Defense Systems - May - June

DEFENSESYSTEMS
K N O W L E D G E T E C H N O L O G I E S A N D N E T- E N A B L E D W A R F A R E
Volume 9, Number 3 | www.DefenseSystems.com
May/June 2015
MARCH
OF THE
ROBOTS
Military services explore the
possibilities (and the limits)
of robotics PAGE 18
0615ds_0c1.indd 1
5/13/15 9:12 AM
CONTENTS | MAY/JUNE 2015
SPECIAL REPORT
The future of unmanned vehicles

Full autonomy is the next logical step, but getting there wont be easy
PAGE 10
FEATURES
BATTLESPACE TECH
16 Sense-and-avoid and other key technologies that
25 NRL is making Star Treks armor a reality
will direct the future of UAS
18 The military services are driving the innovation

being put into the next generation of robots
C4ISR
20 China and Russia prompt the U.S. to explore
counterspace measures
21 The Army is making its global intelligence system

more user-friendly
26 Marines, DARPA show the real meaning of

real-time air support
DEFENSE IT
28 It could be time for DOD to put IPv6 back on
the front burner
29 Air Force, NASA test a jet with shape-shifting

wings
MOBILE
CYBER DEFENSE
30 Army is all-in on Rifleman radios
22 DODs updated strategy brings cyber ops more
31 DOD teams with Commerce on spectrum sharing
out in the open
24 Attacks reveal Chinas new Great Cannon

cyber weapon
DEPARTMENTS
6
FORWARD OBSERVER
32 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
34 COMMENT
The Defense
Systems
Network
STAY ABREAST
One of the best ways to keep abreast of the
latest news in C4ISR, cyber and defense IT
is to receive Defense Systems twice-weekly
e-newsletters, which compile the most important breaking news stories reported by our
staff, plus aggregated content produced by
other respect and ed news outlets. The newsletters are free, you can sign up at
DefenseSystems.com.
IMPORTANT
HEADLINES
With daily coverage of military C4ISR and
net-enabled capabilities, DefenseSystems.
com is one of the best ways to stay on top of
the most important military and industry developments. You can get immediate access to
those stories throughout the day by following
Defense Systems on Twitter.
DefenseSystems.com | MAY/JUNE 2015 3
0615ds_003.indd 3
5/13/15 10:21 AM
SALES CONTACT
INFORMATION
MEDIA CONSULTANTS
Ted Chase
Media Consultant, DC, MD, VA,
OH, Southeast
(703) 944-2188
tchase@1105media.com
Editor-In-Chief Kevin McCaney
Vice President, Art and Brand Design

Scott Shultz
Contributing Writers George Leopold,

Mark Pomerleau, Greg Slabodkin, Terry Costlow,
David. C . Walsh
Creative Director Jeff Langkau
Mary Martin
Media Consultant, DC, MD, VA
(703) 222-2977
mmartin@1105media.com
EVENT SPONSORSHIP CONSULTANTS
Stacy Money
(415) 444-6933
smoney@1105media.com
Alyce Morrison
(703) 645-7873
amorrison@1105media.com
Kharry Wolinsky
(703) 300-8525
kwolinsky@1105media.com
MEDIA KITS
Direct your media kit requests to Serena Barnes,
sbarnes@1105media.com
REPRINTS
For single article reprints (in minimum quantities of
250-500), e-prints, plaques and posters contact:
PARS International
Phone: (212) 221-9595
Email: 1105reprints@parsintl.com
Web: magreprints.com/QuickQuote.asp
LIST RENTALS
This publications subscriber list, as well as other lists
from 1105 Media, Inc., is available for rental. For more
information, please contact our list manager, Merit
Direct. Phone: (914) 368-1000
Email: 1105media@meritdirect.com
Web: meritdirect.com/1105
SUBSCRIPTIONS
We will respond to all customer service inquiries within
48 hours.
Email: DSmag@1105service.com
Mail: Defense Systems
PO Box 2166
Skokie, IL 60076
Phone: (866) 293-3194 or (847) 763-9560
REACHING THE STAFF
A list of staff e-mail addresses and phone numbers
can be found online at DefenseSystems.com.
CORPORATE OFFICE
Weekdays 8:30 a.m.5:30 p.m. PST
Telephone (818) 814-5200; fax (818) 936-0496
9201 Oakdale Avenue, Suite 101
Chatsworth, CA 91311
Senior Web Designer Martin Peace

Director, Print Production David Seymour
Print Production Coordinator Lee Alexander
Chief Revenue Officer Dan LaBianca
Bill Cooper
Media Consultant, Midwest, CA, WA, OR
(650) 961-1760
bcooper@1105media.com
Matt Lally
Media Consultant, Northeast
(973) 600-2749
mlally@1105media.com
Assistant Art Director Dragutin Cvijanovic
Chief Operating Officer and

Public Sector Media Group President
Henry Allain
Co-President and Chief Content Officer
Anne A. Armstrong
Chief Revenue Officer
Dan LaBianca
Chief Marketing Officer
Carmel McDonagh
Advertising and Sales
Chief Revenue Officer Dan LaBianca
Senior Sales Director, Events Stacy Money
Director of Sales David Tucker
Senior Sales Account Executive Jean Dellarobba
Media Consultants Ted Chase, Bill Cooper, Matt Lally,
Mary Martin, Mary Keenan
Event Sponsorships Alyce Morrison,
Kharry Wolinsky
Art Staff
Vice President, Art and Brand Design Scott Shultz
Creative Director Jeffrey Langkau
Associate Creative Director Scott Rovin
Senior Art Director Deirdre Hoffman
Art Director Joshua Gould
Art Director Michele Singh
Assistant Art Director Dragutin Cvijanovic
Senior Graphic Designer Alan Tao
Graphic Designer Erin Horlacher
Senior Web Designer Martin Peace
Print Production Staff
Director, Print Production David Seymour
Print Production Coordinator Lee Alexander
Online/Digital Media (Technical)
Vice President, Digital Strategy Becky Nagel
Senior Site Administrator Shane Lee
Site Administrator Biswarup Bhattacharjee
Senior Front-End Developer Rodrigo Munoz
Junior Front-End Developer Anya Smolinski
Executive Producer, New Media Michael Domingo
Site Associate James Bowling
Lead Services
Vice President, Lead Services Michele Imgrund
Senior Director, Audience Development & Data
Procurement Annette Levee
Director, Custom Assets & Client Services Mallory Bundy
Editorial Director Ed Zintel
Project Manager, Client Services Jake Szlenker, Michele
Long
Project Coordinator, Client Services Olivia Urizar
Manager, Lead Generation Marketing Andrew Spangler
Coordinators, Lead Generation Marketing Naija Bryant,
Jason Pickup, Amber Stephens
Marketing
Chief Marketing Officer Carmel McDonagh
Vice President, Marketing Emily Jacobs
Director, Custom Events Nicole Szabo
Audience Development Manager Becky Fenton
Senior Director, Audience Development & Data
Procurement Annette Levee
Custom Editorial Director John Monroe
Senior Manager, Marketing Christopher Morales
Manager, Audience Development Tracy Kerley
Senior Coordinator Casey Stankus
FederalSoup and Washington Technology
General Manager Kristi Dougherty
OTHER PSMG BRANDS
Defense Systems
Editor-in-Chief Kevin McCaney
GCN
Editor-in-Chief Troy K. Schneider
Executive Editor Susan Miller
Print Managing Editor Terri J. Huck
Senior Editor Paul McCloskey
Reporter/Producers Derek Major, Amanda Ziadeh
Washington Technology
Editor-in-Chief Nick Wakeman
Senior Staff Writer Mark Hoover
Federal Soup
Managing Editors Phil Piemonte,
Sherkiya Wedgeworth
THE Journal
Editor-in-Chief Christopher Piehler
Campus Technology
Executive Editor Rhea Kelly
Chief Executive Officer

Rajeev Kapur
Chief Operating Officer
Henry Allain
Senior Vice President &
Chief Financial Officer
Richard Vitale
Executive Vice President
Michael J. Valenti
Vice President, Information Technology
& Application Development
Erik A. Lindgren
Chairman of the Board
Jeffrey S. Klein
4 MAY/JUNE 2015 | DefenseSystems.com
0615ds_004.indd 4
5/8/15 4:08 PM
REGISTER TODAY FOR THE USGIF

GEOINT 2015 SYMPOSIUM
Free for Government, Military & First Responders!
JUNE 22-25
Walter E. Washington Convention Center

Washington, DC
CHARTING
NEW PATHS
Dont Miss the Opportunity to:
Hear from more than 100 leading government,
military, and academia speakers
Network with over 4,000 Defense, Intelligence,
Homeland Security, and Civil Professionals
See the latest in technology, services,
and solutions from 250+ exhibitors
SAVE UP TO
$300
Register before June 1
Learn from 80 hours of dedicated professional

development, training and education sessions
GEOINT2015.com
Forward
Observer
Image is everything
Inspecting an aircraft for flight-worthiness has to date involved a
1,200-pound piece of equipment, which could cause some logistical
problems, especially in deployed environments. The Air Force Research
Laboratory has now made lighter work of it, with a first-of-its-kind
handheld imaging tool, known as HIT, that weighs just under 7
pounds and connects to an 11-pound backpack. An not only is it
about 63 times lighter than the old equipment, it does the job better,
collecting more data of equal or better quality in less time. In one zone
configuration, for instance, one HIT operator can image an entire zone
in 15 minutes; with the existing equipment, it would take two operators
about three hours to do the same thing.
Softwares BRASS ring

Imagine having software that, rather than having the
lifespan of an insect, could even outlive you. Thats the
idea behind DARPAs Building Resource Adaptive Software
Systems, or BRASS, program, which is looking to
change the way software is developed, aiming
for components that can dynamically adjust
to available resources and operating
environments. This kind of AI approach
theoretically could produce software
that lasts 100 years or more, but if
nothing else, researchers expect the
program to produce software thats a lot
more resilient and reliable.
0615ds_006-009.indd 6
5/11/15 12:34 PM
Tracking
space junk
The Air Force and lead contractor Lockheed
Martin have started construction on the
large-scale Space Fence radar system
that could increase the amount
of space debris the service can
track by an order of magnitude.
Space Fence, an S-band radar,
will be located on the U.S. Army
Garrison Kwajalein Atoll, although
its operations center (depicted
here in an artists concept) will be
co-located at Kwajalein Atoll and the
Reagan Test Site Operation Center in
Huntsville, Ala. Space Fence will replace the
Air Force Space Surveillance System, which
dates to the 1960s and could track up to
about 20,000 objects, whether working
satellites, retired satellites or debris. The
increased fidelity of the new system, which
is expected to come online in 2018, will
boost that tracking ability to well over
100,000 objects, perhaps even several
hundreds of thousands.
0615ds_006-009.indd 7
5/11/15 12:38 PM
Forward
Observer
Free-range refueling
The Navy took a big step recently toward extending the range of its unmanned
aerial fleet by successfully refueling an X-47B UAV in mid-flight. An autonomous
functionality allowed the X-47B to hook up with an Omega K-707 tanker, a task
that can be tricky even with manned aircraft, which opens to door to mid-air
refueling of other platforms as well. The X-47B, a test aircraft that also was the
first UAV to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier, will now be retired,
having laid the groundwork for the navys next-generation Carrier Launched
Airborne Surveillance and Strike aircraft.
A little more than zero

A problem with the Internet of Things that all of
those Internet-connected devices require power,
often from batteries that will run out pretty
quickly and have to be replaced or recharged.
DARPA is looking to change that with its Near
Zero Power RF and Sensor Operations, or
N-ZERO, program, to develop passive sensors
that essentially lie dormant, using less than
10 nanowatts of power, until triggered by a
signature such as a specific radio signal or type
of vehicle. Since current sensors are persistent,
running even when theres nothing to report,
the program could allow batteries to last up to a
thousand times longer than they do now while
reducing their size by a factor of 20 or more.
0615ds_006-009.indd 8
5/11/15 12:34 PM
EDITORS DISPATCH
BY
The science of sweat

Smartphone apps that monitor health and fitness
are increasingly popular, from devices used to
KEVIN
McCANEY
The next deep Web
ith the right equipment, you can get Internet access

from pretty much anywhere on the surface of the Earth,
monitor specific diseases, like diabetes, to those
from Death Valley to Mount Everest. Below the surface though,
that keep track of weight or exercise. The Air
specifically under water, its a much different story.
Force Research Lab is on the verge of going one

better, with a system that tracks many of the
same biomarkers as a blood test, but does it by
monitoring sweat. The system uses a sensor that
Water poses a problem for wireless communications

because it interferes with radio waves. As a result, underwater
communication systems like those used by the Navy have
often relied on sound waves or very low radio frequencies with
low data rates, such the frequencies between 3 and 30 kilohertz
looks like a Band-Aid, which collects a sample of
used in submarine communications. Theres no Internet down
a persons perspiration and relays that information
there, no broadband wireless, no GPS navigation.
wirelessly to a smart phone. AFRL, working

with the University of Cincinnatis Novel Devices
Laboratory, started on the project five years ago
But could there be? The Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency wants to find out, with separate projects aimed at
exploring the possibilities for an underwater Internet as well as
a GPS-like constellation that would operate under the sea.
and recently completed the first successful test of
For the first project, the agency is looking for technologies
its prototype. Researchers say the app could have
that would allow submerged manned and unmanned systems
a significant impact for all of the military services,
to operate together just like they do on the surface and in the
since it provides a way to monitor hydration, heat

stress and other factors that can affect the health
and performance of service personnel.
airand communicate with airborne systems as well. The goal

is to extend the network below the surface, unencumbered by
water.
The second project, Positioning System for Deep Ocean
Navigation, or POSYDON, aims to seed the ocean floor with
acoustic signaling sources that would work similarly to GPS
satellites, so that submerged vehicles could get precise
positioning information without having to surface. Currently,
submerged vessels use inertial measurement units and
other dead-reckoning sensors to calculate their positions on
short-term missions, but eventually have to surface to get an
accurate GPS reading.
Of the two, the underwater Internet is the more far-reaching,
since its looking for some technologies that havent been
invented yet. Its so nascent, in fact, that DARPA, known for
ginning up clever acronyms (like POSYDON) for its projects,
hasnt even given it a name yet.
But there has been some progress. Researchers sponsored by
the National Institutes of Health, for example, have tested using
the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band in an underwater environment
(wireless data transmits between 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz).
There is still a long way to go, and considering the
challenges, an underwater Internet could prove to be a pipe
dream. But then again, the Internet itself, not to mention
worldwide wireless and GPS navigation, was once a pipe
dream too.
0615ds_006-009.indd 9
5/11/15 12:35 PM
UAS
&ROBOTICS
THE FUTURE OF
UNMANN
VEHICLES
AUTONOMY IS THE NEXT LOGICAL STEP, BUT IT WONT BE EASY
0615ds_010-017.indd 10
5/13/15 11:35 AM
BY
nmanned systems have been widely successful for the

military, keeping soldiers out of harms way while serving as advanced intelligence platforms and attack craft,
performing both long-range and short-range missions.
The Defense Department, not surprisingly, is interested
in continuing to procure drones small and large, for missions ranging from the squad level operations to medium- and high-altitude
surveillance. The combined allocation of the service branches budget for unmanned aircraft for fiscal year 2015 totaled $2.4 billion.
But the Pentagon isnt just looking for more drones. It also wants
more capability, moving from the current semi-autonomous state of
the artsystems that can perform certain tasks without human intervention but cannot operate entirely freelyto fully autonomous
weapon and surveillance systems. DOD wants systems than can operate independently, in unison with each other and in concert with
manned systems.
And while full autonomy could be a decade or more away, the
military services have so far successfully tested new autonomous
platforms in the three main physical domains air, sea and land.
The Marines and Army have tested the
autonomous AMAS convoy system, here
against a simulated IED.
NNED
ES
SY
BY MARK POMERLEAU
0615ds_010-017.indd 11
AIR
The Office of Naval Research in line with the Pentagons desire for
the next generation of unmanned aircraft to not only enjoy greater
(if not full) autonomy, but communicate with each other recently
conducted testing for the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology,
or LOCUST, program. LOCUST encompasses small, three-foot
long Coyote drones manufactured by BAE Systems that serve to
overwhelm an adversary that might be assaulting a base utilizing a
swarming technique.
The Coyote drones can be operated by humans or autonomously
direct themselves toward a predetermined path. The small drones
are launched from a sonobouy container and a parachute slows the
aircraft before its wings open and the motor takes over.
SEA
ONR has also demonstrated swarmboats that, independently or in
concert with manned boats, swarm an approaching vessel that might
pose a threat. The boats were outfitted with Control Architecture for
Robotic Agent Command and Sensing (CARACaS) system, which
can be installed on most vessels to retrofit them for unmanned operation, operating either autonomously or by remote.
The swarmboats also have firing capability as an extra layer of
defense against a potential approaching threat. The Navy said the
boats could be used to patrol harbors or escort high-profile manned
vessels.
Such capabilities are attractive for commanders in maritime theaters. For example, this swarming technology could have proved
useful during the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Gulf of
Aden, where a small boat armed to the teeth with explosives blew
up alongside the guided missile destroyer, killing several sailors stationed aboard. Unmanned swarmboats could have, at no risk to personnel, intercepted such a threat long before it reached the destroyer.
5/13/15 11:35 AM
UAS & ROBOTICS
ONRs CARACaS can turn

almost any craft into an
autonomous unmanned
swarmboat.
LAND
The Marine Corps and the Army have
tested vehicles to be used in autonomous convoys, as one way to prevent
casualties caused by improvised explosive devices. During the Iraq and
Afghanistan Wars, IEDs were a major
cause for concern and injured or killed
many American and coalition service
men and women. The Autonomous
Mobility Appliqu System (AMAS),
being developed by Lockheed Martin,
employs a light detection and ranging
sensor, GPS receiver, algorithm software package and a control system that
allows large land vehicles to either be
controlled by humans remotely, or enable fully autonomous capabilities.
Base security has also become an

important task that has been outsourced
to artificial intelligence. The Serenity Payload system, an advanced multifaceted
platform equipped with weapons and
sensors to detect threats approaching a
base, is capable of autonomously alerting
personnel to the direction of the threat.
The system has seen multiple deployments in the Middle East.
THE NEXT STEPS
The Defense Department issued a directive

in 2012 guiding the policy and acquisition
of autonomous and semi-autonomous
platforms, stating: Human-supervised
autonomous weapon systems may be used
to select and engage targets, with the exception of selecting humans as targets, for local
defense to intercept attempted time-critical
or saturation attacks. The policy says that
autonomous weapon systems can be used
for static defense of manned installations
and onboard defense of manned platforms.
In terms of fully autonomous weapons or
systems, the directive stated that they may
be used to apply non-lethal, non-kinetic
force, such as some forms of electronic
attack, against materiel targets.
With the underlying policy framework
in place, and with the success unmanned
platforms have already achieved, the desire
for fully autonomous is stronger than ever.
Some believe that the military is only 10 or
so years away from bringing some of these
autonomous capabilities, which could save
the lives of personnel, to fruition. When
you start looking at the mid-term, five to 10
years, we start talking about tapping into
external systems, Mark Mazzara, robotics

interoperability lead for the Armys Program Executive Office told an audience
at a panel discussion during the National
Defense Industrial Association Ground
Robotics Capabilities Conference and
Exhibition.
However, this process will not be
easy and will require heavy lifting from
all sidesgovernment and industry
alike. The process to reach the goal of
autonomous capabilities is a three-phase
approach starting with driver-safety
and driver-assist technologies that are
upgrades to vehicles, Mazzara said. To
reach autonomous capability, the Army
needs incremental hardware and software
enhancements to existing systems/chassis;
sensor and payload upgrades; modularity;
open architecture in [interoperability profile], or, in- and out-processing software;
standardization; miniaturization and light
weight; and, intelligent behavior.
One of the draws for autonomous systems is the ability to continue to operate
on mission even if links are compromised,
as opposed to, say, a remotely piloted
aircraft that would be lost if its wireless
0615ds_010-017.indd 12
5/13/15 11:35 AM
GIAC Approved Training
UAS & ROBOTICS

signal were interrupted. According to the
Stimson Centers Recommendations and
Report of the Task Force on U.S. Drone
Policy, [a]utonomy could be a major
enabler in anti-access and area-denial
(A2/AD) zones, where remote-piloting
and real-time links may be compromised.
Autonomy could grant UAVs the ability
to continue with pre-programmed plans
even if data connections are lost or communication links are compromised over
A2/AD areas.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has invested a great deal of
time and energy researching and courting
proposals from the private sector in developing autonomous systems for various
missions. One such program is the Fast
Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program,
which would create small autonomous
vehicles that can navigate in tighter spaces
such as stair wells or inside buildings to
alert humans of unforeseen surprises.
DARPA envisions such autonomous aircraft to be capable of flying through doors
or windows at speeds of up to 45 miles
per hour while resembling the size and
maneuverability of small birds or insects
to avoid collisions. These micro UAVs, as
they are sometimes referred to, would
significantly aid squad level intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance.
In addition to outright autonomy,
DARPA also is looking to put multiple
UAVs under the control of a single operator, through its Collaborative Operations
in Denied Environment program. CODE
seeks to develop collaborative autonomy
among several aircraft while airborne under
the supervision of a single operator. The
collective aircraft would be capable of continuous evaluation of themselves as well
as their surroundings in order to present
recommendations to mission supervisors
that can approve or disapprove of continued action.
Just as wolves hunt in coordinated
packs with minimal communication, multiple CODE-enabled unmanned aircraft
would collaborate to find, track, identify
and engage targets, all under the command
of a single human mission supervisor,
DARPA program manager Jean-Charles
Led said.
Autonomy could work on a small scale, too; DARPAs CODE program

envisions small, fast UAVs that could search buildings in advance of
troops arrival.
THE KILLER QUESTION
The notion that systems can become fully

autonomous has drawn some push-back,
since they still will have at least some direction from a human. Paul Scharre, a fellow
at the Center for a New American Security,
believes that the phrase full autonomy is
meaningless and that a more appropriate
term is operationally-relevant autonomy.
For example, Scharre cites thermostats that,
while they work without human intervention, only have a limited set of functions,
or toaster ovens that require the initial
action to get it started, but then operate
entirely on their own.
Scharre describes operationally-relevant autonomy as a platform that is good
enough to get a mission or task done. He
also says that current unmanned aircraft,
such as the Air Forces Global Hawk or
the Armys MQ-1C Gray Eagle, fall into
this category because [i]n the air domain,
operationally-relevant autonomy might
mean the ability for the aircraft to take off,
land and fly point-to-point on its own in
response to human taskings, with a human
overseeing operations and making missionlevel decisions, but not physically piloting
by stick and rudder. Those UAVs, Scharre
said, already do this.

Inevitably, talk of full autonomy raises
fears about killer drones and robots, though
DOD policy states that, in person or by
remote, only a human can give the OK to
pull the trigger. The Stimson Task Force
report notes that [f]or the time being,
DOD policy states that no UAV will be
allowed independently to launch any kind
of weapon without human approval. The
key phrase there, however, could be for
the time being. The report states that current DOD directives raise the possibility
of permitting the use of such autonomous
weapons in the future, with the approval
of high-ranking military and civilian officials. Current guided munitions, the report
notes, are to some degree autonomous
since, once fired by a human, their geolocating systems takes over. The prospect
of additional autonomy has some worried
and presents distinct legal questions.
Those questions wont go away, but for
now, the militarys focus is on developing,
testing and using autonomous systems
that could save time on training, reduce
certain errors, allow continued operation in
contested environments and, most importantly, save lives. n
0615ds_010-017.indd 14
5/13/15 11:35 AM
DefenseSystems
HasGone
Mobile.
Download
the tablet
app today!
GO TO:
DEFENSESYSTEMS.COM/TABLET
UAS
&ROBOTICS
Key tech for UAS

Its more than just flying and spying
KEVIN MCCANEY
he future of unmanned vehicles is pretty much the future

of vehicles, at least as far as
many military applications are
concerned.
While Google and other companies
work on their self-driving cars, the military
services are striving toward autonomous
unmanned ground vehicles of their own,
whether via kits that can be fitted onto
existing vehicles or designed-from-theground-up unmanned vehicles like the
Ripsaw, made by Howe and Howe Technologies, which the Army says could one
day lead soldiers into battle.
The Navy, likewise, has plans for a variety
of unmanned systems, to operate both on
the surface and below it. And the pervasiveness of unmanned vehicles could be
most dominant of all in the air. Secre-
tary of the Navy Ray Mabus has said the

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter should be, and
almost certainly will be, the last manned
strike fighter aircraft the Department of
the Navy will ever buy or fly. Air Force
officials have disagreed with that, at least
concerning the Air Forces plans, and even
if Mabus is right, the F-35 has a planned
lifecycle of 55 years, so an all-unmanned
fleet wont happen tomorrow, it at all. But
unmanned vehicles are a major part of the
Pentagons short- and long-range plans.
Long-term, the military wants to
increase the autonomous capabilities of
its vehicles, whether on land, at sea or in
the air, as we point out in this issue (Page
10). But there are other key technologies
in play for the unmanned fleets. Here is a
look at a few of them.
SENSE-AND-AVOID
This is a key technology for domestic
drone flights, whether commercial civil-
ian flights or military training exercises.

As the name suggests, the idea is for unmanned aircraft to identify the presence of
other aircraft or obstacles and maneuver
to stay clear of them, the way human pilots
practice see and avoid.
While private companies race to develop

reliable sense-and-avoid technologies to
meet Federal Aviation Administration
requirements, the military and its contractors have been making progress on
several fronts.
The Army late last year began installing
five Ground-Based Sense-and-Avoid radar
systems, the first at Fort Hood, Texas. The
system incorporates 3D radar, known as
LSTAR, along with data fusion, tracker and
classifier systems, separation algorithms
and other features. It will allow the Army
to replace the see-and-avoid method for
meeting FAA requirements, which involved
visual observation from either the ground
or a manned chase plane.
0615ds_010-017.indd 16
5/13/15 11:36 AM
DARPAs ALIAS would augment

manned crews with autonomous
capabilities.
UAS
General Atomics tested the first

air-to-air radar this year aboard an
MQ-9 Predator B.
The Army opted for a ground-based system because its drones are smaller than the
Air Forces, so they have less room inside
them for radars and other systems. Fort
Hood hosts two companies of MQ-1C
Gray Eagles, the Armys largest UAVs. The
other bases to get GBSAA systems are
Fort Riley, Kan., Fort Stewart, Ga. and
Fort Campbell, Ky.
Up in the air, General Atomics earlier
this year successfully tested the first air-toair sense-and-avoid radar aboard one of its
MQ-9 Predator B, which is widely used by
the Air Force. The pre-production system
is a version of due regard radars, which
have automatic collision avoidance and
sensor fusion capabilities, and typically
are interoperable with the traffic alert and
collision avoidance systems used in most
commercial aircraft. A working system
like this would qualify remotely piloted
aircraft for flights in international airspace.
The Air Force, meanwhile, has been
working on sense-and-avoid kits that could

be fitted onto UAVs without modifying the
aircraft itself. The Air Force Research Lab
has been working with Defense Research
Associates for over a decade on senseand-avoid technologies and late last year
gave the company a $23.5 million contract
to continue development of its ElectroOptical Small Sense and Avoid System
as part of a multi-spectral sensor suite.
In recent years, DRAs focus has been on
miniaturizing its technology so that it can
be used on smaller UAVs.
ELECTRONIC WARFARE
With ever-more systems, whether manned
or unmanned, being connected and interoperable, effective electronic warfare
capabilities become ever more paramount.
The basic idea behind EWprotect your
own communications while being able to
disrupt or interfere with an enemysis
as old as radio waves, but the technologies are becoming more sophisticated as
the electromagnetic spectrum gets more
crowded.
The Air Force, for example, is looking

to develop new EW-focused technologies
through a couple of new programsSpectrum Warfare Assessment Technologies
(SWAT) and Virtual Integrated Electronic
Warfare Simulations (VIEWS) II.
SWAT will use multispectral synthetic

battlespace simulations to assess how new
EW technologies would perform in the real
world, according to the Air Force Research
Laboratory, which launched the program.
VIEWS II will develop simulations for
testing and evaluating how well advanced
sensors and fused systems on aircraft stand
up against EW attacks. In April, the service
awarded Avarint an $84 million contract
for the work.
Technological developments also could
bring EW capabilities to new platforms.
Excelis, a longtime maker of EW equipment, late last year unveiled its Disruptor
SRx family of systems that put multiple
capabilities into a small package. Rather
than have one device each for electronic
attack, protection, support, intelligence
gathering and jamming, the company puts
all of those capabilities into one programmable system on a chip that can shift
between functions in real time.
The combined technology of the platform-independent Disruptor would allow it
to be used on crafts that previously were too
small to carry EW technology, while also
saving on space and weight on larger craft.
AUTONOMOUS COPILOTS
One of the things about developing autonomous capabilities is that they dont have
to be just for unmanned vehicles. They can
be used to back up manned crews or even
serve as a member of a crew if its manpower has been reduced.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently awarded contracts

in a program to do just that, the Aircrew
Labor In-Cockpit Automation System, or
ALIAS, program. The drop-in system will
be designed to be added to existing aircraft.
With both touch and voice interfaces, it
would be able to take over in the case of
system failures or for specific missions.
Aurora Flight Sciences, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky Aircraft were awarded
prime contracts for Phase 1 of ALIAS,
which DARPA intends to develop with
feedback from flight crews. n
0615ds_010-017.indd 17
5/13/15 11:36 AM
ROBO
R OL L I N G W IT H T H E
MILITARY SERVICES DRIVE THE NEXT GENERATION OF AUTO

BY DAVID C. WALSH
Robots in the military have a longer history than you might think. During World War II, radio-guided target drones were launched from Navy
ships, directed by sailors toggling joysticks on small control boxes. At
least one explosives-packed, unmanned B-17 boasted a television camera, enabling monitor-equipped ground personnel to maneuver it to a
target.
But things have changed a lot in the 70 years since.
The most striking example will be on display June 5-6 in Pomona,
Calif., during the finals of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencys increasingly global and
ground-breaking competition. Twenty five commercial, university and
government teams will vie for $3.5 million in prize money in a disasterresponse scenario whose degree of difficulty has increased as the teams
have shown progress over the past couple of years.
DRC entries must be battery-powered and unconnected to power
cords, fall arrestors, or wired communications tethers. Teams must
communicate with their creation over a secure wireless network, which
will be randomly degraded to simulate actual emergency situations. The
robots will have to drive a vehicle, cut through a wall, remove debris,
connect a fire hose and perform other tasks. And theyll have to stay
upright; inability to recover from stumbles means failure.
Come June, well see [government/academic cooperation] in
action, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said during an April 25th address at Stanford University. This event will showcase how work on
smaller sensors, pattern recognition technology, big data analysis, and
autonomous systems with human decision support, could combine
into a rescue robot ... that navigates a disaster-stricken area with the
same speed and efficiency that you or I would but without putting
anyone at risk.
DODs Office of Naval Research (ONR) is developing its own autonomously controlled machines, and helping oversee others. One is the
Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR.) (Among ONRs
collaborators is Virginia Tech, whose ESCHER robot is contesting the
DARPA Challenge.) A 2014 Navy-filmed Va. Tech. video shows hosewielding SAFFiR onboard facing a roaring firethe first such demo of
its kind.
Although still tethered, unlike the robots in DARPAs challenge, SAFFIR is being developed with impressive speed. The Navy hopes one day
all ships will have robot fireman and safety inspectors.
FOUR-WHEELED FRIENDS
Humanoid robots might be getting a lot of attention, but the military

has long relied on radio-controlled tractor-type robotsIED-hunting mini-tanks, mostlyas regular tools. An entire Pentagon enterprisethe Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization
(JIEDDO)exists solely for this purpose. The capabilities for these
unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have, though, moved well beyond
familiar find em, explode em tasking.
The Marines MAARS is emblematic. Built by Britains QinetiQ
North America/Foster-Miller, the Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System is a true multi-tasker. An advanced test-bed dating to
2008 and laden with technology, it can feature various combinations
of ISR sensors, such as pan-and-tilt day/night and zoom-lens cameras,
FLIR night camera, thermal imagers, front and rear and infrared drive
cameras and laser rangefinders that work out to 10 kilometers. It also
could include a high-intensity spotlight, siren, a dazzler to temporarily blind restive crowds, voice projector, M240 machinegun, hostilefire detection system, Uzi submachine gun, even smoke generators if
required to quit the battle space. Not to mention a quad-40 milimeter
rocket or grenade launcher.
Like Army iterations, its tele-operated, with the controller remotely
situated, tapping a keyboard and viewing a computer monitor. A wearable option is a possibility. For now, its range is line-of-sight.
The project comes under the Combat Robotics System (CRS)
program. We started CRS to understand how the dynamics of manmachine interactions would work, said Capt. James Piniero, a Marine
Warfighting Lab robotics project lead handling multiple portfolios.
And essentially, were less concerned with the specific equipment piece
than with concept-based experimentation.
The focus is on how robots might help infantry Marines as they do
static-post guards, explosive ordnance disposal crews and engineers.
MAARS acts as an advanced optics suite with a direct-fire weapon
aboard, he said.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Its multiple capabilities notwithstanding, MAARS isnt perfect, though
its limitations arent with the platform but with how its controlled. Marine ground robots in general dont yet have the level of autonomy required to navigate glitchlessly, or understand certain basic commands,
0615ds_018-019.indd 18
5/13/15 11:30 AM
OTS
The Navys fire-fighting SAFFiR could one day be a part of every ships crew.
OF AUTOMATED MACHINES
Piniero said.
That lack of autonomy increases the cognitive load on Marines
when driving/controlling MAARS during offensive operations.
They just dont have the time to deal with it, and it becomes a burden instead of something that helps.
The Marines are still tweaking MAARS, expecting to improve its
operations by years end. Meanwhile, the Marine Warfighting Lab
has a brand-new tracked-vehicle projectthe Robotic VehicleModular. (RV-M), Piniero said.
At about 800 pounds, the next-gen vehicle is smaller than a jeep
but larger than MAARS. Its also highly mission-configurable, like
MAARS, but with lots more elbow room.
The RV-M project utilizes a one-off Polaris Defense/TORC Robotics vehicle. It carries the Marines Ground Unmanned Support
Surrogate (GUSS) autonomy package, yielding, Piniero said, a
higher level than the MAARS. Hes planning for a remote weapons
station for direct fires experiments, plus a targeting package with
laser designator. And MAARS-type ISR pieces, optics and other
components are under discussion.
As part of another project, Unmanned Tactical Autonomous
Control and Collaboration (UTACC), the robots share information. If one identified a target it can pass it to another of the same
or different type, say, aerial for them to have a shared awareness
of the battlespace. ... If the air robot sees something the ground
cant see, together they can solve a complex problem. A February demo validated this.
Regarding so-called swarming or ganging of robots, he said, Yeah thats exactly what were driving
towards. That command-and-control project is called
Unmanned Tactical Autonomous Control and Collaboration (UTACC) and thats the overarching
backbone of all of this. RV-M hits on modularity and
multi-mission packages for the infantry squad or company
[with] a higher level of mission autonomy.
The biggest thing to fight on the ground and be safe is to have
time and space from the threat, he said. And thats what autonomous systems buy us, because you can put an enhanced camera on
it; you can have software that does change detection, visual recognition and so on. n
0615ds_018-019.indd 19
Florian, which will compete in the DRC, is produced

by Team ViGIR, whose members include researchers
from TORC Robotics, Virginia Tech and Oregon State.
5/13/15 11:30 AM
C4ISR
DODs rising concern:

Satellites as targets
Chinas tests and Russias hard line prompt counterpace efforts
BY GEORGE LEOPOLD
he Air Force is stepping up its

counterspace operations as
concerns grow about Chinese
antisatellite weapon capabilities and the
side effects of continuing friction with
Russia over Ukraine.
Congress added more than $32 million to the Air Forces space budget in
fiscal 2015 to study future antisatellite
capabilities, including offensive and
active defense capabilities. It also instructed DOD to conduct a study of
potential alternative defense and deterrent strategies in response to the existing and projected counterspace capabilities of China and Russia.
Concerns have grown in the aftermath of Chinese antisatellite tests, most
recently in July 2014, that demonstrated
the capability to destroy military com-
munications satellites, perhaps even

those in geostationary orbits. Analysts
suspect the test involved a prototype
kinetic kill weapon. That possibility has
U.S. military officials especially nervous
given the debris fields that could be generated in a space conflict.
Air Force officials have taken a harder
line on counterspace since the Chinese
antisatellite, or ASAT, tests. Before the
2014 test, China had in 2007 destroyed
one of its old weather satellites using a
ballistic missile, and in 2013 conducted
another apparent ASAT test. China has
denied that the recent tests involved
ASAT^ capabilities.
Were aggressively looking at our
current capabilities and our future capabilities to figure out what we have
to do to prepare for those threats, Air
Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of
U.S. Space Command, told reporters re-
cently. Hyten cited ongoing Russian and

Chinese counterspace development,
including laser weapons and microsatellites. They are very close to fruition,
and we need to be prepared for that,
Hyton was quoted as saying. Hence, the
Pentagon will spend an extra $5 billion
over the next five years to protect military satellites.
Space security analysts have noted
the steady drum beat from the Pentagon
over ASAT development. Theres a clear
rhetorical strategy here, said Theresa
Hitchens, senior research scholar at the
Center for International and Security
Studies at the University of Maryland.
The U.S. intelligence community
and military leaders have been spooked
by continued Chinese ASAT testing, especially the last test which took place at
an altitude near [geosynchronous orbit]
where very important national security
The Air Force currently uses

the Sodium Guidestar laser at
Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.,
for high-fidelity tracking and
imaging of satellites; analysts
think lasers that could blind,
but not destroy, satellites
are a possible counterspace
measure.
0615ds_020-021.indd 20
5/8/15 4:09 PM
satellites reside, added Hitchens, who

previously directed the United Nations
Institute for Disarmament Research in
Geneva.
Referring to additional funding for
counterspace development, Hyton cited
the need for more resilient next-generation satellites with defensive capabilities integrated into their designs. That
translates primarily into satellites that
could maneuver to avoid attack.
Meanwhile, Moscow has also taken a
harder line on space cooperation since
the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.

Hitchens said those tensions have
translated up the chain to the White
House. As a result, weve been hearing
more aggressive rhetoric out of the U.S.
space community regarding deterrence
and response.
The Air Force has said little about
what new ASAT capabilities it is developing. Based on the fear of creating new
debris fields in spacespace junk that
could knock out critical infrastructure
on Earthanalysts think laser technol-
ogies that could blind but not destroy

satellites are a likely focus of Air Force
development.
Then there is the larger question of
deterring China and Russia, each of
which understands the United States
has an ASAT capability. The question is
whether a harder line approach will deter
Russia and China or push them into even
more troubling developments, and begin
an ASAT race, Hitchens said, adding
that such a competition would increase
risks to all space users. n
Army making its intelligence system

more user-friendly
Service plans to reduce complexity, improve training for DCGS-A
BY KEVIN MCCANEY
he Armys evolving global intelligence systems has come in

for a lot of criticism in the last
couple of years, with users complaining
it is difficult to use and unreliable. Army
leaders have taken those criticisms to
heart, however, and are promising that
future versions will be much more userfriendly.
The Distributed Common Ground
System - Army, or DCGS-A, is used to
collect, analyze and disseminate intelligence to soldiers around the world. But
since it was first approved for deployment in December 2012, the system has
suffered from glitches and resistance
from users.
At a hearing this week before the Senate Armed Services Committees subcommittee on Airland, a top Army leader admitted the difficulties soldiers have
had with the system and said the service
is working to correct the problem.
We have acknowledged that the
complexity associated with the button-
ology has been difficult, Lt. Gen.

Michael E. Williamson, military deputy
to the assistant secretary of the Army
for acquisition, logistics and technology, told lawmakers. So we have tried
to invest a lot of time, and we have also
engaged with over 150 vendors through
a series of industry days, to find out how
we can improve the existing system.
DCGS-A is a complex system, drawing information from more than 600
sources, including GPS satellites, surveillance drones, ground and biometric
sensors and other systems. It combines
a number of commercial and military
software tools as well including Google
Earth and Query Tree. The combination
of so much disparate software resulted,
perhaps inevitably, in some usability
problems.
Buttonology was one of the terms
used in a memo from late 2013 in which
members of five units in Afghanistan
were cited as saying DCGS-A was unstable, slow, not friendly and a major
hindrance to operations, with upgrades that wipe out users data. Several
also said that, while they could see the

systems potential value, they had not
received enough training to manage its
complexity. As a result, they often opted
to use commercial tools instead. Last
summer, the Army scrapped DCGS-A
from a major exercise because of software glitches.
Since then, the Army has been working to smooth out the systems rough
edges and improve training. To go with
the industry days Williamson mentioned, the service has issued a series of
solicitations seeking input on the next
iteration, DCGS-A Increment 2, for
which the Army is planning to hold a
competition in 2016. It also is forming
tactical engagement teams of subject
matter experts to train users in making
the most of the system.
Meanwhile, work on the current
increment has improved its usability,
which the Army plans to demonstrate
during evaluations scheduled for May,
Williamson said. I think you will see a
completely different perception of how
that tool is provided, he said. n
0615ds_020-021.indd 21
5/8/15 4:09 PM
CYBERDEFENSE
DODs updated strategy puts cyber
operations more out in the open
BY MARK POMERLEAU
he Defense Department recently

released a much-needed update
its 2011 Strategy for Operating
in Cyberspace. The new version, while
hitting on many of the same general
pointsinformation sharing, bolstering alliances in the cyber realm and protecting DOD infrastructure, to name a
fewclearly reflects the evolution and
escalation of threats and cyberspace operations over the last four years.
One of the most glaring distinctions
between the two documents pertains to
specific threats. In 2011, DODs strategy
only spoke in broad terms regarding the
threats facing the U.S. in cyberspace,
citing external threat actors, insider
threats, supply chain vulnerabilities,
and threats to DODs operational ability, among its concerns.
Conversely, the updated strategy
overtly names a litany of state and nonstate actors that pose a threat to U.S.
while citing specific accounts in which
they were culpable. The strategy names
Russia, China, North Korea and Iran
as well as ISIS, which uses cyberspace
to recruit new fighters and disseminate
propaganda, and offers something of a
scouting report on them.
Russian actors are stealthy in their
cyber tradecraft and their intentions
are sometimes difficult to discern, the
strategy states. China steals intellectual
property (IP) from global businesses to
benefit Chinese companies and undercut U.S. competitiveness. While Iran
and North Korea have less developed
cyber capabilities, they have displayed
an overt level of hostile intent towards
the United States and U.S. interests in
cyberspace. Also, criminal organiza-
tions are generally mentioned as a collective body.

Furthermore, the report notes
blurred lines that can occur in cyberspace in which patriotic entities often
act as cyber surrogates for states, and
non-state entities can provide cover
for state-based operators. An example
of that could be the Syrian Electronic
Army, which supports Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad but apparently is not
part of the government.
TOP THREAT
Another change has been the seriousness of cyber threats. The report soberly
points out that from 2013-2015 the
Director of National Intelligence identified cyber threats as the number one
strategic threat to the United Statesa
significant statement because it is the

first time since Sept. 11, 2001 that terrorism did not top the list.
The 2015 strategy also differs from
its previous iteration in that it identifies in more specific terms how the U.S.
can respond in to threats in cyberspace.
Previously, DOD only held a defensive
posture when it came to cybersecurity.
DOD since has indicated that it is ready
to go on the offensive in the cyber domain against perceived threats.
If directed by the President or the
Secretary of Defense, the U.S. military may conduct cyber operations to
counter an imminent or on-going attack against the U.S. homeland or U.S.
interests in cyberspace, the strategy
says. DOD could order cyber operations to disrupt an adversarys military
The 624th Operations Center at Joint Base San Antonio is home to Air
Forces Cyber, the Air Force component of U.S. Cyber Command.
0615ds_022-024.indd 22
5/8/15 4:10 PM
microsoft headquarters,
redmond, wa
august 3 - 7, 2015
engineered
for you
@ the source
Join us August 3 7, 2015 for TechMentor 2015:
Datacenter Edition, focused entirely on making your datacenter
more modern, capable, and manageable through 5 days of
immediately usable IT education.
the agenda
features:
75-minute topic overview
breakout sessions
3 hour content-rich deep dives
"Hands on" labs with your
own laptop
content areas
include:
Windows PowerShell
save 400!
Infrastructure Foundations
Runbook Automation
REGISTER TODAY
USE PROMO C ODE
event sponsor:
TM A PR1
platinum sponsor:
Configuration and
Service Management
Scan the QR code to register
or for more event details.
gold sponsors:
TECHMENTOREVENTS.COM/REDMOND
TM_RE15_Apr_1pg_ad_v3.indd 2
Datacenter Provisioning
and Deployment
supported by:
produced by:
3/4/15 1:51 PM
CYBER DEFENSE
related networks or infrastructure so

that the U.S. military can protect U.S.
interests in an area of operations. The
report also notes that not all cyberattacks will warrant a cyber response,
with sanctions or other diplomat5ic and
economic responses as options.
The trouble with responding is that
it can be difficult to attribute attacks
to a specific source. So deterrence has
gained a new focus in the 2015 strategy,
with deterrence tactics and capabilities
peppered throughout the 42-page document. The strategy describes a measured
three-tiered approach that focuses on
effective response capabilities to deter
adversaries, effective denial capabilities
to prevent attacks from succeeding and
strengthening the resilience of networks
to withstand attacks.
The only mentions of deterrence
in DODs 2011 cyber strategy were in

reference to collective deterrence that
could come from bolstering partnerships with allies and taking steps to prevent insider attacks.
GATHERING FORCE
An obvious difference between 2011
and 2015 is the size of DODs cyber
workforce. The U.S. Cyber Command
was established in 2009 as a subcommand of U.S. Strategic Command to
focus exclusively on cyber operations.
In 2012, DOD began to build a Cyber
Mission Force (CMF) that will include
nearly 6,200 military, civilian and contractor personnel. It expects to fill out
that workforce by 2016.
Within the CMF, DOD is constructing 133 teams that, according to the
2015 strategy, will consist of three
forces: Cyber Protection Forces, which

will defend priority networks and augment traditional defense measures; National Mission Forces that, along with
associated support teams, will defend
against cyberattacks of significant consequence; and Combat Mission Forces,
which will support combat commands
through integrating cyberspace effects
into operation plans and contingency
operations.
DOD began to restructure the military and civilian workforce infrastructures in order to ensure mission success
in 2013 by integrating the CMF into
larger multi-mission military forces.
Since the CMF has not reached its desired force levels yet, DOD stressed in
the updated cyber strategy that it will
continue to build and mature necessary
command and control. n
Attacks reveal Chinas Great Cannon

BY KEVIN McCANEY
hina has developed a powerful

new cyber weapon capable of
extending its censorship efforts
and targeted cyberattacks around the
world, researchers say.
According to a report released by Citizen Lab, the tool was used earlier this
year to conduct large-scale distributed
denial of service attacks on websites
and servers, run by GreatFire.org, that
were trying to provide access to blocked
Chinese websites.
The attacks originally were attributed
to Chinas Great Firewall, the Internet filter China uses to censor content
within the country, but researchers at
the University of California, Berkeley,
University of Toronto, International
Computer Science Institute and Princeton University, after studying the attacks, attributed it to a new weapon they
dubbed the Great Cannon. While the
Great Firewall is known for blocking
content within China, the researchers

said the Great Cannon could export
censorship activities as well as outright
cyberattacks.
The tool, co-located with the Great
Firewall, can hijack a computer and put
it to use in a DDOS attack, the researchers said, and could easily be adapted to
inject malicious code into any system
that communicates with a website in
China while not using encryption.
In the attacks on GreatFire.org, a
non-profit that helps users get access
to censored Chinese sites, the Cannon
initially intercepted unencrypted, nonChinese Web traffic intended for the
Chinese search engine Baidu and directed it at servers rented by the organization. Ten days later, two GitHub Web
pages run by GreatFire suffered similar
attacks.
The tool is capable of intercepting
traffic to and from individual IP addresses and replacing unencrypted con-
tent in a man in the middle attack. It

also could also intercept unencrypted
email, replacing legitimate content with
malicious code, the researchers said.
The Great Cannon, in fact, shows
similarities to QUANTUM, used by the
National Security Agency and the U.K.s
GCHQ intelligence agency to redirect
large streams of traffic, according to
documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
The researchers said they were surprised that China would make such a
high-profile, public use of the Great
Cannon, but concluded that, Conducting such a widespread attack clearly
demonstrates the weaponization of the
Chinese Internet to co-opt arbitrary
computers across the web and outside
of China to achieve Chinas policy ends.
They said coopting foreign computers
for a countrys purposes sets a dangerous precedent that goes against international norms and many countries
domestic laws. n
0615ds_022-024.indd 24
5/8/15 4:10 PM
BATTLESPACE
TECH
Lab is making Star Treks
transparent armor a reality
NRLs spinel is a potential game-changer for military and

commercial uses. from aircraft windows to smartphone screens
BY KEVIN McCANEY
n the 1986 movie Star Trek IV: The

Voyage Home, the Enterprise crew
travels back from the 24th century
to present-day Earth where, among
other things, Scotty barters for enough
Plexiglass to build a giant whale tank
by offering the formula for transparent
aluminum.
As it turns out, the movie was not too
far off in placing the technology closer
to present times, as we may soon be seeingand seeing throughsomething
similar. The Naval Research Laboratory
is developing a version of the gemstone
spinel that, rather than being transparent aluminum, is a transparent ceramic
that could produce armor-strength windows, as well as make camera lenses and
smartphone screens that dont scratch
or break.
And because its much stronger than
glass, thinner, lighter layers of it would
be required for, say, aircraft windows,
sensors or any other purpose now performed by glass. For weight-sensitive
platformsUAVs [unmanned autonomous vehicles], head-mounted face
shieldsits a game-changing technology, Dr. Jas Sanghera, NRLs lead researcher on the project, said in a release.
Spinel (pronounced spin-ELL) is
magnesium aluminate, a mineral that
is produced on a low-temperature hot
press and an NRL-invented process
called sintering that can shape it to fit
the contours of an aircraft, dome or
other design, and can be ground and
polished in the same way as a gemstone.
And because of its material, it also has
unique optical properties, Sanghera

said, not only can you see through it,
but it allows infrared light to go through
it, unlike glass, which makes it ideal for
military imaging systems.
NRLs spinel is made up of crystal
particles that prevent the kind of cracks
that can happen with glass. Its like
navigating through the asteroid belt,
you create a tortuous path: If I have all
these crystals packed together, the crack
gets deflected at the hard crystals: you
dissipate the crack energy, he said. And
because it can be mined or made synthetically, its fairly cheap to produce.
Sanghera sees a lot of possibilities for
spinel, from rugged consumer electronics to transparent armor and face shields.
It could make for thinner bullet-proof
glass and be used in protective covering
for infrared cameras and satellite sensors. NRL also is considering using it in
its next-generation, ceramic laser.
NRL made pieces of transparent spinel in its lab that were 8 inches in diameter, then licensed the technology to
a company that produced plates up to
30 inches wide. But the size of a sheet is
limited only by the size of a press. Ultimately, were going to hand it over to
industry, Sanghera said, so it has to be
a scalable process. n
The lab uses a hot press and a process called sintering to create and
shape the spinel.
0615ds_025-026.indd 25
5/8/15 4:19 PM
BATTLESPACE TECH
Marines, DARPA show what real-time

air support looks like
The prototype PCAS system dramatically cuts the time from
identifying a target to delivering a strike in support of ground troops
BY KEVIN McCANEY
ilitary researchers and Marines

recently demonstrated just what they mean
when they talk about realtime situational awareness,
with a successful test of the
prototype Persistent Close
Air Support system.
Close air supportthe
delivery of bombs or other
munitions to protect and
assist ground forceshas
long been a key tactic for
the military. But even under
the best of circumstances,
the current system of relying on paper maps and
voice instructions can take a half-hour
or more to deliver support. During the
Marine Corps Talon Reach training
exercise this spring, ground forces using an Android tablet identified a target and sent its position to an MV-22
Osprey, which fired a (non-explosive)
precision-guided Griffin missile from
4.5 miles away, hitting exactly where it
was supposed to.
Total elapsed time: just over four
minutes, well under the goal of six
minutes.
The test was the first successful integration of the full PCAS prototype,
which uses digital data links and advanced software to tie together ground
controllers, aircraft and munitions in a
system being developed by the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency,
the Marines and a contractor team led
by Raytheon, with assists from other
An MV-22 Osprey with a PCAS-Air component delivered the strike.
military research centers.

I am very pleased with the successful PCAS demonstration that we had
during Talon Reach, Lt. Gen. Jon M.
Davis, the Marine Corps deputy commandant for aviation, said in a DARPA
release. I have emphasized to my team
that we will network every one of our
aircraft.
The big step forward in the project
was integrating an air component with
a ground component that has already
been in use. Marines began using their
version of PCAS-Groundwhich
they call Kinetic Integrated Low-cost
SoftWare Integrated Tactical Combat
Handheld, or KILSWITCHin Iraq
and Afghanistan starting in 2013.
PACS-Ground is a suite of situational
awareness and mapping software, developed with the Naval Air Warfare
Center and the Air Force Research
Laboratory, hosted on Android tablets.

Since DARPA introduced the tablets,
the Marines have employed thousands
of them and have documented better
navigation, situational awareness, fire
coordination and communications because of them, DARPA said.
At Talon Reach, the team incorporated PCAS-Air, a combination
of weapons management, ISR and
communications systems, on a Smart
Launcher Electronics (SLE) device with
a modular design that allows it to work
with almost any aircraft.
On its first try, the full PCAS prototype system showed we could use a
modular, system-of-systems approach
to adapt an aircraft to provide close air
support, and deliver that capability via
real-time coordination with ground
forces, DARPA program manager Dan
Patt said. n
0615ds_025-026.indd 26
5/8/15 4:19 PM
DEFENSESYSTEMS
K N O W L E D G E T E C H N O L O G I E S A N D N E T- E N A B L E D W A R F A R E
Where you need us most.
Tablet
Digital ads indd 3
Desktop
Print
5/7/14 11:41 AM
IT
Should DOD put IPv6 back on the
front burner?
IPv4 might be fine right now, but its days are numbered
BY KEVIN McCANEY
emember the IPv6 crisis? Four

years ago, after the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA) allocated the last blocks of IPv4
address space to the five regional registries around the world, switching IPv6
was talked about with the urgency of
correcting Y2K date code in December
1999. The message at the time: Get with
the new protocols or get left behind on
the mobile, everything-connected Internet.
Since then, the issue has dropped
mostly off the radar, as engineers found
ways to milk more use out of IPv4 addresses and organizations found plenty
of other things to worry about. Now,
however, IPv6 could be an issue whose
time has returned, a point underscored
by a recent Defense Department inspector general report on DODs failure to
keep up with the IPv6 transition.
The report, issued in December 2014
but publicly released in a redacted version in April, notes that DOD made
plans for IPv6 conversion in 2003 and
hit some of its target dates, including
demonstrating IPv6 on the departments network backbone in 2008. But
in recent years the department has
missed a series of deadlines, including
converting email, Web and Domain
Name Systems to IPv6 by the end of fiscal 2012, and using IPv6 for DOD applications and networks by the end of
fiscal 2014.
Among the reasons for the drop-off
in activity: the costs of the transition, a
lack of people trained to handle the protocols, security concerns over running
a dual stack of both IPv4 and IPv6
during the transition and a lack of coordination among various DOD components. In response comments to the
report, DOD also alluded to a lack of a
sense of urgency, saying it has enough
IPv4 addresses to support future operations.
But there are good reasons for making the switch, including IPv6s better
security and support for mobile computing, not to mention the capacity
to accommodate all the IP-connected
drones, sensors, munitions and countless battlefield systems the military is
developing. DOD may have stockpiled
plenty of IPv4 addresses for the immediate future, but the number of those
addresses is finite and they are running

out.
IPv4, which was released in 1978, before most people had heard of the Internet, has a 32-bit address format, which
equates to about 4.3 billion IP addresses. When IANA released its last blocks
of addresses in 2011, the American
Registry for Internet Numbers, which
serves North America, had more than
86 million IPv4 addresses available. In
February 2014, that number was about
24 million.
As of March 18 this year, ARINs blog
said it was down to .31 of a /8. Translation: A /8 (pronounced slash eight)
is a block with 16,777,216 addresses, 31
IPv4 Address Depletion

The actual or projected dates, as of May 7 for when the
Regional Internet Registries run out of available IPv4
addresses.
Registry
Depletion date
APNIC (portions of Asia

and Oceana)
April 19, 2011 (actual)
RIPE NCC (Europe, Middle

East, Central Asia)
Sept. 14, 2012 (actual)
LACNIC (Latin America,

part of Caribbean)
June 10, 2014 (actual)
ARIN (North America)
July 5, 2015 (projected)
AFRINIC (Africa, portions

of Indian Ocean)
Feb. 15, 2019 (projected)

Source: IPv4 Address Report
0615ds_028-029.indd 28
5/11/15 9:59 AM
percent of which comes out to about 5.2

million addresses left. According to one
site that tracks IPv4 address depletion,
ARIN could run out as early as July, following other regional registries, such
as the one serving Asia, which ran out
in 2011, and Europe, which ran out in
2012.
IPv6 uses a 128-bit address format,
which produces a nearly unlimited
number of IP addressesthe official
number is 340 trillion trillion trillion,
more than enough to handle the Internet of Things and all of the connected
devices DOD is planning as part of its

future operations.
DOD hasIPv4 addresses saved up and
will have plenty when ARIN officially
runs out, so it might not be time to panic. But it could be time to put IPv6 back
closer to the front of the stove. n
Air Force, NASA test jet

with morphing wings
Design cuts down on fuel use, emissions and noise
BY KEVIN McCANEY
lying aircraft could be about to

get cheaper, quieter and more
environmentally friendly as a result of more than 15 years of research
spearheaded by the Air Force Research
Laboratory, with big assists from NASA
and engineering company FlexSys.
A NASA team recently completed
initial flight tests of a Gulfstream III
jet with wings that morph in-flight,
adjusting flap angles from -2 degrees
up to 30 degrees. The technology, which
could be retrofitted onto existing aircraft or built into new ones, could save
millions of dollars in fuel costs each
year, allow for lighter airframes and
reduce the environmental footprint of
any plane with morphing wings. It also
would cut down on aircraft noise during takeoffs and landings, according to
a NASA press release.
The test team at NASAs Armstrong
Flight Research Center in Edwards,
Calif., has flown 22 research flights over
the past six months using the wings,
formally known as Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) flight control
surfaces. NASA said the tests hit their
primary and secondary goals on schedule and within budget.
The tests demonstrated the wings
ability to withstand dynamic pressures
and aerodynamic loads of up to 11,500
pounds per flap segment. The flexible
design reportedly could down on cruise

drag by 3 percent for aircraft retrofitted with the wings and as much as 12
percent for new aircraft. In addition to
reducing drag, the materials used for
the flaps save weight, and the flap configurations would cut down on noise.
The flights took place as part of
NASAs Environmentally Responsible
Aviation (ERA) program, but the research dates to an AFRL initiative in
1998, when Air Force researchers began working with FlexSys though the
Small Business Innovative Research
(SBIR) program. They developed several designs and tested them in wind
tunnels through 2006. NASA came
aboard in 2009, agreeing to fit ACTE

flaps, designed and built by FlexSys,
onto the Gulfstream as part of its ERA
project.
We are thrilled to have accomplished all of our flight test goals without encountering any significant technical issues, Pete Flick, AFRL program
manager from Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, Ohio, said. These flights
cap 17 years of technology maturation,
beginning with AFRLs initial Phase 1
SBIR contract with FlexSys, and the
technology now is ready to dramatically improve aircraft efficiency for the
Air Force and the commercial aviation
industry. n
Flap angles on the Gulfstream were adjusted from -2 degrees to 30

degrees during testing.
0615ds_028-029.indd 29
5/11/15 9:59 AM
MOBILE
Army all-in on Rifleman radios
$3.9 billion contract to deliver nearly 200,000 devices
data via the Soldier Radio Waveform
and can link to Nett Warrior, a system
that uses Android smartphones for situational awareness, messaging and other
ports all of the military services.

The Rifleman has been in low-rate
he Army is going into full-rate
initial production, under which the
production of Rifleman radios,
Army bought 21,379 radios from a
with the recent award of
General Dynamics/Thales team.
a maximum $3.9 billion contract
Those radios currently are supto two companies for the handporting troops with the Capaheld, software-defined systems
bility Set 13 network package as
that deliver tactical communiwell as other brigaded teams as
cations to soldiers in the field.
part of Capability Set 14. In a soThales Defense & Security and
licitation issued in May 2014, the
Harris will compete for orders
Army said it ultimately expects
under the 10-year indefiniteto field 193,276 Rifleman radios.
delivery/indefinite-quantity conThales and Harris also were
tract, which ultimately could deamong four companiesExliver nearly 200,000 of the radios.
elis and Genneral Dynamics C4
Rifleman radios are a key comSystems were the othersgiven
ponent in the Armys plans to
a
spot last year on a maximum
A soldier uses the Rifleman radio and Nett
extend situational awareness to
$988
million contract for Soldier
Warrior system last year in Afghanistan.
soldiers the tactical edge of the
Radio Waveform Appliqu radio
network. The lightweight, bodysystems, which are single-chanworn device acts as its own router, can applications. Rifleman radios will be nel systems mounted on vehicles that
connect to the Warfighter Information included in the Handheld, Manpack, dont require the two-channel Manpack
Network-Tactical, transmits voice and Small Form Fit program, which sup- systems. n
BY KEVIN McCANEY
..and plans a marketplace for Manpacks

BY MARK POMERLEAU
he Army is looking to create a

radio marketplace for the full
rate production of Manpack
radios, in which multiple vendors
will compete for orders in the coming
years.
The service is soliciting proposals
for the two-channel, software-defined
radios, saying it plans to award spots to
multiple vendors under a contract that
will have a five-year base period with a
five-year option.
The Manpack Radios are considered

to be an important tool for soldiers in
the field given their versatile portability. They can fit into a backpack, enabling soldiers to use their Rifleman
radios and Nett Warrior smartphones,
or be mounted onto vehicles. Last year,
the Army took delivery of 5,326 Manpacks under a low-rate initial production contract with General Dynamics
C4 Systems and Rockwell Collins.
As described in the Armys draft RFP,
the Manpack Radios will support all
domains for dismounted and mounted
communications as a multi-functional
communications platform.
The Army has been authorized to
purchase up to 60,296 units through
2032. We are relying on our industry
partners to help us simplify the network
and make systems such as the Manpack
Radio easier to use and more intuitive
for soldiers, Col. James P. Ross, Project
Manager for Tactical Radios said in an
Army release. The radio marketplace
gives all vendors the opportunity to
participate, driving down costs and
promoting continuous innovation. n
0615ds_030-031.indd 30
5/11/15 10:00 AM
DOD, Commerce team up on spectrum sharing

Agencies will create a test network to evaluate techniques
BY MARK POMERLEAU
n a sign of progress toward goals

outlined in the Pentagons Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy, the
Defense and Commerce departments
are partnering in a new collaborative
framework to share communication
channels. Under a signed memorandum of agreement, both agencies have
committed to increased spectrum sharing, something DOD has sought for
some time.
In addition to working toward the
goals of the Electromagnetic Spectrum
Strategy, the agreement also lines up
with provisions of the 2013 Presidential
Memorandum, Expanding Americas
Leadership in Wireless Innovation,
which seeks to further research, development, testing and evaluation of spectrum sharing technologies and other
wireless-related efficiencies.
This new partnership will also create
the National Advanced Spectrum and
Communications Test Network, a key
supplement to the new Center for Ad-
vanced Communications. The center is

a joint effort of two Commerce agencies,
the National Institute of Standards and
Technology and the National Telecommunication and Information Administration, to leverage the critical mass of
NIST and NTIA research and engineering capabilities.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum Strategy, among three primary goals, set longand short-term objectives to meet a 2010
order by President Obama to make 500
MHz of spectrum space available for
commercial use by 2020.
Spectrum sharing, especially making
the spectrum more available for commercial use, will be no easy task. Together we must identify ways to make
more spectrum available for commercial
use, and find technologies that enhance
spectrum sharing, all while improving
how DOD accesses spectrum, where and
when needed to ensure mission success,
then-DOD CIO Teri Takai said following
the release of the strategy. An important
balance DOD is attempting to strike is
between national security and economic
competitiveness, though, as officials

have noted, the military needs more
bandwidth concurrently with spectrum
reform.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently announced it will
be moving on to Phase 2 of its Shared
Spectrum Access for Radar and Communications program, which seeks to
make efficient use of the spectrum and
develop ways of sharing bandwidth
between military radars and military
communications systems, and military
radars and commercial communications
systems.
Rapid advances in communications
technology have created significant new
demands for access to wireless channels,
Willie May, acting undersecretary of
Commerce for Standards and Technology and NISTs acting director, said of
the new test network. We need efficient
and effective ways of sharing spectrum
to continue to benefit from technology
advances while balancing the needs of
commercial broadband, national security and public safety. n
Training network opens up to non-CAC access

BY MARK POMERLEAU
he Army has made it easier to

access its primary website for
training information, allowing
soldiers to log in with a username and
password without requiring a Common
Access Card. The move opens up the
Army Training Network to access via
smartphones and tablets that dont have
CAC readers.
Despite the associated security concerns with opening access, Army Chief
of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno directed the

username and password implementation
as a way to ensure the widest possible
access to authoritative training information, according to an Army release. To
ameliorate security concerns, the Armys
Training Management Directorate, or
TMD, made a few changes to the network, such as segregating information
that was For Official Use Only, which
was only available to CAC card users.
This is a big step forward for the
Army, TMD director Col. Thomas J.
Trossen said. As we create more apps

and websites for training and training
management, we must include the soldier and unit-level training managers at
the operational point of need.
The changes will allow for easier access
to ATN training resources such as Unit
Training Management, NCO Corner,
Combined Arms Training Strategies and
leader development materials. The ATN
also has useful links for training meetings, event rehearsals and after-action
reviews, among other features. n
0615ds_030-031.indd 31
5/11/15 10:00 AM
Industry Perspective
3 reasons SDN works for DOD

SDN is tailor-made for consolidation, automation and security
BY BRIAN ROACH
t the 2014 Federal Forum

in Washington, D.C., Terry
Halvorsen, then-acting CIO
(now CIO) of the Defense Department,
addressed the growing importance of
software-defined networking (SDN) in
government. We have to embrace the
software-defined mission of where we
have to go with the networks that includes all the infrastructure, Halvorsen
said, adding that doing so would enable
agencies to respond to the changing
threat environment faster.
Halvorsens strong endorsement of
SDN is driven by its ability to enable
a more scalable, flexible and efficient
network. It does this by decoupling the
system that makes decisions about where
traffic is sentthe control planefrom
the underlying systems that forward traffic to the selected destinationthe data
planein an open standards-based and
vendor-neutral environment.
Interest is growing. A recent survey
conducted by Juniper Networks, in conjunction with General Dynamics IT and
market research firm MeriTalk, found
that 37 percent of federal IT professionals are at least starting to implement
SDN, while another 34 percent have
plans for future implementation.
There are three big reasons behind the
growing adoption:
1. The drive to consolidate
As agencies continue to consolidate networks and operations across DOD, SDN
can help. For example, it can be instrumental in developing DODs Joint Information Environment framework, which
is designed to consolidate DODs various
networks into a single, massive entity.
SDN can simplify the departments network infrastructure and provide federal
administrators with a centralized point
of control to manage the entire consolidated network.
SDN can also be pivotal in
data center consolidation. Features such as virtualization and
automation can help agencies
do more with less as a result
of highly constrained budgets
while reducing infrastructure.
Further, SDN deployments
within DOD can actually help
add to the millions of dollars
already saved by the closures of data
centers.
2. The need for greater automation
Manual network management is highly
inefficient, which is why DOD has
turned a laser-like focus on network
automation enabled as a component
of SDN. Automation allows federal IT
administrators to relinquish some of
the responsibilities they have toward
managing the network. This frees up
administrators time to focus on other
mission-critical items and allows the
network to run more efficiently exactly
what DOD wants.
Decoupling the control plane from its
underlying systems creates a more automated network that can make decisions
without manual input. For instance,
SDN may automatically reroute traffic
based on current demands, including
those related to application delivery. In
fact, 59 percent of our survey respondents said that SDN plays a key role in
application rationalization planning,
which involves changing and consolidating an agencys application inventory to
facilitate application delivery.
3. The prospect of better security

Sixty-two percent of Junipers survey
respondents felt that SDN delivered better than expected network security and,
in fact, SDN and automation can help
support DODs mission and
goal of rapidly responding
to changing threat environments. Federal IT professionals can receive real-time
information regarding what
is happening within the
network, allowing them to
quickly respond to potential
threats.
Its also worth noting that many federal IT professionals are managing multiple vendors and customers within their
data centers, and data between these
factions may need to be kept separate via
tenancy bounding. SDN can enable tenancy bounding, which helps ensure that
cloud-based data remains secure and in
the right hands.
Finally, SDN analytics provide greater
visibility and enable an automated decision process of network faults, configuration updates and other error-reducing
functions. Analytics can also trigger
events that allow SDN or IT administrators to course-correct potential issues as
they occur.
SDN is a tailor-made strategy for the
current state of federal IT. It is a key tenet
of network modernization that provides
the ability to manage networks more
freely and easily than ever before. It
offers the chance to control ever-expanding networks from afar while streamlining and automating operations. n
Brian Roach is Vice President of Juniper
Federal and Managing Director Worldwide Government for Juniper Networks.
0615ds_032.indd 32
5/11/15 10:01 AM
INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
Fedbid, Inc.
www.fedbid.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
SANS Institute
www.sans.org/u/4nz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
TechMentor
www.techmentorevents.com/Redmond . . . . . 23
Technica Corporation
www.technicacorp.com/CMaaS . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Federal IT Acquisition Summit
http://fcw.com/fias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
USGIF GEOINT 2015 Symposium
www.GEOINT2015.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
This index is provided as an additional service.The publisher does
not assume any liability for errors or omissions.
DEFENSE SYSTEMS (ISSN 1558-836X) is published 6 times times a year,

bi-monthly, Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/Jun, Jul/Aug, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec by 1105
Media, Inc., 9201 Oakdale Avenue, Ste. 101, Chatsworth, CA 91311. Periodicals
postage paid at Chatsworth, CA 91311-9998, and at additional mailing offices.
Complimentary subscriptions are sent to qualifying subscribers. Annual
subscription rates payable in U.S. funds for non-qualified subscribers are: U.S.
$125.00, International $165.00. Subscription inquiries, back issue requests,
and address changes: Mail to: Defense Systems, PO. Box 2166, Skokie, IL
60076-7866, call (866) 293-3194, outside U.S. (847) 763-9560; fax (847) 763-9564
or email DSmag@1105service.com. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
Defense Systems, P.O. Box 2166, Skokie, IL 60076-7866. Canada Publications
Mail Agreement No: 40612608. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to
Circulation Dept. or XPO Returns: P.O. Box 201, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R5,
Canada.
Copyright 2015 by 1105 Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Reproduction of material appearing in Defense Systems is forbidden without written permission. The information in this magazine has not undergone any formal testing by 1105 Media, Inc. and is distributed without any warranty expressed or implied. Implementation or use of any information contained herein is the readers sole responsibility. While the information has been reviewed for accuracy, there is no guarantee that
the same or similar results may be achieved in all environments. Technical inaccuracies may result from printing errors and/or new developments in the industry. Media
Kits: Direct your Media Kit requests to Carmel McDonagh, Chief Marketing Officer, 703-876-5040 (phone), 703-876-5059 (fax), cmcdonagh@1105media.com. Reprints:
For single article reprints (in minimum quantities of 200-500), e-prints, plaques and posters contact: PARS International, Phone (212) 221-9595, email: 1105reprints@
parsintl.com, web: www.magreprints.com/QuickQuote.asp List Rentals: This publications subscriber list, as well as other lists from 1105 Media, Inc., is available for
rental. For more information, please contact our list manager, Merit Direct. Phone: 914-368-1000; E-mail: 1105media@meritdirect.com; Web: www.meritdirect.com/1105.
CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
9201 Oakdale Ave., Suite 101
Chatsworth, CA 91311
www.1105media.com
0615ds_033.indd 33
5/14/15 11:02 AM
COMMENT
Continuous monitoring
could streamline JIE
DODs network merger will create a lot more traffic to keep track of
BY CHRIS LaPOINT
ith its ongoing effort toward

a Joint Information Environment, the Defense Department is experiencing something thats extremely familiar to the enterprise world: a
merger. The ambitious effort to consolidate
communications, services, computing and
enterprise services into a single platform is
very similar to businesses coming together
and integrating disparate divisions into
a cohesive whole. Unlike a
business merger, however, JIE
will have a major impact on
the way the DOD IT is run,
ultimately providing better
flow of and access to information that can be leveraged
throughout all aspects of the
department.
When JIE is complete, DOD will have
a single network that will be much more
efficient, secure and easier to maintain.
The JIEs standard security architecture also means that IT managers will be
able to more easily monitor and corner
potential security threats and respond to
them more rapidly. As DOD kicks the JIE
process into high gear, they are establishing Joint Regional Security Stacks (JRSS),
which are intended to increase security
and improve effectiveness and efficiency
of the network. However, the network will
still be handling data from all DOD agencies and catering to thousands of users,
making manual network monitoring and
management of JRSS unfeasible. As such,
IT pros will want to implement Network
Operations (NetOps) processes and solutions that help support the efforts toward
greater efficiency and security.
The process should begin with an assessment of the current NetOps environment. IT pros must take inventory of the
monitoring and management NetOps
tools that are currently in use and determine if they are the correct solutions to
help with deploying and managing the JIE.
Network managers should then explore
the development of a continuous monitoring strategy, which can directly address
DODs goals regarding efficiency and security. As its name suggests, continuous
the network operational, and the information security team that focuses on compliance and security.
2. Understanding who changed what.
With the implementation of JIE, DOD IT
pros will be responsible for an ever-expanding number of devices connected to
the network, and this type of tool enables
bulk change deployment to thousands of
devices. Network configuration tools also
perform automatic, scheduled network
configuration backups, protect against
unauthorized network changes,
and detect and report compliance
violation all of which will be
increasingly time-consuming to
manually manage as JIE networks
grow.
3. Tracking the who, what,
when and where of security
events. Security information and
event management (SIEM) tools are another particularly effective component of
continuous monitoring, and its emphasis
on security and could be an integral part
of monitoring JRSSs. SIEM capabilities
enable IT pros to gain valuable insight into
who is logging onto DODs network and
the devices they might be using, as well as
who is trying to log in but being denied
access.
Like any merger, there are going to be
stumbling blocks along the way to the JIEs
completion, but the end result will benefit many including overworked IT pros
desperate for greater efficiency. Because
while theres no doubt the JIE is a massive
undertaking, managing the network that it
creates does not have to be. n
Manual network
monitoring and
management of
JRSS is unfeasible.
network monitoring involves 24/7 automated reporting on overall network performance, availability and reliability. It also
helps identify potential security breaches,
unauthorized users and areas of vulnerability.
Three key requirements to take into
account in planning for continuous monitoring in JIE are:
1. Optimization for dual use. Continuous network monitoring tools, or NetOps
tools, can deliver different views of the
same IT data while providing insight and
visibility to the health and performance, as
well as the security and compliance, of a
much larger and more complex environment that will be created by the JIE. When
continuous monitoring is implemented
with dual use tools they can serve two
audiences simultaneously the network
operations team that focuses on keeping
Chris LaPoint is group vice president of

product management at SolarWinds.
0615ds_034.indd 34
5/11/15 10:02 AM
The Federal IT
Acquisition Summit
Exploring Strategies,
Options & Innovations
June 2, 2015
National Press Club, Washington, DC
EDUCATION &
TRAINING FOR
KEY CONTRACT
VEHICLES
Free for
Government
& Military
Attendees
Joanne Woytek,
NASA SEWP
Robert Coen,
NIH-NITAAC
Mary Davie, GSA
Participating Agencies
For Sponsorship Opportunities Contact

Alyce Morrison: amorrison@1105media.com or Kharry Wolinsky: kwolinsky@1105media.com
For More Information Visit: http://fcw.com/fias
Power up to Meet
Your Small Business
Utilization Goals
With the Click of
a Button.
$3.5B AWARDED
TO SMALL
BUSINESSES
THROUGH
FEDBID:
16,227 AWARDS
$808 MILLION TOTAL
TO VETERAN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESSES
13,657 AWARDS
$715 MILLION TOTAL
TO DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESSES
10,059 AWARDS
$629 MILLION TOTAL
TO SERVICE-DISABLED VETERAN-OWNED
SMALL BUSINESSES
10,355 AWARDS
$395 MILLION TOTAL
TO WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESSES
*Data based on Fiscal

Years 2012 2014
Visit www.FedBid.com to learn more.
5,104 AWARDS
$301 MILLION TOTAL
TO HUBZONE SMALL BUSINESSES

Defense Systems - May - June

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Defense Systems - May - June

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

DEFENSESYSTEMS

CONTENTS | MAY/JUNE 2015

The future of unmanned vehicles

16 Sense-and-avoid and other key technologies that

25 NRL is making Star Treks armor a reality

will direct the future of UAS

18 The military services are driving the innovation

21 The Army is making its global intelligence system

26 Marines, DARPA show the real meaning of

29 Air Force, NASA test a jet with shape-shifting

30 Army is all-in on Rifleman radios

22 DODs updated strategy brings cyber ops more

31 DOD teams with Commerce on spectrum sharing

out in the open

24 Attacks reveal Chinas new Great Cannon

DefenseSystems.com | MAY/JUNE 2015 3

Editor-In-Chief Kevin McCaney

Vice President, Art and Brand Design

Contributing Writers George Leopold,

Creative Director Jeff Langkau

Senior Web Designer Martin Peace

Assistant Art Director Dragutin Cvijanovic

Chief Operating Officer and

Chief Executive Officer

4 MAY/JUNE 2015 | DefenseSystems.com

REGISTER TODAY FOR THE USGIF

Walter E. Washington Convention Center

Learn from 80 hours of dedicated professional

Softwares BRASS ring

6 MAY/JUNE 2015 | DefenseSystems.com

DefenseSystems.com | MAY/JUNE 2015 7

A little more than zero

8 MAY/JUNE 2015 | DefenseSystems.com

The science of sweat

The next deep Web

ith the right equipment, you can get Internet access

monitor specific diseases, like diabetes, to those

from Death Valley to Mount Everest. Below the surface though,

that keep track of weight or exercise. The Air

specifically under water, its a much different story.

Force Research Lab is on the verge of going one

Water poses a problem for wireless communications

looks like a Band-Aid, which collects a sample of

used in submarine communications. Theres no Internet down

a persons perspiration and relays that information

there, no broadband wireless, no GPS navigation.

wirelessly to a smart phone. AFRL, working

But could there be? The Defense Advanced Research Projects

and recently completed the first successful test of

For the first project, the agency is looking for technologies

its prototype. Researchers say the app could have

that would allow submerged manned and unmanned systems

a significant impact for all of the military services,

to operate together just like they do on the surface and in the

since it provides a way to monitor hydration, heat

airand communicate with airborne systems as well. The goal

DefenseSystems.com | MAY/JUNE 2015 9

nmanned systems have been widely successful for the

UAS & ROBOTICS

ONRs CARACaS can turn

Base security has also become an

THE NEXT STEPS

The Defense Department issued a directive

external systems, Mark Mazzara, robotics