Defending military assets from attacks generated through the digital cyber domain means that traditional battle domains – air, land, sea and space – now have a fifth operational category, cyber space. Defending this fifth domain is only going to become more important as military platforms and systems increasingly adopt net-centricity as a central tenet of operation.

Net-centricity is simply the continuing evolution for military operations in the IP domain and cyber-security will need to be woven into devices and networks. There will be a convergence of physical/RF and cyber exploits and cybersecurity will become a mainstay even as budget constraints impact other aspects of a program.

There are many aspects to cybersecurity and the multidimensional nature of the problem requires a range of capabilities and technologies. To cover these requirements, there are specialty companies that focus on specific elements as well as solution providers such as General Dynamics and 3eTI. Larger defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Thales are also working hard to evolve their capabilities.

The Strategy Analytics Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service report “Defending the Fifth Domain” explores the continuing move towards net-centricity and the implications of operating in the cyber domain for military operations. Other issues covered include IPv6 readiness, linking future cyber requirements with electronic warfare and identifying the core requirements for companies to be successful.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full report here

Also, don’t miss my monthly column in the Microwave Journal’s Military Microwaves.

See Defence iQ for more analysis on the defense industry, related news and events.

Asif

The Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service has just released, “Defense Electronics Industry Review: April 2012,” covering defense industry news including business events, product announcements, milestones and contract activity for the month of April.

With budget cuts continuing to threaten the outlook for the defense industry, a snapshot of some of the financials, from companies including General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and United Technologies released in April, comparing fourth quarter 2011 revenues with revenues achieved in the first quarter of 2012 shows negative quarterly growth with an average decline of 9 percent. On a positive note, the companies considered in this snapshot all achieved positive net income for the quarter. The challenge will be maintaining profitability especially if quarterly revenues continue on the same trend.

On the other hand, contract activity across platforms, systems and component technologies appeared to be robust. Examples included Textron winning the competitive MEUAS (Mid-Endurance Unmanned Aircraft Systems) II award and BAE Systems upgrading Royal Saudi Air Force F-15S electronic warfare capabilities.

Other highlights in April included the continuing development of GaN technology capabilities for use in military systems leading to contract awards to Raytheon, Rockwell Collins and TriQuint. ELTA Systems successfully demonstrating its new wideband LTE Tactical Communication Network, the TAC4G, while Herley Industries received an order for the production and supply of specialty microwave products for a new missile platform.

Clients of the ADS service can read the full report here

Also, don’t miss my monthly column in the Microwave Journal’s Military Microwaves.

See Defence iQ for more analysis on the defense industry, related news and event.

Asif

In electronic warfare (EW) the US Army Contracting Command, MICC, Aberdeen Proving Ground awarded BAE Systems E&IS, Electronic Warfare - Information Dominance Systems (IDS) a contract for procurement of SIGINT Traveler Pod (T-Pod) Systems for the MQ-1C Sky Warrior / Gray Eagle UAS while ITT Exelis has successfully installed and tested an advanced self-defense electronic warfare system on F-16 aircraft operated by an international customer.

Looking ahead, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon joined forces to compete for a US Navy contract that will upgrade the fleet's capability to electronically attack anti-ship missiles.

Through its Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 3 upgrade, the Navy seeks to cost effectively enhance the electronic attack capability of its AN/SLQ-32 V(3) and V(4) EW systems to counter threat technology advances. All US aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and other warships use the AN/SLQ-32 EW system.

Staying with EW, the team of ITT Exelis and Boeing has successfully successfully demonstrated multiple critical technology elements, including digital beam-forming, mid band and high band power amplifiers as part of the U.S. Navy Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) program’s technology maturation phase.

The digital beam-forming technology demonstrated recent advancements made in broad band electronically steerable antenna arrays which have come through the use of AESA technology in the radar field. As discussed during the Strategy Analytics webinar, “AESA Radar Trends: Fast-jets and Beyond” AESA technology is starting to extend beyond radar into EW and communications applications and the NGJ program is one example.

Another aspect discussed in “AESA Radar Trends: Fast-jets and Beyond” is the move towards GaN-based technology and NGJ program again affirms our prediction that GaN technology will become a pivotal technology for future generations of radar, communications and EW systems.

Other developments in the first month of January 2012 included Harris Corporation reporting several communications contracts. In the weapons area, MBDA was awarded the FLAADS Demonstration Phase Contract by the UK Ministry of Defence to develop the SEA CEPTOR naval air defence system. Finally, in radar applications, Raytheon received additional contracts for maintenance of the COBRA DANE radar facility while Elta Systems anticipates the first sale of its developmental system as Airbus Military completed initial flight test activities on an AEW&C derivative of its C-295 medium transport.

To read more about defense industry events in January, see Defense Electronics Industry Review: January 2012 which covers defense industry news for the month of January, covering radar, electronic warfare, weapons systems and communications. The report also looks at microwave, optoelectronic and other components discussing business event, product announcments, milestones and contract activity.

Despite the uncertainties as budget cuts loom over the industry, there was continued activity across all areas including contracts, business transactions and technology development in the closing month of 2011.

On the business front, there were also a number of business acquisitions in December with Raytheon acquiring two companies to further extend Raytheon's capabilities to defend against sophisticated cybersecurity threats facing customers in the intelligence community, DoD and commercial organizations. General Dynamics sold its holdings in UAS Dynamics to partner Elbit Systems of America while also completing its acquisition of Force Protection. Back in Europe, a MoU was signed between Cassidian and Alenia Aeronautica to jointly investigate the potential cooperation in the field of MALE UAS and UCAV platforms. Safran and Thales signed a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture to develop and market new electro-optical equipment for the defense market, and Thales also acquired US-based Tampa Microwave to complement Thales’s existing product portfolio and expand its capabilities in the wideband SATCOM domain.

Contract activity remained robust with Lockheed Martin involved in the Aegis program and for the continued contractor engineering technical support (CETS) services in support of the Egyptian AN/TPS-59(V)3E and M34 radar sets. Raytheon booked $320 million in new contract awards related to its AESA radar programs for domestic and international customers while the Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon a contract to provide two AN/TPY-2 radars to the U.S. Army as the radar component to the THAAD missile defense system. Raytheon also announced $50 million worth of contract bookings related to its electronic warfare business and was also prolific in the weapons sector with contracts for the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA as well as multimillion-dollar contracts for the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) and contract awards the Phalanx, SeaRAM and Land-based Phalanx weapons systems as well as the NATO SEASPARROW surface missile systems.

In the area of communications and navigation, Northrop Grumman announced a follow-on contract by the U.S. Navy to provide integration and laboratory test support for the LN-251 embedded GPS/fiber-optic inertial navigation system on the new CH-53K Super Stallion helicopter and is also working with ITT Exelis to compete for the U.S. Army's new vehicle-mounted, software-defined radio, the Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio (MNVR), which replaces the cancelled Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Ground Mobile Radio. Meanwhile, Rockwell Collins received an order for more than 20,000 additional Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) units for use by the U.S. Armed Services and Allies, while BAE Systems has received a contract to design, install and test onboard radio communications and network capability for the U.S. Navy’s new DDG 113 and DDG 114 destroyers.

On the technology development front, Cassidian introduced the Spexer 2000 Coastal which uses AESA radar technology to provide a multi-tasking and multi-mode capability for wide-area protection of coastlines, maritime infrastructure and harbors against asymmetric threats. Both Raytheon and the ITT Exelis and Boeing Team completed wind tunnel tests for their respective offerings for the Next Generation Jammer, while Lockheed Martin launched a Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System Plus (GMLRS+) rocket in a test at White Sands Missile Range, NM. Finally, Northrop Grumman & TriQuint are collaborating on a DARPA contract through the Microscale Power Conversion program. Northrop Grumman will conduct research on high-efficiency transmitters with GaN Class E power amplifiers in conjunction with RF wideband contour modulation and sub-banded switching supply modulation. The objective of the program is to develop innovative RF power amplifier designs that incorporate supply modulation and control enabled by novel power switch technology. TriQuint Semiconductor will work on GaN and related process technologies.

The latest ADS monthly review includes coverage of European Microwave Week in Manchester, UK where TriQuint launched a family of reflective GaN-based SPDT (single pole double throw) switches. Operating at 10-40 W over 6-18 GHz, the switches allow designers of defense, aerospace or high-performance commercial systems to use much smaller semiconductor devices in many applications where the only alternative previously option was to use larger, heavier electromechanical devices.

Scalability is another feature often talked about when discussing AESA radar capabilities, and where the STARlite demonstrates lightweight, small sized solutions, the other end of the scale is amply demonstrated by Raytheon’s involvement in the Cobra Judy Replacement program Raytheon has completed the shipboard installation of the Cobra Judy Replacement program's X- and S-band antennas onto the USNS Howard O. Lorenzen. These massive active phased-array antennas weigh more than 500,000 pounds and comprise an estimated 20,000 T/R modules. Northrop Grumman also demonstrated the AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) system to senior Department of Defense leaders at the Pentagon as well as the Highly Adaptable Multi-Mission Radar (HAMMR), which is a derivative of the Defense Department's Ground Based Fighter Radar (GBFR).

BAE Systems was involved in multiple activity on the EW front including an announcement that the company will begin full-rate production of the U.S. Navy AN/ALE-55 fiber-optic towed decoy, an RF airborne countermeasure designed to protect the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet from radar-guided missiles. Meanwhile, Italian electronics specialist ELT Elettronica has developed a dedicated command-and-control (C2) system that improves EW capabilities in a network-centric environment and simultaneously resists cyberattacks. The Loki ELT/950 NSM (networked system manager) coordinates and exploits passive and active networked sensors and continuously checks network security.

In the area of smart weapons, Northrop Grumman will provide personnel for expanded operations of Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar (C-RAM) sense-and-warn systems in Afghanistan and Iraq, while ATK has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy for a third lot of LRIP Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles (AARGM). Meanwhile, the French air force and Naval aviation began operational deployment of the infrared terminal guidance version (SBU-64) of the Hammer IR AASM modular air-to-ground weapon. Developed and produced by Sagem (Safran group), the Hammer AASM is a family of air-to-ground weapons, comprising a guidance kit with an infrared imager in the nose cone, along with the standard hybrid GPS / inertial guidance systems.

Harris led the field in terms of announcements for the communications sector, with the company’s Falcon III AN/PRC-117G radios being selected both by US and international customers. Meanwhile, Boeing announced that it has successfully demonstrated high-data-rate transmissions between a FAB-T system and a test terminal for the AEHF satellite. This was one in a series of development tests that are demonstrating extended data rate voice, text and data communication with a FAB-T unit.

As the financial crisis hit home, defense departments have also had to take a long hard look at expenditure. The impact of these decisions started to hit the defense industry in 2009, with revenues and associated profitability dropping for the first time in seven years. However, analysis from the Strategy Analytics Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service report, Defense Industry Profitability Gains in 2010 shows that defense industry performance stabilized in 2010.

Strategy Analytics analysis of twenty companies shows revenues increased year-on-year by 1% in 2010 to reach over $458 billion, arresting a downward spiral though not enough to reverse the losses suffered in 2009. However, profitability improved considerably with year-on-year profits increasing as companies took steps to address the impact of defense budget constraints.

2009 marked the first time that defense industry revenues had dropped in around seven years. However, the industry did manage to stay in the black, even as year-on-year profits dropped by over 49%.

While revenues losses were not reversed in 2010, companies in general managed to arrest the downward spiral and more positively, profit margins returned to more traditional levels as year-on-year profits increased by 59%.

Challenges remain for the industry in 2011, compounded by political inaction. Nevertheless, while we don't expect anything spectacular in terms of growth, we believe the industry will retain an upwards growth trajectory this year.