said.
The Air Force will likely have to ratchet down the number of CAPs to reconstitute its ability to train and field new unmanned aircraft pilots, he said. The community has grown quickly; it is now the single largest group of aviators in the service.
Reconstituting the training force and rebuilding the expertise at the Weapons School will take about a year, Carlisle said. Once the Air Force can rebuild its schoolhouses, the Air Force can get back on track to fielding 65 CAPs as required by the forces deployed in combat.

No Retirement for U-2

Of the Air Force's U-2 spy planes, Carlisle said the Air Force won't be retiring them until a technical shortcoming with the RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned aircraft is resolved.
Although the Air Force plans to replace the venerable U-2 with the new unmanned aircraft, the Global Hawk's sensors are still not capable of measuring up to the standards set by the five-decade old Dragon Lady.
"The Global Hawk, the RQ-4, will be the replacement," Carlisle said. "It is not there yet. The sensors suite is not there. It cannot match what the U-2 does."
There is a high-altitude transition team, but the U-2 will be maintained until the Global Hawk can match the older plane. With the sensors on the Block 40 Global Hawk, the unmanned plane will "start to get close to that," Carlisle said.
The U-2 will be around through 2014 and 2015, but the Global Hawk should be able to start matching its capabilities by then, he said.

F 35 Sea Trials

U.S. Ready To Sell F-35 to India: Pentagon

WASHINGTON - The U.S. would be prepared to sell India the new F-35 fighter jet, the Pentagon said Wednesday, after New Delhi rejected a U.S. offer of older aircraft in a major competition this year.
In a report to Congress on U.S. defense ties with India, the Pentagon said India was a vital partner and that Washington wanted to bolster security cooperation with New Delhi, including joint exercises and high-tech arms sales.
In the first round of a contest for a combat aircraft contract, India in April shortlisted France's Dassault and the European Eurofighter consortium while rejecting the U.S. offer of F-16 and F-18 jets.
"Despite this setback, we believe US aircraft, such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), to be the best in the world," said the Pentagon report, referring to the radar-evading F-35 jet.
"Should India indicate interest in the JSF, the United States would be prepared to provide information on the JSF and its requirements ... to support India's future planning," it said.
Mindful of China's rise and growing military reach, President Barack Obama has placed a high priority on deepening ties with India.
The U.S.-India defense relationship has expanded rapidly over the past decade and the administration sees India as a natural partner and global "player," Robert Scher, deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, told reporters.
India has made no request for more information on the F-35, but the U.S. invitation was "an example of the high regard that we hold India's military modernization," Scher said.
In the April contest for a new multirole fighter for India, Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon beat out U.S. aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as well as Sweden's Saab AB and the Russian makers of the MiG 35.
The U.S. report noted that India is working with Russia on developing a fifth-generation fighter aircraft.
The Pentagon touts the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as the premier fifth-generation fighter equipped with stealth technology, but the program faces rising costs, with a price tag of nearly $150 million each.
The two U.S. senators who asked the Defense Department for the report welcomed the document but said Washington needed to work to expand its security relationship with India.
"While the report shows that tremendous progress has been made in military-to-military relations over the past ten years, we believe that there is much more that can be done," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said in a statement.

New Bomber Won't Be Nuclear-Capable at First: USAF Chief

The U.S. Air Force's top uniformed officer said the service's new Long Range Strike bomber will be built with nuclear capability but will operate as a conventional strike aircraft initially.
Testifying before Congress on Nov. 2, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said deferring the new aircraft's nuclear certification until the B-52 and B-2 bombers start to retire would help the service manage costs.
"The reason is that we're trying to control costs," Schwartz said.
Testing for the nuclear role is much more elaborate than testing for conventional weapons.
Nonetheless, "the airplane will be dual-capable," Schwartz said.
Schwartz reiterated that the aircraft will be designed and built with all the hardware for both the nuclear and conventional missions from the outset.
"This will not be backed in later," he said.
At least for the time being, the service's Air Combat Command (ACC) is the lead command for developing the new bomber, Schwartz said. That is because ACC has the capability and expertise to build requirement.
The Global Strike Command is still not fully up to speed, Schwartz said. Eventually, however, the command might take over the program, he said.
For the nuclear mission, Schwartz appealed to the congressional committee to ask the Department of Energy to modernize and upgrade the B-61 nuclear bomb.
During the rest of his testimony, Schwartz reiterated that defense cuts beyond the current $450 billion would seriously damage the U.S. Air Force. Already, he said, the service is looking at divesting itself of "hundreds" of aircraft.
Entire fleets, including the entire logistical train, may have to be removed if further cuts are made, Schwartz said.
Lt. Gen. Herbert Carlisle mirrored those sentiments later in the afternoon during his testimony.
Schwartz also stressed the importance of the KC-46 tanker, F-35 fighter and the new bomber. However, this time, he added the MQ-9 Reaper to his three priority programs.
Cyberwarfare is the only area in which the Air Force or Defense Department forces might expand, Schwartz added.