Thales launches maritime radar ESM for small vessels

17 Feb 2010 8ak: European arms major Thales announced the launch of Vigile LW, a lightweight, naval Radar Electronic Support Measure (RESM) on Tuesday during the ongoing DefExpo in Delhi. Thales PR said that the new system will redefine situational awareness for small vessels. The company hopes that the Vigile LW will interest the Indian government, which is spending billions on modernising its armed forces after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, wherein the terrorists are suspected to have used water as a means to enter India’s financial capital. A costal command has also been exclusively set-up under the naval command to step up maritime surveillance. 

“Vigile LW detects, identifies and displays air and surface threats in real time, providing tactical situational awareness wherever needed for small vessels,” said Jean-Marc Goujon, Thales’ head of marketing for military products, at its unveiling. 

“It is primarily designed for naval applications but can play a major role in coastal security. This is because it can be mounted on vessels, on land or can even be transported on land,” Goujon added further.

Signalling the emergence of India as a prospective hub for defence production, Goujon said that there was a possibility that a new joint venture company may be floated by Thales in India if the response of the government towards its products was encouraging.

The statement also said that Vigile LW is the core element of a Self Protection Suite and can be operated as a standalone RESM or as a central Electronic Warfare controller. It can control the communication and Radar ESM, Laser Warning, Missile warning and programmable decoying functions. Installed across several vessels, Vigile LW can provide a network-centric compatible solution for increased protection. 

“This new member to the Vigile family meets a true requirement in the market and aims to fill a very real capacity gap – at a lower acquisition and possession cost.,” commented Pierre-Eric Pommellet, Thales Senior Vice President, in charge of defence mission systems.

The Vigile LW is the fifth product in the Vigile family of advanced naval electronic support measures/electronic intelligence systems. The system operates automatically and therefore is autonomous and easy to support. Tracks can optionally be overlayed onto the radar picture, removing the need for a dedicated Electronic Warfare operator and thereby keeping through-life costs low and easing crew workloads. 

Steganography: Illegal information being hidden in voice, music and similar data files

11 Feb 2010 8ak: Fascinating spy stuff from IEEE Spectrum on how people are bypassing restrictions by hiding commercially or otherwise sensitive data within digital photos, voice messages, music files that can be transported over normal, innocent channels like Skype and Facebook. Indian security agencies should take note (check: the solution should not be to ban digital photos!). 

Lockheed's order for sniper advanced targeting pods (explained!)

08 Feb 2010 8ak/LM PR: Lockheed Martin has received a US$59 million US air force order for supplying additional sniper advanced targeting pods (ATPs). The order is over and above the original ATP order for air force’s Sniper ATP Lot 9 contract, originally awarded in September 2009, bringing the total value of the Lot 9 buy to $95 million.

Delivering the highest resolution imagery for precision targeting and non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the Sniper ATP plays a major role in Air Force operations in theater, providing top cover for ground forces, as well as increasing the safety of civilian populations.

Lot 9 pods will be used to support additional U.S. Air Force deployments and allow the Air Force to allocate pod resources to home-station training, enabling aircrews to train with the equipment they will use in deployed operations. Deployed in theater on U.S. Air Force and coalition partner F-15, F-16, A-10 and B-1 aircraft, the Sniper ATP is the most widely used targeting pod in combat operations.

Lot 9 Sniper pod technology will include a new data link capability, enhanced multiple moving target tracker, the capability to deliver legacy weapons and new weapon variants on moving targets, and weapon damage estimation radius displays to reduce the potential for collateral damage.

Since its first deployment in 2005, the Sniper ATP has enabled aircrews to operate well outside jet noise ranges, permitting forces to identify, track and defeat targets without detection. Its common software and hardware interface provide interoperability across aircraft fleets. 

More on the Sniper ATP is on Lockheed's website here. The Sniper ATP is operational on U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard and multinational F-16, F-15, B-1, F-18, Harrier and A-10 aircraft. Platform expansion continues with the B-52, Tornado, Typhoon, unmanned aerial vehicles and additional aircraft.

The Sniper ATP’s modular design facilitates easy field upgrade to pods already in service and enables rapid flight line repair to maintain a 98 percent fully mission capable rate. The combat-proven Sniper Pod is the U.S. Air Force's advanced targeting pod (ATP). The Sniper ATP provides critical long- range, positive identification of targets and possesses a video down link (VDL) equipped with the widely used Rover ground receiver to relay high resolution streaming video to forward-deployed forces for NT-ISR and rapid target coordination. It's advanced target identification capabilities enhance the Warfighter’s ability to detect and analyse ground targets while dramatically decreasing the risks posed by enemy air defences.

The Sniper ATP also provides essential non-traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance using high-resolution, mid-wave FLIR and TV sensors, which operate in conjunction with a dual-mode laser, permitting eye-safe operation and precise geo-location in urban environments. 

For target coordination, the Sniper pod possesses a laser spot tracker to acquire other laser spots from air and ground assets, an infrared marker visible to night vision goggles and a VDL to ground forces. Sniper ATP provides real-time targeting for J-series weapons and its state-of-the-art tracker enables employment of advanced laser-guided weapons against moving targets. The Sniper ATP is the only targeting pod fielded that incorporates meta-data in every frame of video. The date/time stamp and coordinate information further ensure accuracy throughout intelligence and command and control functions. 

C-DAC signs technology transfer agreement for wireless apps for railways

23 Jan 2010 8ak/PR: Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) signed a Technology Transfer Agreement (MoA) with Bangalore- based E2E Wireless and Network Solutions Private Ltd (E2E) for the transfer of its indigenously developed TETRA technology on Wednesday. The agreement in this context was signed between Rajan T Joseph, Director General, C-DAC and G Sreenivasa Rao, Chief mentor of E2E.

Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding (MoA), C-DAC and E2E will jointly work towards adapting the TETRA technology for railway applications. E2E will develop railway signalling applications and other Professional Mobile Radio applications using the TETRA technology. They will also use the TETRA technology to provide Control and Communication services to railway and other potential customers. The scope of the agreement also includes the manufacture and sale of C-DAC’s TETRA products.

Addressing the media, Joseph said, "TETRA combines Cellular Mobile Telephony, Packet Data and Digital Mobile Radio together on one open cellular platform to offer a broad range of services. C-DAC has been working in the TETRA technology for over a decade with more than 250 engineer years of effort, resulting in a total system solution. This is the only indigenous work carried out by any R&D Institution in India in the area of advanced Digital Mobile Radio communication. 

TETRA offers fast call set-up time, group communication support, direct mode operation between radios, packet data and circuit data transfer services, frequency economy and security features. TETRA uses time division multiple access (TDMA) technology with four user channels on one radio carrier and 25 kHz spacing between carriers. This makes it inherently efficient in the way that it uses the frequency spectrum.

Large scale cyber attack on Google China, threatens to pull out, stops censoring

13 Jan 2009 8ak: Google has become the latest victim of China's (admirable) abilities in cyber warfare and espionage. Zdnet reported that the attack was severe enough to prompt Google to threaten to withdraw from China, one of the biggest internet markets in the world. It has since withdrawn most of the Censorship required by China. 

For once, India needs to be proactive and build up capabilities of a counter attack and not wait for an actual attack before the powers-that-be wake up.

Thales-BEL's Euro110m, GS-100 radar deal could be clouded by potential black-listing

18 Dec 2009 8ak: French defence avionics leader, Thales and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) have announced a deal for supply of 19 Ground Smarter GS-100 low level portable radars to the Indian Air Force. As part of the deal, Thales will build the initial six radars at its Limours facility, southwest of Paris. BEL will build the remaining 13 radars in India.

“This contract reinforces our position in the Indian region as a major supplier of air defence radars,” said Richard Deakin, Thales senior vice president and head of the air systems division. The GS 100, based on the SR3D radar platform, is a mobile, modular and multifunctional sensor designed to track complex target manoeuvres at very low altitudes. The sensor can detect and track targets up to a range of 180 km. The SR3D platform is also used in the Ground Master 400 long range radar, launched into the market in 2007.

GS-100 is a AESA radar with low-altitude search capability that can track targets up to 180 km range. The targets could range from conventional aircraft to cruise missiles, UAVs and even stealthy aircraft. The entire system can be packed into a standard ISO 20-foot shipping container and shipped by road or air. It can be deployed by a four man crew within 30 minutes.

A month after the deal was announced at the Dubai air show, Thales seems to be heading where many other international defence hardware manufactures have headed in the past. The French company may face a ban if charges of corruption are proved against them in the Scorpene submarine deal. A public interest litigation pleading for registration of a criminal case against group company Thales Avionics SA in the $3bn Scorpene submarine deal is pending before the Delhi High Court.

In a CBI enquiry last year, Thales had been given a clean chit. But it is reported that the Parliament’s Public Account Committee (PAC) is keen to probe the charges. The World Bank had blacklisted Thales from many of its projects on account of alleged bribery. In 2005, an ex-senior executive of Thales had disclosed that two per cent of the group’s revenue of $12 billion was paid as secret commissions to the powers that be in different countries. 

Thales group companies have been saddled with corruption charges in Taiwan and South Africa. In 2005, a former senior executive of Thales had disclosed that two per cent of the group’s revenue of $12 billion was paid as secret commissions to the power centres in different nations to influence the out come of deals.