05 Mar , 2015 By IDR News Network

Jérôme Dufour has been appointed MBDA’s new Director of Communications and will take up his role on 9th March, 2015. He will report directly to Antoine Bouvier, CEO of MBDA, and takes over from Yves Barillé  who has moved to Airbus Helicopters as its new Director of Communications.

Aged 46, Jérôme Dufour started his career with Giat Industries in 1993 where he had several roles of an operational nature until, in 2004, he became responsible for the Communications and Public Affairs Directorate of the business which duly became Nexter in 2006. Following this, in 2010, he joined Thales as its Group Director of Communications.

On the occasion of Yves Barillé’s  departure, Antoine Bouvier said: “I would like to take this opportunity of warmly thanking Yves for his personal contribution in the construction of the European group MBDA while carrying out the function of Director of Internal Communications as of 2002 and subsequently that of Group Communications Director. During this latter phase, he was instrumental in reinforcing the image of MBDA both within our domestic and export countries.  I wish him every success in his new role at Airbus Helicopters.

I am delighted to welcome the arrival of Jérôme Dufour . Thanks to his widely recognised experience as a communications professional as well as his extensive experience in the defence sector with which he has been familiar for many years, Jérôme will allow us to further reinforce the image of the MBDA group, especially as a partner of our domestic countries’ armed forces and as a trusted supplier to our export countries”.

Able Seaman Communication Information Systems Libby Pearce in the Nuship Canberra's main planning room. Photo: Royal Australian Navy

13 November 2014 naval-technology.com

The Royal Australian Navy's (RAN) communications and information systems department has installed the computer network and communications suite on the Nuship Canberra, the first of two landing helicopter dock (LHD) vessels.

Since installation, the crew have been assessing the system in a bid to maintain its operational ability before the vessel's scheduled commissioning on 28 November.

In addition to offering enhanced potential for defence, the new system will enable the embarked forces and their headquarters staff to operate and communicate from the vessel.

Nuship Canberra communications and information warfare officer lieutenant commander Andrew Mannion said: "The planning for setting up the networks and communications systems onboard commenced early in the year.

"The communications suite on Canberra is significantly larger than any other ship in the fleet. We have approximately three times the amount of radios, networks and users."

Approximately 34 personnel from the department will operate the vessel's six local area networks (LANs) and offer 24/7 information technology (IT) helpdesk and information management, in addition to overseeing the radio, satellite and visual signalling communications mediums.

Around 50GB of data, including the ship's administrative paperwork and processes, has been migrated to the system and log-ons have been created for all 400 crew members, together with additional accounts on the classified networks.

Mannion added: "We had to transfer data that we had accumulated over the past 18 months to the ship's servers.

"When we start embarking forces, we will need to go through the same process for them, which could be approximately 300 additional personnel."

The vessel is also equipped with three internet cafés that allow crew to perform personal administration.

Work is still underway on the installation of a Wi-Fi network, which will enable crew and embarked forces to use personal devices to communicate with family and friends at home.

25 June 2014 Airbus Defence and Space

Exchange of real time data supports terrestrial and maritime operations

Apr 08, 2014  (SPX)

Washington DC - Missions in remote, forward operating locations often suffer from a lack of connectivity to tactical operation centers and access to valuable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data. The assets needed for long-range, high-bandwidth communications capabilities are often unavailable to lower echelons due to theater-wide mission priorities.

DARPA's Mobile Hotspots program aims to help overcome this challenge by developing a reliable, on-demand capability for establishing long-range, high-capacity reachback that is organic to tactical units.

The program is building and demonstrating a scalable, mobile millimeter-wave communications backhaul network mounted on small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and providing a 1 Gb/s capacity. DARPA performers recently completed the first of three phases in which they developed and tested key technologies to be integrated into a complete system and flight tested in subsequent phases.

"We're pleased with the technical achievements we've seen so far in steerable millimeter-wave antennas and millimeter-wave amplifier technology," said Dick Ridgway, DARPA program manager. "These successes-and the novel networking approaches needed to maintain these high-capacity links-are key to providing forward deployed units with the same high-capacity connectivity we all enjoy over our 4G cell-phone networks."

Phase 1 accomplishments include:

+ Smaller, steerable millimeter-wave antennas: During field testing, the program successfully demonstrated steerable, compact millimeter-wave antennas that rapidly acquire, track, and establish a communications link between moving platforms. Steerable millimeter-wave antennas will enable the formation of a high-capacity backhaul network between aerial and ground platforms.

+ Low-noise amplifiers: Performers also demonstrated an advanced low-noise amplifier (LNA), which boosts the desired communications signal while minimizing unwanted noise. The prototype achieved the record for the world's lowest noise millimeter-wave LNA at about half the noise figure of a typical LNA.

+ More efficient and capable power amplifiers: Efficient millimeter-wave amplification is required to achieve the long ranges (> 50 km) desired in the Mobile Hotspots program. During Phase 1, performers demonstrated output power exceeding 1 watt and 20% power added efficiency (PAE) from a single gallium nitride (GaN) chip operating at E-Band frequencies (71 GHz to 86 GHz). Output powers exceeding 20 watts and approaching 20% PAE were also achieved using power-combining techniques.

+ New approaches for robust airborne networking: Mobile ad-hoc networking approaches were developed to maintain the high-capacity backhaul network among mobile air and ground platforms. Phase 1 performers developed unique solutions to overcome connectivity and network topology challenges associated with mobility and signal blockages due to terrain and platform shadowing.

+ Low-Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP) pod design to carry it all: Performers created engineering designs for small, lightweight pods to be mounted on an RQ-7 Shadow UAV. The pods, with all of the Mobile Hotspots components inside, are designed to meet the challenging program goals of widths no more than 8 inches, weight less than 20 pounds, and power consumption less than 150 watts.

Phase 2 of the program began March 2014. Two performers, L-3 Communications and

FIRST RF, were chosen to lead teams comprising several Phase 1 performers. Phase 2 goals include the integration of the selected Phase 1 technologies into Shadow-compatible aerial pods and ground vehicles.

Phase 2 will conclude with a ground demonstration of at least four Shadow-compatible pods, two ground vehicles and a fixed ground node. A planned third phase will encompass field testing of the Mobile Hotspot systems on networks of multiple SRQ-7 Shadow UAVs and mobile ground vehicles.

Oct 30, 2013 (SPX)

McLean VA - Iridium Communications has been awarded a $400 million, multi-year, fixed-price contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to provide satellite airtime services to meet the communications needs of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and their federal partners. This five-year contract renews the provision for delivering Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) airtime effective October 22.

Iridium will provide unlimited global secure and unsecure voice, low and high-speed data, paging and Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS) services for an unlimited number of DoD and other federal government subscribers.

The renewed EMSS contract extends the U.S. Government's (USG) existing relationship with Iridium and ensures the continuation of service through new terms which offer program stability and the best value to the DoD to expand services supporting its critical missions.

Both the multi-year and fixed-cost terms allow an even greater number of government subscribers to fully take advantage of the current capabilities as well as the enhanced services that will become available with Iridium NEXT -- the Company's next generation satellite constellation scheduled for first launch in early 2015 - without concern for incremental cost increases based on usage changes or growth in demand.

The Company's U.S. Government service revenue for the full-year 2012 was $61.8 million. The EMSS fixed-price rate in each of the five contract years is $64 million in fiscal year (FY) 2014, $72 million in FY 2015 and $88 million in FY 2016, 2017, and 2018.

"Iridium is proud to continue its longstanding relationship of providing global, mobile communications to the Department of Defense, our largest single customer," said Scott Scheimreif, Iridium's executive vice president, government programs.

"We expect the DoD's needs for satellite communication services will continue to grow over the next 5 to 10 years. At a time when the U.S. Government is operating under greater fiscal constraints, Iridium is confident that both our service and contract terms will provide an optimal solution for our warfighters and other federal partners to communicate effectively now and in the future."

In 2012, USG services and support made up 20 percent of Iridium's revenues. USG subscribers on the Iridium network have grown from 32,000 to over 51,000 during the last five-year contract period as services grew from basic voice and paging, to data and Netted Iridium with growing applications across all the services.

According to the Defense Business Board fiscal year 2013 report to the Secretary of Defense, commercial satellite communications currently supports about 40 percent of the DoD's satellite communication needs. Northern Sky Research (NSR), a global leader providing satellite industry market research, predicts this requirement will grow by 68 percent over the next decade.

The report concludes: "SATCOM is critical to supporting the warfighter, and DoD will require additional capacity in the future as new missions evolve and communication technologies further develop. To meet DoD's needs, the commercial satellite sector is a cost-effective source for obtaining technologically advanced services."

Iridium operates the world's largest commercial satellite network offering coverage anywhere in the world, including the polar regions. The Iridium NEXT program is a $3 billion investment to upgrade the network through the launch of 66 low-Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites, six in-orbit spares and nine ground spares, which will extend Iridium's position as a critical communications provider by offering substantially greater bandwidth, improved data speeds and continued global coverage to more than 275 government and commercial partners and consumers.

Iridium NEXT will also serve as a platform for AireonSM, a global aircraft-monitoring service using a space-based ADS-B hosted payload, as well as for the Company's newly announced Iridium PRIMESM offering, a turnkey solution for hosted payloads which will service all elements of a successful hosted payload mission at an estimated cost savings of 50 percent or more compared to current stand-alone solutions.

Sep 18, 2013 ASDNews Source : Babcock International

Babcock has been contracted by the UK Ministry of Defence to design and develop the first stage of an obsolescence update to the Communications Coherency for Submarines (CCSM) system on Trafalgar class submarines.

CCSM, developed by Babcock, was first installed on T-class submarines in 2005, providing the submarines with increased capacity and capability to handle existing and future levels of message traffic and information, including the ability to use and share information efficiently as part of joint or coalition task force.  The system consolidated previously independent autonomous systems into a single Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) based system architecture, covering communications across the frequency spectrum from VLF to EHF.  It also provided improved processes to enable rapid technology insertion for maximum efficiency and cost benefits, and to overcome inherent space constraints.

Read more

06.09.2013 Le Monde.fr

Les désormais célèbres documents d'Edward Snowden, l'ancien consultant de l'Agence de sécurité nationale (NSA), viennent d'éclaircir une facette encore obscure du gigantesque système de surveillance des télécommunications mis en place par les renseignements américains et britanniques.

Des articles publiés jeudi 5 septembre par le Guardian britannique, le New York Times américain et le site d'information sans but lucratif Propublica révèlent que la NSA et son alliée britannique, le GHCQ (Government Communications Headquarters), ont développé toutes sortes de méthodes pour contourner ou déjouer les méthodes de chiffrement censées protéger la confidentialité des données circulant sur Internet.

Des techniques qui "compromettent largement les garanties avancées par les entreprises d'Internet sur la protection des informations de leurs utilisateurs", qu'il s'agisse de transactions bancaires, de communications personnelles ou d'informations médicales, écrit le Guardian.

UNE PERCÉE TECHNOLOGIQUE EXCEPTIONNELLE EN 2010

Les documents d'Edward Snowden révèlent que la NSA a mis en place depuis une dizaine d'années un programme baptisé "Bullrun", consacré à la lutte contre les techniques de chiffrement des communications, largement généralisées depuis 2010, qu'elle considère comme le plus grand obstacle à son "accès sans restriction au cyberespace". En témoigne la prière de ne pas publier ces informations adressée par le renseignement américain aux trois organes de presse, au risque que des "cibles étrangères" ne migrent vers de nouvelles formes de chiffrement qui seraient plus difficiles à contourner.

Le programme Bullrun aurait conduit en 2010 à une percée technologique exceptionnelle, qui aurait permis à la NSA de rendre "exploitables" de "vastes quantités" de données interceptées grâce à des écoutes de câbles Internet, ce que leurs propriétaires ont toujours démenti. Le GCHQ, avec un programme parallèle baptisé "Edgehill", aurait ainsi pu déchiffrer le trafic des "quatre grands" d'Internet : Hotmail, Google, Yahoo! et Facebook.

Des documents mentionnent également l'accès prochain, dès 2013, aux données d'un "opérateur majeur de télécommunications", ainsi que d'un "service de communications de pair à pair de premier plan", qui pourrait être Skype.

Lire nos explications : "Les câbles sous-marins, clé de voûte de la cybersurveillance"

LE CONTENU MÊME DES COMMUNICATIONS SERAIT COLLECTÉ

Selon le Guardian, l'agence américaine consacre 250 millions de dollars (190 millions d'euros) par an à travailler avec les entreprises technologiques pour "influencer secrètement" la conception de leurs produits. L'objectif : insérer dans les systèmes de chiffrement des vulnérabilités, ou "back doors", que la NSA pourra ensuite exploiter pour espionner les données.

L'agence influerait également sur la définition des standards mondiaux de chiffrement pour les détourner à son avantage, et utiliserait à l'occasion la "force brute" pour casser le chiffrement avec des superordinateurs, capables de tester toutes les clés de déchiffrage possibles grâce à des capacités de calcul gigantesques.

Si la cryptographie constitue "la base de la confiance en ligne", et de la structure même d'Internet, comme l'explique au Guardian Bruce Schneier, un spécialiste du domaine, la NSA considère les techniques de déchiffrement comme vitales pour mener à bien ses missions d'antiterrorisme et de renseignement extérieur. Des technologies réputées fiables, comme le HTTPS ou le SSL, qui protègent notamment les transactions en ligne, auraient ainsi cédé à l'effort américano-britannique. Mais comme le rappelait Edward Snowden en juin, certains systèmes de chiffrement plus solides résistent encore.

Avec ces révélations, il n'est donc plus question pour le complexe de renseignement américano-britannique de collecter les seules métadonnées (informations secondaires des communications, comme le nom du destinataire d'un courriel ou l'heure d'envoi), mais bien le contenu des communications, qu'on croyait jusqu'alors protégé par les systèmes de chiffrement.

Pour se défendre, la direction américaine du renseignement a rappelé que le décryptage des systèmes de chiffrement était la mission première de la NSA, et même le motif de sa création, en 1952. "Que la mission de la NSA soit de déchiffrer les communications cryptées n'est pas un secret [...]. Notre communauté du renseignement ne ferait pas son travail si nous ne tentions pas de contrer cela." L'agence avait pourtant jusqu'à présent assurer que ses programmes de cybersurveillance se limitaient pour l'essentiel à l'extraction des métadonnées, le contenu des messages lui demeurant inaccessible.

Voir l'infographie interactive : "Plongée dans la 'pieuvre' de la cybersurveillance de la NSA"

22 August 2013 army-technology.com

TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) has secured incremental funding for the delivery of secret internet protocol router and non-secure internet protocol router access point (SNAP) tactical transportable TROPO (3T) deployable communications systems to the US Army.

The $2.8m funding is being provided by the US Army project manager for the warfighter information network-tactical (PM WIN-T) commercial satellite terminal programme, through the army's $5bn worldwide satellite systems (WWSS) contract vehicle.

TCS government solutions group-president, Michael Bristol, said the presence of cost-effective, easily deployable and reliable communications systems is vital to successful completion of the US military operations.

''TCS' JF-12 certified 3T fits these requirements, is a viable alternative to expensive satellite bandwidth, and its approved frequency assignment allows rapid access to global communication networks," Bristol said.

"The presence of cost-effective, easily deployable and reliable communications systems is vital to the US military operations."

3T is a high capacity, modular communications system designed to provide high bandwidth, low latency, non-satellite beyond line of sight (BLOS) network transport for both current and future bandwidth intensive command, control, communications, computers, combat systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) platforms at distances of up to 150m.

Featuring the company's combat proven SNAP VSAT system and Comtech Systems' modem, the JF-12 certified system can offer long haul communications even in absence of bandwidth and over-the-horizon communications, in the regions where line-of-sight (LOS) is obstructed.

In addition, the Quad Diversity capable system establishes connectivity at greater data rates than typical satellite links, delivering greater speed for bandwidth-intensive applications, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) video distribution, without recurring satellite airtime costs.

Available on the TCS' SNAP 2.0M antenna, 3T also supports backwards compatibility with multiple US Department of Defense's (DoD) existing TROPO systems, such as AN/TRC-170 (V)2 and (V)3 systems.

The number of units ordered under the contract and delivery schedule has not been disclosed.