Tag Archive for: force

Into the ‘outernet’: Secure ‘internet in space’ key to future Space Force hybrid architecture

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T1TL mesh constellation_Northrop Grumman.

The Space Development Agency will begin launching its Tranche 1 Transport Layer communications mesh network in 2024. (Image: Northrop Grumman)

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has taken the first steps toward a future “hybrid space architecture” comprising military and commercial satellites in multiple orbits, moving to design a foundational cyber-protected network integration capability — i.e., a hack-proof (or close to it anyway) “internet in space,” officials say.

The hybrid space architecture concept is an outgrowth of Space Force chief Gen. Jay Raymond’s 2020 “Vision for Enterprise Satellite Communications,” first reported by Breaking Defense. And while various experimental efforts to validate the concept of a space-based internet for military users have been ongoing since then, the Defense Department and the Space Force only recently have fully embraced the concept and moved to coordinate a holistic effort to design and develop the capabilities need to substantiate it.

The Space Force’s Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC), DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU),  the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Space Development Agency (SDA) now are cooperating in this potentially revolutionary effort, officials involved told Breaking Defense, which in turn will be a key to enabling Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) for future high-speed, information-centric warfare across the air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. The concept would see concentric circles of satellite communications (SATCOM) networks — highly encrypted military constellations, slightly less secure SATCOM provided by allies, and unclassified commercial constellations.

Recently SWAC has made progress in developing the overarching space data transport “force design” for the concept. Meanwhile, DIU’s project with AFRL, which is designing the glue that will patch the disparate SATCOM networks together, just last week announced concrete steps as well, officials involved said.

And while SDA has already begun to launch a constellation of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit, called the Transport Layer, to allow high speed, low latency, internet-capable data communications, those…

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Air Force adds more jobs to initial enlistment bonus list > Air Force Recruiting Service > Features

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JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas —  

The Air Force added more opportunities for future Airmen to receive bonuses upon entering active duty in fiscal 2022.


Seven maintenance-related skills, each with four or six-year contracts, were added to the FY22 Initial Enlistment Bonus program July 11, 2022. Bonuses will be offered through Sept. 30, 2022.


This brings the total number of Air Force Specialty bonuses to 22.


“Our Air Force value proposition is about far more than pay or compensation. It’s primarily about opportunity, and joining a community with an unmatched sense of purpose. But in a highly-competitive labor market enlistment incentives can help ensure we get the additional Airmen required to fill our ranks and serve the nation. Today, that job market is at record-high levels of competition and it’s a battle for talent,” said Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, Air Force Recruiting Service commander.


Another incentive that may help recruiters fill short-notice gaps is a quick-ship bonus which began in April. Quick Ship is when an already fully-qualified applicant fills a short-notice Basic Military Training vacancy, and ships within five days or less.


More than 179 bonuses have been paid to new recruits who entered active duty within a few days of signing their contract. Any member who enters active duty with one of the quick-ship career fields may be eligible to receive an $8,000 bonus.


Special Warfare recruits are eligible for up to $50,000 upon entering active duty.


Certain cyber career fields have bonus pay amounts that are based on an applicant’s highest level of certification, giving the applicant an opportunity to receive up to $20,000.


Recruiting incentives give recruiters additional support and tools to use as they press through all the challenges associated with reaching the Air Force’s FY22 accessions goals. Those challenges include a low youth inclination to join, a national labor shortage and the aggregate effects of recruiting with reduced face to face contact since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.


The following is the complete IEB list effective July 11, 2022:



…

AFSC AFSC Name 6-year Bonus 4-year Bonus

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World: Space – Air Force Magazine

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SpOC leads missions “like space domain awareness, electromagnetic warfare, missile warning, operational-level command and control, defensive cyber capabilities, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, satellite communications, precision, navigation, and timing, orbital warfare,” he said. Adding more intelligence activities would contribute to the command’s priority of being “ISR-led and cyber secure.”  

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Ransomware Task Force calls for better incident reporting

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Members from the Ransomware Task Force called for better incident reporting during a panel at RSA Conference 2022.

The RSA panel was titled “Progress in the Year of Ransomware: Analysis with the Ransomware Task Force” and featured four members of the task force: Phil Reiner, CEO of the Institute for Security and Technology (IST); Megan Stifel, IST chief strategy officer; Michael Phillips, chief claims officer at cyber insurer Resilience; and Michael Daniel, president and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance.

The Ransomware Task Force is a public-private partnership formed last spring by the IST and dedicated to disrupting the threat of ransomware. The panel acted as a look at efforts made over the past year, as well as an opportunity to discuss progress that still needs to be made.

A key piece of the panel focused on incident reporting, which requires ransomware victims to notify the U.S. government after they’ve been struck by a cyber attack. The panelists discussed how difficult it is to get a complete picture of ransomware when public- and private-sector sources often have very different tallies when it comes time to present attack statistics each year.

“The FBI, through its IC3 reporting mechanism, came out with its ransomware reporting statistics, and it’s extraordinarily low compared to what even a specialist cyber insurance company would see year in, year out,” Phillips said. “So we still see this this data gap, whether it’s per unit of government or institutions like insurance companies, which aggregate the victim’s data and experience. We’re all seeing very partial aspects of the picture, which makes the reporting requirements that we’ve been discussing so, so important.”

In a report that launched alongside the task force, four recommendations were made to support victims. These included clarity from the U.S. Treasury in its ransom payment guidance, a recovery fund for organizations that refuse to pay the ransom, creating a ransomware attack reporting standard and requiring organizations to disclose ransomware payments to the government prior to paying.

Stifel said progress has been made on all four fronts, and while there is still a ways to go in some aspects (specifically…

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