Mil-Tech

Double Load For Ariane 5 ECA For Upcoming Launch.

Preparations continue by Arianespace for the upcoming Ariane 5 mission, which involves parallel processing of Germany’s COMSATBw-1 military relay satellite and the Amazonas 2 commercial telecom platform for Spain’s HISPASAT. COMSATBw-1 is in the S5C large preparation hall of the Spaceport’s S5 payload preparation center where it is undergoing pre-launch checkout — Amazonas 2 has been topped off with its propellant load in the S5B fueling and integration hall.

The S5 facility, which has three separate clean room zones, enables multiple passengers to be processed in parallel for Arianespace missions, and ensures high security for even the most sensitive of payloads. Its S5C high bay is the largest of the facility’s preparation halls, providing a 700-sq.-meter work area. The S5B is a 400-sq.-meter dual-function hall capable of handling both satellite integration and fueling. For Ariane 5’s launch late this month, the heavy-lift vehicle’s two passengers will have a combined payload weight of 8,000 kg.

The 2,500-kg. COMSATBw-1 plays an important role in the German Bundeswehr’s (German Armed Forces) concept for network-centric operations. This spacecraft is crafted to handle secure information for use by units on deployed missions, including voice, fax, data, video and multimedia applications, with a coverage area that stretches from America to eastern Asia. COMSATBw-1 will serve as the backbone of a strategic command infrastructure and interface for the Bundeswehr’s tactical arms. Overall industrial responsibility for the secure communication program is with Milsat Services (a 75 percent Astrium/25 percent subsidiary of ND SatCom Defence). The program’s space segment prime contractor is EADS Astrium, which has booked its two spacecraft for Arianespace launches beginning with COMSATBw-1. Thales Alenia Space is responsible for integrating the Spacebus satellite bus, while Astrium’s German subsidiary TESAT delivers the payloads.

Accompanying COMSATBw-1 on the upcoming Ariane 5 missions is Amazonas 2, which was built by EADS Astrium using the Eurostar E3000 spacecraft bus, and is to weigh approximately 5,500 kg. at liftoff. When operational with the Spanish-based HISPASAT telecommunications operator, Amazonas 2 will provide relay capacity over the Americas with a coverage area extending from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. It carries 54 Ku-band transponders and 10 C-band transponders for the relay of a wide range of communications services, including direct-to-home television. The mission with Amazonas 2 and COMSATBw-1 will be the fifth of seven flights in Arianespace’s busiest launch year for Ariane 5 since its 1999 commercial service introduction.

Maxwell To Undergo DISA Enhanced Compliance Validation.

Maxwell will undergo a Defense Information Systems Agency Enhanced Compliance Validation, or ECV, network inspection Sept. 28 through Oct. 2. “The ECV is very similar to an Operational Readiness Inspection, or a Nuclear Surety Inspection, of our secure and non-secure networks,” informed Major Gerald Yap, 42nd Communications Flight commander.

Col. Kris Beasley, 42nd Air Base Wing commander, said, “Network and information security is everyone’s business. It’s critical that every network user understands that their actions can have an impact across the Air Force and DoD. A vulnerability created by one is a vulnerability shared by all!”

Colonel Beasley noted that network security is a “top priority” for Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Education and Training Command Commander Gen. Stephen Lorenz, Air University Commander Lt. Gen. Allen Peck and all of Maxwell-Gunter senior leadership.

Colonel Beasley said General Schwartz emphasized this subject in his May 27 memo to all Airmen titled, “Cyberspace Operations Culture Change,” in which he stated, “Our Air Force must move to a system of tight network control, personal responsibility and accountability as we execute our global mission on behalf of our Nation.”

Major Yap said that while taking proper network security measures must be a part of everyone’s daily routine, organizations across the base, led by 42nd CF, are taking a number of actions to prepare for the ECV. Major Yap said the 42nd CF is using DISA’s security directives, known as Security Technical Implementation Guides, or STIGs, to ensure Maxwell-Gunter’s networks are compliant with all Department of Defense security measures.

“We perform automated scans on the networks to find vulnerabilities. Those vulnerabilities must then be fixed either through an automated patch or through manual intervention by a client support administrator, or CSA,” he said. “In addition, 42nd CF is working with outside organizations, such as the 561st Network Operations Squadron, AETC Computer Systems Squadron and Air Force Network Integration Center Scope Edge teams, to ensure that we are using the best practices, and that the portions of the Maxwell networks that are no longer locally controlled are meeting security standards.”

Major Yap said base personnel must be security minded in all their actions on the network. Base network users need to log off their computers after work hours, but leave their computers turned on so they can receive automatic patches.

What is more, classified Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, or SIPRNet, workstations need to be connected to the network every Tuesday from 8 a.m. to noon to allow for vulnerability scans and patches. Building managers need to ensure that rooms housing network equipment are properly secured and not used for storage.

And users that have vulnerabilities that can’t be fixed automatically need to work with base CSAs to remedy the problems. He also noted that units who maintain and operate their own servers need to help with ECV preparation by ensuring their servers are scanned with the latest DISA “Gold Disks” which are an automated tool for checking compliance. The major said frequent communications between base units and the 42nd CF can help ensure ECV preparation tasks are on track and alleviate any misunderstandings.

“The ECV will help validate that our networks are secure and the information crossing the networks isn’t compromised,” Major Yap said. “Our adversaries continually try to exploit DoD networks, and we at Maxwell-Gunter need to do our part to protect the entire Global Information Grid,” Major Yap said. “Network security is now a part of the Air Force mission culture.”

Four Things That Make Combat UAVs Special.

The U.S. Air Force squadrons that form the 432d Air Expeditionary Wing here are the first that exist only to fly unmanned aerial vehicles. The base, which currently hosts training and operations for MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers, is trailblazing modern military aviation. It’s a perfect place for practitioners who fly UAVs every day to set the record straight on some common misconceptions about UAVs.

The Air Force still trains more pilots for manned airplanes than it trains UAV controllers. Col. Pete Gersten, the air wing’s commander, informs that despite some media reports that give the edge to UAVs, the number of pilots the Air Force is training to fly manned aircraft remains at 51 percent. The Air Force wants to increase UAV combat air patrols (CAPs) from 34 to 50—that means having 50 UAVs in the air at one time—by the start of 2011. Each CAP flight requires a three-person team in the United States and a landing crew stationed in the area of operations that handles launch and recovery from a control station that uses line-of-sight communications. Having takeoff and landing crews stationed closer to the front line avoids the 2-second delay associated with controlling them via satellite from halfway around the world.

For every UAV in the air on a mission, there are three others in inventory. While one is on the job, there is one transiting to where it’s needed, one coming back and one on the ground being repaired and otherwise readied for a mission. So an Air Force fleet capable of 50 CAPs at once — the current end-of-next-year goal for the Air Force — would require a force of at least 200 UAVs. Training that many UAV pilots in time is the real issue; “we’re sort of struggling with that,” Gersten says. The commander is responsible for all UAV training and combat operations — at least until 2010, when training will shift to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Last Wednesday the first Predator test flights were conducted from Holloman in preparation for the move.

UAVs aren’t unmanned — they’re remotely controlled. It takes a crew of three — a pilot, sensor operator and intelligence coordinator?— to perform a Reaper or Predator mission, not including the maintenance and takeoff/recovery personnel. But these remote-control aircraft are more intelligent than you might imagine. Some of the craft’s intelligent software allows the operators to set “hold modes” that set orbits, altitudes and speed limits. A Reaper can also autonomously autobalance its draw of fuel from the wings to preserve its center of gravity, report mechanical failures during flights, follow waypoints and automatically wheel over a designated rally point if the satellite link to ground station is lost. Predators and Reapers will also automatically return to their base after a while if there is no communication. There, they will spin around a preprogrammed spot near the base, waiting to be collected using the recovery team’s line-of-sight, C-band-frequency communications gear.

Reapers and Predators are more useful for snooping on enemies than killing them.Despite the hype associated with the USAF and CIA unmanned missions that launch missiles, the demand for air strikes is not high on the list of missions the ground forces request from UAVs. The staff at Creech say that 97 percent of missions provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in support of convoys, raids, air assaults and all manner of guerrilla-hunting. There are many ways for Army and Marine troops to kill insurgents, but finding the right ones, and clearing the way for a clean air strike, can only be done with human intelligence on the ground (risky and manpower-intensive) or by observing from above for long stretches of time. Sensor operators here speak of 4-hour, wrist-fatiguing stretches spent aiming a UAV’s onboard infrared camera at a single vehicle around Afghanistan or Iraq. Spotting roadside bombs and identifying bombmakers are other roles well-suited to a UAV’s “persistent stare.”